September 2025 Edition
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Healthy Habits, Strong Teams
Team health shows up in the everyday habits that shape trust, energy, and performance. When meetings are purposeful, communication is clear, and practices are sustainable, teams thrive instead of burn out. In this newsletter, we share simple ways to strengthen team rhythm, introduce new faces on the Collective Growth team, and highlight fresh insights from the Inner Work podcast.
Strong Teams Start with Strong Practices
Thriving teams are built on more than talent; they’re built on trust, clarity, and intentional habits. When a team is aligned around shared purpose and empowered to collaborate authentically, performance and connection rise together. One of the most overlooked indicators of team health is how your meetings feel. Meetings aren’t just check-ins or to-dos; they're a mirror of your culture. Done well, they foster clarity, inclusion, and momentum. Done poorly, they erode energy and trust.
Here are a few tips to make your meetings more productive:
- Set a Standard Agenda: Outline standard topics and goals for the meeting that can be customized.
- Invite Relevant Participants: Ensure only those who need to be there are included.
- Stay on Track: Follow the agenda and manage time effectively.
- Action Items: Summarize decisions and assign tasks at the end of the meeting.
New Faces at Collective Growth
We’re thrilled to welcome Claire McMillan and Emily McAnelly to the team!
Emily McAnelly, VP, Strategic Growth
Emily McAnelly is the Vice President of Strategic Growth at Collective Growth. In her role, she leads business development and go-to-market strategy, ensuring CG products & services are repeatable, disruptive, and transformational offerings. Emily forges strategic partnerships, identifies new target markets, and builds the commercial systems that help Collective Growth grow with clarity and confidence. Emily's diverse background includes experience leading and advising cross-functional teams in AI-powered tech startups, developing robust pipelines with Fortune 100 pharma and CPG companies, building resilient financial systems, and managing a multi-state oil and gas asset portfolio.
Emily earned a Bachelor of Arts in Markets & Culture and Russian Studies from Southern Methodist University. She resides in Richmond, Virginia, with her husband and three precocious children. She's been bitten by the competitive tennis bug and holds the fundamental belief that one should always have a chilled bottle of champagne ready to uncork, just in case.
Claire McMillan, Project Manager
Claire thrives on bringing order to big ideas. With over a decade of experience in project management, operations, HR, and finance, she’s known for turning strategy into action and helping teams work smarter together. Before joining Collective Growth, she held leadership roles at USATransform, Catholic Charities Fort Worth, and Clearfork Academy.
A proud Texas A&M grad, Claire is passionate about lifting up business leaders in her community. She and her husband founded Fort Worth Bible Church, where she’s actively involved. At home, she’s raising two energetic boys (and one cat) and can often be found gardening, baking sourdough, lifting weights, or with her nose in a good book.
Together, Claire and Emily add fresh energy and expertise to the work we do with leaders and organizations.
New On the Inner Work Podcast
Faith, Skincare & Leadership
Myong Chong on Purpose-Driven Success
In this episode of Inner Work, MaryAnn sits down with Myong Chong, founder of the skincare line Hanna Isul, healer, inventor, and advocate for Korean American voices. This conversation isn’t about products; it’s about the unseen process of leadership. Myong shares how she faced legal attacks from within her own community, rebuilt her confidence through prayer and ritual, raised both a business and a family, and transformed skincare into soul care. Her story is one of bold, faith-rooted leadership forged through hardship, and it just might unlock something in you, too.
How to Build High-Performing Teams Without Breaking Them
Karen and MaryAnn Breakdown Brad Wallace's Episode
We’re not meant to sprint forever, but many leadership cultures still act like we can. In this Inner Work episode breakdown, MaryAnn and Karen revisit a powerful conversation with Brad Wallace of LKCM Headwater Investments that might shift how you think about performance, capacity, and burnout. As Brad puts it, “If you’re gonna burn ’em, you’re gonna churn ’em.” Together they unpack how unsustainable team norms form quietly over time, and how clarity, rest, and emotional leadership can bring people back into alignment.
Available on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and YouTube.
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