#ThirstyThursday Issue #244

🤝 Ten ways to build the people skills that make work click.

🌿 Wellness trends that ditch self-optimization for connection.

⚖️ Is AI helping or hurting women’s path to workplace gender parity?

📝 Check-in templates that make one-on-ones feel like less of a chore.

Takeaways:

• When you’re overthinking, ask yourself one question: What can I actually control right now? Many of the things we obsess over, like other people’s opinions, the past, or unexpected events, sit outside our control and only drain our energy.
• Think in three circles. The outer circle contains things you can’t control, like the economy, traffic, or someone else’s mood. The middle circle includes things you can influence over time, like your skills, relationships, reputation, and habits. The inner circle is where your power lives: your thoughts, words, actions, focus, and next decision.
• Most anxiety lives in the outer circle, but most progress happens in the inner one. The more you redirect your attention toward what you can do today instead of what you can’t change, the more momentum, confidence, and resilience you build.

Learn more on LinkedIn.

You keep hearing you should “use AI more,” but nobody hands you the actual setup. This free HubSpot guide does with a step-by-step for putting Claude to work on the tasks you’d rather not touch.

Inside:

• An executive-assistant setup for meeting notes, follow-ups, and scheduling
• How to set up and use Claude Projects
• A blueprint for scaling AI across your team
• Frameworks for content creation and data analysis that turn a blank page into a clear next step

By the end, AI stops being a thing you mean to try and starts handling the busywork for you.

Get the free guide here.

Takeaways:

• If you start a business with an EIN but don’t form an LLC, you’re a sole proprietor. You’ll report your income and expenses on Schedule C, and your profits are generally subject to both ordinary income tax and the 15.3% self-employment tax.
• If you form an LLC but don’t make any special tax election, nothing changes for federal taxes. You’ll still file Schedule C, and your profits are generally subject to ordinary income tax and the 15.3% self-employment tax.
• If you form an LLC and elect S corporation status by filing IRS Form 2553, you’ll file Form 1120-S instead of Schedule C. The business income still passes through to your personal tax return, but only your salary is generally subject to payroll taxes, which can reduce your overall tax bill depending on your income.

See the explanation on IG.

Takeaways:

• You can improve Claude’s responses by giving it clear instructions before you start chatting. Add guidelines that tell it to prioritize accuracy over sounding confident, acknowledge uncertainty, and avoid presenting guesses as facts.
• Tell Claude to be transparent when information can’t be verified. For example, instruct it not to invent sources, statistics, quotes, API functions, or recent facts, and to recommend checking official documentation or primary sources whenever appropriate.
• Include instructions that make Claude ask clarifying questions instead of filling in missing context with assumptions. This simple prompt tweak helps reduce hallucinations and makes the AI more reliable for research, coding, writing, and fact-based work.

Grab the prompts on IG.

Forget the ping-pong tables. Culture comes down to whether people feel seen for their work, and the data there is hard to ignore: well-recognized employees are 45% less likely to leave, and 53% say they’d stay longer if their manager recognized them more. Yet most employees rarely get any.

Bonusly makes recognition a habit without adding to your plate. It’s a peer-to-peer platform: people give each other points for good work, points cash out for real rewards, and a recognition feed makes the good stuff visible instead of buried. Its AI companion, Bizy, reads the patterns and flags where connection is fading before it becomes a resignation.

Getting started takes an afternoon: connect Slack or Teams, set a monthly point allowance, and let the team run with it.

📙 Get our full Bonusly breakdown here.

Takeaways:

• Different supplements target different PCOS symptoms. Inositol is commonly used to support insulin resistance and testosterone balance, while L-carnitine and green tea are often used to support weight management and insulin sensitivity.
• Some supplements focus on hormone-related symptoms. Berberine is commonly used for belly fat and insulin support, spearmint may help with excess facial hair and androgen levels, and zinc is often used to support testosterone balance and unwanted facial hair.
• Others support overall health affected by PCOS. Magnesium is commonly used for mood and sleep, while vitamin D may help support insulin sensitivity, fertility, and menstrual cycle regularity. The best supplement plan depends on your specific symptoms, labs, and medical history.

Get the full list on IG.

📧 Start your mornings with All Healthy, the 5-minute wellness digest that 1M+ readers actually open.

📆 Free AI leadership summit on July 23. Free to attend. Registration required. RSVP here.

💄 Glossy tinted lips without the sticky.

🏃‍♀️ The perfect little work tank that pulls double duty from the office to happy hour.

 Upcoming Events

• Thurs 7/16 @ 10AM PT: The Decision Default with Laura Weldy (SGS Only* | Join the waitlist)
• Fri 7/17 @ 8AM PT: AI Workflow Implementation Sprint: Week 3 Live Session (AI Cohort Only)
• Fri 7/17 @ 9AM PT: AI and Your Money: The New Financial Skill Nobody Taught You with Tess Waresmith (SGS Only* | Join the waitlist)
• Mon 7/20 @ 1PM PT: Watch Me Work: Creating Social Media Content with Claude (SGS Only* | Join the waitlist)

* Smart Girl Society is our private community for women who want deeper conversations, accountability, and tools that actually make life easier. Join the waitlist to get in the next round.

 Browse our job board here.

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