In My Civic Era: Women, Civic Leadership & Local Government

Ashley "Lemon" Price

In My Civic Era is the civic playbook for women leaving their community better than they found it. Hosted by Ashley Price, this podcast covers civic engagement, local government, and public policy for women who want the board seat, a voice at the county commission meeting, and a say in what happens at the state Capitol. Every week you'll hear how civic life actually works: how to get appointed to a board, how a bill becomes law, how to talk to your elected officials, what to say with three minutes at public comment, and who to call when the road floods and nobody is fixing it. You'll also hear what Ashley is learning in real time as she works on legislation, serves on boards, and studies public administration. You won't hear me tell you how to vote. You will hear how the room works and how to walk into it.

  1. 1d ago

    Public Comment Is Not a Vent Session: Speaking at City Council, School Board, and County Meetings

    Send us Fan Mail Three minutes at the podium is about 400 words, and most people waste every one of them. In this episode, Ashley Price breaks down what public comment actually is, who is really listening, and why so much of it changes nothing. You’ll hear what went wrong at a Statesboro city council meeting over a data center rezoning, and how a two-minute comment at a school board meeting led to real action. You’ll walk away knowing how to read the agenda and the packet, find the rules, figure out who actually has authority over your issue, and build a comment around one ask and one story. Plus what to do the day after so it counts. Your assignment this week: pull up the next agenda for your school board, city council, or county commission, find the public comment rules, and put the date on your calendar. Join the Civic Operating Room (free) Three weeks of live calls, Sundays at 7 p.m. Eastern, starting [DATE]. You’ll understand what’s going on civically where you live and build your own game plan to get involved. Can’t make it live? The calls stay in the community. Donations are optional and go toward the cost of running the training. Join the community: lemonprice.co/civicera Donate here.  Mentioned in this episode Statesboro City Council public comment on the rezoning. In My Civic Era is the civic playbook for women leaving their community better than they found it, hosted by Ashley Price. Read the deeper dives on Substack: https://civicera.substack.com/ Join the Well Lived Society membership, where I teach you how to set up your life so you have room to lead: Join Here Know a woman who should be in the room? Send her this episode. Leave a review. It's the fastest way to help other women find the show. I will never tell you how to vote. I just want you to walk in prepared.

  2. Oct 5

    Welcome to Your Civic Era

    Send us Fan Mail I ghosted you like a bad Hinge match, and I owe you an explanation. In this episode, I'm telling you what the last six weeks actually held: meetings with legislators across Georgia, a bill that could impact 1.7 million children, an affordability symposium that started as a conversation with the mayor, and a new seat on my county library board. My whole life went civic, so this podcast is going with it. The show is now In My Civic Era. From here on out, I'm teaching you how to get things done where you live: how to get appointed, who to call when the road floods and nobody is fixing it, and what to say with three minutes at a microphone. I will never tell you how to vote. Next week: a framework for public comment. Mentioned in this episode She Should Run Local Leader Lab: https://sheshouldrun.org/local-leader-lab/Schools Beyond Screens: https://www.schoolsbeyondscreens.com/United Way's ALICE data: https://www.unitedforalice.org/In My Civic Era is the civic playbook for women leaving their community better than they found it, hosted by Ashley Price. Read the deeper dives on Substack: https://civicera.substack.com/ Join the Well Lived Society membership, where I teach you how to set up your life so you have room to lead: Join Here Know a woman who should be in the room? Send her this episode. Leave a review. It's the fastest way to help other women find the show. I will never tell you how to vote. I just want you to walk in prepared.

  3. Aug 17

    Nobody Gets to Write Your Story But You with Molly Kennedy

    Send us Fan Mail Most of us have spent our whole lives quietly accepting somebody else's definition of who we are. Mother. Wife. The reliable one. The one who supposedly can't. This week I'm talking with Molly Kennedy, a disability advocate, speaker, and founder of Molly Kennedy Consulting, who has spent her life refusing to let other people's expectations become her reality. We get into what it actually looks like to adapt instead of shrink, why advocating for yourself is the least selfish thing you can do, and how she built a nonprofit to get more women with disabilities into leadership and at the table. You'll walk away looking sideways at the labels you've quietly accepted, and rethinking what you're actually capable of building. Give it a listen, share it with a woman who needs it, and come tell me what you think on LinkedIn. In My Civic Era is the civic playbook for women leaving their community better than they found it, hosted by Ashley Price. Read the deeper dives on Substack: https://civicera.substack.com/ Join the Well Lived Society membership, where I teach you how to set up your life so you have room to lead: Join Here Know a woman who should be in the room? Send her this episode. Leave a review. It's the fastest way to help other women find the show. I will never tell you how to vote. I just want you to walk in prepared.

  4. Aug 3

    Women Don't Have a Confidence Problem. We Have a Belief Problem.

    Send us Fan Mail In 1989, Dr. Fay Niewiadomski had 50 cents in her bank account, four kids, an abusive husband, and a job as a university dean in an active war zone. She looked at all of it and decided to start a business anyway. In this conversation, Fay and Lemon dig into why women are brilliant at living small, how bedtime fairy tales conditioned us to be silent and compliant before we could even read, and why the beliefs you accepted without questioning have become a mental prison you hold the key to. Fay shares the three pillars of real leadership from her new book, Decisions That Matter, and the question-asking technique that lets you disagree in any room without losing it. If you have ever stayed quiet because you wanted to be liked, this one is going to sting a little. Share it with a friend who needs it, leave a review, and tag us on LinkedIn. Connect with Dr. Fay:  LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/fayniewiadomski/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/fayniewiadomski/ Substack: https://substack.com/@fayniewiadomski Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ICTNLLPUK YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@ICTNonline Media Appearances: https://www.ictn.com/news-events/ Blog: https://www.ictn.com/blog/ In My Civic Era is the civic playbook for women leaving their community better than they found it, hosted by Ashley Price. Read the deeper dives on Substack: https://civicera.substack.com/ Join the Well Lived Society membership, where I teach you how to set up your life so you have room to lead: Join Here Know a woman who should be in the room? Send her this episode. Leave a review. It's the fastest way to help other women find the show. I will never tell you how to vote. I just want you to walk in prepared.

  5. Jul 27

    Stop Leading in Silos: The Hidden Cost of Fragmenting Yourself

    Send us Fan Mail Organizations fail when everyone operates in their own lane. But here's what I realized at the Community Development Society conference: we're doing this in our own lives, and we're calling it normal. When you fragment yourself across different rooms — professional Lemon, civic Lemon, friend Lemon — you miss board seats, unlock opportunities stay invisible, and slowly lose yourself. In this episode, I'm breaking down what silos actually cost you, what whole-human leadership looks like, and three practical steps to integrate your life so you can stop being different versions of yourself everywhere you go. If you're tired of compartmentalizing, this one's for you. Share it with a woman who's operating as five different people, and tag me on LinkedIn, I want to know who's ready to lead whole. In My Civic Era is the civic playbook for women leaving their community better than they found it, hosted by Ashley Price. Read the deeper dives on Substack: https://civicera.substack.com/ Join the Well Lived Society membership, where I teach you how to set up your life so you have room to lead: Join Here Know a woman who should be in the room? Send her this episode. Leave a review. It's the fastest way to help other women find the show. I will never tell you how to vote. I just want you to walk in prepared.

  6. Jul 20

    Good Mom Mode Is Making You Disappear with Coach Whit

    Send us Fan Mail Ask a mom who is in her family, and she will list everyone but herself. That is where this conversation starts. My guest is Coach Whit, a mother of five, avid CrossFitter, and coach who helps overwhelmed women stop disappearing into motherhood, marriage, and work. We talk about what actually goes first when you slip into good mom mode (spoiler: it is your body, your sleep, and your sense of self), why doomscrolling is sedation and not rest, and why the habit advice you keep failing at was never built for moms in the first place. I also share the guilt spiral I went through going back to graduate school this year, how my kids panicked at first, and how they now check on my grades and tell me they are proud of me. Because they are watching. What you model becomes what they believe is possible. In this episode: How Whit defines mom code switching, and why "I don't have time" usually means "I stopped making the time"Why doomscrolling and the nightly glass of wine are sedation, not self-careThe ten-minute rule: starting so small it feels almost sillyMom guilt, quality over quantity, and what your kids actually want from youMy grad school story, the needlepoint club, and coffee with the birdsDate night rules: no kids, no work, no community projectsThe ripple effect of not choosing yourself, and how to snap back when you start disappearing againConnect with Coach Whit: Website: apogeewoman.comFacebook and Instagram: @CoachWitIf this episode hit home, send it to the friend who has not showered in peace since 2022. And if you have a minute, leave a review. It genuinely helps more women find the show. In My Civic Era is the civic playbook for women leaving their community better than they found it, hosted by Ashley Price. Read the deeper dives on Substack: https://civicera.substack.com/ Join the Well Lived Society membership, where I teach you how to set up your life so you have room to lead: Join Here Know a woman who should be in the room? Send her this episode. Leave a review. It's the fastest way to help other women find the show. I will never tell you how to vote. I just want you to walk in prepared.

  7. Jul 13

    Women's Leadership Programs Are Setting You Up to Fail

    Send us Fan Mail Leadership programs for women fall into two camps: the ones teaching you to lead like a man, and the ones telling you to wait for a full moon before you launch. Both are setting you up to fail. In this episode, Lemon breaks down why the masculine approach leaves you fractured and exhausted, why the woo-woo approach leaves you ineffective and broke, and what actually works instead: integration. Listen if you're tired of choosing between power and presence, ambition and devotion, pragmatism and intuition. In My Civic Era is the civic playbook for women leaving their community better than they found it, hosted by Ashley Price. Read the deeper dives on Substack: https://civicera.substack.com/ Join the Well Lived Society membership, where I teach you how to set up your life so you have room to lead: Join Here Know a woman who should be in the room? Send her this episode. Leave a review. It's the fastest way to help other women find the show. I will never tell you how to vote. I just want you to walk in prepared.

  8. Jul 6

    Defining Equity in Leadership | Beyond DEI Performativity with Celeste Warren

    Send us Fan Mail Diversity, equity, and inclusion has become one of the most politically charged phrases in the country, and most people arguing about it can't actually define equity if you asked them to. Celeste Warren spent decades leading equity and inclusion work inside major corporations and just wrote The Truth About Equity to clear that up. We get into the rocks-and-fence analogy that reframes the whole conversation, what separates real inclusion from performative inclusion, and a story from my own corporate past I have never told publicly before. This isn't a policy debate, it's about trust, and whether the people you lead actually believe you see them. Listen, then come tell me what your fence is. Connect with Celeste:  LinkedIn  Website Book In My Civic Era is the civic playbook for women leaving their community better than they found it, hosted by Ashley Price. Read the deeper dives on Substack: https://civicera.substack.com/ Join the Well Lived Society membership, where I teach you how to set up your life so you have room to lead: Join Here Know a woman who should be in the room? Send her this episode. Leave a review. It's the fastest way to help other women find the show. I will never tell you how to vote. I just want you to walk in prepared.

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In My Civic Era is the civic playbook for women leaving their community better than they found it. Hosted by Ashley Price, this podcast covers civic engagement, local government, and public policy for women who want the board seat, a voice at the county commission meeting, and a say in what happens at the state Capitol. Every week you'll hear how civic life actually works: how to get appointed to a board, how a bill becomes law, how to talk to your elected officials, what to say with three minutes at public comment, and who to call when the road floods and nobody is fixing it. You'll also hear what Ashley is learning in real time as she works on legislation, serves on boards, and studies public administration. You won't hear me tell you how to vote. You will hear how the room works and how to walk into it.

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