Cover of Charlie’s Toolbox

Charlie’s Toolbox

Charlie’s Toolbox

By: Sherese ”Charlie” Taylor.
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Real stories about women who chose themselves. From career pivots to relationship exits, body autonomy, geographic moves to family design decisions, we explore what actually happens when women prioritize their own paths over traditional expectations. Each episode dives deep into the choices, stories, challenges, and outcomes of women forging autonomous lives across finance, relationships, career, body, and family. This isn't advice or empowerment. It's a documentation of a cultural shift happening right now.

Charlie's Toolbox is founded and hosted by Sherese "Charlie" Taylor.

Copyright 2021 All rights reserved. Personal Development Personal Success Social Sciences
Episodes
  • Decentering Men So a Better Man Shows Up Is Still Centering Men

    Decentering Men So a Better Man Shows Up Is Still Centering Men
    27 Oct 2026

    Pre-order Decentering Men: The Definitive Guide to Choosing Yourself by Sherese Charlie Taylor, out March 16, 2027 from Abrams Press: https://www.abramsbooks.com/product/decentering-men_9781419792786/

    If you started decentering men because someone promised you a better man on the other side, this episode asks you to take an honest look at that motivation. Charlie explains why decentering men in hopes of attracting a better partner still keeps him at the center, and what it takes to own your thoughts, your dreams, and your decisions instead.

    Then, in Charlie’s Advice, a 20-year-old listener asks how to build confidence when everything about her future feels uncertain, and Charlie answers with steps she can start using right away.

    TOOLS FROM THIS EPISODE

    Start Knowing Yourself Again is for the woman who has spent years making decisions around what someone else would think and is ready to find out what she actually wants. https://stan.store/charliestoolbox

    Submit your question for Charlie’s Advice: charlie@charliestoolbox.com

    Charlie’s Toolbox is the institution for women choosing themselves.

    The Firsthand Newsletter: https://charliestoolbox.kit.com/00fbe52663 Substack: https://substack.com/@charliestoolbox The Shop: https://stan.store/charliestoolbox Website: https://www.charliestoolbox.com Podcast: https://charliestoolbox.podbean.com

    Follow for daily inspiration: TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@charliestoolbox Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/charliestoolbox LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/charliestoolbox

    New episodes drop every Tuesday, so subscribe and you’ll never miss one.
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    14 min
  • Black and White Thinking Makes You Lonely

    Black and White Thinking Makes You Lonely
    14 Oct 2026

    *You Will Be Alone If You Don't Understand the Gray Area*

    If you sort people into good or bad the moment they disappoint you, the people around you have already noticed, and they have quietly started bringing you less of their real selves because they can never predict when one mistake will get them removed from your life completely.

    In this episode of Charlie's Toolbox, I explain why the inability to sit in the gray area makes you hard to be around, beginning with a story about harm from a mother and the developmental reasons this capacity should have been practiced long before adulthood asked us to use it. For women who are decentering men and choosing themselves, I break down how fear can disguise itself as self-respect, and how cutting people off can feel like a boundary when it is really a way of avoiding complexity. We close with five practices, ordered from the easiest to the most demanding, that start with delaying judgment and end with returning to fiction on purpose, so you can build the muscle for holding complexity in low-stakes moments before you need it in the high-stakes ones. None of this asks you to tolerate harm or stay silent about what hurts you, because the goal is to extend to yourself and the people you love the same complexity you already accept in every character you have ever loved on a page.

    The written companion to this episode is on Substack, where free subscribers get the full essay every Monday and paid subscribers get the deeper frameworks and community every Thursday. Listen on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube, or wherever you get your podcasts.

    Tools and stories to help you choose yourself in a world that socializes you not to.

    The Firsthand Newsletter: https://charliestoolbox.kit.com/00fbe...

    Substack: https://charliestoolbox.substack.com

    The Shop: https://stan.store/charliestoolbox

    Website: https://www.charliestoolbox.com

    Podcast: https://charliestoolbox.podbean.com

    Follow for daily inspiration:

    TikTok: / charliestoolbox

    Instagram: / charliestoolbox

    LinkedIn: / charliestoolbox

    New episodes drop weekly, so subscribe and you will never miss one.

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    6 min
  • Choosing Yourself When It's Easier to Stay Guarded, with Natalie Baszile Author of Queen Sugar

    Choosing Yourself When It's Easier to Stay Guarded, with Natalie Baszile Author of Queen Sugar
    6 Oct 2026
    Why do Black women still pause before showing their truest selves, even in friendships that have lasted a decade? Natalie Baszile, author of Queen Sugar and the new novel Friends and Family, joins Charlie to talk about walking away from a life that was chosen for her, the night a neighbor called the police on her daughter's friends and five squad cars arrived with guns drawn for the only other Black teenager in the house, and how that night became a novel about two women whose twelve-year friendship can't survive what they each refuse to see. Friends and Family is available October 6, 2026. Get your copy here: Friends and Family: A Novel: Baszile, Natalie: 9780593492161: Amazon.com: Books TOOLS FROM THIS EPISODE The Chosen Circle: A Guide to Building the Network That Holds You Up walks you through the five types of friends every self-authored woman needs, with steps to find and keep each one, so you know exactly who you can call first the way Babs calls Mecca and Logan. $37, and free for members of our private community. https://stan.store/charliestoolbox Start Knowing Yourself Again is for the woman who, like Natalie in her family's business, has been living the life that was expected of her and is ready to figure out what she actually wants. https://stan.store/charliestoolbox The Single Woman Safeguard helps you build the friendship, community, and family infrastructure that holds you up when a relationship you counted on can't. https://stan.store/charliestoolbox Pre-order Decentering Men: The Definitive Guide to Choosing Yourself (Abrams Press, March 16, 2027). https://www.abramsbooks.com/product/d... CHAPTERS 0:00 Welcome Natalie Baszile 0:24 What choosing yourself means to Natalie 3:09 The real police call that inspired Friends and Family 6:36 Why the Bay Area was the right setting 8:25 Writing through George Floyd, empathy fatigue, and backlash 11:56 Collapsing the timeline into a pressure cooker 13:54 Babs, Nora, and the longing to be unburdened by race 17:14 Testing a twelve-year friendship 18:52 Why Babs goes to her sister and best friend first 19:33 Queen Sugar and what she asked Oprah and Ava to protect 21:06 The conversations Black women have with themselves 23:00 Novels, documentaries, and nonfiction, including HARVEST 26:25 Balancing three projects at once 28:15 What Natalie hopes readers carry from the book 32:19 Where to get Friends and Family Charlie's Toolbox is the institution for women choosing themselves. Website: https://charliestoolbox.com Substack: https://substack.com/@charliestoolbox Shop the Toolbox: https://stan.store/charliestoolbox Instagram and TikTok: @charliestoolbox
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    35 min
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