From Vision to Leadership

Just last week, my mom and I hosted our first public workshops, and honestly, we didn’t know quite what to expect.

What we got was beyond anything we could have planned.

Two participants told us the guided visualisation brought them to tears—the good kind. The kind that comes when something long-held finally has space to breathe; when flipping the script feels good. As facilitators, there is no greater signal that you’ve created something worth showing up for.

The workshops began with a simple invitation:

Imagine a world 100 years from now where we got everything right. What does it look like? What does it feel like? Then we reflect: what does that vision tell you about your values and how you want to lead today?

What emerged from that question was remarkable. Across two sessions, with women from different industries, different countries, and different stages of their careers, the same themes surfaced again and again.

When we dream of a future we can fall in love with, we dream of a world where everyone is taken care of; where there is belonging, connection, community, safety, and calm.

And then someone said something that stopped the room: We can create this future by living it now.

Celebrating wins. Supporting each other. Building community, in both our personal lives and in our professional ones.

This is something I believe deeply. There’s a quote often attributed to Emma Goldman: “If your revolution doesn’t have dancing, I don’t want any part of it.” It took me years to understand it, but when it hit, wow.

Joy is not a reward for when the work is done. It is the work. Celebrating wins, caring for each other, building community, finding pleasure in the everyday—these are not distractions from building a better world. They are what building a better world actually looks like from the inside.

We live in a system that profits from your exhaustion and isolation. The relentless news cycle, the culture of overwork, the sense that everything is broken and nothing you do matters — this is not an accident. Burnout and helplessness are extraordinarily convenient for those who benefit from the status quo. A person who feels overwhelmed and alone does not organise. They do not vote. They buy something to feel better and scroll on.

Choosing joy is a radical act. Leading from a place of abundance rather than scarcity is a radical act. Believing the future is worth falling in love with and acting like it’s possible, leading like it’s possible—that’s perhaps the most radical act of all.

Many other insights that stayed with me:

That there are already many places leading the way in transformative sustainability—we are not starting from nothing, we are joining something.

That holding two truths at once is one of the most important leadership skills of our time: the polycrisis is real, systemic change is necessary, and the scale of what we face is staggering—and collective action matters, even when we can’t see our individual impact.

That being afraid to put yourself out there and doing it anyway is not recklessness. It’s courage. And that accountability—not perfection—is what earns trust.

That finding what works for you, from work-life balance to knowing when to push and when to rest, is not a luxury. It’s a leadership practice.

These conversations confirmed everything my mom and I believed when we designed our Rooted & Rising Leadership program. The most transformative thing a leader can do is work in alignment with their values and have a strong vision for a future they love.

Which is why we’ve decided to continue with a summer series called Rooted Leadership—a name that puts leadership front and centre, where it belongs. Same guided visualisation, same intimate conversations, but each month we’ll gather around a fresh theme to keep the exploration alive.

If you attended one of our March workshops, thank you. You made it what it was.

And if you haven’t joined us yet, we’d love to see you this summer. Our workshops will be on the second Saturday of the month, from May-August 2026, and always free.

Rooted Leadership Monthly Themes:

9 May - Lead with Courage (register)

13 June - Lead with Connection (register)

11 July - Lead with Alignment (register)

8 August - Lead with Joy (register)

1 hour on Saturdays, 9:00 Los Angeles / 17:00 London