Leadership presence - it's the invisible feel that makes or breaks you.

You know it when you feel it. That leader who steps into a room, and suddenly—boom—the energy shifts. People sit up a little straighter. Conversations pause. Even the air feels different. And when they speak? Everyone listens.

That’s presence. It’s not about being the loudest, the tallest, the best dressed or the most senior person in the room. It’s about how you show up—how you carry yourself, how you communicate, and how you command attention without demanding it.

Most executives walk into an interview prepared to answer tough questions. But the real power move? Knowing how to ask them.

If you’re stepping into a senior leadership role, you’re not just looking for a job—you’re stepping into a system. A culture. A battlefield of expectations, competing priorities, and unspoken rules.

And the last thing you want is to realize six months in that you walked into a situation no one warned you about.

That’s why the best leaders don’t ask, “What’s the culture like?”​
Because the answer will be exactly what they want you to hear.

This story is shared with permission. The name has changed to protect my client's identity.

No map, no promise, no net below—
Just a door wide open. Will you go?
​
Greatness isn’t given; it’s seized, it’s earned,
Not by waiting—but by being the first to turn.

You don’t need a guarantee.
You need a spine, a spark, a step.

Will you take it?
A chance without a guarantee?

What if I told you the fastest way to grow your sales team isn’t more deals, more dials, or more dashboards—but more transparency?

I’m not talking about the “rah-rah” kind of transparency where leaders share just enough to sound open but not enough to make a difference. I’m talking about radical transparency—the kind where losses are learning moments, feedback is real-time, and teams stop pretending they have it all figured out.

Most leaders don’t coach until there’s a problem. A missed number. A lagging performer. A breakdown. That’s too late. You don’t wait to put gas in your car until you’re stranded on the highway. You fuel up before the tank runs dry.

That’s what great leaders do. They don’t coach to fix—
They coach to expand.

They don’t wait for performance to dip—
They unlock potential before it peaks.

This is the shift. The move that separates the good from the great. The managers from the legends.

NVIDIA's stock prices grew ~2,000% over the past 5 year. Even last year, while markets wobbled, NVDA soared with a 98% stock increase.

But this week, reality hit. Hard. NVDA’s stock dropped 15% in just three days after DeepSeek announced AI tech that could challenge its dominance. It’s a jarring reminder of a universal truth: no matter how big you are, no brand is untouchable.

It sounds too good to be true, right? But here’s the secret: most teams can. The real challenge isn’t their capability—it’s whether we, as leaders, are willing to step back and let them shine.

It’s easy to fall into the trap of fixing everything yourself. Maybe it feels faster, or you want to be helpful. But when you’re constantly solving every problem, you’re not just overworking yourself—you’re unintentionally holding your team back.

Here are 3 leadership shifts that can help you reclaim your time, empower your team, and drive better results for everyone:

Picture this: You’ve been promoted. The title’s shiny, the LinkedIn post is blowing up, and your family finally understands what you do. But a week in, you’re staring at your to-do list thinking, “Wait… they expect me to know how to do this?”

Welcome to the Peter Principle.

It’s that awkward moment when you realize you’ve been handed a high-stakes role, but the instructions are written in invisible ink. It’s like being promoted from sous chef to head chef—but suddenly, you’re cooking a 10-course meal blindfolded, with customers Yelp-reviewing your every move.

But here’s the thing: this isn’t just about individuals feeling like they’re navigating seven seas at once. It’s also about the organizations that expect them to stay afloat amidst stormy waters.

Leadership is about ownership, yes—but ownership in a system that doesn’t support growth? That’s an uphill battle where the hill is greased.

If you’re here, you’re probably not the type to follow cookie-cutter advice. You don’t settle for average, predictable, or safe. You’re a rebel at heart—and in leadership. But let me tell you a secret: rebellion without intention is just noise. The best rebels don’t just break the rules; they rewrite them.

And that’s what this year is all about.

You see, there’s a magic in being bold. It’s what turns one small action into a life-changing, exponential return. The kind of return that feels unfairly big compared to the effort it took.

• One idea scribbled on a napkin becomes a million-dollar business.

• One call with an old friend sparks a new partnership.

• One “I believe in you” changes someone’s life—and yours in the process.

But here's the thing: you can’t get those asymmetric returns by playing by the rules. So, for 2025, let’s rebel. Let’s defy convention and lean into the magic of possibility.

Lately, I’ve been thinking about the law of averages—not as some abstract math concept but as a game changer for how we handle life’s inevitable curveballs. And it all started with a bad doctor.

This doctor wasn’t just bad; they were bad. The kind of bad where you leave the appointment questioning if they’ve ever actually read a medical textbook. I was fuming, venting to anyone who’d listen, “How could I end up with such an awful doctor? What are the odds?”

And then it hit me. What are the odds? If 7 out of 10 doctors are great, then statistically speaking, I was due for a dud. It wasn’t personal. It wasn’t the universe conspiring against me. It was just… math.

If you start today, January 1 can be DAY 15

MYTHS:

>> New year, new you.

>> Fresh starts, clean slates.

>> Resolutions written in neat little bullet points.

January 1 has become this collective line in the sand—the day we all promise to be stronger, healthier, more intentional versions of ourselves.

But let me ask: why are we all waiting?

Here’s the truth that’s hit me hard: January 1 doesn’t have to be Day 1. It can be Day 15.

Because what if we didn’t wait for the calendar to give us permission to begin?

Christmas is right around the corner, and there’s a 14-foot Santa proudly occupying my front lawn. He’s a bright, undeniable beacon to every passerby that we are serious about this holiday.

And here’s the thing about Santa—kids believe in him without question.

They believe…

• There’s a jolly man in red with unlimited access to presents.

• There’s a magical list that knows if they’ve been naughty or nice.

• There are flying reindeer, one with a shiny red nose that doubles as a headlight.

• There’s no chimney too small for Santa’s generously sized belly.

Why do they believe it?
Because we tell them it’s real.

And the wildest part? They don’t need proof. The story alone, said with enough conviction, makes it true in their minds.

Wicked is on my mind and the last song, Defying Gravity, is playing in my head in a loop. Don't get me wrong, I'm a scientist after all and by no means do I have the chops to sit at my laptop and type about how gravity might not be real.

But here's the thing, I'm an creator and artist at heart. And there are things that defy logic:

• Music - how else do I explain my soul moving from my body to a place where my feet cannot thread?
• Laughter - how else to explain its magic, lifting heavy days and making burdens disappear?
• Imagination - how else do entire worlds that feel-as-real-as-the-things-I-touch exist?!

In the context of the professional world, is there space to defy gravity?
I vote yes.

Lately I've been thinking about asymmetric returns. You might guess at what this can mean, but here's the gist:

1. One date turns into a 20-year long marriage to your best friend.

2. One email to a stranger lands you the dream job.

3. One book's teachings results in you losing 200 pounds.

4. One podcast episode sparks the business idea that makes you millions.

5. One “yes” to a party introduces you to your future best friend.

6. One workout starts a fitness journey that changes your life.

7. One cold DM leads to a mentor who changes your career.

8. One online course gives you the skill to double your income.

9. One free event introduces you to a life-changing community.

Something you probably don't know about me is that I'm a professional singer and compete internationally. I don't do it on my own, it's a group sport with my choir. When I say that the crew of singers I hang with can create magic with their singing voices, it's really no exaggeration! If you're in Toronto area this weekend and free on Saturday, ping me - we're performing!

Like any professional sport that wants to go far, we've got coaches (with impressive resumes!!) and recently a coach said something to me about singing that I thought was SO REAL for leadership development.

12 years ago, on a bus, looking at the grey hairs of a lady seated in front of me, I decided to start a podcast. 

I remember the moment clearly: I was lost in the depth of someone's grey hair - I thought it was the the most beautiful thing in the world to have the gift of grey hair: 

What life lessons were stored in there?

What wisdom is itching to come out?

What depth is so familiar to her that others are wanting?

Who is the person under that head of hair in their fullest expression?

Got me thinking about earrings and in particular, the back rubber part of the earring, you know the one that's the tiny plastic piece that keeps the earring attached to your ear? Not all earrings have this, but most of the ones that I buy from the smaller independent boutiques have those plastic backings in a bag, ready to be dispersed. 

Here's what I realized: that tiny plastic piece is the most non-tech, behind the scenes, un-updated thing in my decades of being alive. AND that without this back piece, that earring's got no chance of seeing the light of day - ask me: I've lost plenty of earrings, thinking that I didn't need a plastic backing. The other big AH-HA (if you can call it that), is that while the earring is useless without the backing, the backing is useless without the earring. Seriously, who needs the tiniest plastic piece known to (wo)man? 

A good friend of mine recently passed away, and she was audacious. This post, is for my friend, Jenny. 

"Audacity" has my attention these days.

I think often about what it means to live audaciously and I try to find environments (friends, situations, work) that live fearlessly in audacity.

But it was only recently this year that I realized that "audacity" came to me in my younger years in the form of a tree. 

In his famous essay "The Hedgehog and the Fox," Isaiah Berlin divided the world into hedgehogs and foxes, based upon an ancient Greek parable: "The fox knows many things, but the hedgehog knows one big thing."