There’s something in the University of Guelph water, they say.

There are certain times when I’m at an event (especially in the times we’re now living through) that make me feel something — and feel something different — where I’m moved in a different way, if you will. You know that feeling.

I knew it as I was standing amongst an incredible group of people last weekend as a member of our University of Guelph Alumni Association Board of Directors, celebrating the 2022 University of Guelph Awards of Excellence winners. This annual event held at the University of Guelph, had been on-pause in-person while the pandemic took hold the last two years.

With the Art Gallery of Guelph as the perfect, intimate backdrop to celebrate, the right ambience, conversation and delicious food (it’s U of G, we’re the ‘food school’, only the best food, right?! 😉), the night allowed us to celebrate our three winners for 2022 — Dr. Elizabeth (Betsy) McGregor, C.M., DVM ’87 our Alumni of Honour winner, Dwight E. Greer, B.Sc. (Agr.) ’72 our Alumni Volunteer Award winner, and N. Charles Hamilton, B.Sc. ’14, our Young Alumni Award winner.

Watching their videos and listening firsthand to their heartfelt stories in accepting their awards — in why they chose the path they did, what differences they’ve made, how they’ve contributed in the way they have and continue too, the people who impacted them, and how it all leads back to their time at the University of Guelph — left the room feeling moved (there were tears!) and simply inspired.

What is always talked about, for those whose alma mater is the University of Guelph (hello fellow Gryphons 👋) or are connected/associated through the U of Guelph community, is about that ‘Guelph-ism’ — that something we can’t quite find a word for. Something in the water if you will.

What I left feeling last Saturday night, after hearing the heartfelt stories of the three incredible winners and proud U of G alumni, was an idea that I think serves the reason why we chose U of Guelph in the first place and the people who are cultivated coming out of the institution —

Because of ‘service above self.’

THIS is what I realized IS what makes these people different, our award winners. All the amazing people I’ve met at and through Guelph.

(Have I used ‘amazing’ and ‘incredible’ enough already?! 😜)

‘Service about self.’

THIS is what the University of Guelph is all about — it’s the type of community that is planted, the culture that is cultivated and ultimately, the people that are harvested.

THIS is what makes U of G alumni, graduates, community members, alma mater members and staff embody a certain way of life and BE the people they are — because of that value of ‘service above self.’

THAT is what makes U of G alumni, graduates, community members, alma mater members and staff embody a certain way of life and BE the people they are — because of that value of ‘service above self.’

In today’s day and age, this is paramount.

It’s why I feel like I run into good-hearted ‘Guelph’ people everywhere I seem to go — in agriculture + food, in politics, in activism, in whatever sector — across Canada and around the world.

Somehow, all good people’s paths lead us back to Guelph.

It’s because of the truly incredible people that put ‘service above self.’

As our 2022 award winners have shown, and the previous award winners who joined us last weekend too, it’s how they embody the University of Guelph’s sole purpose to improve life, that they do through ‘service above self.’

I couldn’t be more proud to be a Guelph Gryphon this week and have ways in which we do, to honour the fellow Gryphons who are amazing human beings doing incredible things.

Betsy, Dwight and Charles — thank you for the beautiful reminder at a time we need it the most. Here’s to following your lead.

Here’s to improving life, through service above self.

I’m sure, like many of you, what you had planned to talk out and put out today from a content perspective or in your newsletter, may be back in the draft folders, after the news of the passing of Queen Elizabeth II yesterday.

How do we process grief as humans in real time, while it needs to be ‘business as usual’ in the workplace and with our corporate communications channels?

All of a sudden, content you had scheduled to put out, a campaign you were set to launch, an announcement or a live event/conference you have planned and were excited to share more about, may seem irrelevant, ill-timed and you may be wondering if it needs to be rescheduled altogether.

It’s one of the hardest and trickiest things to manage as a leader, as a brand or organization, as a communicator.. as a human… times such as these.

Watching ‘history’ unfold in real time, as we are in this very moment, can be that of a cathartic experience. It’s how I felt yesterday as I turned on the TV to watch the news be officially delivered by mainstream media, after seeing it officially announced through the Royal Family’s Twitter page. Digital is where news breaks now.

I also didn’t know things such as the plan for what is to be done after the Queen passes is called ‘Operation London Bridge.’ In the UK, the Queen’s death triggers an official 12-day period of national mourning and we in Canada may have a different official mourning period/process. Who knew any of this?

In these moments of historical significance, as things are unfolding, it’s a good reminder from a communications and digital communications standpoint, to be listening to your audience and listening to what they’re saying and how they’re feeling in order, to address their needs, their concerns, their feelings to continue with planned corporate communications.

Here are 5 helpful reminders from a corporate communications standpoint to keep in mind right now (if you haven’t already done something in response to the Queen’s passing yesterday or are thinking about how to plan ahead in the coming days):

1. Determine if your organization will release a statement or signal anything on your digital/social media channels. It’s also a good question to ask — should your leader/CEO/Board Chair be saying anything with an official statement? Should your statement be included on your company website? etc;
2. Always remember your target audience… and that they’re human — listen to them and what they’re saying/feeling and based your communications, both traditional and digital, use them as the ultimate ‘temperature gauge’ before you go back to business as usual and to determine what you do with your upcoming content calendar and events planned;
3. Review your content calendar(s) — see where you may need to adjust putting content out and determine what is necessary in the coming days (aka. business as usual). See if/where you’d like to address what your target audience is most likely going to be watching, listening, feeling, discussing and events that are taking place in the coming days that may take away from important events/content/campaigns you had scheduled to go out;
4. A reminder to be ready for — people may begin to become divided about the passing of Queen Elizabeth II especially in these times we’re living through. Be acutely aware of this and think of the many different perspectives and feelings being shared by your target audience right now. It’s not a ‘one size fits all’ approach anymore. Be ready to respond to this on your social media channels.
5. Source information and dates from official sources. Mainstream media will continue to cover the events of the days to come as things unfold in the 12 days of official mourning, and while we may all have certain media outlets we prefer to source information from, follow official sources to ensure you’re getting dates correct, following how/when Canada will be mourning, etc. Here are some good resources to officially follow if you aren’t already:

• The Royal Family’s official website and Twitter account
• The Governor General of Canada’s official website and Twitter page
• The Government of Canada’s commemoration website
• The Government of Canada’s “The Crown in Canada” Twitter page
• Canadian Heritage’s website with official information on Queen Elizabeth II
• The Office of the Prime Minister’s official website and Twitter page

(There truly is a certain ‘energy’ or ‘confidence’ of someone who you can tell is operating with/from the right mindset)

I feel like I could write a novel about mindset even though I’m relatively ‘newer’ to the mindset curriculum. If you had of asked me 3 years ago what mindset was, I wouldn’t have had a clue.

But one simple social media post from a friend at the beginning of the pandemic in 2020, at a time where I oh so needed the mindset reverberation, helped me discover Peak Performance Coach, Coach Hina — and simply put, her work has changed my life.

I may be thinking a lot this week about mindset, because I finally had the chance to attend an in-person event in Toronto where Coach Hina’s community got to meet and hear her speak. My first time feeling her energy raw, in-person since getting to know her 2.5 years ago.

Her talk left me feeling on top of the world — like I could accomplish anything I set my mind too.. because there, those are the powerful words where everything lies… “anything I set my mind too.”

It’s all up to me.

How liberating yet scary as hell at the same time. Our mindset either unleashes the best in us, or holds us back from what we’re truly capable of. How powerful?!

Again, I could write a novel. And I truly only wish that every person had the opportunity to pursue mindset training. Because I really do believe our workplace and society as a whole, would be better off for it. It’s why I think so many of our organizations would greatly benefit from mindset training with their executive teams, leaders, Boards of Directors, and staff.

I’d love to see our Canadian food + agriculture sector embody mindset training, because as I’ve talked about before in webinars and presentations, our greatest challenge ahead in our sector is our very own mindset of how we see ourselves and the relationship that mindset allows us to have with Canadian consumers.

I obviously took notes from listening to Hina on Tuesday, and I thought I’d share some of the gems from her talk. These may just land for you at the right time when you need to hear them too, personally or professionally:

• What if we tried to do things with ease? We’re addicted to chaos, comfortable with the drama, we feel ‘needed’ and alive in it. Why do we feel we have to hustle? To kill ourselves trying to prove/achieve success, like we have to work ourselves to the bone to achieve what we want, yet what if we could have it all and more.. and let it be easy doing so?
• If something wasn’t available to you, you wouldn’t be able to think it, it wouldn’t have come to you and landed with you — the idea/thought was looking for ‘fertile mental soil.’ There’s a reason it landed with you. Act from this place.
• How comfortable are we when someone gives us something? When we’re asked to receive? The greatest gift we can give our children is our happiness and well-being. We must get comfortable with receiving.. and receiving the good. Catching your own thoughts and asking yourself, ‘would I be saying this to my partner or my best friend?’ is the best way to begin.
• If you know you need to do something big, receive something in some big way, do you have the mental bandwidth to take on what you know you need to do, even if it’s going to be messy?
• We can be grateful… and want more. We’re allowed to have that.

Just over here planting, watering and growing the seeds I’ve mentally planted in my ‘fertile mental soil’ as Coach Hina says. This farm girl can’t resist any time she uses a farming analogy or refers to something growing from soil 😉

… and so the work continues 🧠

Are you feeling as hungover today as I am from that Ontario provincial election last night?! 😲 If there is anything that worries me today, it’s the low voter turn out (lowest provincial voter turn out in history at 43%), that two of our four political parties don’t have leaders now and I seriously question what our province will look like 4 years from today.

I had another email newsletter prepped about values to send to you.

But after seeing what happened last night with people not getting out to vote as drastically as it turned out, today feels like the day to share a conversation with you, that I’ve had a few times more recently in different circles.

I’ve shared some of these sentiments with different people and I thought I’d share with you here because they speak to what we’re starting to see with you and I — people living and adjusting to our post-pandemic world….

1. We aren’t the same people we were before COVID. If as an employer, business or brand, you think you’re going to operate as you did before COVID as we adjust to this ‘new normal,’ think again. Our world is different, we are different and our future will be different because of this. Anticipate, expect and plan for this. Hybrid communicating, working and living will be the biggest thing to address. We will spend coming months and years, adjusting to a ‘hybrid’ way of doing.
2. We can’t expect people to operate in the same way we did before COVID, after asking of us what we did, to get through COVID and *still* perform and work like we did. Don’t think or ask people to operate the way we did prior to COVID or refer to ‘the way we did things before COVID.’
3. We’re going to become exhausted — especially after getting use to this ‘no mask’ lifestyle of in-person events again and social gatherings. As much as we’ve been excited and longing for the personal interaction with others, these in-person events will leave us drained.. and we have to be ready for this personally and professionally.
4. We should fully anticipate that hard(er) times are ahead. Hard to believe I’m saying that — after living through the pandemic we just did. Inflation, continuing rising costs, the dreaded *r* word of recession starting to float around, political unrest, and the uncertainty of so much ahead will make our post-COVID world, feel like it’s not like the one we were promised, or at least told ourselves we would get, after surviving a pandemic.
5. We (the people) are in power. We’ll continue to see people leave jobs, change behaviours, ask of things differently (aka. hybrid world of in-person and virtual) and communicate in a different way than how our world was and who we were before COVID. Those employers, brands and businesses who anticipate this, think about this and come up with creative solutions to address ‘us as new people’ will get ahead.

In better news to end our week, Kevin Costner aka. John Dutton, the patriarch of Yellowstone, will be coming to Calgary Stampede in July and thanks to both The Grower and Farmtario for featuring my recent thoughts around our greatest challenge ahead in Canadian agriculture and food.

It had appeared something was in the works, since he first bought a 9.2% stake in Twitter in early April, joined it’s Board of Directors, then ‘quit’ the Board of Directors and in the last week, outwardly stated his desire to purchase Twitter for US $44 billion and take it private.

This is what Elon had to say in a tweet yesterday:

And yet, here we are. Surprised and perhaps, shocked more than anything.

Because this feels like arguably our most empowering free speech platform as we’ve come to know it, will have it’s future written by the richest man in the world. And we’re not sure how we feel about this.

I use the word our above because I really do believe the community of people who use Twitter, including me (I’m a huge fan!), feel like it has (or was) a collective place that we all owned together — in sharing our thoughts, our ideas, our opinions, hearing the latest about news and current events, and having such personalized and close access to people who we would have only dreamed of being able to hear from every single day, only a few short decades ago. It really is a public space, a ‘community’ that we’ve come to utilize and enjoy as a form of how we communicate and take in information, daily.

We’re either polarized in our feelings about the takeover, or we’re unsure about our comfort level with it all. We’re mixed and varied in our reactions to Musk’s takeover of Twitter, I’ve seen ‘both sides’ shouting their thoughts from the rooftops in the past 24 hours.

Jack Dorsey, Co-Founder of Twitter and former CEO tweeted this thread out, supporting Musk’s purchase of the platform. Dorsey obviously see’s it’s potential in being taken private. Obviously Twitter’s Board of Directors supported Musk’s takeover in accepting his bid.

Some Twitter users are excited for the plans that Musk has for ‘free speech’ and ideas like less content moderation and an edit button. The relationship between Musk and advertisers, which is how Twitter generates a majority of its revenue, will be interesting. This article, “Will advertisers flee a ‘free speech’ Twitter?” highlights the conundrum that may be ahead. I think alot of people wonder too, if one of the first things Musk will do is allow former US President Donald Trump to re-join Twitter, since he’s permanently suspended from the platform.

There are a lot of things that others don’t feel comfortable about in this takeover. Musk’s excessive wealth doesn’t sit well with people (or the lack of taxes it appears he doesn’t pay). His past tweets have offended people (see below), while his aggressive behaviour and sometimes disrespectful demeanor when using the platform have angered Twitter users, who I suspect, are expecting a certain level of respect, humility and class when you’re a ‘visionary leader,’ rightful innovator and the richest man in the world.

Information is power to us as civilians.

I think many of us are wondering if this purchase will chart a new course for a platform we’ve come to love; if how we’re able to access or view information will be different going forward — and are wondering if information will be withheld from us, censored or limited? How will ‘free speech’ be handled if its disrespectful, violent and simply becomes hate speech? For those who are truly against this purchase, will the mass exodus begin of Twitter users stepping away from the platform? What will thought leaders and politicians do in this instance?

The coming months are going to be fascinating to watch, not only from the sidelines, but as an active user of Twitter.

Who knows what it’s store and what the future holds. I’m going to stick around nonetheless to be a part of the change, and see how the change sits, before I make any decisions.

You know those moments in life, where you’re telling yourself to remember the moment vividly?

You feel something in that moment you know you’re going to remember forever. You mentally document how you feel, what you’re saying, the reactions of the people you’re with, small details of your surroundings.

I had one of those moments this week.

I had the chance to speak to a class of 17–18 year old high school students. I was asked to speak to these young women by a friend and fellow University of Guelph alumni who teaches the class (thanks for the invite, Sam #ForeverAGyrphon! 🖤💛❤️)

Sam had asked me to share with these young women, a bit about my unexpected career journey as a new grad to Communications Manager to working in politics and now as a business owner; the career advice I’d share with them, along with advice from my time as a student at University; and the advice I’d share with my high school self.

The questions these young women asked, as I shared honestly and candidly, about what it truly felt like as a woman in a rural high school (so tough!), moving through to University (so liberating!) and then into the workforce and now as a business owner, mama and all-around ‘women are the future’ promoter, it stopped me in my tracks, just how proud I was of the women I was speaking too.

These young women were asking questions I never would have thought of at 17 years old.

They were so candid and honest when I asked them what scared them at this stage of their lives. The questions they asked about life, experiences in University, how it felt as a ‘small town’ girl moving to the big city and questions about business ownership and jobs, I was truly astounded at how incredible these young women were.

(If anyone is questioning our future and the young talent we have to take over our world, seriously fear not. There is no doubt our young people are going to shape our world into something incredible 🔥)

In sharing the lessons I wish I could go back and tell my 17 year old self, I made a mental note that I wanted to share these with anyone else who cared to want to know.

Because knowing what I would tell myself, sitting in those same high school chairs that those young women were in, I would be so damn proud and happy with myself — that I navigated through the same things they’re scared about, to be where I am — even though it’s been messy and ugly at the best of times.

And at the same time, it has been fun, one heck of a ride, full of laughs, adventures and the most incredible people and experiences — and I unapologetically wouldn’t change one damn thing.

Here are the 5 pieces of advice I’d share with my 17-year old self, I hope they help you reflect on life as much as they did for me:

1. People are everything in life. Nurture the relationships you have, be open to meeting people with new ideas and ways of thinking. Don’t be as scared to make new friends and meet new people who will challenge you. Embrace and be thankful for all the people you’ll meet along the way, whether it’s for a reason, a season or a lifetime.
2. “It’s not what you want to be, it’s who you want to be.” This saying has stuck with me so deeply. We always were asked growing up, ‘What do you want to be?’.. as if growing up to BE that role professionally, would make you happy, personally. The question we need to ask our children is ‘Who do you want to be?.’ This would have helped me realize that everything I set out to do in life professionally, needs to complement the type of person I want to show up as (and be happy as!) every single day personally. Whether this is a generational thing, a ‘work-life’ balance thing, whatever it is, it is the right question to ask yourself.
3. Be open and receptive— to everything. Go with the flow and don’t be so rigid or hard on yourself or worry about the details that at the time, we think are a big deal (I understand that the beautiful part about life is only as the years pass by, we’re able to gain this perspective). But truly, be open to experiences, to new people, to new ways of thinking, to challenging yourself to be better, to growth, to be kind to people — to everything. The best things in my life have come unplanned, and unexpectedly. One of my favourite sayings that was always said by one of my besties, Colleen that will always stay with me is, “You can retake the class, you can’t retake the party.” 💗
4. You will reinvent yourself many times over. This is the beautifully messy part of life, especially as a woman. And while we can be scared of it, I wish I had been more accepting of the fact that I will get the chance to reinvent myself, if we allow ourselves too. How we move through our ‘teenage years’ and then ‘grow up’ during our post-secondary years. How we then transition into a ‘career professional’ and then if we choose to get married, we all of a sudden, are adjusting to the labels of being a ‘wife or partner.’ We then may choose to have kids and again, we’re adjusting to the label applied to us as ‘mother.’ And every time along these stages in life, we have to ask ourselves to adjust, to change, to find ourselves once again — and it can feel really damn hard and messy. It really is a gift though if we choose to see it that way. I would go back and challenge myself to ask, “Who are YOU” before molding myself to others and allowing society to apply any labels to me. Be confident in yourself. Be accepting of yourself. Be kind to yourself. And love yourself first and foremost.
5. Life will throw you lemons, it’s the beautifully messy truth of life. The hard truth that I wish someone had shared with me when growing up, was about the hard stuff we’ll be asked to deal with as we ‘grow up’ in life. We sell this idea to young people that if we keep working hard, we’ll eventually achieve this beautiful life that is all good and fun. But the beautiful reality of life, is that’s simply not true. Life is more about the hard stuff that will be thrown our way and it’s what we do with these lemons, that will determine what type of person we are. THAT is where we’ll realize the satisfaction of the good stuff in life. It is the hard stuff that will ultimately determine what makes the good stuff as beautiful of a gift in life as it really is.

I’m living proof of that this year, as Q1 begins to wind down.

I made a point in Q1 of trying to create the systems/processes that will help me thrive — and help me with the new business ideas I’m pursuing. And while all the snow days, COVID days and other bumps along the way in Q1 haven’t made it easy, I know that when I feel my best, it’s when I’m sticking to my systems/habits (and they work!)

A lot of the conversation around habits was inspired by a two-part @brenebrown @jamesclear podcast — Part I and Part II — that I’ve now listened too a dozen times.

You may find some of these takeaway lessons I wrote down and review often, valuable too:
💥 Your habits can either build you up or cut you down
💥 Your current habits deliver your current results
💥 Habits compound over time. Consistency > intensity, not the other way around
💥 Identity based habits — what habits does the person I want to be, have? Every action we take is like a vote for the person we want to become. Habits reinforce the type of person your being. You embody the identify of that person with your habits. Their (your habits) are casting votes for the story you’re telling yourself
💥You don’t rise to the level of your goals, you fall to the level of your systems.
💥 Focus on building a system rather then try to achieve a goal or outcome. You can influence the outcome, you can’t control the outcome. Goals for one time wins. Systems are for people who want to win repeatedly.
💥 Your system is a collection of your daily habits. Process oriented > goal oriented
💥 If you have an idea you can’t execute on, it’s just a dream. If you have an idea that you can draw a plan for, then you have a great idea and you just need patience and consistency.
💥 Habits don’t restrict freedom, they create it

I am constantly in awe of women.

Who we are, what we are, what we’re capable of and our strength, what we do — the foundation to so much of this world is rested on our backs (no pressure, right?!) 🔥

But in all seriousness, we are truly amazing human beings.

And yet, I want more for us, for US.

We’re fortunate for the trails blazed by our mothers, our grandmothers, our great, great, great grandmothers — all of the pioneers and incredibly strong and resilient women who have fought their own challenges each generation faced, to bring us to where we are now.

And yet, I ask of more for us.

For CHOICE.
For more freedom and flexibility at our discretion.
For putting ourselves first.
For asking for what our equals ask for.
For being recognized.
For not stepping back or taking a back seat if we don’t want too or feel we have too.
For having all the options.
For pursuing what our hearts desire.
For making money (AND NOT FEELING BAD ABOUT IT.. equal pay you say.. remind me again why I can’t make the same as a man?)
For not feeling guilty.
For recognizing our strengths and capitalizing.
For honouring our bodies for their incredible gift of life (or choice not too!)
For not ladder pulling (other women) if we feel we’re falling behind.
For pressing for more progress and change.
For being the leaders — not doing the note taking.
For breaking stigmas with all things associated being female — cry much? Yes, let it damn out.
For serving in roles of power where we deserve and need to be.
For EQUALITY.

But most importantly, for breaking down systems and barriers that don’t support equal opportunity. The patriarchal society that we exist it, simply doesn’t work anymore in the way it was created— it wasn’t created to foster the equal opportunity society we now live in, in 2022 — a system that supports women.

A system that supports who we want to be on our own terms; our own version of who we want to be — no judgement, no guilt, no shame. A single woman, a mother if we choose to be while being kick-ass at what we do in our jobs, a woman who chooses to not have children, a career-driven woman, a stay-at-home-mom, a business owner — whatever we want.

That’s the point. Choice.

We need a system that allows us our own choice.

That’s what I’m asking for this #InternationalWomensDay. That we #BreaktheBias for Stella and our girls to make this world even better for them to thrive in 💓

Let’s celebrate what today is — #InternationalWomensDay.

For trails blazed.
For the questions asked and the steps taken.
For the uncomfortable and the bias.
For the glass ceilings shattered.

And now, let’s get back to work — on equality 👊
Equal pay. Equal opportunity. Equal leadership. Equal power.

#InternationalWomensDay #InternationalWomensDay2022 #IWD2022 #BreakTheBias

Something that has become a shred of light and hope in this past week — that has caught the attention of many around the world — is the leader of Ukraine, their President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.

It has been compelling to watch from a far, a leader step up in the way Zelenskyy has in a time of crisis such as this — the first war it feels like we’re watching unfold on social media.

Like many others, I too have been inspired by how Zelenskyy has shown up as the leader of his country. It has been his communications style that is helping him covey who he is and the type of leader he is for his people — emerging before our eyes as one of history’s best and most courageous leaders in modern times — because of how he is communicating.

And many are taking note.

Many questioned Zelenskyy’s credibility as the President of his country because he was an actor (sound similar to how many question our Canadian Prime Minister ‘s qualifications being a teacher? Remind me again as to what the ‘qualifications’ are to be the leader of a country?)

You know what could arguably be the single most important trait someone needs to lead their country?

You have to be a good communicator, to be able to speak to the people who elected you. You have to resonate with them, make them understand you and have them see themselves as part of the solutions to your troubles you face as a country.

Zelenskyy has used communicating as one of his greatest weapons in fighting this war so far. There are three reasons why — he has been accessible, motivating through his visuals and his words have been digestible and inspiring, so much so that others want to take action and do something with how they feel after listening and watching him.

1. Accessible. He continues to use his Twitter profile as an effective means of keeping people up-to-date. He posts almost every few hours, and in both Ukrainian and English.
2. Motivating through his visuals. His visuals (see below) are simply compelling and the way he is using video to continue to update his people is formidable— and most importantly, translatable. Whatever language you speak, his visuals convey something that we as the viewers feel. This is critical in the times we live in.
3. His words are digestible and inspiring. Zelenskyy’s quotes like “I need ammunition, not a ride” as he was reportedly quoted as saying to the US administration when they offered to evacuate him out of his own country only a few short days ago as war erupted, received worldwide media attention. This other quote that has been shared numerous times on social media is one that has been attributed to Zelenskyy as well:

“I do not want my pictures in your offices, for the President is not an icon, an idol or a portrait. Hang your kids’ photos instead — and look at them each time you are making a decision.” — Volodymyr Zelenskyy

It was also this speech that Zelenskyy delivered earlier this week to European Parliament, that received a standing ovation.

We all look for the hero in a story.

We all want the hero to overcome the challenges they face. Zelenskyy has not only appeared to rally his own people, but the rest of the world at the same time. As this Hill article writes, “When Zelensky speaks, we are all Ukrainian.”

Zelenskyy’s courage in showing up in the way he has, offering others access to him in the way he is and sharing his messages through the means he is, is making him a hero for his people and the world right now, when everyone needs it.

As American author Adam Grant so perfectly articulated,

“Charisma attracts attention. Courage earns admiration. But commitment to a group inspires loyalty.”

Regardless of the outcome, which we’ll never be certain as to know how this will end until it’s over, we know that right now, Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy is inspiring his people and the rest of the world through the art of how he is communicating— the most powerful way to lead in modern day society.

You have an idea when it comes to your professional expertise.

It’s a thought you’ve been sitting on it for a while and haven’t yet shared, because well… you’re not sure why.

You’re not sure if you should so boldly come out and say what you’re thinking with this idea. You’re afraid of what others may think. You question whether you should ‘own’ the idea — put your neck out on the line. What if your sector or industry reacts negatively? How will your employer respond? Could you be fired?

Your mind has raced many times over.

You’ve wasted more time thinking about the consequences of what could happen if you share the idea… then the actual time it took to come up with this mind-blowing idea that could change your sector.. and for the good.

You happen to be scrolling through Twitter one Thursday morning, on an overcast snowy morning, while enjoying your cup of black coffee at 10am.

And BOOM.

You read a tweet that you’ve been dreading.

Someone else has shared your idea.. not because you told them… but because they thought must have thought about the same idea too.

And they shared it out loud 😲

For the public to read, to consume, to be shared… and they’ve received the credit.

The tweet in particular has been retweeted thousands of times — people are raving about this tweet; it’s being shared by journalists and media outlets; the idea appears to be THE next big thing.

You can feel your face begin to flush as it turns to a boil. “WTF?” you think to yourself.

HOW did this happen. How did someone else come up with the exact same idea as you… and say it before you did?

That’s how communication works.

Someone is most likely already thinking about the same idea or thought as you.

I always think about that — of how many people thought of say, sliced bread, before American Otto Rohwedder did. Or the stories I’ve read, of how the Wright Brothers may not have been the first to think of flying an aircraft in the air, yet they are credited with flying the world’s first successful airplane and will forever be known as the first to fly.

The difference between The Wright Brothers and everyone else?

The difference between you and that person whose tweet and idea is going to be the next big thing?

They had the guts to do it — to say it.

Because that truly is the one major difference in communicating.

The ones that have the guts to say something we’re all feeling, or share an idea that has never perhaps been shared before — they are the ones that get the credit because they’ve communicated it.

You can think it.

That’s not communicating.

You say it out loud and share the idea with others.

That’s communicating.

It’s why I decided last fall to take Kaleigh Moore’s advice and “Get out of my head + get onto the page” and start my newsletter.

There’s no point in thinking and writing — if you’re simply sitting on your ideas, collecting dust and not putting yourself out there for the world to potentially be discovered. It’s a waste of time, energy and talent.

You just never know how your ideas and words may land and resonate with others. It’s why you’re reading this article (thanks for stopping by and sticking until the end 👋)

I challenge you today to share that one thing you’ve been thinking or wanting to share — and share it. This is your sign… before someone else says it out loud and gets to take the credit 😉