To What Capacity?

If September was permission and October was power, then November taught me the cost of becoming. Because becoming is not linear. It is layered. It’s the integration of what you’ve learned, what you’re letting go of and who you are choosing to be next.

November didn’t arrive with fanfare. It arrived quietly, almost meditatively, with a softness that demanded honesty rather than speed. It wasn’t dramatic, yet it was insistent. A month that required presence for learning, connecting, reflecting and recalibrating. A month that held up a mirror and whispered, this is who you are becoming.

This month deepened me, stretched me, grounded me and reminded me that becoming isn’t about performing your next level. It’s about preparing for it.

Here’s what November taught me.

Say Yes, then figure it out later

This month also marked a milestone that still takes my breath away. I celebrated the anniversary of both my TED Talks — November 2020 and November 2023. Two invitations that arrived before I felt ready, yet I said yes anyway. Five years later, those yeses rerouted my entire life.

Visibility invites opinion. The more space you carve out in the world, the more people hold up mirrors to your insecurities. As women, we’re often expected to absorb the commentary as part of the role. But those talks taught me something different.

They taught me that readiness is a myth and action is what reshapes you. They taught me that purpose is rarely a soft landing; it’s a stretch that comes with detours, frustrations and quiet battles. They taught me that reinvention is a muscle, one that must be worked daily if you want a life that feels aligned rather than convenient.

Those stages opened doors I didn’t know existed. They gave me permission to walk away from a career I loved and into a life I once only imagined.

They were the beginning of a truth I’m still living into: when you choose courage over readiness, your entire life expands.

1. Clarity Arrives After the Disruption 💡

This month brought conversations and rooms that sharpened my vision.

A specially curated pre-Thinkers50 dinner reminded me that leadership challenges are bigger than AI and organisational charts. They are challenges of humanity, courage and clarity.

I had rich one-to-one conversations, the kind that hold more truth than a thousand LinkedIn posts. I picked up the phone. I followed the energy. I built connection, not contact lists.

Clarity rarely enters politely. It often arrives disguised as an interruption or discomfort. November offered both, and both turned out to be direction.

Reflection Prompt
What disruption in your life might actually be clarity in disguise?

2. Visibility is a Discipline, Not a Mood 👀

This month called for visibility in every direction. I graduated from the Accenture Supplier Development Programme, stepped into FFINC, advanced Eminere’s 2026 vision and paused to honour the milestones that remind me just how far this journey has travelled.

Stepping onto CBS Mornings for my first TV interview, fresh off the book launch, was equal parts exhilarating and nerve-wracking. It wasn’t perfect, but it was brave, and I’m proud of how I showed up. I look back at that moment as both a marker of how far I’ve come and a reminder that I’ve continued to build, grow and expand ever since.

Showing up when it’s easy is performance. Showing up when it’s quiet is leadership. And I’ll be honest, when your journey begins on a high, it can be tempting to spend years chasing that same energy. That’s a pattern I’ve had to confront privately and unlearn with intention.

Somewhere beneath the surface, a creative blueprint is unfolding, shaped by people who have always known what I carry. And the events I attended — the ones that quietly stirred something in me — tugged gently at both my heartstrings and my dreamstrings. I’m stepping toward the next version of myself with a little more excitement and a lot more courage.

Reflection Prompt
Where are you hiding from the very thing that would open your next door?

3. Frustration is Evidence of Evolution 🔥

This month tested my capacity and my patience. Between accelerators, coaching, business strategy, investor conversations and shaping the Eminere scale plan, I found myself wrestling with the gap between my current reality and my future potential.

Frustration isn’t failure. It’s data. It means your vision has already outgrown your environment.

I completed my Compass for 2025 and began mapping 2026 with clarity. Strategy is as much about what you won’t do as what you will. Becoming requires boundaries.

And for the first time in my life, I’m genuinely looking forward to winter. The quiet. The cocooning. The space to prepare.

Reflection Prompt
What current frustration is actually evidence of your evolution?

4. The Work Works… Just Not on Your Clock 🌱

Every time I questioned whether the work was landing, something affirmed it.

A message from someone who’d been watching silently.
A referral I didn’t expect.
A room I was invited into where my intellectual property was not only relevant but required.
A reminder that seeds grow in silence long before they break the surface.

Behind the scenes, I continued building the architecture of Eminere: licensing models, InterGenEQ, strategic partnerships, Caribbean expansion, the investor narrative. These are not immediate-return activities. They are long-term roots.

And the roots are building.

I had an incredible mentoring moment with someone I deeply respect, who called me completely out. I was sitting in my ego about a situation and they advised I work on it a little more because this relationship could actually open many more expansive opportunities. Lesson learnt - I needed that.

Reflection Prompt
Where do you need to hold the line a little longer?

5. Becoming is Layered

Connection, Gratitude and Grace 💛

If I had to summarise November in three words, it would be learning, connecting and gratitude.

I chose depth, not scale. I went back to real connection. Phone calls. Coffee. Presence. Energy. Conversations that reminded me we are so much more connected than we are separate.

I attended my first AGM with Age UK Wandsworth as a Board Fellow, and served lunch for the service users. Both experiences grounded me in humility and perspective. Ageing is universal. The real question is how we honour those who paved the way.

And after an intense October, November asked me to rest. I attended several wellbeing events, retreats and created space to listen to my body. Grace became my anchor. Boundaries became protection. Rest became strategy.

Becoming isn’t just ambition. It’s alignment.

Reflection Prompt
What are you grateful for that you didn’t think to celebrate?

Highlights from November: Seeking Depth

Graduating from the Accenture Supplier Development Programme
This programme most certainly led to a next level of elevation.

Women in Aviation and Aerospace Charter Annual Dinner
We were lucky to host the annual dinner at the Kelvingrove Art Gallery in Glasgow and it reminded me why, eighteen years on, this industry still feels like home.

Being in a room of leaders who aren’t just talking about equity but actively building it was grounding and energising in equal measure. As a committee member, I left proud of our progress, hopeful about the horizon ahead and more committed than ever to shaping a future of aviation led by intention, not tradition.

Check out the great work that we do at the charter here.

📓 Your Homework

(Deepened and Elevated)

1. Deepen a connection that matters
Choose one person whose energy has stayed with you this month. Reach out without agenda, without scheduling links, without performance. Just presence. Notice what shifts when you choose depth over convenience.

2. Release the habit that cannot cross into 2025
We all have one. A pattern, a posture, a way of working or reacting that quietly drains us. Name it with honesty. Let it go with love, not judgment. Growth isn’t just about acquiring more; it’s about shedding what can’t hold the next version of you. And if you can’t figure it out - ask a friend (you know, the one that will tell you the truth :))

3. Complete this sentence and sit with it.
I am becoming…
Don’t rush the ending. Write what feels true today, not what sounds impressive. Becoming is a slow burn. This sentence is your compass.

4. Consider the capacity of your life
Where are you stretched. Where are you stagnant. Where are you overflowing. Where are you undernourished.

Capacity isn’t about doing more; it’s about expanding who you are and how you hold what matters.

5. Practise one act of embodied gratitude
Not the polite list-making kind. Something you feel. A call. A message. A pause. A prayer. Gratitude, when embodied, deepens our roots and expands our capacity to receive.

💭 Final Reflections

November taught me that becoming has a cost, but it is always worth paying. It stretched me, sharpened me, humbled me and reminded me why this work matters.

As we step into December, may you embrace your own becoming with courage, gratitude and presence. May you choose depth over noise and alignment over urgency.

Becoming is not a destination.
It is a practice.

With Peace, Love and Flow

My Ask: Before 2025 Closes

90% of my business comes through referrals, so it is very personal.

If working with me has been on your mind, please get in touch.

The Internship Series

Kelly and I have been having a great time over the past few weeks - both of us learning at a rapid pace. Here is a just a snippet of her reflections so far.

Have you had an intern? I would love to hear your thoughts, how is it going?