Hello Everyone,
It’s Friday, and what a week it has been.
A very special thank you to the new and returning subscribers who tuned into the live today. It seems 12PM EST might be a more accessible time for people to tune in - let me know if this is the case!
I mentioned to some friends this week and also on the live today that my experiences on social media (professionally speaking) recently have been akin to stepping out from a cave into a vast open plain and trying to decide whether or not I have agoraphobia.
In actuality, I think what has struck me is how significant I am while simultaneously understanding how completely insignificant I am; and how absolutely wonderful that is.
Much of my approach to leadership guidance throughout the years has followed a path reliant on perceiving, explaining, and influencing the dynamics of culture and understanding to facilitate the empowerment of individuals.
Likely embedded within me from my time in the military, I know that teams, organizations, and collectives cannot achieve their goals if the individuals that comprise the team aren’t supported in earnest.
Having been on the individual contributor side of course, I also recognize the sense of power that comes from collective belonging and action. I wouldn’t say it’s intoxicating for me, but humanity’s natural tendency to conform to belong can’t be ignored, and it’s one of the hallmarks of military training.
The issue I find, and this goes for military units, startups, and organizations with a certain culture, is that at some point, belonging to the collective, running off that energy, becomes more limiting and disempowering to the individual, because the self is subsumed.
The self isn’t understood relationally in these cases, but transactionally.
I am in the Army, so I am a soldier.
I’m building an app, so I’m a founder.
I am in a leadership role, so I have to act like a leader.
While there is an element of truth to these statements, it’s too easy to let soldier, founder, leader completely define us; but in allowing that to happen, we inhabit the same plane of existence as every other soldier, founder, and leader.
Authenticity begins to become a performative aesthetic. Turtlenecks for founders, Grunt Style t-shirts for veterans. When everyone is the same, the distinct lack of creative interpretation and expression of the world becomes a comfort we willingly sacrifice for.
Maybe we have a quirk (I do all these things).
“I write poetry.”
“I build legos.”
“I bake on the weekends.”
As if that little drop of difference makes a difference.
We can only be as authentic as we have the agency and privilege to be in the moment.
6 months ago I couldn’t have handled the week I was handed; my son’s babysitter was out sick the entire week, leaving me to network, market, and prep for Kizuna’s fall 2025 Open Encounters next Tuesday on about four hours of sleep leach night, joints and injuries screaming from the cold snap brought by the winter winds.
It almost felt a repeat of when I tried to launch Cultivar last year, and my family’s original childcare situation fell through; and Tuesday morning I found myself questioning if I could handle things if the effort I’d put in for so many months collapsed under the weight of overwhelm.
If I had stayed in the comfort of the cave of conformity, I certainly would have been crushed. There wasn’t much room to maneuver in there despite it being familiar and bounded.
“I’m a leadership coach who uses nature and hiking metaphors.”
I knew how to operate in the cave, I knew my boundaries. I felt I could survive outside it, but wasn’t sure.
But I haven’t stayed in the cave of corporate performativity. Throughout the year I’ve been slowly testing the entrance, ducking in and out when it felt safe.
Then, the cave started to collapse, not just on me, but on others as well. Socio-economic landslides, fissures separating people from their foundations.
I had to leave the cave to make room for others to do the same if they chose. I had to leave to simply breathe.
So, I stepped out a few weeks ago. I started talking about my animistic lens of leadership outside of private dms and coffee chats.
I even updated my LinkedIn bio to more accurately reflect what I do:
Once I fully crossed that threshold, though, there was no turning back. Apart from there being no room due to the poly crisis cave-in, there’s no way I’d be willing and able to contort myself back into fitting that mold.
The first week, wasn’t bad. I continued to publish my content, connecting with people here and there. I stayed around the cave entrance.
I started to notice though, that it wasn’t so terrifying after all. I’d talk with someone, and they’d point me in a direction. Follow it, and I’d run into a person with similar ideas to mine. That’s when it started to get a bit unnerving.
The second week the world started opening up at a faster rate than I could have ever expected. New connections, new communities, new events, new invitations to collaborate. Freedom to maneuver in whatever ways I could imagine, and wouldn’t never have imagined had I not seen the world beyond conformity.
Outside of the cave, the people aren’t as worried about conformity, and the simple fact that you’ve made the attempt to leave is significant; it makes you stand out to each other. And yet ….
There are no boundaries outside the cave of conformity. No protection either, for that matter.
Call it social agoraphobia, call it imposter syndrome, I think both are likely inaccurate.
I think what I’m actually feeling, is what its like to actually stand in myself, authentically, with no separation or performativity; understanding that the full expression of self is found in connecting with the world around in the ways that make you feel alive.
I hope I can keep this ember burning for some time.
If you are interested in joining me and others emergent thinkers seeking new paths of leadership, I invite you to join me at Kizuna’s fall 2025 Open Encounters pathway next Tuesday, November 18th, at 12PM EST / 9AM PST, to collectively explore the question:
“How does our understanding of authentic leadership change when we reframe it from a cultivated inner trait to a relational conversation between entities?”
Request Entry here
Community Tier pricing closes Saturday (tomorrow), 11/15, 11:59 PM PST/ (11/16, 2:59 AM EST). All other tiers close Sunday, 11/16, 5PM EST / 2PM PST
I hope to see you there, if not, I’ll see you next Friday.
Until then,
Chris
Seed Catalog:
I haven’t had much time to forage for the moments of perspective and perception I like to give you in abundance, but I did come across this one video that is both pertinent and a complete vibe. I hope you enjoy, and I’d strongly recommend checking out more of their work:
Welcome, and thank you for your presence!
I am a leadership ecologist rooted in Appalachia, raised through environmental respect, military service and Western educational institutions. I use an animistic lens to better understand the relationship between individuals, organizations, and systems.
When working with leaders and organizations, my approach not one of doctrine, but of guidance and tending to: to memory, to culture, to systems and people. I believe leadership is not a fixed role, but a living, relational practice.
My work draws from my lived experience and research into myth-making, insurgency and business strategies, regenerative philosophies, creative works, the landscape I inhabit, and the mundane, because the ember of humanity is often nurtured in and between those spaces.
If something resonates, leave a comment, or reach out to chat - I always love hearing people’s stories.
You are always welcome to book a free call to either get fresh perspective or see if we’d work well together in cultivating your capacity to lead.
I offer a variety of services, 1:1 coaching, group programs, leadership training development, and culture consultation.
