July 6, 2026 | Issue Archive
Videos | Speaking | Blog | Course | Book
In a Full Room, Still Alone
This is landing in your inbox on a Monday instead of a Tuesday.
Consider that the first small experiment: start the week with a choice, not a scramble.
Last week I heard from someone who was in the room for one of my keynotes back in March. She runs the office for a small organization—wears every hat there is, HR to building maintenance to whatever breaks that day. Most days, she feels like she's letting everyone down, and there's no one to call when something urgent lands on her desk. She's expected to solve it.
I hear some version of that every few weeks. And it's rarely from someone who's actually alone.
It's usually from someone surrounded by people, in a full building, who doesn't feel like there's anyone they can turn to.
That's the trap with Isolation. It doesn't require solitude. You can be in a room full of people and be completely unreachable.
There's a stat I share on stage that I think about often: Teams with strong resilience skills are 3.8 times more likely to be highly innovative. That's real, and worth building.
But teams with real community, real connection, are more than six times more likely to be highly innovative.
Six times. Not from working harder alone. From not being alone in the work.
Here's what that means for the other four Choices of Radical Adaptability. Calm regulates you. Clarity focuses you. Courage moves you. Confidence sustains you. All four are yours to build alone, in your own head, at your own desk.
You can master every one of them, and still hit a ceiling.
Not because you're not enough. Because this was never meant to be done alone.
People don't rise to the level of their potential. They rise to the level of their community.
This Ends Now
End the idea that needing someone else is a sign you're behind. Isolation doesn't look like admitting you have questions. It looks like never asking them.
This Moment Matters
Pick one person today. Not a group, not a plan to build your network. One name. Send them a message that says the true thing: "I could use a hand with something," or "can I ask you a question I've been sitting on." That's the whole move.
Who do you know who's carrying something alone right now? Forward them this email. Sometimes the fastest way out of Isolation is someone else's inbox.
Up we go—
P.S. If someone forwarded this to you and you want it in your inbox every week—subscribe here.
P.P.S. If this one landed, hit reply. I read every one.