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I hope you’ve been able to get outside and enjoy this warmer, brighter weather. It’s given me a burst of energy and opened up some wonderful conversations with people.

It’s also highlighted a tension I’ve been sitting with for a while and I’m curious if it resonates with you too? I’m seeing that the more meaningful your work becomes, the less you want to shout about it. And the more your practice is rooted in something real, the more it feels wrong to pitch it. So, slowly, you make yourself harder to find.

It’s not false modesty or a lack of sales knowledge, it’s integrity. You would never want to be seen as flogging something you care about this deeply. So you wait, trust and hope people find you.

I was lucky enough to be in a bluebell wood twice this week. Standing there, it struck me that a bluebell doesn’t force being seen. They don't campaign for your attention, they simply show up, completely itself, when they’re ready. There is something in that worth sitting with.

The hyper-capitalist version would open a gift shop, sell bluebell merchandise and create a ticketed experience. Someone would build a brand around the moment, while the bluebells themselves (the actual draw and the whole point of your experience) carry on in the background, doing what they have always done.

That speaks to the uncomfortable dichotomy I’m picking up - the more unique and soul-led your work, the harder it becomes to build authentic and effective visibility.

If you could picture a bluebell speaking to you, I’m sure they wouldn’t create a website landing page telling you the top 5 reasons to come and visit them. Or create a sales funnel identifying what they could sell you. They just trust that they’re doing the right thing and they fit in to the bigger system we’re all part of.

So when our work sits in the fringes, you do not just face a marketing challenge, you face a category problem. You are sometimes building something so new or radical that a market does not yet exist for it.

I know this from the inside. I was in London recently, speaking on a panel and it gave me the chance to tell the story of my three seasons, some easier to categorise than others:

1. Senior marketer

2. Sustainability strategist

3. Coach, facilitator, business guide, event curator. Me.

Each pivot was made in hope. I was hoping each time to feel something shift, to find something that finally felt like enough. And each time, I moved the problem rather than solving it.

The sustainability work was real and necessary. But if I’m honest, much of it is still operating at a functional level. I think an increasing number of people can sense that.

What I have come to understand is that I work at the roots. Not on the presenting problem but on what is underneath it. The belief, the fear, the story someone is still telling themselves. The work is always inwards first, impact flows outward from there.

I was always going to be of service and find answers but often I was looking at external issues to avoid the work on myself.

If I’m honest, I eventually became tired of trying to fix everything else when the real work was inwards. It always is.

And once I did that work myself (really did it, not just go through the motions) I could let go of the beliefs that were holding me back. I stopped needing to fit inside a box that someone else had drawn.

That return to London was evidence of that. My nervous system still remembered the early starts of my previous career and the frequency of the commute. But this time I went back on my own terms, to tell a story I had actually lived, not one I was still performing.

So I work very differently now. I go to events that genuinely interest me. I co-create things organically. I follow the thread rather than the plan.

It’s not a business strategy and it is certainly not a marketing strategy. But the more I let go, the more I seem to be achieving. I know how counterintuitive that sounds, especially in these headwinds. But when you are building something new, in a space that does not yet have a name, you have to be willing to accept that choice and carry it without resentment.

Staying in the little boxes keeps you marketable. Smashing them up when you are reaching for something truly radical, that is a different commitment entirely. I know that if I had stayed as a corporate leader I would be much better off financially. I know that. And I have made my peace with that.

The work I believe we all need right now is not another framework or methodology. It is the courage to understand ourselves before we build personal brands or businesses that are simply projections of what the market expects from us, even when our intentions are good.

The answer, as ever, is love. Which means it starts with learning to love ourselves. Everything else becomes a lot simpler when we stop trying to change everyone else first. And we accept that if things take longer or we don’t go viral, it might not even be something we want, if we truly understand the inner blueprint of who we really are.

Upcoming Events

Something I notice every time we gather is that the conversation that matters most is rarely the one that was planned. It happens in the margins, over lunch and on a walk. That is where the real thinking gets done.

And there is nowhere that is more true than Four Acre Farm.

We keep our events intentionally small and we’ll be back on the land on 7th May. If you have been sitting on it, now is the time.

The Natural Network at Four Acre Farm

7th May: 9.30am - 1.30pm at Patch. Tickets here

We really would love you to join us on the Farm for this workshop. Some people I speak to are intrigued but not quite ready to book. Others feel unsure of what we’ll cover or if they are the right audience. My answer is always that if you’re curious, you’re the right person!

The Natural Network has been created as an antidote to the hours we spend indoors, under artificial light, glued to screens, trying to force ideas on demand. The result is well documented - burnout, exhaustion and a persistent sense of not doing 'enough'.

So this gathering brings us back to ourselves. To lead, think, to build with intention, clarity and power. It’s a collaboration between me and Kate (Four Ace Farm) as an integration of deep natural wisdom and pragmatic business decision making/planning.

If you’d like more information, please reply to this email and we can arrange a no pressure chat about the day. Plus, as a newsletter subscriber you get a £20 discount using the code - Naturalnetwork20

We're committed to building longer tables, not higher walls. So if cost is a barrier, we have a limited number of free tickets - no explanation needed. There’s also the option to add a donation if you’re in a position to support access to others.

Wrapping up

Since this week is about integrity over invisibility, here’s a gentle reminder of what I actually do…

I work with individuals and organisations who are ready to do the real work. Not the surface stuff, the roots.

That might look like one-to-one coaching, strategic business support, team development or bringing me in as a speaker or podcast guest to talk about the intersections of inner transformation, sustainability and what it means to build something that genuinely matters.

My work is rooted in nature but nature is the lens, not the location. I work with people across the UK and internationally, online and in person.

If any of this feels relevant to where you are right now, just reply to this email. There will be no forms or funnels, just a conversation.

Until next week, keep tending to those roots and finding your voice,

Nick

Well that’s it for another week. But we don’t have to stop there.

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