Hey Subscriber First Name

It's bank holiday Monday and I'm writing this in the sun in my garden. I've just got back from a night at a wonderful campsite and there are some genuinely exciting things on the horizon this week.

But if I can be honest (and that's always been the deal here), I'm feeling rather overwhelmed. Not in a desperate sense, just an unease and a feeling of imbalance. In the past I would have ignored it, masked up and carried on but I know better now.

We had no phone signal at the campsite and we chose it that way. Twenty-four hours of deliberate silence. But returning to admin this morning meant returning to the noise - wars, conflicts, costs, suffering. It all came flooding back in. I had a choice: give in to the fear or acknowledge it and pick a different path. So I went on a bike ride.

The best part was that my son Arlo chose to come with me, which was a genuine treat. He'll be sitting his GCSEs soon, navigating his noise of what comes next - exams, choices, the future arriving fast. My other son Henry is finishing his A Levels in a few months too. It's a full, stretching, tender time in our house. So these moments of connection feel important and rare.

When I was just a little older than Arlo, I lost my mum and began living on my own. My parents divorced when I was 3 and rarely saw my dad so I don't have a blueprint for fatherhood - I make it up as I go as I suspect most of us do. But my mum was a hippy who left me one thing I've never let go of - love is always the answer, no matter the question. I've tried to live that my whole life and it's the most important thing I've tried to pass on.

That brings me to this week's theme: consistency.

Earlier in my career, I thought I was building something solid. The salary, the titles, the cars - I told myself it was security, stability and doing right by my family. What I didn't see was that I'd lost sight of what I was actually doing it for. I was running rather than building. Work took over and at my lowest, my boys saw me break. But they believed in me and they got to witness the breakthrough too.

By the time I chose a different path and walked away from things many people aspire to achieve, I felt tremendous guilt for a while. As though I'd failed them. But kids don't judge by what they're told, they judge by what they see and experience. They didn't want the things I thought they needed, they wanted their dad to show up.

So I got busy with a different kind of building. Each day I showed up, even when I couldn't see the way through. I cycled, I healed, I boxed, I breathed. They mocked me for the breathwork classes, they ridiculed the sound baths and they found it baffling when I touched trees to ground myself. And I definitely understand that's quite a thing to witness as a teenager.

But they don't mock me anymore.

They can see now that I had been lied to and that I had to wake up. They watched the corporate world keep me stuck and miserable. And now they see it in their friends' parents too - the busyness, the performance, the hustle. They understand something, maybe more than most adults do, about what it costs to give your power away.

My hope is that they can now choose their life differently. Not from pressure, not from what school expects or friends assume or the outside world prescribes. From something stronger, from themselves. Consistency, it turns out, isn't just about showing up, it's about showing what's possible when you do. It becomes the ground that other people stand on and it gives the people watching you the confidence to trust their own instincts, to pick for themselves.

I don't know what either of them will choose to do with their lives. But I know they'll choose from the inside out. And I'll be there, cheering them on, with as much love as I can carry.

And as I write this, the first bumble bee of the year just flew past me. That feels like a nudge from the original inspiration of this newsletter Buckminster Fuller himself…

Bucky's idea of precession begins with the bee. Ask a bee what they’re doing and they will tell you - collecting food. That's the goal. But the bee's deeper, unintended purpose is pollination, a by-product of simply doing what it does, day after day, with complete consistency.

None of us truly know why we're here or really what we’re doing. We become obsessed with purpose and meaning, searching for the thing that justifies it all. But maybe it's enough to just keep moving forwards. Keep trying, keep doing your best.

The physics version of precession goes even further. When a wheel is spinning, you'd expect the maximum force to travel forward. But it doesn't, it emerges at 90 degrees, out through the hub. The biggest ripple travels sideways, invisible from where you're standing.

So when everything feels hopeless and you find yourself wondering whether any of it actually matters, keep going. Keep being consistent. The ripples are already travelling to places you can't yet see or imagine.

Upcoming Events

This all brings me, perhaps not coincidentally, to what's coming up.

The work I do in the world is built on the same principle - not grand gestures but consistent rhythms. The Natural Network gatherings exist because showing up, season after season, creates something that a single event never can. Roots, not rockets.

These gatherings aren’t created to fill a calendar. They heal the disconnection (from nature, from community, from myself) and work against that. They follow the natural rhythms and energy of the year that gave people a reason to return and get richer every time they do. Consistency isn't the method here. It's the point.

And at this point, I have to tip my hat to Mark Masters and You Are the Media who have invited me to sit on a panel in London soon. The theme of consistency has obviously influenced my reflections today! I've been part of that community for a while now and I think the invitation came for a simple reason, I keep showing up as myself. And what I've learned slowly and sometimes the hard way is that people notice. Not because it's impressive but because it's needed. When someone is consistently, stubbornly, unapologetically themselves, it gives other people permission to do the same.

That, more than anything, is what I hope these events offer.

The Natural Network at Four Acre Farm

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

It’s time for our next gathering in The Natural Network wheel.  Today, most of us spend the majority of our time 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.

The Natural Network at Patch

30th April: 10am - 12pm at Patch. Tickets here

We’re now getting in to our stride with these events. We will always be gathering on the final Thursday of the month between 10-12 at Patch with the best pastries in our hands. We’d love you to join us.

You Are the Media Lunch Club

30th April: 12.30pm - 2pm at Patch. Tickets here

The Quiet Power Of Consistency

Come and join us in London. I’ve heard the beaches aren’t as good as Dorset but I’m sure it’ll be a great day.

Wrapping up…

So that's where I am this week. Sitting in the sun, slightly overwhelmed, deeply grateful, watching a bumble bee do their consistent work.

If any of this has landed for you - the idea that showing up matters, that the ripples travel further than we can see, that being yourself is both the simplest and the hardest thing - then I'd love to see you at one of the gatherings. That's exactly what we're building together, one season at a time.

Until next time, keep going. The world needs your particular ripple.

With love,

Nick

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

Here’s how we can continue the conversation:

• If you like this newsletter, please share it with someone who might like it too.

• If someone forwarded this to you, please Click here to subscribe.

• If we’re not already connected on LinkedIn then come and find me here.

• Instagram more your thing? Please come and follow me here.

• Looking for a deeper connection and would like to work with me? Just reply to this email or click here to start a conversation.