Renee:
There’s something that happens after you leave an event.
It doesn’t matter if it’s a retreat, a conference, a mastermind, or even a music festival.
You spend a few days immersed. Inspired. Surrounded by people who “get it.” Conversations are deeper. Energy is higher. Vision feels clearer.
And then… you go home.
Back to school drop-offs. Emails. Laundry. Ordinary life.
That reentry can feel jarring.
People talk about the “post-event dip” all the time. The quiet after the intensity. The shift from high-frequency rooms back into the everyday world.
But this week, something unexpected happened.
I dropped Eden off at school and witnessed one of the most beautiful things.
Students were lined up on both sides of the entrance, arms stretched wide, blindfolded. Some holding signs that said:
“You trust me. I trust you.” “Spread the love.”
It was the school’s Leaders in Action group.
Bruno Mars’ “Count on Me” was playing from the speakers, one of our Soulful Leadership Retreat songs, and I just sat there watching Eden hug her way down the line.
And I started crying.
Because I realized something.
The room didn’t end.
Leadership didn’t stay at the resort. It didn’t stay on stage. It didn’t stay at the breakout tables.
It followed us home.
Mark:
Reentry doesn’t have to mean losing momentum.
Sometimes it’s about integration.
We often think leadership lives in big moments: keynote talks, curated conversations, bold declarations. But the real measure of a room is what happens after it.
Does it change how you show up on a random Tuesday? Does it soften how you listen? Does it make you braver with kindness?
That’s what Renee witnessed in that carline.
Not performance. Not polish. Just teenagers choosing trust.
Renee:
It’s Valentine’s weekend.
And while the world talks about flowers and dinner reservations, I keep thinking about something simpler.
Love looks like open arms in a school entrance. Love looks like blindfolded trust. Love looks like a song about counting on each other playing on a random weekday morning.
At the Soulful Leadership Retreat last weekend, we talked about embodied leadership. About integrity. About holding space.
And there it was.
In carline.
Leadership isn’t just on stages. It’s not just in boardrooms. It’s not just in curated rooms at beautiful resorts.
It’s lived.
Day to day. In how we treat each other. In how we show up. Whether we carry what we felt back into our real lives.
Mark & Renee:
If you’ve ever left an event feeling lit up and then wondered how to keep that feeling alive, maybe the answer isn’t recreating the intensity.
Maybe it’s looking for it in the ordinary.
In your home. In your workplace. In your community. In your school carline.
The best rooms don’t create escape.
They create awareness.
And if this is the next generation of leaders, open-armed, trust-first, willing to stand blindfolded and say “I trust you”, then we have every reason to feel hopeful.
Maybe reentry isn’t about coming back down.
Maybe it’s about realizing the work never stayed in the room to begin with.