✨When Worlds Collide... in the Best Way (020)

This week’s newsletter is landing a day late.

After flying 6,000 kilometers — and spending hours 35,000 feet above ground — I kept replaying the beautiful wedding I attended in Stockholm over the last weekend.

Picture this: A hundred guests representing forty-eight nationalities, many meeting for the first time.

A recipe for polite small talk and awkward pauses?
Or the start of something extraordinary?

The Icebreaker That Changed Everything

Nearly thirty years ago, the couple were strangers, born 20,000 kilometres apart, one in the northern hemisphere, one in the southern.

This month, they stood side by side, committing to sharing the rest of their lives.

In the days before the wedding, they skipped formal cocktail hours and stiff introductions. Instead, they gathered extended family on the lawn and handed out wooden blocks for Kubb — a Swedish game where you knock down your opponent’s blocks.

Within minutes, laughter replaced small talk.
Teams formed between strangers.
And just like that — no borders, no pauses, no “how do you do?”
Only connection.

The Mindset Multiplier

When life brings together people with radically different backgrounds, what mindset do we choose to bring?

Whether you're at a round table, in a boardroom, or standing in a reception line, you have a choice:

• Guard what you know.

• Trade what you know.

• Grow beyond what you know.

The leaders who burn bright — and help others do the same — choose the third.

Here’s what I’ve learned: the most comfortable rooms rarely produce the most memorable moments.

That wedding wasn’t just a love story — it was a leadership lab.

Leadership in Action

The most homogenous groups tend to produce the most predictable outcomes.
But when you blend perspectives — not for optics, but for genuine exchange — you create space for breakthrough thinking.

Your energy is contagious.
When you choose curiosity over comfort, others feel permission to do the same.
And that’s how one open person can transform an entire room.

This Week’s Reflection Prompt

Think about the last gathering or meeting you attended:

• Did you seek the familiar, or step into the unknown?

• How could you create more growth moments in your own life?

✨Closing with Kindness

Your mindset is your multiplier. If you want richer experiences, bigger opportunities, and deeper trust — don’t just show up.

Show up open.

To your spark,
Mary