Sometimes, wanting actually HOLDS US BACK. It does the exact opposite of what we think it should do.

For a high performance athlete, just as for a high performance leader in business, letting go is f*** hard. Because letting go means we’re “giving up” control.

But guys… THAT’S WHERE THE MAGIC HAPPENS.

It’s in letting go, not holding on so tight. It’s in trusting the work you’ve done instead of constantly wanting things to go in a different direction.

And no, I’m not saying you shouldn’t do the work and just sit on the couch watching TV. 😂 That’s not the point.

It’s about doing the work, showing up, giving it everything you’ve got… and then letting the work do the work for you.

It’s hard. I try to let go, and I struggle too.

But the message keeps coming back, in sport, in life, in business.

Maybe the way to win isn’t to want it MORE, but to TRUST MORE.

What if the next level you’re trying so hard to reach isn’t about doing more, pushing harder, or wanting it more… but about learning to let go?

What do you think? I’d love to hear your thoughts. 👇

For a more connected world,
Renata

➡️ Learn More About Rekonnekt: www.rekonnekt.co
➡️ Our next LIVE Experience: https://www.stradebianche.rekonnekt.co/

Gino Bartali, on the left, was one of the greatest cyclists Italy ever produced 🇮🇹
He won the Tour de France twice, ten years apart.

But his greatest ride never appeared in any race results.
During the Second World War, Bartali went on what looked like long training rides between Florence and Assisi.

Nobody questioned a champion out training.

Hidden inside his bike were forged identity documents that helped save Jewish families from deportation.

If they had caught him, he could have lost everything. He kept riding anyway. And for decades, he barely spoke about what he had done.

Yad Vashem formally recognised his courage in 2013, years after his death.

Here’s what Bartali reminds me about leadership.

🔊 #Commitment isn't loud.
👀 It shows up, even when nobody is watching.
🎯 The mission mattered more than the recognition.
♾️ And he never did it alone.

Bartali was one link in a network of people who trusted one another with their lives.

His courage mattered, but so did the trust #connecting everyone involved.

That part stays with me...

Even the most committed person needs people they can trust completely.
Because some missions are simply too important to accomplish alone.

So I'm curious: What are you committed to that nobody sees yet?

P.S. A little observation for the cycling lovers. ❤️
Look closely at the picture. There are three people there.
And then look at the pedals, the bikes, the technology of that time...
Just think about what human beings were capable of creating, achieving and overcoming. How brutal is it to do a Tour de France today.... Can you only imagine that era?

And now, we can barely write a post without AI!! 😂

We've come so far technologically, but are we always moving forward as human beings? That's a post for another time. 😉

Here for a more connected world,

Renata

➡️ Learn More About Rekonnekt: www.rekonnekt.co
➡️ Our next LIVE Experience: https://www.stradebianche.rekonnekt.co/

I've said it about Rekonnekt.co more times than I can count.

So here's the only proof I trust: people come back.

After one of our experiences, I got this email:

Wow. That's it. That's the magic right there.

That doesn't happen because of a route or a hotel.
It happens because of the room.

We keep our experiences small on purpose. Not to create scarcity.
Because trust doesn't form in a crowd of people handing out business cards.

It forms on a climb, at a shared table, in the conversation you'd never have at the office.

Matteo Bruschi and I love connecting people.
That's the part we're proudest of.

You're not another name on a guest list. You're part of the experience.

➡️ Next: Strade Bianche, March 2027 ➡️ https://www.stradebianche.rekonnekt.co/
A small group, gravel bike or e-bike, everyone at their own level.

So I'll ask you what we ask everyone before they join:
When did you last have a conversation with a peer that changed a decision you were about to make?

I would love to hear from you.
Here for a more connected world,

Renata

➡️ Learn More About Rekonnekt: www.rekonnekt.co

People have been asking me to bring cycling into Rekonnekt.co experiences in Europe, and I kept saying: “Not yet.”

I wanted to bring hiking in first. Mountains, movement, inclusion, connection.
But then I remembered something.

The mountains are also what make European cycling so bloody special. 😉

And cycling has always been my thing. I tend to choose the harder Gran Fondos, the bigger climbs, the rides where you have to dig a little deeper.

But the best part isn't the finish line.
It's who you ride with.
The encouragement. The suffering. The coffee stops. The conversations. The moment someone is struggling, and suddenly everyone is riding together.

That is REKONNEKT ♾️
So, I surrendered. 😂

In 2027, we're bringing cycling to Rekonnekt!

And we're starting in Italy, with our very own local legend, Matteo Bruschi, who knows the roads, the terrain, the people and, thankfully, where to find the best coffee.

First stop?
Strade Bianche. Siena. Tuscany. One beautiful, brutal day.

But this isn't just about riding a race.
It's about bringing the right people together and creating connections that go well beyond cycling.

So if Strade Bianche 2027 is calling you, register your interest through the link below.
We'll talk. We'll get to know each other.

Then we'll start training.
Because it's a tough one.

And I won't leave anyone behind.
Let's go!

Join us

📍 Siena, Tuscany
🗓 4–8 March 2027
👥 18 places

If you’ve been reading and thinking of yourself, or of someone who should be in that room, I’d love to hear from you.

Get your place → www.stradebianche.rekonnekt.co

See you on the white roads,

Renata | Rekonnekt Founder

➡️ Learn More About Rekonnekt: www.rekonnekt.co

At Rekonnekt, we believe connection isn’t something separate from business. It is part of how business happens.

It is why we bring people together around shared experiences, why we believe movement can create the conditions for deeper conversations, and why we care so much about what happens beyond the traditional networking room.

Because the more we work with leaders, founders, investors and senior operators, the more we see the same tension:

The further we climb, the easier it can become to lose the human connection.

The more senior we become, the more people we meet, the bigger the decisions we make and the more responsibility we carry, the easier it can become to rely on expertise, presentations, strategies and carefully crafted conversations.

• But are we getting better at actually listening?

• Are we still curious about the person sitting across from us?

• Can we stay present when a conversation becomes uncomfortable, when there is silence, disagreement, resistance or something that wasn’t in the deck?

This is exactly where our next Fireside Chat intersects with what Rekonnekt is all about.

Meet David Meacham

David spent more than 20 years in senior commercial roles across the life sciences industry, including ANZ Director of Sales and APAC Regional Director of Commercial Excellence, before founding The Echelon Effect.

After years of launching products, leading teams and working across APAC, he noticed a recurring gap between what organisations say and what actually happens in the room.

Most organisations say the customer is at the centre.

But being customer-centred isn’t simply about knowing your customer.

It’s about knowing how to engage with another human being.

• How to listen.

• How to understand what isn’t being said.

• How to navigate tension.

• How to build trust without relying on a script.

And how to have the difficult conversation instead of avoiding it.

Today, David works with senior operators to develop exactly that: the ability to have more meaningful, human conversations in high-stakes environments.

And that’s what makes this conversation relevant far beyond life sciences.

Because whether you’re leading a company, selling a product, managing a team, raising capital, advising clients or building partnerships, your ability to connect with people is part of the work.

What will we talk about?

➜ Reading the room before reading the deck

Before we present, pitch or persuade, what happens when we become genuinely curious about the person in front of us?

We’ll explore how understanding someone’s motivations, concerns and barriers can completely change the conversation.

➜ The power of silence

We often rush to fill silence.

But what if silence is giving you information?

David will share how learning to sit with silence and friction can create space for better conversations rather than weaker ones.

➜ The conversations we’d rather avoid

Pricing pressure. Competitive threats. Difficult feedback. Misalignment.

The conversations that make us uncomfortable are often the conversations that matter most.

So how do we approach them with clarity rather than avoidance?

➜ From technical to human

Expertise gets you into the room.

But what makes someone trust you once you’re there?

We’ll explore what happens when we stop thinking about people simply as customers, stakeholders or audiences and start engaging with them as people.

A conversation for anyone who works with people

You don’t need to work in life sciences to join us.

If you lead people, sell, build, advise, invest, negotiate, manage relationships or simply find yourself having conversations where trust matters, this one is for you.

Because ultimately, the question isn’t only how good we are at what we do.

It’s whether, as we grow, we can stay human while doing it.

Join us around the fire 🔥

Rekonnekt Fireside Chat with David Meacham

📅 Thursday, 15 October
🇪🇺 9:00 AM CET (Spain/ Italy/ Switzerland)
🇧🇷 4:00 AM BRT
🇦🇺 5:00 PM AEDT (Melbourne/Sydney)

An intimate conversation. No slides. No sales pitch. Just a space to slow down, think differently and have a real conversation about something that affects all of us.

Come curious ➜ Register HERE | It’s free!

Always here to connect,
Renata | Founder, Rekonnekt

➡️ Learn More About Rekonnekt: www.rekonnekt.co
➡️ Join our NEXT LIVE Experience:
The Leadership Superpower Experience: www.asiago.rekonnekt.co/

A leader can spend two days at a major conference, have a calendar full of follow-ups, meet dozens of interesting people, and still leave thinking: Did I actually connect with anyone?

The room was full. The conversations were smart. Everyone was polished, relevant, and busy.

And yet, sometimes, nothing really happened.

Because knowing someone’s name, title, or company isn’t the same as knowing the person.

For CEOs, founders, investors, and senior leaders, access is rarely the problem. They already have invitations to dinners, conferences, forums, private clubs, and introductions…

What is much harder to find is a space where people can slow down, take off the professional armour, and have a conversation that isn’t driven by an agenda.

A space where you can meet someone not because of their valuation, title, or what they might be able to do for you, but simply because you are curious about who they are.

What private executive experiences are really about

The best private gatherings aren’t smaller versions of conferences.

They start from a completely different idea:

Meaningful business relationships begin when people have the opportunity to be human.

At a conference, the objective is usually clear. Meet people. Exchange ideas. Build visibility. Find opportunities.

There is nothing wrong with that. We need those spaces.

But relationships need something else.

They need time. Chemistry. Curiosity. Shared experiences. A little spontaneity.

And sometimes, they need to get out of the room.

There is something powerful about walking a trail together, riding a bike, sharing a meal after an adventure, or simply experiencing something new with someone. The conversation changes. People become less concerned with presenting themselves and more comfortable being themselves.

That is where the interesting things start to happen.

The problem with traditional networking

Traditional networking often asks people to create a relationship in a few minutes.

Introduce yourself. Explain what you do. Find something in common. Exchange contacts. Move on to the next person.

It is efficient. But relationships are rarely built efficiently.

At a senior level, this becomes even more obvious. Leaders are constantly approached with an agenda. They are used to being pitched to, sold to, invited, introduced, and asked for something.

So when the agenda disappears, something interesting happens.

People start talking.

Not just about what they do, but about what they are experiencing.

The difficult decision they are facing.

The lesson they learned the hard way.

The thing they are excited about.

The thing they are still trying to figure out.

And suddenly, you are no longer talking to a CEO or an investor.

You are talking to a person.

Leadership can be surprisingly lonely

The more senior the role, the more people expect from you.

Your team expects direction. Your board expects judgment. Your investors expect confidence. Your clients expect answers.

But where do you go when you don’t have the answer?

Who do you talk to when you want to think out loud without having to manage the room?

This is one of the reasons we believe so strongly in bringing leaders together in environments where they can simply be themselves.

A trusted peer doesn’t need a long explanation. They understand the pressure. They have probably felt it too.

Sometimes the most valuable conversation isn’t the one that leads directly to a deal.

It is the one that gives you a different perspective on a problem you have been carrying for months.

Curation is about people, not status

Private does not mean exclusive for the sake of being exclusive…..

It means intentional!

The value of a curated experience comes from thinking carefully about who should be there and why.

We aren’t interested in putting twenty impressive names in a room and hoping something happens.

The right people need enough in common to connect, but enough difference to surprise each other.

A founder might have an unexpectedly valuable conversation with an investor who has seen the same challenge from a completely different perspective.

A CEO might gain more clarity by speaking with another leader from a completely different industry.

And sometimes the most valuable person in the room is the one you never expected to meet.

This is why curation matters.

Not everyone who is successful is necessarily generous with their attention. Not everyone with an impressive title creates a good conversation.

We look for people who are curious, open, thoughtful, and willing to contribute to the experience of everyone around them.

Because the quality of the room is ultimately created by the people in it.

Trust can’t be manufactured

You can’t put “trust” on an event agenda and expect it to appear.

Trust is built through small moments.

A thoughtful introduction. A conversation that goes deeper than expected.

Someone listening without looking over your shoulder for the next person to meet.

A shared laugh. A difficult story. A moment of vulnerability.

A few hours without the pressure to perform.

The environment matters enormously.

A crowded room, constant interruptions, and an endless sequence of introductions create one kind of interaction.

A mountain trail, a long ride, a beautiful table, or a shared challenge creates another.

That is why the experience itself matters so much to us at Rekonnekt.

The activity isn’t the point. It is the catalyst.

It creates a different rhythm. It gives people something to experience together. It creates moments that conversation can grow around.

Why we take connection outdoors

There is a reason our experiences often involve cycling, hiking, or movement outdoors.

When people move together, something shifts.

Titles become less important. Conversations become less structured.

People naturally spend more time together.

There is no stage. No microphone. No panel. No one sitting at the front of the room pretending to have all the answers.

You are simply there, together.

And somewhere between one climb and the next, or during a quiet stretch of a trail, the conversation often goes somewhere you couldn’t have planned.

That is the kind of connection we are interested in.

Not networking for the sake of networking.

Connection first. Business second.

Because when there is genuine trust, business has a much stronger foundation to build on.

The experience is only the beginning

The best outcome of a Rekonnekt experience isn’t necessarily something that happens that day.

It might happen three months later. A phone call. An introduction. A new partnership.

An investment conversation. A piece of advice. A new perspective.

Or simply a message saying, “I thought about what you said.”

That is relationship capital.

And relationship capital compounds.

One meaningful relationship can create opportunities that no networking event could ever promise. But those relationships cannot be forced, measured by the number of business cards collected, or created through an over-engineered agenda.

They need the right people. The right environment.

And enough space for something real to happen. That is what we are creating at Rekonnekt.

Not bigger networks.

Better ones.

Not more conversations. More meaningful ones.

Not another event to attend. An experience worth remembering.

Because ultimately, business is still about people.

And people connect differently when they step outside the room.

Always here to connect,

Renata

➡️ Learn More About Rekonnekt: www.rekonnekt.co
➡️ Join our NEXT LIVE Experience:
The Leadership Superpower Experience: www.asiago.rekonnekt.co/

Let me tell you about something I’ve noticed, over and over, working with leadership teams.

Everyone shows up to the quarterly review looking united. Nodding at the same slide. Agreeing on the plan. And then the meeting ends, and somehow five different people walk out and execute five slightly different versions of that plan. Nobody lied. Nobody even disagreed out loud. It’s just that the “alignment” in the room was never tested, it was performed.

I used to think that was a communication problem. More clarity, better decks, tighter follow-ups. But I don’t think that anymore. I think it’s an environment problem.

Here’s what I mean.

Trust isn’t built by proximity.
It’s built by shared difficulty.

You can share a Slack channel with someone for five years and still not really know how they behave when a plan falls apart. And you can spend a single hard day with someone, genuinely struggling with something together, and walk away knowing exactly how they think under pressure, because you watched it happen.

The office isn’t built for that second kind of moment. It’s built to avoid it, actually. Meetings are designed to smooth over friction, not surface it. Decks are built to make things look more settled than they are. Everyone in the room is quietly protecting their own position, because that’s what a normal working environment rewards.

A quick story — one I think about a lot

There’s a story I keep coming back to, and it’s now over a century old.

In 1914, Ernest Shackleton set out to cross Antarctica with a crew of 27 men. They never made it. Their ship, the Endurance, got trapped and slowly crushed by pack ice, and the crew spent the next two years just trying to survive — stranded on ice floes, then in lifeboats, then on a frozen, uninhabited island, waiting for a rescue that had no guarantee of coming.

Here’s the part that always gets me: every single one of them survived. Twenty-seven men, two years, no radio, barely any food, and nobody died.

Historians who’ve studied the expedition point to the same thing again and again, it wasn’t just Shackleton’s leadership. It was the way the crew related to each other by the end.

These were men who, months earlier, barely knew one another; officers, scientists, sailors, thrown together for a job. But by the time they were fighting for their lives on the ice, they functioned like one organism. They read each other instantly. They trusted each other with their lives, literally, because they’d already been tested together and hadn’t broken.

Nobody builds that kind of trust in a briefing room. It got built because the environment forced it; it stripped away the normal politics and status games and left only the honest version of who each person was under real pressure.

That’s the whole point I’m trying to make.

But here’s what people miss about Shackleton

The trust his crew built on the ice is the part everyone tells. The part almost nobody talks about is how he held it together before things fell apart; and after, once they were rescued, how that story kept the man and his legacy alive for over a hundred years.

Shackleton was, by every account, a relentless storyteller. He gathered his crew and talked. Not status updates; stories.

About past expeditions, about setbacks, about what was possible. On the ice, with morale collapsing and rescue nowhere in sight, he kept his men fed on narrative as much as rations. He gave them a story to be inside of, not just a situation to survive.

That’s not a soft skill. That’s a leadership superpower, and it’s the one most executive teams have quietly let atrophy.

The science backs this up. Storytelling does something factual reporting can’t: it synchronises people.

Studies on narrative and the brain show that when someone tells a real story, the listener’s brain activity starts to mirror the storyteller’s, a phenomenon researchers call neural coupling. Facts convince the analytical part of the brain. Stories move the whole room together, emotionally and cognitively, at the same time. That’s not motivation. That’s alignment, built at a level meetings and decks can’t reach.

This is why every Rekonnekt Online Fireside Chat is built around story. We don’t put people in front of you to deliver a keynote. We put them there to talk, the way Shackleton talked to his crew, and let a room full of founders, executives, and investors experience, together, what it feels like when a story actually lands.

So here’s the question I’d leave you with:

If your leadership team has never left its normal environment together, never been somewhere the outcome wasn’t guaranteed, where the usual office behaviour stopped working, you don’t actually know how much you can trust each other yet.

You’ve just never been tested.

Our next Fireside Chat is on Thursday, September 17th, and it’s built entirely around this idea: leadership as storytelling, and the science of why it works.

Reserve your spot: it’s totally FREE, online, and anyone can join

📅 For the September 17th Fireside Chat — link HERE
⏰ 9am 🇮🇹 || 6pm 🇦🇺

I love stories.

They aren’t just powerful because they help people visualise an idea. When told well, stories allow people to step inside the moment. They can feel it, experience it, and create a genuine emotional connection.

If you think that’s why a platform like Substack exists: so people can share stories and ideas, which ultimately we can connect!

And behind every great leader, every successful business, and every powerful vision, there is one essential skill:

The ability to tell a great story.

At REKONNEKT, we believe the experiences that truly transform us happen when learning, adventure, and human connection come together.

Over the past months, we have been working behind the scenes to create a new series of experiences for our community, bringing together extraordinary places, inspiring people, and topics that are deeply relevant for leaders today.

Our next experience is one we are incredibly excited about.

Originally designed as an E-MTB adventure, we decided to transform it into something even more meaningful: a Hike Experience in a place where history, nature, and leadership lessons come together.

Because the best stories aren’t just told but lived, right?

The Science of Storytelling: The Leadership Superpower

Stories are one of the most powerful tools we have as humans.

They shape how people see the world, how they connect with ideas, and how they decide to take action.

Storytelling isn’t just about speaking well. It is about understanding people, creating emotional connection, and communicating in a way that moves others.

For this special REKONNEKT experience, we are partnering with two legends, Sarah Banks and Sarah Kara, TEDx trained speakers, award-winning storytellers, and leadership coaches, who will take us on a journey into the art and science of storytelling.

Together, we will explore how to craft stories that strengthen your leadership, amplify your influence, and help you communicate your ideas with clarity, confidence, and impact.

But this will not happen in a traditional way.

We will learn while moving.

We will hike through the breathtaking mountains of Asiago, one of Italy’s most unique and historic landscapes. A place where nature, resilience, and human stories are deeply connected.

These mountains carry the memories of the First World War, a period that transformed communities and shaped generations. As we walk through this landscape, we will explore how stories preserve history, create identity, and influence the way we see the world.

Through this experience, we will connect the power of place with the power of storytelling, discovering how the stories we tell shape our businesses, our leadership, and our lives.

A REKONNEKT Exclusive Experience

This exclusive experience will take place at the end of October in Asiago, Italy.
📅 23rd to 25th October, 2026.

Getting here is simple: a short flight to Venice followed by only 90 minutes through some of Italy’s most beautiful landscapes.

Everything is included.

Before the experience, we will host an exclusive online Fireside Chat with Sarah K. and Sarah B, allowing our community to meet them, understand their approach, and start exploring the power of storytelling before arriving in Italy.

This is more than a hike.

Because at REKONNEKT, we believe that the experiences we create aren’t just about where we go.

They are about who we become along the way.

Applications are now open.

I would love to welcome some of you to Asiago and experience this journey together.

This one is going to be truly special.

See you in the mountains,

Renata

➡️ Learn More About Rekonnekt: www.rekonnekt.co
➡️ The Leadership Superpower Experience: www.asiago.rekonnekt.co/

This weekend in Canazei, Dolomites, reminded me of something every business should never forget.

We stayed in a beautiful hotel in the Dolomites. The location was breathtaking. The spa was excellent. The rooms were comfortable, and the food was great. On paper, it had everything you would expect from a memorable stay.

And yet, something was missing.

A few months ago, we stayed at another hotel that, if we are honest, probably didn’t have the same level of facilities. But the experience couldn’t have been more different.

From the moment we arrived, the team welcomed us with genuine warmth. They shared local recommendations, took the time to chat with us, and made us feel at home. When they discovered it was my birthday, they surprised me with a cake, candles, and a bottle of champagne.

It was unexpected.

It was unnecessary.

And it is something I will never forget.

This weekend, despite the stunning surroundings, every interaction felt transactional. Small requests came with extra charges. Policies seemed more important than people. We were never treated poorly, but we were never made to feel genuinely cared for either.

It reminded me of a simple truth.

People rarely remember the thread count of the sheets, the size of the spa, or how luxurious the lobby looked.

They remember how you made them feel.

The same is true in business.

Culture is not what is written in your values document. It is what your customers experience when no one is following a script.

You can invest millions in your facilities, technology, marketing, and brand.

But if your people don’t enjoy serving others, if they aren’t empowered to create meaningful moments, much of that investment loses its impact.

The companies that stand out are rarely those with the biggest budgets.

They are the ones that make people feel seen, valued, and remembered.

At Rekonnekt, we believe that human connection will always be the greatest competitive advantage. Technology can improve efficiency. Luxury can impress. But genuine care is what creates loyalty.

What is one small gesture from a hotel, restaurant, or business that you have never forgotten?

➡️ Learn More About Rekonnekt: www.rekonnekt.co

But if you’ve ever actually sat down and talked to an athlete really talked, not just for a quick post-match soundbite, you learn something interesting.

The wins are not the part they remember most clearly. The losses are.

They can tell you the exact moment it went wrong. What they were thinking. What they’d give to do it differently. And almost every one of them will tell you that the losses taught them more than any win ever did.

The highlight reel problem

Founders do the same thing athletes do. We post the funding round, not the eighteen months before it when nothing was working. We post the client win, not the forty pitches that went nowhere first. Investors talk about the exit, not the three portfolio companies that quietly folded along the way.

It creates a distorted picture, for founders starting out, for executives navigating a hard year, for investors wondering if the rough patch means something is broken. It isn’t. It’s just the part nobody shows you.

Why the losses matter more

At the Rekonnekt Fireside Chats, we’ve noticed something consistent. The guests who talk most openly about their setbacks, not just the polished comeback story, but the actual mess of the setback itself, are the ones the audience remembers weeks later. Not because failure is inspiring on its own. It isn’t. But because it’s honest, and honesty is rare.

An athlete who tells you exactly how it felt to not make the team, or to lose the race they trained four years for, is handing you something a highlight reel never can: the actual mechanics of how someone gets back up. Not the fact that they did, the how.

That’s the part that transfers. The medal doesn’t teach you anything. The process of losing, sitting with it, and choosing to go again, that’s the part a founder facing a failed launch can actually use. That’s the part an executive who just lost a major account needs to hear. That’s the part an investor watching a position go the wrong way needs reminding of.

Setbacks aren’t a detour. They’re the process.

Here’s the mindset shift worth sitting with: the setback isn’t a deviation from the path to success. It is the path.

Every athlete who has ever competed at a high level has lost, often more than they’ve won. The difference between the ones who make it and the ones who don’t isn’t the losses. It’s what they did with them.

The same is true in business. The founder who eventually builds something meaningful never has a straight line to get there. Neither does the executive who eventually gets the promotion, or the investor who eventually gets the return.

The setbacks were never separate from the success. They were the training for it.

Why we keep bringing athletes to the table (and I love sport!)

This is the whole idea behind Rekonnekt. Sport strips things down to their simplest form: win or lose, you gave your best, or you didn’t; you get back up, or you don’t.

There’s no corporate language to hide behind. When an athlete talks about failure, they’re not spinning it. They’re just telling you what happened and what it cost them to keep going.

That’s a language every founder, executive, and investor understands, even if they don’t always speak it themselves.

So the next time you hear someone talk about resilience, ask them about the losses first. That’s where the real lessons are. That’s what we’re here to talk about.


➡️ Register for all Rekonnekt Fireside Chats for 2026 (free!)
https://rekonnekt.co/fireside-chats

➡️ Learn More About Rekonnekt: www.rekonnekt.co

💭 Sport has the power to change the world. It has the power to inspire. It has the power to unite people in a way that little else does. It speaks to youth in a language they understand. Sport can create hope where once there was only despair. ~ Nelson Mandela

That's a quote from the movie "Invictus," which is one of my all-time favourite movies. The story of rugby in South Africa during apartheid and how it united the country.

The story of football in Brazil and how so many people born in places with very little opportunity have found hope in the sport, some of them going on to become the greatest of all time. And so many other examples, enough to make this post enormous, but here's one more: Laverne Jones-Ferette.

She found in sprint running a way to create opportunity for herself and her family. Having built a legacy in the sport for the Virgin Islands and now based in the US, she coaches young kids, teaching lessons of resilience, persistence, and presence under pressure that only someone who has truly walked the talk can deliver.

The reason I keep bringing sports personalities to the Rekonnekt.co Fireside Chats is because, in my view, there's no better way to translate what we face in our daily lives than through the lessons of sport. Sport challenges us mentally, physically, and spiritually, just like EVERYTHING else we do.

The stories from this woman will blow you away: the pressure she had to deal with (more self-imposed than anything else), the hard work on the track, standing next to the fastest runners in the world, and then becoming one of them.

This Fireside is open; don't miss this opportunity.
One hour of inspiration to transform into action!

📅 Thursday, 9th July
🕕 6pm Madrid/Milan 🇪🇸🇮🇹 | 🕐 1pm Brasília 🇧🇷 | 🕚 11am Houston 🇺🇸

➡️ Register here: https://links.rekonnekt.co/widget/form/wVPo2TSS3AUfYnl9dz9M

➡️ Learn More About Rekonnekt: www.rekonnekt.co

On the first morning of the Rekonnekt Garda Shift, later in April, I gathered the group in the hotel lobby.

Hiking poles. Backpacks. A mountain ahead of us.

I laid out the route — where we were going, what to expect, and where it would get hard. Not to manage them. Because clarity before a challenge is what lets people stop thinking about the plan and start focusing on each other.

That's what happened on the way up.

Nobody fell behind. Not because it was easy — it wasn't. But because this group didn't operate that way. People slowed down. Checked in. Reached back when someone needed it.

We got to the top together.

I've thought a lot about why that matters for a room full of business leaders.

And I keep coming back to the same thing: the conditions that make a team move on a mountain are the same ones that make a team move in an organization.

A clear plan. The right people. And enough trust in each other to follow through when it gets uncomfortable.

Most leadership teams have the first.
They're still working on the other two.

The plan matters. The team matters more. But neither works without the trust you build on the way up.

That's what Rekonnekt is built around ♾️

➡️ Our next Rekonnekt Fireside Chat is open.

LaVerne Jones-Ferrette has stood on the start line at four Olympic Games. She is a sprinter from the US Virgin Islands, and she has spent her career studying what separates the people who perform under pressure from the ones who don't.

She's joining us to talk about exactly that — pressure, presence, and what winning actually requires.

This is a free monthly conversation for senior leaders.

One room. No agenda. The right people.

→ Day: Thursday - 8th July
→ Time: 5 pm CET

If the gap between knowing what to do and actually doing it under pressure is something your team lives with — this is the conversation to be in.

REGISTER HERE

We talk a lot about alignment, speed, and decisions that stick. But we rarely talk about what actually makes them possible.

I’ve been in enough strategy sessions to know that the problem is rarely the strategy.

The slide decks are good. The data is solid. The people in the room are smart. And yet, at the end of the day, something isn’t moving.

Not because the plan is wrong. But because there isn’t enough trust in the room to execute it

I’ve seen it happen in leadership teams that have worked together for years. People who are technically aligned but not really aligned. Decisions that get made in the room and quietly revisited in the corridor.

“The real gap is rarely information. It’s the quality of the relationship between the people who have to act on it.”

When you put a leadership team in motion, genuinely in motion, not a ropes course, not a keynote, something happens that is very difficult to manufacture any other way. Hierarchy softens. People stop performing and start talking.

At Garda Shift 2026, we brought together a group of senior leaders for three days in northern Italy. No keynote speakers. No structured exercises. Just the right people, the right environment, and enough space to let things happen.

» Check out the Garda Shift 2026 - 3-day experience for C-Suites & Investors for M2Digital «

These aren’t outcomes we designed. They’re what happens when you get the conditions right.

Because the ROI of trust isn’t abstract. It shows up in how fast a team moves after a decision is made. Whether a partnership gets built or just gets discussed. The difference between a leadership team that executes and one that endlessly realigns.

“Better decisions don’t come from more data. They come from having enough trust between people to actually move forward.”

If that gap exists in your team right now — and most leadership teams I talk to will quietly admit it does — I'd love to show you what's possible.

Renata
Founder, Rekonnekt

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We were somewhere on a trail, about two hours in. He slowed down and me too. He didn’t ask me to, I just did. And we walked together for a few kilometres, slower than everyone else, talking about nothing important at first.

Then about everything important.

His kids. My first business. His first business. My vision. His vision. Why had I moved countries again… He had moved more than 20 times, and I thought 3 was too many …!

The hard years. The moments when we both almost stopped. By the time we got back, I didn’t know his title anymore. I just knew him.

The meeting the following month was easier to schedule. The conversation was easier, too. Not because I knew his personal story, but because I knew we were both just trying. Carrying things. Figuring it out. When the business conversation came, it came naturally. What he had, I needed. What I had, he needed.

We closed. It was easy. That’s how I got the first person to invest in Rekonnekt. That’s when I understood what Rekonnekt was really building.

Not events. Not networking. Not leadership development with a view.

The conditions for that walk … and conversation to happen.

And this is why I had decided to start a Substack…

Substack is for conversation. And what we’re building at Rekonnekt is fundamentally about conversation, the kind that only happens when hierarchy softens, when people stop performing, when there’s enough space to be honest.

So this is where I’ll bring that thinking. Once a month.

I’ll write about connection, communication and what it actually takes to build something with people, not just alongside them.

I’ll bring in voices I trust: people thinking seriously about human performance, business, mindset and what technology is costing us without us noticing.

And I’ll bring you closer to what we’re building, the Live Events, the Fireside Chats, the moments where business gets done because something human happened first.

If you’re here in your personal hat or your corporate one, both are welcome.
This will be useful either way.

One question before the next issue: What would you most want to understand better? About connection, leadership, trust or building something that actually means something.

Let’s walk…

Renata
Founder, Rekonnekt

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