Hello beautiful soul
As this year comes to a close and the holiday season is upon us, I want to end it not with a strategy, not with a call to action, but with a feeling.
(Side note: I know you have BIG feelings like I do, or you wouldn't be here 🙃)
Because leadership — real leadership — always begins in the body.
But we have been taught to disconnect from HER almost from birth, our precious, beautiful body. Our sacred, holy, miraculous body.
For many women though, the body is where we first remember something radical: that we don’t always have to hold, push, or carry. Sometimes she wakes us up by force, sometimes it's just a deep knowing that something is off.
Last week, I had the joy of bringing some of the Women Who Lead Sisterhood together in London.
Different lives. Different careers. Different seasons.
And yet… the same deep, unmistakable knowing.
There is nothing like it.
The moment women come together without performance. Without armour. Without comparison.
Just truth. Presence. Recognition.
Sometimes leadership simply looks like learning how to receive.
One of the women in Sisterhood Two, the brilliant Liv Bennett, captured that feeling perfectly. She wrote this at the end of our final session for the year, and with her permission, I want to share it with you here:
There’s nothing like it.
The feeling of being seen and heard by another woman.To feel your lip quiver, the tenderness of a woman, eyes glistening, staring back at you.
A pained smile spreads across her lips, in knowing.
In a shared pain that is unspoken but felt so deeply in the space between you.Women together.
The alchemy of softness and strength co-existing.
The world makes us believe to be one, we must sacrifice another.
But it’s a lie.Women backing women.
She has the emotional capacity to truly sit with what you’re carrying.
Not because she’s the same, but because she knows.
She’s not afraid.The depth of your feelings don’t make her recoil or disconnect.
But lean in more deeply.For a moment, you’re held.
Letting yourself unfurl.
Shoulders drop.
Breath exhales.We’re sisters. Unrelated but deeply connected.
No competition here.
No fear of who is better, more capable, more beautiful, more put together.
Not an ounce of judgement for who is falling apart.We come as we are. We back each other.
In seeing her shine, it reminds me I can too.
When she takes up space, I remember there’s enough space for us all.-Liv Bennett, VP People and member of Sisterhood Two
Let that land. Isn't it beautiful?
Do you see it yet...? THAT is truth of leadership.
Not dominance.
Not perfection.
Not having it all figured out.
But sovereignty. Emotional truth. The courage to be fully yourself — and to let other women do the same.
At the start of this year, I took a risk.
I went all in on what I believed women actually needed.
Not more tactics.
Not more performance.
Not another version of leadership that asks us to contort ourselves to fit systems that were never built for us.
But a return to BIG T T-RUTH.
To our cyclicality.
To our bodies.
To our intuition.
To the deep, quiet authority that comes from knowing who you are and standing there unapologetically.
Because my darling, the ACTUAL truth of women is straight up GANGSTER.
I chose to build spaces rooted in sovereignty — where women could stop outsourcing their power, stop second-guessing themselves, and start leading from alignment instead of exhaustion.
And watching the Sisterhood I have created through Women Who Lead this year — in Zoom rooms, in WhatsApp threads, in quiet breakthroughs, and now in real-life hugs — has been one of the greatest honours of my life.
This work works because women work.
When we stop competing.
When we stop shrinking.
When we stop pretending we’re fine.
When we remember that leadership doesn’t mean hardening — it means holding.
This year has been a glow-up for the women I have had the pleasyre to work with. Not the glossy kind. The real kind.
The kind where you shed skins, tell the truth, and choose yourself — again and again.
And maybe the next edge isn’t more effort. Maybe it’s receiving.
Letting support, opportunity, and Sisterhood meet you where you are.
Women are exceptional givers. Next year, we become powerful receivers too.
And from there...?
Deeper.
Bolder.
More embodied.
More sovereign.
More women leading on their own terms.
Thank you for being here. For reading. For feeling. For choosing to stay awake in a world that benefits from our numbness and erases our HERstory and sovereignty.
Wherever you’re closing this year from, I hope you feel this:
You are not alone.
You are not behind.
And there is so much more possible than you’ve been taught to believe.
As a beloved member of this newsletter community, you will have exclusive access to join the waitlist for Women Who Lead: Sisterhood Three. It opens early January and we start in February 2026.
So here’s to the women we’ve BEEN.
The women we ARE.
And the women we are BECOMING.
I am so proud of us, and I’ll be right here by your side in 2026, ready to guide you as you step into the most powerful and aligned version of you yet.
Happy holidays — or HOLY days. I try to live as if each day is sacred, and this season feels like a gentle invitation to remember that.
Live your life like it is holy. For that is exactly what you are.
Rooting for you always
Ruth x
Ps. Did you review your year yet my darling? Here's what Chief People Officer Kelly Hartman said about the Bloom in 2026 review she did, and the London Sisterhood meeting she attending recently:
Attending Ruth’s Sisterhood workshop was honestly a turning point for me. She holds a non‑judgemental, deeply encouraging and genuinely safe space, and has an extraordinary ability to help you name what you’re really drawn to. In my case, the word that emerged for 2026 was “unbounded”. Through her intention‑setting and visualisation tool, something shifted quickly: within a week I had four interviews, all far more aligned to who I am and what I want next.
What are you waiting for? Have a go here and tell me what your word is for 2026 ❤️🔥
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