Dear Friend,

My word for this year is FAITH. Not faith in a religious sense, as blind optimism, or as toxic positivity. But faith as a practice of expansion, imagination, and believing, often without immediately apparent proof or evidence that it's "worth" it.

There are lots of reasons NOT to have faith right now, and tons of evidence that could cause us to stop believing. And yet, faith is still where I'm still landing. Because it feels like an antidote, a medicine, and a balm. Faith, in 2026, feels like a radical act. It also happens to be my middle name (#truestory).

So far this year, I've noticed a collective leaning towards contraction.

Narrow your scope.
Do less.
Say no.
Get safer.
Hold on tighter.
Close the doors.
Be urgent.
Be more realistic.
Niche down.

And while discernment, boundaries, and specificity matter, I don't believe that this is a moment for disappearing, and I'm feeling deeply suspicious of anything (messages, stories, strategies, advice, or systems) that asks people or organizations to make themselves smaller right now.

I believe in my bones that this is a moment for opening our arms and hearts to possibility and expansion.

I want to be clear, scarcity in this moment is real (you can listen to me riff about it on this week's ChatGMB episode)​

Many individuals, teams, and organizations are facing really scary constraints on money, time, energy, staffing, well-being, and capacity. I see this playing out with my clients and in my communities every day. Ignoring it helps no one.

And...many of us are also trapped in continuous, pervasive, and often self-perpetuating starvation cycles. And this is dangerous not only in terms of mindset but also in our ability to realize our individual and collective missions.

When scarcity becomes the dominant story (especially when it's repeated without examination), we start to believe:

• "This is how it always will be."
• "We can't try anything new."
• "We don't have enough to [insert necessary action here]."
• "We'll do it later / when things get better / after we get funding."

Over time, these stories shrink our imaginations, dull our courage, and erode our well-being. And even worse? We stop seeing and trusting the resources that DO exist.

For me, faith is the decision to interrupt this cycle.

Here are a few places I see people, teams, and organizations making themselves smaller, with some hopefully helpful examples of what expansion might look like instead:

I see individuals shrinking by...​
Staying silent. Playing small. Self-censorship. Lowering expectations. Suppressing emotions. Hoarding energy. Self-blame. Thinking inside the box. Holding back great ideas. Waiting for permission or certainty. Not chasing the dream. Ghosting. Coddling. Letting important things go.

Opportunities for expansion might include...
​Naming what you need. Asking better, more honest questions. Practicing boundaries that protect your energy and your impact. Investing in your growth. Learning by doing. Believing in yourself (for real). Taking time off (for real). Just doing the damn thing.

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I see teams shrinking by...​
Avoiding feedback, conflict, or hard conversations. Defaulting to “we don’t have enough for this.” Confusing harmony with health. Letting ambiguity linger. Accepting the status quo. Keeping relationships transactional. Treating differences as a risk.

Opportunities for expansion might include...​
Working through conflict. Making the implicit explicit. Building trust. Making the table bigger and leveraging diverse perspectives. Creating opportunities for processing, storytelling, and sense-making. Questioning decision rights and authority structures that don't serve us. Being curious. Believing in each other (for real). Taking care of each other (for real).

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I see organizations shrinking by...​
Over-niching. Freezing innovation. Cutting professional development. Saying no to learning, care, change, or capacity-building. Treating people like costs instead of core infrastructure. Defining success too narrowly. Changing their website language out of fear. Hoarding resources or knowledge.

Opportunities for expansion might include: Investing in trust, leadership, and culture. Reimagining professional development. Partnering instead of competing. Trying new models. Saying "no" to non-values-aligned opportunities or resources. Sharing. Listening to communities. Gathering in community with an intention of listening and connecting. Building spaciousness and curiosity into systems and processes.

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Of course, specificity matters. Focus matters. Limits matter. Keeping ourselves safe and alive matters.
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​But I believe we need to reject advice and compulsions that put us into corners so tight we can no longer respond to the real needs of the world.

This is where faith comes in.

Hope is wishing things will get better.
​Trust is believing someone (or something) will come through.
​Faith is acting as if we already have what we need to take the next right step.

And WE DO. WE DO. WE DO.

Faith doesn’t deny reality or ignore real scarcity. Faith says:

"We can acknowledge what’s hard without letting it run the show."

"We have so much, even when the powers that be want us to believe that we have so little."

"We are going to choose expansion and faith over contraction and fear."

"We are going to choose to invest/dream/connect/innovate/love 'in here' despite (and often in spite of) whatever is happening 'out there'."

This is powerful stuff, and I invite you to listen to faith and choose expansion with me.
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If this resonates, and you could use a thought partner, guide, or co-conspirator, I’m here...

• Helping teams move out of perceived starvation cycles and into sustainable capacity with what is available
• Supporting leaders to build trust, work through conflict, and practice compassionate accountability
• Designing people and culture strategies that don’t rely on martyrdom or making ourselves small
• Building communities where humans feel like they belong and are connected to something bigger than themselves
• Creating spaces for learning, healing, connection, and imagination

If any of this feels like what you need (YES, EVEN IF BUDGETS ARE TIGHT), please reach out.

But otherwise, stay tuned for more information soon about ways I'm choosing to put my faith in action, including:

• A new mutual aid professional development initiative, designed to increase access to high-quality PD to financially underresourced teams and organizations.
• Upcoming and free People & Culture Circles for sharing ideas, partnering, and experimenting with new ways of thinking in financially resource-scarce environments.
• A new platform for Conflict & Repair work, because we need it now more than ever.

For now, here are five questions I hope you will consider and maybe bring to your next team meeting:

1. What's one small way I/we can invest rather than retreat?
2. Where do I/we actually have more agency or resources than we think (or are told)?
3. What would it look like to lead/live/work with faith over fear?
4. What am I/we being asked to protect, and what might we be being invited to expand?
5. If we trusted that we are not meant to do this alone, who or what might we reach toward?

Please know that we don’t need a five-year plan or a forever runway. We just need enough faith and courage to take the next right step on the path we're on with the resources we have. And that’s how we collectively change the world.

With faith, courage, and open arms always,
Marissa

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