Leadership Takes Reps

Reader,

🎧🎧 Listen to Sunday Sunshine HERE 🎧🎧

I read recently…

Writers write.

Builders build.

Leaders lead.

When I first started writing Sunday Sunshine — and later, my book — I didn’t think I could become a writer.

Sure, I could craft a good email. But a writer? That felt like a stretch.

Everything I read said the same thing:

Writers write every day.
You build a practice.
You earn the identity through repetition. That's how you become a writer.

It was intimidating at first. Then it freed me. Because it meant I didn’t have to be a writer.

I simply had to write.

So I started with morning pages. Messy. Unfiltered. No audience.

One page became a few.
A few became Sunday Sunshine.
Sunday Sunshine became a book.

Not because I felt qualified. I just kept showing up for the writing reps.

I stopped asking if it was good.
I just did the reps.

The muscle came first.
Tone, style, voice — they followed.

The reps gave me everything.

And when I read that line again —

Writers write.
Builders build.
Leaders lead.

I started thinking…

If leadership works the same way, what are the reps for leaders?

We understand practice when it comes to craft.

A musician rehearses.
An athlete trains.
A writer writes.

But leaders?

We treat leadership like a title, yes. Or a job description. Not a practice.

So we confuse leadership with:

answering emails
solving problems
sitting in meetings
running from one obligation to the next

That's not leadership. That’s maintenance. That’s reacting.

Leadership is ...
shaped.
intentional.
practiced. Daily.

Because leadership — like strength, like confidence, like character — doesn’t appear on demand.

It’s built through repetition. Through small choices no one sees.

So here’s a question:

What are your leadership reps?

Not the tasks you check off.
Not the fires you put out.

But the moments that grow you-- your tone, voice, point of view, what you are known for.

How you think.
How you listen.
How you show up in a hard conversation.
How you influence without forcing.
How you model the energy you want others to bring.

If it isn’t defined, it doesn’t get developed.

And if it doesn’t get developed, it doesn’t compound.

Most leaders never decide who they want to be.

So they default to busy. And busy rarely builds influence. Busy builds exhaustion.

Leaders aren’t born.

They’re built.

One rep at a time.

This week, before your calendar fills itself, pause and ask:

👉 What are my leadership reps?

Maybe it’s 10 minutes of reflection before the day starts.
Maybe it’s one brave conversation you’ve been avoiding.
Maybe it’s choosing presence over speed.

Maybe it’s envisioning a future that others can’t see.
Maybe it’s mentoring someone with no immediate ROI.

Small reps. Done consistently.

That’s how identity forms. That's how trust grows. That’s how influence grows. That’s how leaders are built.

Not in the big moments. In the quiet ones no one sees.

Lead yourself well this week.

Before the meetings.
Before the noise.
Before the world asks anything from you.

And remember when the pressure hits -- because it will -- remember...

Pressure doesn’t decide.

You Do.

I had the good fortune to be a guest on Sharing Wisdom with Angie. We delve into the fears that hold people back from pursuing their goals, the significance of setting audacious goals, and the power of agency in shaping one's life. Listen for a boost in front of your week.

If you want to create a more intentional leadership practice for yourself, 1:1 or for your team, with a workshop or a keynote at your next conference, to move people from insight to action. Just hit reply.

With so much possibility!