The Intentional Power of Building with a Trusted Circle
Why building and reflecting with deeply trusted colleagues has an amazing compound effect.
“Anybody with artistic ambitions is always trying to reconnect with the way they saw things as a child.” ~ Tim Burton, filmmaker
Cups of morning coffee clanked down onto the table of the conference room. Backpacks dropped down on adjacent chairs, followed by the simultaneous “we made it” exhale sigh sounds as laptops were placed to the side. A meeting room monitor hummed at us awaiting the magic of some sort of Bluetooth-like connection to be made and the promise of two large whiteboards beckoned for scribbling.
There is something to be said about reconnecting with a long-time colleague and friend, after not seeing them for several years. Video calls can’t compare to the anticipation of catching upon on life — the wins, the challenges and the new ideas. We both were highly visible early social media voices — each with a blog tackling fresh thinking and system change in our respective fields. I was writing on the crossroads of innovation, digital strategy and population health, while he was capturing the changing tides of philanthropy and the social impact sector with a similar lens on innovation. It was indeed a golden era.
Today we were meeting up at a coworking space to see each other (after probably 7+ years from the last time), catch up and collaborate on how we showed up next in our careers. As pioneering voices and changemakers in the business of making the world a better place, we were ridiculously happy to not just reconnect but to create purposeful realignment. This was going to be 2 days of vulnerability, honesty, strategy and hopefully clarity wrapped in mutual trust and respect. That last part around trust and respect can usually only be honed through time and intentional relationship building — now we were positioned to hit the gas on things that really mattered.
That Familiar Groove
By the second hour, something clicked. The rhythm of our exchange felt like the early days of our blogs — when ideas were raw, scrappy, and full of conviction. We started mapping not just projects, but patterns. What themes had been constant in our work over the years? What values had quietly guided our decisions — even the detours? Who were we then versus who were right now?
That’s the thing about long-term colleagues who’ve walked parallel paths: they’ve seen your seasons. They remember the version of you who started before the titles and those incredible speaking invitations, and in our case, before “ecosystem building” and “impact investing” became buzzwords. That shared history gives permission to skip the performance and go straight to the truth about what comes next.
In that coworking space, we weren’t pitching or posturing. We were remembering, aligning and rebuilding.
The Trusted Transition
As leaders focused on systems change and impact, we are usually in a perpetual state of transition and growing. Whether that is in the role we’re currently in, being on the job hunt or even making decisions to grow our networks, leadership capabilities or into a new sector of impact. Periods of transition/growth often feel like free fall. You’ve left one set of identities behind but haven’t quite landed in the next. In those moments, having a trusted circle isn’t just helpful — it’s essential. This is a core aspect of being an intentional innovator. You take the time to think about how to leverage your body of work — nothing starts from scratch at this point for you.
As I’ve touched on before, a trusted circle is different from your professional network. Networks help you find opportunities. Trusted circles help you find clarity. They’re the people who know the through-line in your story — even when you’ve possibly forgotten it yourself.
As we both talked in that conference room, we realized we weren’t just defining our next roles; we were refining our next eras. This time, deeply focused on bringing our authentic selves to the table. Our mutual relationships, our ability to break things down and our often-buried creativity. Our conversation turned from job titles to purpose statements, from what we wanted to do to how we wanted to create with intention. That kind of exploration only happens when safety and respect are already baked into the relationship.
The Layers of Relationship
Strong ecosystems depend on multilayered relationships — connections that evolve with you. Some people first meet you as a collaborator, later become co-conspirators, and eventually turn into the kind of friends who text you just to say, “Still rooting for you.”
Those layers matter. They let you show up not just as a professional operator, but as a full human navigating seasons of growth and uncertainty. When trust is built over time, you can share unfinished ideas without fear they’ll be judged as unpolished. You can admit when you’re tired, or when you’re ready to dream bigger again.
We often talk about innovation as the process of building new things. But sometimes the most transformative innovation happens when we rebuild old connections with new clarity.
Leaving that coworking space, I felt the same kind of creative exhaustion that comes after a good studio session — the kind that signals something meaningful is taking shape. Not only did we find some clarity on our next steps, we deepened our ability to be in each other’s corner. It was about remembering how good it feels to be in sync with someone who’s been walking beside you — quietly, consistently — across the years.
If you’re in a season of transition or growth, consider this a gentle nudge to reconnect with the people who know your work and your why. Those who have seen your evolution are often the ones best equipped to help you see what comes next.
As you navigate your own season of building or recalibrating, take a few moments this week to reflect on the relationships that can anchor and accelerate your next era:
Who in your circle truly understands both your work and your “why”?
What kind of conversations leave you feeling more aligned than accomplished?
If you invited someone into your next era of building, what shared history or trust would make that collaboration feel effortless?
Was this helpful? Let me know in the comments!
It has taken me a bit, a few re-reads, to reach this point…the point where I feel like I can articulate (somewhat) the impact of this post and more importantly the impact of our time together. Certainly, greater clarity and the additional layer of having a committed accountability partner. The critical importance of having a circle when you are in a transitional, rebirthing season (and all times, really) cannot be more crucial. Thank you for an awesome few days and here's to the beautifully emergent future ahead of us.
This article was a difficult read, but I grasped the concept. Do you speak like this in real life? I tend to write and then ask Ai to break down my words to a twelfth-grade level to make my words more aligned to a larger audience. I wonder what it would be like to be one of those close friends of yours sitting with a cup of chai, and chatting about life and work? Would I need to work as hard to understand what you're saying? :-) Maybe I should have completed that final semester of college. :-)