For a long time, every time I heard the word “scaling,” my body tightened.
Push, push, push. Grow, grow, grow. Go, go, go. That very strong, borderline toxic energy of you must scale the thing because it’s growing.
Then I sat down to interview a man, a serial entrepreneur who has built and sold several companies from scratch, and now works as a fractional CTO and CFO for companies scaling to 20 million, 100 million, and beyond.
When he spoke about scaling, his body didn’t tighten. His language was soft, alive, vibrant.
He described growth as a seed in the earth that needs the right environment to sprout into an oak tree.
And then he said something I haven’t been able to stop thinking about...
“Celinne, you can’t pull growth. You can’t reach down into the seed and pull it out into a tree. You can only create the conditions for that growth to happen. And the better the conditions, the faster and easier it will become.”
It was such a different way of seeing what I’d been hearing my whole career.
Because the reason most high-achieving leaders I know are exhausted isn’t because they aren’t doing enough. It’s because they’ve been trying to pull a tree out of a seed for years. Pulling at their business, their relationships, and themselves to be more, do more, become more. Faster, harder, sooner.
And the result is the same as it would be in nature: the thing either dies, or it grows in spite of you... Rarely because of it.
The leaders I watch scale with grace, in their work and in their lives, aren’t pushing harder than everyone else. They’re paying attention to what their ecosystem actually needs. They’re asking a different question.
I wrote a full piece breaking this down on Substack, and recorded the audio training that walks through the actual conditions, the specific question to ask yourself when you notice you’re pulling, and what shifts when you stop, inside my Living From Soul membership.
💎 Listen the full piece on Substack. Link in bio.
You know what you want to say. The question is why it doesn't come out that way when it actually matters — in the room, under pressure, at the highest stakes. This masterclass names what's actually in the way and gives you three principles to close the gap. Perfect for leaders ready to reclaim their voice and speak powerfully in any room.