Laura Distin

Has cancer touched your life or someone you love?

As a Student Visionary Candidate, our daughter has been working to raise funds for Blood Cancer United, and she is just short of reaching her fundraising goal. Watching her step outside her comfort zone to advocate for families affected by blood cancers has been incredibly meaningful for our family.

I would love to show her what happens when people come together — when a community shows up united for something bigger than themselves.

If you’ve been impacted by cancer in any way and feel moved to help, we would be deeply grateful for your support today. Every contribution brings her one step closer to her goal and helps fund critical support and research for those affected.

👉 https://pages.lls.org/svoy/ga/svoyatlanta26/pdistin

Thank you for helping us show her the power of people showing up for one another.

Phoebe's Student Visionaries of the Year Fundraiser Visionaries look to the future—and see infinite possibility. They challenge the status quo—and make the impossible possible. They boldly imagine a better world – and lead the charge to create it. Blood Cancer United was built on that same vision - of a better world - one without blood cancers....

Leadership isn’t tested when things go right — it’s revealed in how we respond when they don’t.

Watching the Stranger Things documentary last night, one moment stood out. A set wasn’t working the way it was designed. On camera, it just didn’t look right. Shawn Levy, the director, acknowledged he could have reacted emotionally, but instead moved calmly into problem-solving — adjusting in-camera and relying on post-production where needed — because his job is to ensure the audience never sees the mistake.

That’s leadership in action. Not because nothing went wrong, but because of how he managed himself — and, in turn, the system and its people.

This is emotional fluency:

• Steadying the system when things wobble
• Creating space for others to do their best work
• Absorbing disruption so the customer or client never misses a beat

Watching Shawn Levy absorb disruption on set reinforced this idea: leadership is not about reacting to every imperfection. It’s about holding the narrative, steadying the system, and keeping the audience engaged — inside the company and out.

(Pictures I took during our road trip to Hawkins, I mean, Jackson, Georgia 😉)

Trust is the new first handshake. ✨
The brands that win in 2026 will be the ones people trust first.
Link in my bio to read my full story about why connection, not selling, is the new strategy.

Marketing explains. Storytelling connects.

Link in my bio, and in my story, for this Part 1 of 2 blog series to get you thinking differently in 2026.

I’m a pop culture fan so naturally I am a fan of this show. Of course I watched the Stranger Things finale yesterday midday in a packed theater with my family, and honestly—it was a moment. Go to the link in my bio or in my stories to find out what I thought of it.

This life is but a v***r. Don’t miss out on yours because you were too concerned about the noise. When you wake up and instead of saying “one more day,” you say “one day less,” your mindset and to-do list shift.

One change. Change it.

Yesterday, I was watching the Brooks XC Championships with our family of runners.

Near the end of the race, one athlete made her move — the final trip up the hill. She broke away from second and third place, held her form, sustained her pace, and never looked back.

Afterward, one of the announcers summed it up perfectly:

“Win the hill, win the race.”

That line stuck with me.
Because the hill is rarely the glamorous part.
It’s where legs burn.
Where doubt creeps in.
Where momentum is hardest to maintain.

And in work and in life, the “hill” looks a lot like:
The tough conversation you don’t want to have
The unsexy, behind-the-scenes work no one applauds
The moment when quitting would be easier than staying steady

Anyone can look strong on the flat.
Resilience is built on the incline.
Winning the hill doesn’t mean sprinting.
It means keeping your form when it hurts.
Trusting your training.
And committing to forward progress when the outcome isn’t guaranteed yet.

That’s how races are won.
That’s how careers are built.
That’s when lives are changed.
One hill at a time.


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