Lead With Love

Hello and welcome to the eighth edition of The Ferocity Letter, a softly fierce Sunday note for visionary women—and everyone who supports them.

My mission is to empower you to trust your intuition and communicate with presence, clarity, and resonance.

Every other week, I share field notes, practices, and words from women.

This week’s letter is on speaking with courage in charged moments, when staying silent feels safer.

If you are weighing how to respond to the fatal shootings of U.S. citizens by federal agents in Minnesota — or any situation that is politically or emotionally charged — consider this permission to connect with your heart before you choose what to say.

This is part of what it means to be fierce.

I have been watching for the women leaders speaking out following the deaths of Alex Pretti and Renée Nicole Good—eerily few outside of politics are saying anything yet.

• Melinda French Gates, Founder of Pivotal Ventures, shared a strong statement earlier this week.1

• Three Fortune 500 female CEOs—Beth Ford, CEO of Land O’Lakes; Corie Barry, CEO of Best Buy; Dana Erickson, CEO of Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Minnesota; and Gunjan Kedia, CEO of U.S. Bancorp—are among the 60 signatories on a letter released by the Minnesota Chamber of Commerce2 that calls for an immediate deescalation of tensions.

• Celebrities Jamie Lee Curtis, Glenn Close, Natalie Portman, Kerry Washington, Cynthia Nixon, Martha Stewart, The Chicks, Mandy Moore, Billie Eilish, Hannah Einbender, Olivia Rodrigo and others are also speaking out.3

I know that speaking truth — especially speaking truth to power — requires courage because those who do not want the truth revealed will inevitably criticize those who tell it, or worse.

One of the gifts my dad gave me while he was still alive is this bit of hard wisdom, wrapped in a call to stay brave:

“Keep telling the truth. You’ll be punished for it, of course. Tell it anyway.”

Attitude changes how the very muscles in our bodies respond to a situation. We become stronger or weaker based on our emotional state.

David R. Hawkins, M.D., Ph.D, captured this in his work and book Power vs. Force: The Hidden Determinants of Human Behavior4. Based on 25 years of clinical kinesiological muscle testing and the correlation of muscular responses to different attitudes, thoughts and feelings, he created a Map of Consciousness.

This matters because while leadership communication is partly cognitive, it is also physiological. People are going to register what you say in their bodies.

Hawkins’ Map of Consciousness defines a range of attitudes and values along a scale of 1 to 1,000. At the bottom of the scale are shame, fear, hate, anger, blame, despair, retribution and humiliation—these attitudes cause muscles in the human body to weaken. On the top of the scale are hope, meaning, forgiveness, optimism, trust, love, reverence, joy and enlightenment—these attitudes cause muscles in the human body to respond with strength.

The map is divided in two: upper values reflect power while lower values reflect force. Power is self-sustaining, effortless and constructive. Force is coercive, temporary, and requires constant energy to maintain.

And this is the cool part: There is a single attitude that sits in the middle of this map, where we shift from a state that requires force to a state that inhabits power — where we move from weakness to strength. It is the attitude of courage.

The root of the word courage is the Latin word cor, which means heart.

Especially if you are a business leader, discernment matters.

The public statements you make have to be well considered and pragmatic. The risk of publicly saying whatever is on your mind in the heat of a moment can be outsized. I believe this is part of why so many business leaders have been silent—at least publicly. Fear looms large. A lot is at stake. If this is you, partnering with experienced crisis communications experts can be invaluable.

Global Gateway Advisors just published a helpful newsletter with practical advice for executives and corporate teams who are considering whether and how to speak out. You can read their insights in “Is corporate activism back?”, including these five questions to help guide clear communications decisions:

1. Do we have relevant authority?

2. Is there an impact on our employees or operations?

3. Does this align to our organization’s mission or values?

4. Would our customers expect us to respond?

5. Are we willing to commit to an action?5

To be effective, communication in this moment requires clarity and courage. Without courage, even a clear message falls flat and feels weak. And while expert advisors bring helpful structure, insight, and discipline to moments like this, strong leadership requires one more ingredient—and it is something no framework can provide for you.

That ingredient is love.

Human, squishy, vulnerable, and yet stronger than any force we know.

You lead people, and people are human. We feel. We tend to make important decisions and act with our hearts first. Our brains follow along later.

As you craft your statements, talking points, remarks and social media posts, remember this. Show us you are human. Show us you see what is happening. Show us you have principles and will speak up when they are violated—and share your vision too. Inspire us. Encourage us. Strengthen us.

Holding love and pragmatism is a bit like putting on and taking off a pair of rose-colored glasses, again and again.

You take them off so that you can see the risks. So that you can see what you are up against. So you can see the terrain. So you can see what is unethical, immoral, and wrong—and what is righteous, good, and true.

Then, you put the glasses go back on so that you can see your people—and all of humanity—through the eyes of love. This is the only lens through which one can truly lead.

1. WRITE.

   Handwrite a love letter to the people you impact. Do it today! This is not a letter that needs to be read by anyone but you, so be candid. Avoid keyboards and dictation if you can. A very real thing happens when we get out of our heads and into our bodies to communicate. Writing a letter by hand slows down our thinking and we become more present to the heart of the matter. So write by hand. Be messy. Sloppy, even. Be human. Dear fellow citizens, …

2. NAME.

   In your letter, name:

   -What you see happening—what is right and what is wrong?

   -Your values—what principles guide you?

   -Your vision for the future.

   -What you feel about about the actions being carried out by ICE.

   -What you feel about Americans and immigrants who have lost their lives.

   -How this affects the people you lead and serve.

   -What you know to be true.

   -What you believe we must do.

3. INTEGRATE.

   -Take a breather. Put the letter away and go outside. Move your body. Shift your focus. Let what you wrote settle.

   -Come back to your words. Make sure anything your communications team writes for you—or works with you to edit—reflects and embraces the values, principles and calls to action that align with your heart before it is made public.

   -Trust your ferocity. Remember, we are defining ferocity as a deep, directed, transformative energy that is neither reckless nor hostile, but rooted in clarity and care. It is the power to disrupt what harms, protect what matters, and shape what comes next.

This week, I was inspired by a mix of voices—some responding directly to what has happened in Minnesota, and others commenting more generally on the power of leading with love. Take note as you consider what your message might be. I look forward to hearing your voice among the chorus.

1. MELINDA GATES, Founder of Pivotal Ventures

“The deaths of Renée Nicole Good and Alex Pretti are unconscionable and weighing heavily on so many of our hearts.

Over recent weeks, in Minneapolis and other communities across the country, we have seen neighbors standing up for each other with courage, compassion, and solidarity.

No one in the United States should ever have to fear losing their life for taking peaceful, principled action in support of their beliefs.

Our country is not our government—our country is us, we the people. For 250 years, we have been bound together by bedrock values, the rule of law, and inalienable rights.

There is nothing more American than exercising our rights and holding our government accountable. Our democracy depends on it.”6

2. KAYLA SCHULTZ, Resident of Minneapolis and eye witness to the shooting of Alex Pretti

“They want us to be afraid of them. They want us to be scared, intimidated into silence. I can lose my safety. I can lose security. They can take everything away from me, but they can’t take my voice.

They want us to be intimidated. They escalate in every single way. If they are not able to use that fear in order to intimidate us into backing down, they escalate, and that’s exactly what happened to Alex.

He did not let them intimidate him. In fact, he stood up for two women that they were absolutely brutalizing, and that made them mad that they were not able to intimidate him into tucking his tail and leaving.

One moment, there are people being pushed around. There are people being maced right in front of me. The next thing I know, it’s gunshots. It’s so many gunshots, I couldn’t believe it. I really have barely a recollection of the moments immediately after, other than just the feeling of absolute horror and also rage that it escalated like this. They backed up, and I was sure he was dead.

I think it’s so important. Now is not the time to stay silent in this, for anyone at all.”7

3. AYANNA PRESLEY, U.S. Member of Congress

“Minnesota is writing the blueprint for radical love and community response. Everyday people showing up for each other, rejecting hate, and demonstrating what's possible when we stand up for our neighbors.”8

4. JASMINE BINA, Brand Strategist and Cultural Futurist, CEO of Concept Bureau

“When I work with human rights orgs, they all want “awareness, awareness, awareness”!! But look around. Nobody is starved for information. We are starved for empathy. Awareness assumes people act from their brains, when we all know they act from their hearts.”9

5. CHRISTINE LAGARDE, President of the European Central Bank

“One thing that I have done in the course of my life, which I have never regretted, was to take risk. I see too many people who are risk averse, who are going to calculate, who are going to participate, who are going to plan, who are going to strategize, who are going to weigh the cost and the benefits and the pluses and the minus. And there are times in your life when you just have to look at the face of it, how you feel about it, who are the people who you're going to do it with? And then, you just take your risk. Don't over calculate, don't over strategize.

And the last thing that I'll say, and I fundamentally believe in this, is: Rely on love. Give love. Receive love. It will build your confidence, and it will give confidence to others. I know it sounds a bit bizarre for President of Central Bank to talk about love, but if I had not had love in the way I have received it and given it, I wouldn't be where I am, I can assure you.”10

When women trust their ferocity, they remake the world.

And when we choose to lead with love—clear and courageous—our words carry power that does not need force.

Thank you for reading The Ferocity Letter.

I write these words to encourage and empower you—and because I need them, too.

May this letter land as an invitation to connect with your heart before you choose what to say.

And if you are trying to figure out how to ground your message in empathy and human connection, I’d be glad to support you.

Until next time, trust your ferocity.

— Laura

Laura Lowery is an advisor to visionary women. A communications strategist, writer, and founder of Light Advisors—she partners with purpose-driven leaders at threshold moments to give voice to your vision, elevate your presence, and empower you to communicate with clarity and resonance. Learn more: lightadvisors.co