I published an essay yesterday.

And then I recorded this.

Not because the essay needed explaining. But because there’s always a part that doesn’t make the final draft… the part that happens in the parking lot after, when the composure is still on but the performance is off.

That’s what this field note is.

The essay is called The Root System.

The short version: I finally said out loud, in public, that everything I teach about selling (the trust-first framework, the refusal to use urgency, the reciprocity model) doesn’t come from a coaching philosophy I developed.

It comes from being Cherokee.

I’ve been presenting the branches for three years.

This week I named the root.

In this field note, I talk about:

* What “strategically tolerable” looks like when you apply it to the most load-bearing part of your identity

* The blind spot audit that finally named what I’d been doing

* What it feels like the day after you say the true thing. And how your nervous system tells you whether it was right

It’s about 4 minutes.

No slides. No framework. Just a voice memo from the day after.

If you haven’t read the essay yet, start there.

Then come back and listen to this.

They’re meant to be read and heard together. Not because one explains the other, but because they’re two different registers of the same truth.

And if something in either piece names something you’ve been keeping quiet about your own work, I’d be glad to hear from you.

DM me. Real human. No funnel.

Just a conversation.

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Why I Finally Named the Root System