06/17/2026
Grateful for another powerful Leadership Lunch Series gathering.
We had the privilege of hearing from Gabe Sherman, former Chief of Staff at NASA and one of the key leaders behind standing up the Artemis program, and the message cut straight to the core of what leadership actually requires before anything else: trust, vision, and presence.
Gabe walked into NASA in 2018 with no Artemis program — only the pieces of canceled initiatives and teams who had watched vision after vision come and go. What he shared about rebuilding from that place was some of the most practical leadership insight I've heard.
A few takeaways that stood out:
• People rarely resist change because they hate the future. They resist because of wounds from the past.
• People don't unite around tasks. They unite around purpose.
• Strategy doesn't happen with everyone, and it shouldn't happen alone. Get the right thinkers in a room.
• Most organizations aren't limited by resources. They're limited by assumptions.
• When pressure rises, people borrow confidence from their leaders.
One of the strongest challenges of the day: take your 5-year or 10-year goal, cut the timeline in half, and ask how your thinking would have to change. Constraints don't kill progress, they force innovation.
And the reminder I keep coming back to: leadership isn't just what you say, it's what people feel when you're present.
We're grateful for the leaders who showed up, the real conversations in the room, and the space to be sharpened together. These lunches continue to push how we think, lead, and build.
A special thank you to our sponsors: Helton Law Firm, Trinity Employment Specialists, and Newave Solutions, LLC for making this series possible and investing in leadership development in our community.
Thank you, Gabe, for serving us with clarity, conviction, and a perspective most of us will never experience firsthand.
