I was recently interviewed for a local female entrepreneur networking group, the Women’s Business Initiative, based out of The Hague. I have only officially been a member since earlier this year, and have appreciated their genuinely thoughtful induction programme for new members. Such detailed attention to how people are welcomed tells you everything about the culture of a membership. I once led an employee induction programme and it tanked! Nothing but humble praise from me for those that get this right.
Though the group has been active for two decades, I remember when its founder started the initiative which was right around the time I moved to The Hague in 2005. I was fresh off the boat from America, and the entrepreneurial path I was eager to leave behind in America having ‘failed’ in my mid-twenties. Arriving on a new continent to start a new life, I was looking for stability with a full-time corporate position, benefits, and a pension. Something solid to stand on in a country where I was still learning the language and the rhythms of life.
So instead of joining the Women’s Business Initiative, I joined the American Women’s Club (AWC) and found a network that became something closer to family across all generations and interests. Many of those relationships have outlasted the chapter of life that built them, and I am grateful for every one.
In those first nine months, before my Dutch residence permit and social security number came through… a process that meant I could not formally apply for jobs… I filled my time in ways that now read as completely intentional, even though they were born from constraint. I built a strong network. I attended Dutch school full-time, a fully subsidised government assimilation programme where I, as a white Caucasian, was a minority. I served on the board of the AWC as vice president and spent my free time in volunteer-ship. I took on pet sitting, house siting and babysitting work for members. All side-hustles I had done in the previous decade of my life and loved. And in parallel to all of that, I found community within the English-speaking 12-step programme network, a space where diversity crossed many lines of generations, nationalities, and backgrounds.
I was building a strong inner circle before I even knew that was what I was doing.
When people compliment me on my ability to network, I immediately think of my father.
He told me once: “It’s not what you know, it’s who you know.” I spent years nodding at that wisdom while not quite understanding it. And then, while at university my grade point average (GPA) was struggling and my confidence was shaky, I flipped it back at him with a kind of breezy certainty: “It’s not what you know, it’s who you know, Dad! Chill.”
He rolled his eyes immediately. Which I found a great moment to defiantly announce I was changing my major from business to sociology.
“What are you going to do with a sociology degree?” he shouted. “That will take more education to make money from it.” At twenty years old, my father was the smartest man I knew, and I had always moved through decisions with his approval as an anchor. This was the first time I was going to change the timeline and create something new for myself.
I found a guidance counsellor who helped me chart a path that shifted my major while keeping a psychology minor, requiring only one additional semester’s work. It cost more money I did not have. I did it anyway.
The irony, which I could not have scripted was one of my father’s childhood friends became my favourite sociology professor. Dr. Conrad Gubera helped me edit and present a grant proposal requesting thirty thousand dollars from my hometown city’s council to beautify a park that had been a cornerstone of my childhood. I wanted to see more benches, better landscaping, and water fountains. How a college thesis project landed on the local council’s docket, I am still not entirely certain. I suspect there was a call made in the background, a quiet champion working on our behalf.
The grant was approved and the budget was actually increased. Additions were made beyond what was asked for.
By the time I walked across that stage, I had brought my grade point average (GPA) from a 2.9 to a 3.875. My father was beaming so hard he had stopped caring what the degree said on the paper. It is a particular kind of privilege — soul-level, generational — to be the first in your family to receive a higher education degree, especially when part of your work in this life is breaking cycles that were never meant to be permanent.
I share the attached interview clip as it also allows Readers to get a better look at the work I do with others. The original cut can be found here on Youtube. Many thanks to Nancy and Ugne for their well-planned efforts in the WBI induction programme 🙌
Now, onto the astrology….
The Lion Awakens
Jupiter, the great benefic, the planet of expansion, abundance, philosophy, and bold leaps of faith, has moved into Leo on June 29th, 2026. This is not a quiet transit. Leo does not do quiet. Leo does not do shrinking, hedging, or performative humility. And Jupiter in Leo is asking us to take up space. Unapologetically. Authentically. With full creative sovereignty.
But I want to push back on the noise around this placement, and as a Leo Rising, I can speak on behalf. Leo energy gets flattened into selfie culture and personal branding workshops quickly. Jupiter in Leo is not a green light for vanity projects. It is an invitation to examine what you are actually building, who you are building it with, and whether the people in your orbit truly see you… or a curated version designed to be palatable.
This is the quieter gift: the expansion of authentic community. The courage to let the right people in. The wisdom to know the difference between a network and an inner circle.
A network is a web of connections. An inner circle is a source of nourishment. Jupiter in Leo wants both to grow; but it is the inner circle this transit will ask you to fortify.
Leo rules the fifth house: creativity, self-expression, joy, the children of our spirit, our art, and our most beloved ideas. When Jupiter moves through this territory, it asks: who witnesses your creative life? Who celebrates you without competition? Who is in the room when you are being most fully yourself?
If you cannot answer easily, this is your season to build that.
Strengthening Your Perimeter
Your perimeter is not a wall. It is the boundary of your energy field and the membrane through which you choose what is let in or what is held at a safe distance. Jupiter in Leo does not build walls. It builds clarity. And from clarity comes the confidence to gather your people.
What the invitations ask of you this season:
Audit who actually sees your real self. Show up somewhere new with your full story, not a polished pitch. Champion someone specifically and watch who reciprocates. These are not networking tactics. They are acts of Leonine self-authorship.
