A Letter to the Leader You'll Become: The Two Versions of Your 2026
Dear Future You,
I'm writing this letter before the enrolment into November's LEAD™ cohort closes. The decision you make creates two entirely different versions of your 2026. I've watched this story unfold over 300 times. Let me show you both futures.
Version One: The Leader Who Joined November 2025's Cohort
It's October 30th, 2026. You're sitting in the same office, but everything has changed.
Your morning is different. You arrive at 8:00am, energised rather than exhausted. The chronic anxiety that lived in your chest for years has been replaced by quiet confidence. You know exactly what needs to happen today because your strategy is clear, your team is aligned, and your systems work.
The numbers tell part of the story. Revenue is up 42%, not through working harder but by charging properly for the value you've always delivered. Your net margins have increased from 8% to 23%. That's an additional hundreds of thousands of pounds in profit from the same operational base. But you know the real transformation goes deeper than numbers.
You make decisions in hours, not weeks. That paralysing fear of choosing wrong has been replaced by a framework for rapid, confident decision-making. When faced with opportunity or challenge, you don't agonise alone. You message your LEAD™ Cohort peers and within minutes, a dozen experienced leaders offer perspective. Your isolation has ended.
Your team is different too. They've watched you transform from frantically busy to strategically focused. You've stopped doing their jobs for them. Instead of rescuing and firefighting, you lead and develop. Three team members you nearly fired have become stars. They didn't change - your leadership did.
The business runs without you being omnipresent. You took a two-week holiday in August, properly disconnected, and returned to find everything running smoothly. Your operations director said, "We just asked ourselves: what would the new you do?" The new you. That phrase makes you smile.
Your customer base has transformed. You parted ways with unprofitable clients in January. It was terrifying. By March, you'd replaced them with four premium clients at triple the margins. You no longer apologise for your prices. You state them as facts, knowing the value you deliver justifies every penny.
But here's what surprises you most: the personal change. You leave the office by 6pm most days. Your family has noticed. Your spouse mentioned last month that you seem "present" again. Your children no longer compete with your phone for attention. You're building a business and a life, not sacrificing one for the other.
The November 2025 cohort changed everything. Not through magic but through structure, accountability, and proven frameworks. Ten months of sustained transformation guided by experts and supported by peers who understood your reality.
Investment: £15,000. Return: Priceless.
Actually, not priceless: the monetary return can be accurately measured in additional value. But the confidence, clarity and community? Those truly are priceless.
Version Two: The Leader Who Waited
It's also October 30th, 2026, but your story is different.
Another year has passed. Revenue grew 4% - barely ahead of inflation. Margins remain stuck at 8%. You're working 65-hour weeks to stand still. The exhaustion that was temporary has become permanent.
You're still making the same resolutions. Still promising yourself that next year will be different. Still believing that somehow, without changing anything fundamental, everything will change.
The same problems persist, just 12 months older. That difficult customer still dominates 20% of your revenue and 80% of your headaches. You've thought about firing them every Monday for a year but can't risk the cash flow impact. The prison bars are of your own making, but they're still bars.
Your team frustrations have intensified. The good people left for better pastures and leadership elsewhere. You've replaced them with whoever was available, telling yourself "it's so hard to find good people" while knowing the real problem is retention, not recruitment.
You attended another weekend workshop in March. Three days of inspiration that evaporated by April. The workbook joins the others on your shelf: monuments to good intentions without implementation infrastructure.
The loneliness has deepened. Every decision still faces you alone at 3am. You've forgotten what it feels like to have energy rather than endurance. Success has become survival. Vision has become hope that tomorrow won't be worse than today.
You know about the November 2025 LEAD™ cohort because three businesspeople you know joined it, including one of your competitors. You've watched their transformation with a mixture of admiration and regret. They're charging prices you can't command, winning clients you can't attract, and building lives you can't imagine.
"I should have joined," you tell yourself. The same phrase you said about the November 2024 cohort. And 2023. The pattern is established: recognition without action, regret without resolution.
The £15,000 investment you "saved" has cost you a fortune in unrealised potential. But the real cost isn't financial. It's the year of your life spent struggling when you could have been soaring.
The Decision Point
These aren't fantasies. They're patterns I've observed across hundreds of SMB leaders. The gap between Version One and Version Two isn't capability - you have everything needed for success. The gap is decision.
Right now, you stand at the intersection between these futures. Once the final few places are filled the November's cohort closes. The next opportunity is April 2026. By then, Version One is five months ahead while Version Two has lost five more months to hesitation.
I've facilitated dozens of cohorts. The transformation never gets easier, but it always gets results. The frameworks don't become less effective with time and delay; it just means you implement them later than competitors who chose courage over comfort.
What I Know About You
You're reading this because you know something needs to change. The very fact you've read this far reveals ambition beyond your current achievement. You see the gap between where you are and where you could be.
You're probably telling yourself stories about why now isn't the right time:
"After year-end..." "When things calm down..." "Once this project completes..."
I've heard every version. They're all diversions we tell ourselves to avoid the discomfort of change. There is never a perfect time. There is only now or later. And later usually becomes never.
My Promise to You
If you join November's cohort, I promise:
You will be challenged beyond comfort but within capability. You will discover strengths you've forgotten and address weaknesses you've hidden. You will gain a dozen advisors who understand your reality and care about your success. You will implement frameworks that have transformed hundreds of businesses before yours.
You will become Version One.
I cannot promise it will be easy. Transformation never is. But I can promise it will be worth it. Every graduate says the same thing: "I wish I'd done this sooner."
Your Two Tomorrows
Tomorrow you'll wake up. Version Two will defer the decision, promising to "think about it over the weekend." Soon November's cohort will be closed. The moment will have passed. The pattern of deferral will be reinforced.
Version One will apply tomorrow. Not because they're ready - few people are completely ready - but because they're tired of being tired. Tired of potential unrealised. Tired of watching others achieve what they know they're capable of.
The Final Question
In one year, which letter do you want to write back to yourself?
"Dear Past Me, thank you for having the courage to join November's cohort. Everything changed."
Or
"Dear Past Me, I wish you'd been braver. Another year has passed. Nothing has changed."
The answer determines which version of you I'll meet in October 2026 at graduation. I hope it's Version One. That person is extraordinary. They're already inside you, waiting for permission to emerge.
The November cohort is that permission.
Two versions of you await. Only one decision determines which emerges.
With respect for your journey and hope for your transformation,
Choose Version One: quolux.com/lead