Leadership Lessons from 18,000 Feet

Be Brave. Be Badass. And Bring Ginger Chews.

There’s nothing quite like the rush of free-falling from 14,000 feet. I was the first to leap from the plane—no hesitation, no second-guessing. Just pure adrenaline and the wind roared past me as I dropped into the clouds like a badass. Every second was electric. Skydiving lit up every fiber of my being.

Until the parachute opened.

And suddenly, my fierce, thrill-loving body betrayed me. The gentle sway of the canopy—meant to be peaceful and scenic—was like a cruel joke. My motion sickness, which had been respectfully dormant for years, made a dramatic return. I didn’t just get a little nauseous. I spent the next 36 hours in full-on survival mode: green, sweaty, horizontal, and bargaining with gravity.

And the video? Oh, it’s glorious. You’d never know I was one small sway away from tossing my dignity into the desert. I still smiled. I still looked like I was living my best “jumping-into-the-arena” moment. But inside? I was wrecked.

And that, my friends, is leadership.

Leadership Isn’t Always About the Leap

Everyone loves to talk about the jump—the brave moment, the decisive action, the power move. But leadership isn’t just about the bold beginning. It’s also about what happens when things don’t go as planned.

You can be fully aligned with your mission, absolutely lit up by your work, riding the high of progress—and then something unexpected knocks you sideways. A budget cut. A team shake-up. Burnout. Or, ya know, debilitating motion sickness in your metaphorical (or actual) parachute.

When Your Body (or Team, or Timeline) Betrays You

I wanted to love every moment. I was prepared to love every moment. But some parts of the journey are simply out of your control.

As leaders, we believe we can outthink discomfort, push through fatigue, or grit our way out of nausea (literal or figurative). But sometimes, the only badass move is admitting:

“This part? It sucks. And I need to pause.”

Leadership means learning to discern between resistance worth pushing through—and warning signs that say, “Hey, this is no longer safe or sustainable.”

What I Learned in the Freefall (and the Aftermath)

1. Go first. Leading often means jumping before anyone else is ready. Trust yourself. Trust your training.

2. Prepare for the unplanned. Even if everything starts out perfect, stay humble. There’s always room for turbulence.

3. Don’t fake wellness. It’s okay to look composed, but find spaces to be real. Leadership isn’t performative. It’s human.

4. Recovery is part of the process. Taking time to recalibrate doesn’t make you weak—it makes you sustainable.

5. You can love something and still suffer through it. The thrill and the nausea can coexist. That’s not failure. That’s life.

Final Descent:

Being a badass leader isn’t about never getting knocked off course. It’s about what you do when the ground beneath you tilts.

So yes, I jumped out of a plane like a champ. And yes, I spent the next day lying flat like a very nauseous pancake.

And you know what?
I’d do it all again.
But next time, I’m packing Dramamine with my courage.

Check out my video here: https://youtu.be/_ZnED-S-78I?si=gTrQpwDSVfbsJXQR.

—
Angela Gill Nelms
Founder, Leader, Badass
Be Brave. Be Badass.