So what do you do?

Yesterday at a kids’ party, someone asked me:

“So what do you do then?”

I took a breath and replied:

 “I help leaders be radically honest, and help their people be radically honest back.”

Every leader I spoke to leaned in.
That’s when I knew I’d hit something.

Here’s what I’ve learned after 15+ years in sales, leadership, and communication:

Most people only hear the words.
But the real insights are in how people listen. That’s what I call listening to the listening.

What people lean into tells you what matters most.
It’s like finding the hot button in sales, but for human truth.

When leaders and teams are radically honest about what they want, churn drops.
People don’t need to jump ship if they can say,

“Actually, I’d love to move into design. Can we make that work, without starting from scratch?”

I like to explain it like makeup.

The full face is the CV, the LinkedIn bio, the company mission statement.

But it’s the mist, the setting spray, that actually holds it all together.

That mist is listening to the listening.
It keeps relationships, trust, contracts in place.
Ignore it, and everything eventually slides off.

So if you’re a leader who wants to keep your best people, start by listening deeper than their words.

What are they leaning into?

What’s unsaid but felt?

That’s the mist.

I took a breath and replied:

“I help leaders be radically honest, and help their people be radically honest back.”

Every leader I spoke to leaned in.
That’s when I knew I’d hit something.

Here’s what I’ve learned after 15+ years in sales, leadership, and communication:

🏛️ Most people only hear the words.
But the real insights are in how people listen. That’s what I call listening to the listening.

🏛️ What people lean into tells you what matters most.
It’s like finding the hot button in sales, but for human truth.

🏛️When leaders and teams are radically honest about what they want, churn drops.
People don’t need to jump ship if they can say,

“Actually, I’d love to move into design. Can we make that work, without starting from scratch?”

I like to explain it like makeup.

The full face is the CV, the LinkedIn bio, the company mission statement.

But it’s the mist, the setting spray, that actually holds it all together.

That mist is listening to the listening.
It keeps relationships, trust, contracts in place.
Ignore it, and everything eventually slides off.

So if you’re a leader who wants to keep your best people, start by listening deeper than their words.

What are they leaning into?

What’s unsaid but felt?

That’s the mist.