Y’all. I don’t know how to tell you this, but… it’s not about you. 😜

Y’all. I don’t know how to tell you this, but… it’s not about you. 😜

My client (let’s call her Xandy) was going to see her CEO in person, and she wanted to make it count.

So she prepared.
What should I say? What insight could I share that would be genuinely impressive? What could I bring to the conversation that might actually shift how my CEO thinks about something?

Xandy kept reworking it. Nothing felt good enough.

She was mid-explanation on all the things she wanted to say when I asked her to pause.

Let’s take a moment to think about what a CEO's day looks like at a customer conference. On all day. Talking to customer after customer. Listening, absorbing, asking questions, staying sharp. Performing from morning to evening. 😅

So when Xandy walks up - someone the CEO knows and trusts - what does the CEO actually want in that moment?

Probably not another brilliant insight to absorb. 😬

Xandy had been so focused on what she wanted (to impress her CEO) that she'd completely missed what her CEO might actually need from that conversation.

She stopped preparing things to say. She came up with a few questions instead. Easy ones. How are you holding up? What was your favorite part of the day so far?

It went great. And Xandy felt like she truly deepened her relationship with the CEO (which was her goal all along 😉).

We all do this. All. The. Time. 😁 We’re so busy thinking about ourselves that we forget to think about the other person. Not because we’re selfish. (Maybe sometimes…) But we’re nervous, or tired, or eager to impress.

If you've got a conversation coming up and you're overthinking what to say, send me a note.