The Conversation That Almost Didn’t Happen
Sometimes the difference between shrinking and proclaiming your worth is one sentence away.
I was at a family gathering recently and someone introduced me to a woman I hadn’t met before.
We started talking, and she told me what she did. She worked for a big name firm and described her role in a way that sounded very impressive and fascinating.
Then she asked the question that always comes next.
“So what do you do?”
I felt the familiar reflex kick in.
I started with the version of my work that tends to land most easily.
“I design tools for business leaders and corporations to foster growth and create efficiencies”
It’s not untrue.
But it’s also not the whole story… or even the heart of the story.
It’s the version of my work that sounds the most corporate.
The most structured.
The most easily understood in passing conversation.
And normally, I would have stopped there.
But as the conversation started to drift somewhere else, I felt something in my chest, like a quiet nudge.
Why are you stopping there?
Why are you giving the edited version of your work when you could simply tell the truth?
So I leaned back in.
And I said a little more.
I told her how much I love the work I do. “I love working with individuals, leaders, and practitioners who want to live and lead more intentionally instead of running on autopilot.”
And that’s when everything shifted.
She leaned in too and her eyes lit up.
And then she told me something completely unexpected.
She actually does something on the side that is deeply aligned with this kind of work.
Just like that, the conversation opened wide.
Can you relate?
For the next hour, maybe longer, we talked.
About leadership.
About personal growth.
About the kind of work that helps people go inside, show up for themselves and ultimately create a ripple effect in how they move differently through their lives and work.
It was one of those conversations where you suddenly realize you’ve found someone who sees the world through a similar lens.
At one point people were literally trying to pull us apart so we could rejoin the rest of the party.
And the whole time, one thought kept crossing my mind.
If I had stopped at that first sentence…
That conversation never would have happened.
That connection never would have been made.
Here’s the thing I’m realizing lately.
Shrinking doesn’t always look like silence.
Sometimes shrinking looks like editing.
It looks like offering the most understandable version of yourself instead of the most honest one.
The version that won’t raise eyebrows.
The version that won’t require more explanation.
The version that lets the conversation move on easily.
But when we edit ourselves too quickly, we close doors we don’t even realize were about to open.
For a long time, I thought claiming your worth meant believing more strongly in yourself.
Now I’m realizing something else.
Sometimes…
proclaiming your worth is much quieter than that
it’s simply refusing to rush past the thing you care most about
it’s staying in the conversation long enough to say one more sentence
it’s letting people actually see what you’ve built (or what lights you up)
And trusting that the right conversations will find you when you do.
Practicing LYFE Your Way…
This week, try a small experiment.
The next time someone asks what you do, what you’re working on, or what matters to you… Say your first response.
Then say one more sentence.
Just one.
Notice what happens in your body.
Notice the reflex to move on quickly.
Notice the urge to soften or simplify.
And then stay in the moment long enough to let yourself be more seen.
You don’t need a pitch.
You just need the courage to stop editing yourself quite so quickly.
Because sometimes the most meaningful connections in our lives are sitting right on the other side of the sentence we almost didn’t say.