H-how did you figure out how to make that work for you in a way that was authentic to who you are?

Well, trial and error, for one, but what I learned was this lesson I just talked about is finding the right situation.

I think I was about thirty when I was between jobs, and I had just worked for somebody that was just a really horrible boss, and it just dawned on me that as much as the company's hiring me, I'm hiring a boss, because I'm looking for someone that's gonna be able to help me learn what I need to learn in order to take the next steps in my career, and will support me in doing that.

That really became almost my sole focus on the roles that I was interviewing for and trying to get is: Who's this person that I'm gonna be working for, and will they give me not just their knowledge and their experience, but will they also give me the autonomy to try new things, to bring myself to the job? Because I found that in almost every role I've been in, that's really been important, and those where I've been able to express myself and the boss wanted me to express myself, I did much better.

There was a great quote, uh, you know, I'm gonna paraphrase again.

But I'm a huge soccer fan, and I know you're in London.

I don't know if you're a Premier League fan, but this one soccer coach said, "What I want is players who are gonna show up and bring their personality to the game, express themselves through how they play." And I thought that was a great way to talk about it, and it's sort of the opposite of what so much of what corporate America is about.

The team that you're playing for, the system that you're on in a corporate environment.

Mm-hmm.

That's actually a lot of people.

It's actually probably more people.

It's somewhat situational, right? But for business people.

And so if people are looking to make the good enough decision, we're gonna, we're gonna look till we find something that meets these requirements, satisfies requirements, suffices to meet future needs, well, then, where's the urgency? Well, the urgency is I need to be the first to build trust.

'Cause if I can be the first one to build trust, then I can be the first one to build influence.

And if I can be the first one to build influence, then I can be the first one to help the buyer define what it is they wanna do and have an understanding of it.

Wow.