The most important conversation you might be avoiding
I’ve always been the person who'd have a moment where I just knew.
I’d walk into a room and feel pulled to one seat, one person, one moment… it wouldn’t make sense at the time, but in hindsight I looked like I’d seen the future and pulled it toward the present.
For example, I’d see someone at a dinner party and know I needed to sit next to them. It’s actually a game I’d play with myself at events in NYC.
I did it at an entrepreneurs gathering in St Pete, FL in what must have been 2023 or so. I stepped back, surveyed the room and was guided to my seat, next to a total stranger.
Fast forward, that stranger is now one of my closest friends.
Fast forward even more, he was the first non-family member my daughter ever fell asleep on.
Fast forward a few more months, his company ended up becoming a dream client of BRAVE and literally pulled me out of maternity leave at the exact moment that I was thinking “I think I’m ready to dip my toe back in.”
Call it intuition. Call it inner knowing. Call it God. Call it that quiet voice you only hear when you’re brave enough to listen. (Because let’s be honest, it often doesn’t make logical sense.)
For me, it’s been my competitive edge long before I had a name for it.
-> I once said out loud, “I’m going to give a TED Talk.” Six months later, I was on stage. 🤯 (proof)
-> On that stage I half-joked, “Maybe next year I’ll be back with more of the story. The next year, I was (10 years ago TODAY - Nov 7th, 2015) 🤩 (more proof)
-> I took a shot and introduced myself to Seth Godin and GaryVee at a conference, giving them my coffee business cards (IYKYK😉). I'd been a huge fan of Seth's for maybe a decade already. The next year, Seth ran a conference at FIT in NYC. I went and asked him to coffee (technically, tea). He remembered me and said yes (WHAT?!) His guidance has changed my life (and now my fiancé’s as well).
And it doesn’t just work for work…
-> I heard my fiancé’s voice one time and thought, 😍 “Move toward that.” Look at us now🙃!
-> Even during birth, when logic (and all the signs) said we had hours left, I turned to my midwife and said: “Ten more minutes.” Everyone thought I was crazy. Fourteen minutes later, all in one push, Montana Rose arrived.🌹
-> And if you want to really lose your mind, ask me how I came to peace with selling my family home in NYC. If I’ve ever been on the receiving end of a miracle, this would be a strong competitor in my lifetime list of the top five.
People call that magic...
I call it a practiced relationship with my inner voice.
Not luck. Not force. Reps.
Reps in self-honesty.
Reps in noticing.
Reps in listening before the world gets loud.
Reps in listening more closely when my internal world is loud.
Reps in BRAVE® conversations with myself, long before having BRAVE® conversations with others.
That’s the part we don't talk about enough in leadership.
Everyone wants the playbook for high-trust teams, rapid execution, courageous feedback. Of course you do.
But here’s what I've learned:
Leadership isn’t first about speaking so others listen.
It’s about listening so deeply to yourself that your leadership has nothing to prove.
If you can’t hear yourself, it’s nearly impossible to truly hear others.
If you don’t trust yourself, your team will feel it and mirror the doubt.
And if you keep trying to “muscle” your way through moments that actually require internal quiet… you will always feel like you’re climbing uphill.
This inner operating system is teachable. Trainable. Repeatable.
And when you have it, leading becomes more grounded, more intuitive, more… inevitable.
I’m teaching a piece of that system on November 20th during our masterclass on feedback.
Why feedback?
Because nothing reveals your internal noise like a high-stakes conversation.
The goal is simple:
To give you tools to feed trust, clarity, and performance instead of fear, defensiveness, and disengagement.
These tools aren’t hypotheticals. They’re rooted in the latest brain science around how our interactions set us up for success... or failure.
Join us on November 20... we already have over 50 leaders in the room!
👉 Sign up here
After the class, I’ll share a one-time opportunity to join the BRAVE® Certification where we’ll actually build your inner guidance system, rep the practice, and turn self-trust into your default leadership setting… the one that’s made all the difference in my life.
Some of the most powerful leadership shifts start not with what you say to others, but with how you speak to yourself.
Maybe your next chapter begins here.
Maybe we build that inner system together in 2026.
Bravely,
Elisabeth
