In February 2006, ten thousand other real estate convention attendees and I filed into the big auditorium at the Mandalay Bay in Las Vegas. I knew from the program that the topic of the keynote we’d all come to hear was Fierce Conversations, and I expected to hear a speaker justify the fast-talking, aggressive sales persona that many associate with real estate professionals.

Put that coffee down. Coffee’s for closers. (Glengarry Glen Ross.)

Thankfully, that’s not what we got.

Instead, what we got was Susan Scott, author of Fierce Conversations, speaking truth so powerful, you could hear a pin drop. Ten thousand people hung on her every word for ninety minutes. And she didn’t just provide truth and motivation — she brought a conversational model, so we could take action.

All these years later, I recognize that the Fierce Foundations Susan shared were building blocks for the kinds of conversations that would help me create both a business and a life I love. What I remember turning over and over in my head was the definition of a Fierce Conversation: it is one in which we come out from behind ourselves, into the conversation, and we make it real.

It’s the part about coming out from behind ourselves that wouldn’t let me go! Even though I was one of the most assertive communicators I knew, I still found places to hide in some of the more stressful conversations.

Sometimes I hid behind “armor” — especially when previous conversations of this type or with this person had conditioned me to expect the worst. Clearly, being weighed down with a hundred pounds of metal isn’t a helpful starting point for a conversation about a challenging topic.
Other times, I hid behind my image, shaping my response based on what I thought my reputation was with others. I edited what I said based on what seemed “on-brand” for me.
Occasionally I hid behind Accountability (notice the Capital A there). I centered my high hopes and expectations regardless for the situation, in blame mode and not in solutions mode. This made it difficult for me to engage in the conversation that needed to happen, instead of the conversation I wished we were having.

In a Fierce workshop, we dig deep into all the things we hide behind in a typical conversation, as well as the unfortunate prices we pay for not being real and not getting Fierce. One of the best things about Fierce Conversations is that we don’t just talk about the models — we talk about how they exist in the real world. Join us in September and October as we dive deep into Foundations and three conversational models that help us create the businesses and a life we want.