I’m feeling nervous as I make my way to the WeWork co-working space on Collins St, Melbourne. Today I am interviewing somebody who is an expert in something I need to be good at.

I am nervous partly because I am running a bit late. And partly because I have a fear that I am going to be shown up on my own podcast. I have this sense that it is my role as an interviewing to listen deeply to people. To look for the meaning behind what they are saying. To connect disparate parts of their stories into some kind of synthesis.

What if that fails me today? What if I am schooled by the expert in deep listening? What if I am a fraud?

I arrive perfectly on time, somehow managing to bump into Oscar Trimboli in the lift as he was coming to meet me.

We make our way to the place for our interview, and Oscar helps me feel at ease.

Our conversation is thoughtful and spontaneous, and I am left feeling I have learnt something important.

But as I say goodbye and leave, I am struck by the feeling that I missed an opportunity. It takes me a while to put my finger on it, and when I do I realise that is was the opportunity to be vulnerable. To connect and name that sensation that comes across all of us from time to time, that we are not good enough.

Which leads me to make an apology: to you, the audience, and to you Oscar, my guest. I didn’t push my edges in this interview as much as I could have. I didn’t reveal my limitations and seek to learn like a beginner.

So here I attempt to push my edges through text, and I admit I was not listening as well as I could have in this interview. I was concerned that I would be seen as someone who was not really a very good listener. I was focused on how I would come across, rather than tuning into your meanings and flowing with my intuition.

I am grateful for the opportunity to have met you, and to have learnt about my own listening limitations.

——

Oscar Trimboli is on a mission to help 100,000,000 million people become deep listeners. He helps organisations become slower so they might listen to each other more, hear the meaning behind the words, and to sense what the organisation as a whole is trying to say.

It was a privilege to listen to him and to be shaped by him. I hope you are similarly impacted.

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