The One Skill Nobody Taught Us (That Changes Everything)

Most of us grew up learning how to speak. How to argue. How to present. How to debate.

Nobody taught us how to listen.

And that gap, quiet as it is, costs us more than we realize. In our relationships. In our parenting. In our workplaces. In the moments that matter most.

I sat down recently with Deb Porter, founder of Hold Hearing Out Life Drama and a professional listener, and what she shared stayed with me long after we stopped recording.

Listening Is a Profession. And There's a Reason for That.

Deb did not set out to become a professional listener. She studied divinity, worked at a funeral home, and one ordinary afternoon while folding towels, a thought landed: what if it's just about listening?

She built an entire business from that moment.

Not therapy. Not coaching. Listening.

The distinction matters. There is a massive group of people, and you probably know some of them, who are not in crisis. They are not looking ...

Okay, friend. Pull up a chair. I need to talk to you about something.

Every March, we celebrate Women's History Month. We post the quotes, share the throwback photos, maybe catch a documentary or two. And then April rolls around and we move on.

But here is what keeps me up at night: the women who changed this world never stopped being relevant just because the calendar flipped. Their stories are not a once-a-year moment. They are a daily reminder of what is possible when we stop deciding in advance who gets to dream big.

And right now? We still have a lot of deciding to undo.

These Women Existed. The World Just Did Not Amplify Them.

When I was writing my 2017 book "Embracing Differences: 21st Century Women Debunking Stereotypes," I kept running into the same gut punch over and over again. Women who had done absolutely extraordinary things, quietly, without the fanfare that their male counterparts received for doing far less.

Olga Custodio became the first Latina to complete U.S. ...

Her husband was flying Air Force One. She was drowning.

From the outside, Brittany Anderson's life looked like something worth celebrating. Accomplished husband. Growing career. Kids. A life most people would envy.

But behind closed doors, she and her husband were barely speaking. They were going through the motions as parents and living as strangers as partners. In 2019, they were weeks away from ending their marriage.

What saved them was not what anyone expected. It was not a weekend retreat or a heart-to-heart on the couch. It was play. Specifically, building things with their hands, disrupting the stories they had been telling themselves, and choosing to build a shared vision for their family instead of walking away from it.

That decision did not just save their marriage. It became a movement.

Today Brittany is the founder of Renala Families and the author of Living Room Leadership. She joined Dali on the DaliTalks Podcast for one of the most honest and hopeful conversations t...