The story you tell yourself before you speak
- Cassandra Nadira Lee
- Jun 21
- 2 min read
LIFT Newsletter 057
Technique gets you ready. Something deeper is what gets you heard.
Last week, I shared the story of coaching a 19 year old through her scholarship interview after two previous rejections. If you missed the post on LinkedIn, you can read the full story here.
What I want to share with you in this week's newsletter is what made the difference for her.
Because I think it applies to almost every professional reading this.
When she came to me three weeks before her next interview, the obvious work was technique.
How to answer competency questions.
How to structure her responses.
How to handle a tough panel.
But that is not where we started.
Because I have seen this enough times to know the truth.
When someone has been rejected once, they walk into the next room a little smaller. When they have been rejected twice, they walk in already half defeated. And no amount of polished answers can survive a person who has quietly started to believe they are not enough.
The technique is not the problem. The belief underneath the technique is.
So we started with the inside.
We named the story two rejections had begun writing in her about her own worth.
We separated what those rejections meant about her interview performance from what she had let them mean about who she is.
We rebuilt her relationship with her own capability before we touched a single interview question.
Only then did we work on the outside.
Five things specifically.
The outside work landed because the inside work had already happened.
She walked into her interview as someone who knew she belonged in the conversation. Not because she had memorised answers, but because she had stopped arguing with her own worth.
The result is the result. But the lesson is bigger than her.
If you are walking into rooms right now where you are being evaluated, whether that is an interview, a promotion conversation, an important presentation, or a meeting where you need to be believed, ask yourself this honest question.
What story have I been quietly telling myself about whether I deserve to be in this room?
Because that story will shape how you sit, how you speak, how you breathe, and how you are received. Long before you say a single word.
The professionals who walk into rooms and are taken seriously are not necessarily the most prepared.
They are the ones who are not arguing with their own worth while they are in the room.
That is the work that has to happen first.
Until next week.
Lead Beyond Yourself. Rise Beyond Limits.
On your side, in every room,
Cassandra Nadira and the LIFT Team.
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