This Q & A explores issues arising from 'Mastering Difficult Conversations Part 1 (What's Going On?)'. Topics discussed included: how nurturing trust over time makes subsequent difficult conversations much easier; the distinction between naive and mature trust; the distinction between reacting and responding, and how we can use analysis of conversational dynamics to shift to responding; the importance of preparing for difficult conversations; and the development of confidence in one's ability to navigate difficult conversations well.

The first of this 3-part series on mastering difficult conversations begins by describing 'what's going on' when a conversation is difficult. We see that the threat system in our brain is activated when there is low trust and this inhibits our capacity to think collaboratively and creatively. By contrast, we generally want there to be high trust so we can experiment and create together. So the first task is to assess the dynamics: to see what states in ourselves and in the other person need shifting to create more trust. The following podcasts explore how to do that.

This roundtable discussed the podcast with Alyssa Coco and Matt Merritt and focussed on the following themes: how 'comparison is the thief of joy' and the necessity of transforming the cycle of comparison to a cycle of inspiration; how studying others' successes builds one's own success; how mindfulness can help in identifying one's negatiev reactions thereby allowing a more positive perspective; how typical these challenges are for the Indie artitst; how brave and honest Alyssa and Matt were ini this discussion; how early success and signing with a label is just the ffirst of many mountains to climb, and how unprecendented and problematic the contemporary access to artists is via social media.