Stop Asking for Advice—Ask This Instead | Mary Messner

When you're stuck, do you ask people to give you the answer — or invite them to help you think? Mary Messner spent years climbing inside healthcare, doing exactly what a successful executive is supposed to do. Then something shifted, and she made a U-turn. Today she's a keynote speaker, TEDx presenter, founder of Highline Creative Group, and the author of Help Me Think Through This. Her premise is simple and disruptive: "Tell me what to do" does us a disservice. "Help me think through this" communicates trust, invites contribution, and creates possibilities that didn't appear before. In this conversation, Mary redefines creativity as courage — the courage to keep going in a new and different way — and walks through leaving an executive identity behind, the motherhood chapter that reshaped her priorities, the night she took her hair extensions off on stage, and why your reinvention quietly gives everyone watching permission to change their own life. She closes with the circle: conformity's circle is comfortable, but it isn't yours. Draw your own, and step onto it. For authors, speakers, coaches, and leaders who are successful but not excited about what they wake up to — this one will give you plenty to think through. Get Mary's book, Help Me Think Through This: https://a.co/d/0e31o5zi Connect with Mary: https://www.linkedin.com/in/marymessner · https://www.instagram.com/themarymessner/ Curious where your own genius is leaking? Take the free 5-minute GQ quiz: https://gq.donnietuttle.com Follow The Genius Effect for a new episode every Tuesday and Thursday. Find your genius. Live your genius. Free others to do the same.