She taught our kids seven words.
May 08, 2026
My wife has a gift that I have always admired.
When our kids were young and we were lucky enough to travel as a family, she taught them something that has stuck with all of us. When you want to meet someone new, you don't need a script or a perfect opener or the right moment to present itself. She kept it simple in the best possible way. Just say two things.
"Having fun? And where are you from?"
Seven words with a natural rhythm to them and zero pressure behind them. Every single time she said it, a conversation started. Names were exchanged. Strangers became friends before the afternoon was over. She wasn't teaching our kids a networking strategy. She was teaching them that people are genuinely worth talking to and that the only thing standing between you and a real conversation is the decision to start one.
This week, someone did it to her.
We were staying at the ette hotel in Orlando when a man walked up, looked around, and said six words - "Isn't this a great hotel?" He walked up without any agenda behind it and without a moment of hesitation, just a genuine attempt to connect with the person standing next to him.
His name is Kerry Morrissey and he has spent nearly 40 years in public relations and communications for the Opal Collection, a wonderful group of luxury hotels and resorts that stretches from Bar Harbor, Maine all the way down to Key West, Florida. The man knows hospitality inside and out. And clearly he knows people too. What he did cost him nothing except the willingness to say something first.
There is actually research that speaks directly to this. A study took a group of self-described introverts and challenged them to start a conversation with a complete stranger on the subway. Before they did it, they rated their hesitation at nearly 10 out of 10. When asked how satisfied they expected to feel after completing the task, most of them said 3 out of 10. They were convinced it would be awkward, uncomfortable, and not worth the effort.
Then they did it.
Their actual satisfaction afterward was 9 out of 10. Almost every single person was genuinely surprised by how much they enjoyed the conversation and the connection that came from it. When they actually did it they realized the stranger wasn't the problem and neither was the conversation itself. The only thing that had ever been standing in the way was the thirty seconds right before they opened their mouth.
Kerry also introduced us to two of his friends (Tia Crystal, author, speaker, artist- soon to also be a guest on our show) and Lance Jones, a former auto racer, sports and entertainment agent, and two of the more genuinely interesting people I have met in a long time. We filmed Lance's conversation at the ette hotel and something he told me is worth sharing with all of you.
Lance told me about a moment when he was sitting on the pit wall with Mario Andretti the year he won the Formula One World Championship. He asked Mario for one piece of advice, just one thing he could take with him. Mario looked at him and said "you want to be the fastest driver with the coldest brakes." He wasn't talking about going slow. He was saying that the best drivers are so smooth and so precise that they rarely need the brakes at all. They are already thinking far enough ahead.
Then Lance said something that I keep coming back to. He told me that the thing that kills more race drivers than anything else is hesitation. When a car goes into a spin, every instinct you have tells you to hit the brakes and slow everything down. But if you press the accelerator the car actually pulls itself out. Pressing forward creates direction and stability. Waiting and hesitating makes the spin worse, not better.
I think about that well beyond the racetrack.
Kerry Morrissey didn't wait for a better opener. He just said something genuine to a stranger and walked away with a new friend. Terri didn't wait for our kids to figure it out on their own. She gave them seven words and the confidence to use them. Lance didn't build a career in one of the most high pressure environments in the world by waiting for certainty before he acted.
There is a version of all of us that keeps us small. That talks us out of things before we even try them. That finds a perfectly reasonable excuse to wait one more day because the timing isn't quite right or the moment doesn't feel perfect yet.
Think about the conversation you have been putting off, or the idea you keep telling yourself you'll act on soon, or the person you have been meaning to reach out to for weeks now. What is actually stopping you?
If things feel uncertain or stuck right now, take the advice Lance got from one of the greatest drivers who ever lived. Press forward. That is where the direction comes from.
Most people won't do it today.
But you're not most people.
