I made my way back up the aisle of an airplane last week and caught a glance of a laptop screen with an all-too-familiar display: a presentation slide with about 20 logos on it. Ah yes, the picture that’s worth 1000 words, meant to convey, “We work with organizations like yours, or organizations that should impress you, or both.” I assumed it was part of a pitch deck and immediately wondered how far into the deck this slide found itself.

I led a 30-minute webinar a couple of months ago. Attendees were global alumni from a consultancy that has hosted a series of my Trust-Based Business Development programs. The goal: boost everyone’s BD efforts over a 30-day period by issuing a “Monday Morning Promise Challenge.” The unexpected result: Me re-learning some of my own lessons about easy BD.

I recently wrote about how important I think it is for services professionals to stay grounded and centered and keep stress levels low. Toward that end, I wanted to share a specific practice with you—a personal one that I used as an opportunity to stretch this year.

The subject of authenticity came up recently in a workshop I was leading, and the conundrum of how to be trustworthy by simultaneously being yourself and being someone who adapts easily to others. Something occurred to me in the discussion that I’d never quite articulated before, which is that the answer lies in staying within our own authentic range.

I’m sure we’re similar in that we have more things to do in a day than there are hours in a day. You probably also struggle as I do to be really present from moment-to-moment—especially in your interactions with others—even though you know that’s an important part of walking the trusted advisor talk. We’re different, though, because you’re not a “spokesperson” for trusted advisorship, and therefore not hypocritical when you fail. And fail I did recently, in a very visible way.