Wait, Do You Mean Per Month?
Aug 07, 2026
Have you ever had a single question completely change the way you see yourself?
Not a big philosophical one. Or a “tell me about your relationship with your Mother…” question.
Just… a well-placed question that unexpectedly kicked a door open in your mind?
That happened to me a few weeks ago at a conference. And it started with a business mentor asking me the most basic question in the world.
He said: “How much money do you want to make in your business?”
I gave him a number.
A big number.
The kind of number I was nervous (and proud) to say out loud.
He nodded, paused, and asked his second question.
“Wait, do you mean per month?”
Time stopped.
It felt like a black hole had torn apart the very fabric of time itself and sucked me into a new dimension.
This mentor grinned when he saw my wheels turning.
I had been thinking annually, but he was nudging me to think monthly.
And in one second he expanded my brain.
He gently pulled me back to planet earth when he continued:
“Look, some businesses do make that amount in a month. So the question is — what do you need to do? What do you need to change? What do you need to execute… to be one of those businesses? Why not you?”
For the rest of the conference, I must have looked like an astronaut floating in outer-space because he had just sent my imagination to the stars.
In a single 15-second exchange, he’d done something that no self-help book, no motivational speech, no goal-setting worksheet had ever done for me.
He gave me permission to think bigger.
Not by telling me to. By asking me a question that subtly stretched my beliefs and assumptions.
Which brings me to you.
When we want to help someone — a client, a team member, a friend who’s stuck — most of us reach for statements.
We give advice we’ve used a thousand times.
We share wisdom we heard from that one guy that one time.
But like flyers on a greased pole, statements often fail to stick.
Questions, however, work differently.
A well-crafted question invites the listener to wrestle and come to grips with a new paradigm that could change everything.
“Wait, do you mean per month?”
Was an invitation to consider the possibility I’d never imagined.
That’s the difference between a good communicator and a great one.
Good communicators say the right thing.
But great communicators ask the right question.
So this week, when you’re talking with a client, a colleague, or a friend who’s stuck…
Instead of telling them what to do differently…
How can you ask a question that helps them see themselves differently?
Because sometimes the most life-changing thing you can offer someone… isn’t your answer.
It’s a better question.
Who in your life needs to hear this week, “Wait… why not you?”
The results might be out of this world.
Christian
CHRISTIAN HANSEN has gone behind the scenes in some of the biggest organizations in the world to find out the reasons why some people get chosen and why others don’t. As the #1 bestselling and LinkedIn Top Ten ranked author of “The Influence Mindset: The Art & Science of Getting People to Choose You” Christian helps teams and organizations who want to stand out and be the obvious choice. With degrees from Brigham Young University and The London School of Economics, he’s helped thousands of individuals position and sell themselves. A fan of international communication, history, and choral music, he currently lives in Utah with his family. Reach him at: TheChristianHansen.com
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