 Back in 2018, September, we interviewed Oscar Trimboli for the podcast, and he walked us through the five layers of listening, and we're so excited to unpack them for you here because this will change the way you view listening in a conversation and allow you to become a more active listener and a better communicator. The first layer is listening to yourself. That inner monologue that we all hear, for some of us, it might be critical in social situations. For some of us, it might be the comedian who just wants to jump in with the witty one-liner and get people laughing, or it might just be anticipation of, oh, this person's gonna say that, so then I can go ahead and say this. But that first layer of listening really impacts your ability to communicate clearly and powerfully if all you're really concerning yourself with is what's going on inside your head. We need to actually listen to the other person move beyond that first layer to be an impactful listener. AJ, just a few weeks ago, we dropped an influence episode that had some clips from Vanessa Bonds, and she had also mentioned that that first level of listening is for opportunities for us to reply. And if you are listening for spaces to which you can reply, you're not listening to what they're saying. Well, that brings up the second layer of listening, listening for content. Now, a lot of us might work in really analytical jobs where all of the data and information has to be parsed, has to be problem solved, and you have to come up with a solution. So you might be very adept at listening to the second layer, the content. Where is AJ from? What type of music does Johnny like? What color shirt is Michael wearing? That's his favorite. This is the content that the other person is sharing with us. It's the data collection. And if you're good at being a data analyst at work, you're probably really good at being a data analyst in your listening. But we have to move beyond just those first two layers because that's really where the magic starts to happen. Now, the second layer is listening to the context. This is about the assumptions that people are making. What is actually going on? What's the frame of reference that they're working from in sharing this information? So for example, if I'm in a professional setting, I'm probably going to share differently in my communication than I would in a social environment or at the bar. My stories are going to be different. The sides of my personality that I choose to share are going to be different in that context. So an adept listener is actually listening beyond just the data but then thinking about what's the context behind what this person is sharing with me and is there something that I can pick up on in that context that I can use in my communication in my response to them? Now, the fourth layer and when we practice this in our implementation session, this is really when the light bulb goes off. The fourth layer is the unsaid. You have to be listening so intently that you're picking up on, well, what is AJ withholding in his communication? What is he glossing over? What hasn't been shared but is implied, right? So if I'm sharing a story about something, maybe I'm hyper-focused on the setting but I'm not really sharing who I'm with or maybe I'm talking about my work and I'm talking about a big project but I'm not really sharing the department that I work in, right? What is the unsaid? What am I holding back? And that's a great opportunity for you to explore, to get the person to share even more because if you can pull out the unsaid in conversation, you're actually a powerful communicator.