08/27/2026
“He’ll never agree to that.”
My client was sure.
I wasn’t so sure.
She wanted something pretty simple: more consistency around their child.
She had tried being flexible.
Very flexible.
But flexibility had turned into chaos.
Dad would cancel visits to reschedule them—and sometimes still wouldn't show up. Phone calls with their child might be before school one day, 4 p.m. another day, and before bed another.
My client wanted consistency.
Dad thought he was doing everything right.
And whenever she tried to create more structure, the accusations started.
She was keeping their child from him.
She wasn't being flexible.
She was the problem.
The texts had become a telenovela.
So instead of continuing the argument, we got strategic.
First, we got clear on what she wanted.
More consistency. More boundaries. Less conflict.
Then we got clear on what he wanted.
Because that's the part people sometimes miss when they're negotiating with a difficult person.
You need to know what the other person wants, too.
We mapped out the details: pickup times, exchange locations, phone calls, schedules.
Then we presented the proposal differently.
Instead of telling him everything he was doing wrong and asking him to agree to everything she wanted, we highlighted what he was already doing right.
We showed him how the proposed structure helped him.
And we kept the focus on how it benefited their child.
He agreed.
Not because we proved him wrong.
Because we stopped trying to prove him wrong and started thinking strategically about what would get him to yes.
My client walked away with:
More boundaries.
More predictability.
More peace.
That's what I mean by Leave With More.
Get clear. Get strategic. Take action.
