Sell By Being Human · 2026-06-10 · 51 min
Could the most powerful sales skill have nothing to do with persuasion and everything to do with seeing someone's potential before they can see it themselves? In this episode of Sell by Being Human, Alex Smith sits down with Maximos Lih, a former Google recruiter, Google Ventures coach, and founder of Emboldened LLC. Maximos has helped scale everything from early-stage startups (including Uber in its 50-person days) to top executives navigating high-stakes change. But his most powerful lessons in connection didn't come from Silicon Valley. They came from his grandfather, a general in the Chinese army who took in orphans during a civil war and taught Maximos that success isn't about forcing change. It's about being the eyes and ears for someone else's potential. Maximos shares how he learned to look past résumés and "no's" to see what others missed, first as a recruiter, then as a coach to founders afraid of failing their teams. He talks about why anxiety is the real enemy of change, why unsolicited advice kills trust, and why the best salespeople don't try to change someone's mind. They change the emotional atmosphere in the room.
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