SAY THE NUMBER — INTERVIEW PREP
Subject: Sandra Dezan | Interviewer: Joseph Tito | The Appetite Issue
NOTE: This is your prep + question set for the real interview. The composite "Say the Number" draft (with Daniela R.) stays in the folder only as a TONE / STRUCTURE model — do not publish any of its invented answers. Run this live with Sandra, record it, and build the published Q&A from her actual words. We profiled Sandra last month, so pull her bio, company, and the headline numbers from that piece for the standfirst rather than re-asking the basics.
THE ANGLE (keep this in your back pocket the whole time)
Money is the last appetite we still ask women to perform shame about. Men who want money are "ambitious." Women who want it are "after something." This isn't a how-to-negotiate piece — it's about permission, and the cost of wanting it out loud. Push Sandra past the polished founder answers into the part she's not supposed to say.
THE ONE BEAT WE NEED ON TAPE
Get her to say an actual number out loud — a fee, a raise, a valuation, a net worth, whatever she'll give — and then let the silence sit. The piece is called Say the Number. If she rounds down, softens, or laughs it off, that reflex IS the story: name it in the room and ask her to do it again, straight.
If you're looking for more on why women talk themselves out of naming their worth before anyone even pushes back, our piece on overcoming self-doubt digs into that same reflex from a different angle.
OPENING (disarm, then go)
Last month we told the world what you built. Today I want the part that didn't make the profile. How much do you actually want — not "comfortable," not "secure," the real number?
Did you feel that? That half-second where the good girl wanted to say "it was never about the money"? Where does that reflex come from for you?
When did you first understand money was something you were allowed to want — or did you ever fully get that permission?
THE COST (the heat of the piece)
What has wanting money out loud cost you, socially? What do they call you that they'd call a man "impressive" for?
Tell me about a time you undercharged or negotiated against yourself before anyone pushed back. What were you actually afraid of?
We have no flattering word for a rich, ambitious woman — the closest is "gold digger," which assumes she got it through a man. What do you make of that?
Who in your life got uncomfortable when the money got real? Did any relationship not survive it?
THE TURN (mechanics + permission)
Walk me through the first time you said a big number and didn't soften it. What did your body do?
The research says women ask for less and get penalized more when they do ask. You say it's not a script problem, it's a permission problem. Explain the difference.
What do you do in the silence after you name a price? What should women do?
THE LEGACY (lands the close)
If you have daughters, or young women who look up to you — what are you doing differently so they never negotiate against themselves for free?
For the woman reading this who physically cannot say her number yet — what's the one thing you'd tell her to do tomorrow?
Finish this sentence and don't add anything after it: "The number is ______."
PULL-QUOTE TARGETS (what we're fishing for)
A clean line on the double standard (ambition vs. "after something").
A confession of self-discounting + what broke it.
The silence-after-the-number discipline.
One unguarded line about what it cost her socially.
LOGISTICS
Record everything; flag her best 2-3 lines live so we can build pull quotes fast.
Confirm what she'll let us print re: actual figures before you publish.
Portrait: warm power, her environment, no cold-CEO cliché. Shoot or pull from last month's session.
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