Left Handed Golfers

Before You Sign: What I Really Look For in a Partnership

The 48 hours before a deal closes matter more than any contract clause.

Bert Seale·Founder, Ask Intimacy·5 min read

Most people think partnerships fall apart after the handshake. The real risk is in the 48 hours before it.

I've been in rooms where deals were about to happen — good deals, smart deals, deals that made sense on paper — and I've watched them dissolve. Not because the numbers were wrong. Not because the opportunity wasn't real. But because somewhere in those final moments, someone wasn't ready to commit to something bigger than their own hesitation.

I've also been in rooms where the opposite happened. Where two people looked at each other and said, without a single word: let's go.

That second kind of room is what I build toward. Every time.

Both sides are interviewing each other — always

Here's something most business conversations won't tell you: before any agreement is signed, both people are in an interview. Not a formal one. Not one with a script. But an interview nonetheless.

You're asking each other: Do we move at the same speed? Do we handle uncertainty the same way? When things get uncomfortable — and they will — are we both the kind of people who lean in instead of pulling back?

These aren't questions on a form. They reveal themselves in how someone texts you back. In whether they show up prepared. In how they talk about the people they've worked with before. In whether they go quiet when it's time to decide.

"The best partners I've ever had? They were a little scared. They said yes anyway."

Hesitation isn't a red flag. Permanent hesitation is.

I want to be clear about something — hesitation is normal. Healthy, even. You should think carefully before you put your name on something. I respect someone who asks hard questions. I respect someone who takes the time to understand what they're walking into.

What I don't respect is using endless hesitation as a substitute for a decision. Because here's what I've learned: the window on great opportunities doesn't stay open. It wasn't designed to. The people who win are the ones who can feel the weight of a decision and make it anyway — not because they're reckless, but because they trust themselves enough to move.

Dragging your feet isn't caution. It's fear dressed up in business clothes.

What intimacy actually means in business

When I tell people the name of what I'm building — Ask Intimacy — I watch their faces. Some of them smirk. Some tilt their head.

Then I explain it, and something shifts.

Intimacy isn't a word that belongs only in personal relationships. It belongs in every room where trust is required. And trust is required in every room that matters.

Intimacy in business means: I see you clearly. I'm not performing. I'm not negotiating from a script. I'm here as a real person, with real intentions, asking you to do the same. It means being kind when it costs you something. Being direct when it's easier to dodge. Showing up completely — not just when it's convenient.

The deals that last — the partnerships, the collaborations, the agreements that actually produce something — they all have one thing in common. The people involved were willing to be real with each other before a single document was signed.

That's intimacy. That's business. That's what I'm building a platform around.

My own story

Seale and Flaz didn't come together because everything was perfect. We came together because we both recognized something in each other — a standard, a seriousness, a refusal to do things halfway. We asked each other the hard questions. We sat in the uncomfortable spaces. And then we said yes.

Not because we had every answer. But because we both knew that the cost of waiting was higher than the risk of committing.

That's the moment every partnership is made. Not in the paperwork. In the decision to trust.

So before you sign — ask yourself this

Are you hesitating because something is genuinely wrong? Or are you hesitating because being in is scarier than watching from the outside?

Because if the vision is right, if the people are right, if your gut has been telling you yes for weeks — the only thing left to do is stop waiting for certainty that isn't coming, and make the move that changes what's possible.

The best deals I've ever seen? Both people were a little scared. They did it anyway.

— Bert Seale

Ask Intimacy — The App

Intimacy is how every great relationship — business or personal — actually gets built. Ask Intimacy is a platform designed to help you show up fully: in your partnerships, your conversations, your commitments. Because the way you connect is the way you grow.