A Little Discussion

I'm wondering, how does everyone perform their readings?
How do you decided on the significator/querent?
How do you have the seeker get the question into the deck?
Do you ask for the question before you read?
What layout is your favorite?
I'll start.
I let the deck choose the significator card. I used to not, going through the deck until I found a card that seemed to me to be a good representation of the seeker. Then, I started to do the same, but letting intuition tell me when to stop. Then, following advice given to me by a professional when I was still starting out, I decided to let the deck decide by shuffling until I felt it was right and drew the first card to be the significator.
I get the question into the deck by placing the deck on top of the significator and having the seeker place their hand on the significator while I place my hand on the deck, and I have them focus their question and energy into the card and the deck while I open up a channel through the deck of an energy flow from them, into the deck, into me, through my third eye, and back into them. This is something that usually leaves both the seeker and me feeling energized after the reading, as well as allowing the question to pass through my third eye. Obviously, for remote readings I take the place of the seeker, placing my hand in a way that it is both on the deck and significator. In this case, also obviously, the energy flow is from myself to myself, still passing it through my third eye, so there is no exchanging of energy to leave us both energized. Then, I shuffle the deck, question already asked, while I concentrate on my third eye to allow it to guide my shuffling until I feel everything is in place.
I ask the question after the reading when it is in person, giving the seeker the option to keep it to themselves. I still provide a general view of what the cards had to say once everything has been said, in addition to my in-reading interpretation of each card. The knowing the question afterwards, if it isn't obvious after I've given the reading, allows me to offer more advice to the seeker based upon the message from the cards. However, for my remote readings, I do ask the question beforehand so I can concentrate it into the deck.
And lastly, my favorite layout is one of my own design that I call the Empathic Spread. I developed it for an empathic friend of mine with interest in Tarot, but found it has given me more accuracy and detail and depth to my readings and making me an in-demand reader on a site I read through.