Imagine you’re on the phone with a kidnapper. Your goal is to get them to release their hostage as soon as possible. It’s a life or death situation. If you say one wrong thing, it could quickly escalate and you’ll have a disaster on your hands. My guest for this episode is Chris Voss. As an FBI Hostage Negotiator for over 24 years, he’s been in that exact situation dozens of times. You don’t operate in that kind of high-pressure environment without coming away with powerful insights on human nature and human psychology. When Chris decided to share his wisdom in a book, Never Split the Difference: Negotiating As If Your Life Depended On It, it was bound to be a hit. He is also the CEO of The Black Swan Group, a company that provides negotiation training for businesses, individuals and even law enforcement. The negotiation strategies that Chris has developed don’t just work in hostage situations, they’re applicable to business deals, sales and even internal communications. His methodology focuses on uncovering black swans or small pieces of information that can be used to achieve the desired outcome. In addition to this episode, I encourage you to listen to my wife, Orion’s episode with Chris Voss on the Stellar Life podcast, episode number 137.