Station 4 Negotiation July 28th, 2026 What can you make expensive — and when? ↓ Negotiation in 2 Two minutes.One real situation.One thing you can actually use the next time you need to persuade someone. The biggest, loudest threat across the table is almost never the one that actually has you cornered. And if you spend your energy answering it, you'll lose to the quiet lever you never looked at. Every negotiator confuses power with leverage at some point. Power is what someone can do to you —...
13 days ago • 4 min read
Station 4 Negotiation July 21st, 2026 How do you get people to do what you want? ↓ Negotiation in 2 Two minutes.One real situation.One thing you can actually use the next time you need to persuade someone. You can be completely right and still lose the room — when you're right about something that matters to you instead of something that matters to them. We're taught to make our best case: believe in it, lead with conviction, line up all the reasons it's true. But the person across the table...
20 days ago • 3 min read
Station 4 Negotiation July 14th, 2026 What is your spreadsheet lying to you about? ↓ Negotiation in 2 Two minutes.One real situation.One thing you can actually use the next time you need to persuade someone. Every spreadsheet is lying about something. Not the numbers — those are probably fine. It's lying about something sneakier: which of them is an asset and which is a liability. A spreadsheet will call something an asset while it quietly bleeds you, and something a liability while it's the...
27 days ago • 6 min read
Station 4 Negotiation July 7th, 2026 Is arguing America's oldest negotiation skill? ↓ Negotiation in 2 Two minutes.One real situation.One thing you can actually use the next time you need to persuade someone. America just turned 250. And the most American thing about us might be how much we've always argued. We spent the weekend celebrating a nation that was born out of disagreement — thirteen colonies that couldn't agree on much, hammering out a founding through argument, compromise, and no...
about 1 month ago • 3 min read
Station 4 Negotiation June 30th, 2026 Why is the date the most expensive thing in your contract? ↓ Negotiation in 2 Two minutes.One real situation.One thing you can actually use the next time you need to persuade someone. The most important term in your contract isn't the price. It's the date. Most people, when they're handed a deadline or an ultimatum, ask the wrong first question. They ask what it says. The better question is when — when does this thing actually detonate, and on whose...
about 1 month ago • 3 min read
Station 4 Negotiation June 23rd, 2026 How do you ask for more money? ↓ Negotiation in 2 Two minutes.One real situation.One thing you can actually use the next time you need to persuade someone. Ah, the number one question working professionals ask negotiation coaches and teachers: how do I ask for more money? Most people hear that and think salary. What we'll talk about here certainly applies to salary. But it's the same skill whether you're asking your boss for a raise, asking a client for a...
about 2 months ago • 4 min read
Station 4 Negotiation June 16th, 2026 Whose frame are you negotiating in? ↓ Negotiation in 2 Two minutes.One real situation.One thing you can actually use the next time you need to persuade someone. When the other side opens with terms you don’t like, initial instinct is to argue them down. Don’t. The moment you argue, you’ve agreed to fight on their ground. That sounds strange coming from me. On the podcast, I spend most of my time telling you to build bridges — empathy, respect, lowering...
about 2 months ago • 4 min read
Station 4 Negotiation June 9th, 2026 What do you do when neither side will budge? ↓ Negotiation in 2 Two minutes.One real situation.One thing you can actually use the next time you need to persuade someone. When a deal stalls, most people's instinct is to make it smaller. Cut the scope. Drop a term. Find the one clean trade everyone can live with. Sometimes that's exactly wrong. I recently read Swap: A Secret History of the New Cold War, by Wall Street Journal reporters Drew Hinshaw and Joe...
2 months ago • 4 min read
Station 4 Negotiation June 2nd, 2026 What actually absorbs tension in a room? ↓ Negotiation in 2 Two minutes.One real situation.One thing you can actually use the next time you need to persuade someone. A note before you read on: this week's email discusses a real suicide-attempt rescue. Please, if you or someone you know is struggling, call or text 988, the Suicide and Crisis Lifeline. You do not have to face this alone. There are people who will help if you give them the chance. Let's...
2 months ago • 4 min read