Failure Is the Best Teacher
So much is said, these days, about failure. Some people say, "I don't believe in failure. I either succeed or I learn." or I've heard, "Failure is a frame of mind.". I've even heard people say, "There is no such thing as failure you've only found out how not to do something." I call bullshit on those statements. Failure or losing at something is the best teacher. And I think... Read more
WIN Summit
I consider the The Women’s Insights on the Art of Negotiation Summit (WIN Summit) to be one of the most important conferences around today. I believe that empowering women to become better negotiators is noble and critical work. For too long women have borne the impact of a system that does not encourage or enable them to move forward. I am proud to be a very small part of a... Read more
Diminishing And Negative Returns
Turns out you can push a salesperson too far in a negotiation. You can negotiate to a point where the business becomes unsustainable and there are even cases where companies have gone bankrupt because of a negotiation going too far. And, the unfortunate truth is that many sales people don’t know how or when to say “no”. This is a HUGE issue! It's so big that a big portion of... Read more
My Daily Negotiation Discipline
I'm very fortunate to live and breathe negotiation and I'm likely a bit odd because I believe that good negotiation skills truly have the ability to change people's lives. Over the years I've developed a few practices that I do daily that have helped me develop my negotiation skill set. Some of them may seem obvious, but you may find some a little less so. What follows are the 3... Read more
Unethical Negotiation – The Plant
Deliberately planting false information in a negotiation to mislead the other party is unethical. The plant could happen a number of ways too, and it's important to be on the lookout for it. This can happen a number of ways and I'm going to discuss the most common two that you need to be on the lookout for and how to make sure you don't get caught by them: 1.... Read more
Preparing For My TEDx Audition
Last week Tuesday I auditioned for a spot on the speaker roster for the 2018 TEDxYYC event. It was an awesome and incredible process and everyone I auditioned with in my time slot was on point! They were excellent! And I realized when I watched them, that I was ready to audition, but so were they. Everyone brought a good game to the audition. This post is all about the... Read more
Is Sleep the Silver Bullet?
In the high performance business culture, rest and sleep is often equated with laziness. So many 'motivational' business people are all over the internet saying you should only be sleeping 4-5 hours a night. I too am guilty of supporting this advice. But, this may be bad advice. Many people favour production over sleep. Chances are, if you're reading this blog, you're one of those people. You're likely the kind... Read more
The Future Is Bright
The future is as bright as you make it. I know it sounds cheesy and I know it sound cliched but it's true. I never truly understood the power of belief and focused effort until I started my own business. Henry Ford is credited with saying, "Whether you believe you can or you can't, you're right.". I always thought, "Sure, that's easy for Henry Ford to have said!" How wrong... Read more
Going For the Kill Strike
We have a funny way of viewing negotiations don't we. Most of us see it as something to be avoided because of the potential for conflict. Some of us see it as just something that just has to get done. And then there are others that see it as a battle to the death, delivering a kill strike to our victim and ultimately becoming victorious. I think sometimes we get... Read more
7 Most Common Negotiation Mistakes
We all make mistakes in negotiations. My big one is pushing too hard too fast. But there are some mistakes that I see reoccur over and over again. These are the most common negotiation mistakes I see across multiple industries. Mistake 1: Not Asking for More Than You Expect to Get This is the golden rule of negotiating! And yet so few of us actually apply this rule. “Always ask... Read more