We’ve discussed BATNAs and the huge advantage they grant us at the negotiating table.

Most of us think of set-in-stone BATNAs, but what about the more theoretical ones?

What about “phantom BATNAs” - the not-so-certain options we keep in our back pockets?

Materializing these phantom BATNAs into something real can be hugely helpful.

How do we shore up our phantom BATNAs so they truly bolster our confidence in negotiations?

In this episode, I talk about how to bring a theoretical BATNA to life.

Three Things You’ll Learn In This Episode 

• The advantage of having even theoretical alternatives
  Are you more ambitious with a BATNA, even if it’s a phantom one?
  
  
• How to invest in other options
  What steps can we take to fortify our phantom BATNAs?
  
  
• The best lens to see all your opportunities through
  When you have a BATNA every avenue you evaluate is going to be held to that standard. Does that bring us closer to what serves us?

When you have an imminent negotiation, there’s no time to dig into the nitty-gritty of your beliefs and socialization.

That doesn’t mean you have to go in unprepared.

There are brain hacks you can use to neutralize the mental and emotional hurdles right now.

When your brain offers unhelpful thoughts - how do you pivot?

In this episode, I share some quick brain hacks to effectively advocate for yourself.

Three Things You’ll Learn In This Episode 

• Focus on shared value
  How can we short-circuit our brains telling us advocating for ourselves is greedy?
  
  
• Don’t fixate on what you want to avoid
  Can we get our emotions in check ahead of time?
  
  
• Separate then from now
  If you were shot down before, you’ll go into this negotiation expecting the same. How do you dump that baggage?

In our lives and careers, we’re taught to work, make money, save it, and enjoy it later.

Unfortunately, this delayed gratification mentality robs us of the experiences we can have right now when we have our health and are young enough to enjoy them.

But just like stocks, life experiences pay dividends too and if we can negotiate for them in our contracts, we can enjoy more of our lives now.

How do we carve out room for meaningful life experiences?

In this episode, I reflect on what I’ve been learning in Bill Perkins’ book, Die With Zero.

Three Things You’ll Learn In This Episode 

• Enhance your job for maximum life experience
  What, aside from salary, would be valuable for you to negotiate for to enhance your life?
  
  
• What can you negotiate for to be a happier individual
  How can you advocate for more time off or just a little more room in your schedule for yourself?
  
  
• You don’t have to wait till retirement
  Are there ways for us to make those bucket list things a reality for us right now?

A few months ago, I set a word for the year and a powerful intention to go with it- less.

In a world of overachieving and stressful schedules, I decided to try experimenting with less, and it’s been an interesting journey.

Whether it’s at work or at home, mercilessly purging things that don’t serve us gives us a lot of energy, but how do we go about it?

In this episode, I share an update on how I’m doing in my pursuit of ‘less’ and my tips for doing the same.

Three Things You’ll Learn In This Episode 

• How to get rid of schedule clutter
  Does our ego make it difficult for us to purge tasks that don’t serve us as work and how do we overcome it?
  
  
• My decluttering discovery
  In constantly buying and holding onto stuff we don’t really need, are we neglecting the impact clutter can have on us?
  
  
• Purging energy zappers from your work
  How do we eliminate well-meaning commitments that are actually limitations in disguise?

In negotiation and in our jobs in general, the importance of our words and the language we use can’t be stressed enough.

Our language can make the difference between mutual success and stalled progress.

Whether we’re talking with our leaders, or we’re the leaders ourselves, there are ways to use conversational intelligence to get on the same page with whoever we’re talking to.

What language choices are helpful and beneficial at work?

How do we make the transition from being led to becoming a leader?

In this episode, I’m joined by Leadership Consultant and the founder of 304 Coaching (and my personal coach), Jen Thornton.

She shares some awesome insight into the language of leadership.

Three Things You’ll Learn In This Episode 

• The easiest way to become a better leader
  When you’re a new leader, how do you smoothly settle into that role?
  
  
• Zoom in, not out
  How do we have more aligned and productive conversations with our leaders?
  
  
• How to cement loyalty
  When it comes to our work as physicia...

“Ugh, I have to be on call AGAIN”, “I have to wash my kids’ clothes for school.”

We all have the bad habit of using words like have to and can’t in just about every area of our lives.

The problem is: it disempowers us and robs us of the agency we have to make decisions for ourselves.

How do we start challenging this language and change our self-talk?

In this episode, I talk about choice and why we have to change our language about it.

Three Things You’ll Learn In This Episode 

• The difference between being trapped and setting boundaries
  How do we start seeing the choices we make as empowered actions to create the best circumstances for ourselves?
  
  
• Choosing in alignment with our values
  When we say we have to do something, we forget that our values are what drive our actions. How do we remind ourselves?
  
  
• How to challenge your self-talk
  How do we break the habit of saying we have to or we can’t and replace that language with something more helpful?

From school assignments to work projects and even everyday decisions, we’ve been socialized to believe that deadlines are absolute, but are they really?

There’s something disempowering about a rigid deadline, especially when we’re trying to decide on a job offer, but we can totally challenge that.

How do we gently push back on a deadline?

In this episode, I’m talking about deadlines and why they might not be as set in stone as we believe.

Three Things You’ll Learn In This Episode 

• When you feel pressured to decide
  When we’re given a deadline, it’s hard to make a decision from a deliberate, unrushed place. How do we get ourselves out of fight or flight mode?
  
  
• How to politely push back on a deadline
  Can you still advocate for yourself when the deadline is a rigid one?
  
  
• How to buy time when you need it
  Is it possible to ask an employer for more time on a decision?

Reciprocity is a social construct that goes back centuries, and it’s so innate in us that it feels like second nature.

It’s also a powerful tool in a negotiation.

When someone gives us something, this built-in need for us to do something for them in return is triggered, and it makes it easier to come to an agreement that satisfies both sides of a negotiation.

Behaviorally, how does reciprocity lay the groundwork for a successful negotiation?

How do we prepare for a negotiation with reciprocity in mind?

In this special replay episode, I talk about how one social construct can impact your ability to get a deal that reflects your value.

Three Things You’ll Learn In This Episode 

• Why reciprocity makes us kinder and more considerate
  How does reciprocity make human beings more friendly and cooperative?
  
  
• How to use reciprocity to get a deal you’re thrilled with
  The law of reciprocity presents the perfect opportunity to stretch what we’re asking for, but how do we make sure that stretch goal i...

Whether you’re trying to get your dream package, get your kids to do something, or buy a home, negotiation skills come in handy in many situations in our lives.

This is very true in my real estate adventures over the last year as we’ve been trying to buy a lake property.

After 2 attempts that didn’t go the way we planned, we finally got something (yay), but I don’t consider the last two attempts as failures.

What did I learn from the deals that didn’t go through?

In this episode, I share more lessons from my lake home misadventures and how we can apply them to employee negotiations.

Three Things You’ll Learn In This Episode 

• A lessons in when to walk away
  Do we reserve the right to back out from something that won’t work for us?
  
  
• Failed negotiations aren’t a failure
  What lessons can we extract from the negotiations that stall or even collapse entirely?
  
  
• To counter or not to counter
  How do we know it’s fine to accept the deal instead of holding out for something better?

In any negotiation or conversation, language matters.

Our choice of words has the power to either create a collaborative environment or an antagonistic one, and we can better inform the outcome when we practice beforehand.

Our mindset flavors the conversations we’ll have, and before the negotiation, we can try on different words for size to see what works best.

How do we start this practice internally and then in lower stakes negotiations?

In this episode, I talk about the power of selecting and practicing your mindset before the negotiation.

Three Things You’ll Learn In This Episode 

• How to eliminate negativity from the conversation
  What words would create an antagonistic, tug-of-war negotiation?
  
  
• How to encourage shared success
  What language can we use to create an intersectional alignment of goals?
  
  
• Why buzzwords might not work in our favor
  Can coming up with a set script actually work against the conversational environment we’re trying to create?

If you haven’t already, ple...