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Ron’s new book, Shop Different, is out now: www.ronjohnsonshopsdifferent.com
What does the man who built the Apple Store think is the secret to great business? Two words: love and kindness.
Ron Johnson worked alongside Steve Jobs to create the Apple Store and the Genius Bar, and he helped bring the iPhone to market. Before Apple, he changed Target by partnering with architect Michael Graves to bring great design to everyday prices. Then came his toughest chapter: CEO of JCPenney.
In this episode of Big Swings Only, Kwame Christian sits down with Ron to go through his biggest wins and his biggest losses. Ron explains why Steve Jobs believed you should “ruthlessly eliminate hurry,” why every big idea should fit in four words or less, and why the details are what make something great. He talks openly about the “situational arrogance” that led him to move too fast at JCPenney. He also explains why he doesn’t believe failure teaches you more than success, and how luck shows up for people who are present enough to catch it. Plus: what it was really like to negotiate with Steve Jobs, and why Ron says managers lead with fear while leaders lead with love.
Most people will never learn what you're about to hear...
In this one-hour masterclass, Kwame Christian sits down with Mike Inman — the #1 negotiation trainer who has coached over 8,000 B2B negotiations and closed more than $1 billion in deals. Mike shares raw, practical, and battle-tested advice you can use immediately to transform the way you negotiate. No fluff. No theory. Just one straight hour of negotiation strategies that actually work.
If you’ve ever wondered how world-class negotiators stay calm under pressure, adapt to any situation, and win without destroying relationships, this is your episode.
Connect with Mike
negotiationtraining.com
Contact ANI
Request A Customized Workshop For Your Company
Follow Kwame Christian on LinkedIn
negotiateanything.com
Click here to buy your copy of Finding Confidence in Conflict: How to Negotiate Anything and Live Your Best Life!
You don't need to be rich or a finance expert to start building wealth. NerdWallet's Sean Pyles and Elizabeth Ayoola are living proof.
Kwame's episode on NerdWallet’s Smart Money Podcast: https://open.spotify.com/episode/3JsoelBqytmMXRmcA2qtK7?si=-gs3-9uMR2aZ16PNaKX3bg
CONTACT SEAN & ELIZABETH
Connect with Kwame:
Request A Customized Workshop For Your Company
Follow Kwame Christian on LinkedIn
negotiateanything.com
Click here to buy your copy of Finding Confidence in Conflict: How to Negotiate Anything and Live Your Best Life!
@kwamenegotiates across all social platforms
You saw Kelly Chase say, "I don't."
CONNECT WITH KELLY
TikTok: @iamkellychase
Connect with Kwame:
Request A Customized Workshop For Your Company
Follow Kwame Christian on LinkedIn
negotiateanything.com
Click here to buy your copy of Finding Confidence in Conflict: How to Negotiate Anything and Live Your Best Life!
@kwamenegotiates across all social platforms
You’ve hit the goals, earned the promotions, and it still feels like it’s never enough. The problem isn’t your ambition. It’s where your ambition is coming from.
Former Googler Brooke Taylor, author of Healing the Success Wound, joins Kwame Christian to unpack the one addiction society applauds: the addiction to achievement. Brooke shares how a stack-ranked sales job at Google, her father’s terminal cancer diagnosis, staying silent about harassment to protect a promotion, and getting sober led her to identify the “success wound,” the pain of mistaking success, productivity, and achievement for self-worth.
Connect with Brooke Taylor:
Book: Healing the Success Wound (Amazon and wherever books are sold)
Coaching: brooketaylorcoaching.com
Instagram: @brookevtaylor
Connect with Kwame:
Request A Customized Workshop For Your Company
Follow Kwame Christian on LinkedIn
negotiateanything.com
Click here to buy your copy of Finding Confidence in Conflict: How to Negotiate Anything and Live Your Best Life!
@kwamenegotiates across all social platforms
Varun Sharma has spent years working in green energy and hydrogen. So why is he now taking on defense and oil & gas clients?
Kwame Christian welcomes Varun back to the show to unpack "pragmatic idealism": holding on to your ideals while staying honest about how power actually works. Drawing on a decade in Estonia on NATO's eastern edge, a father who served in the military, and his years in government, Varun explains why strength prevents conflict instead of inviting it, why doing nothing is still a choice with consequences, and why polarization is costing us the middle ground.
Kwame also asks the question he poses to audiences in his trainings: would you rather have every negotiation skill in the world, or all the power and leverage? Varun's answer reframes the whole question. Plus: China, batteries and the geopolitics of the energy transition, AI and job losses, and Varun's three-step process for making hard decisions when your values pull in different directions.
CONNECT WITH VARUN
Sapient Ventures: https://sapient.ventures
Varun's previous episode: Stop Talking: How to Use Silence to Win Any Deal
Connect with Kwame:
Request A Customized Workshop For Your Company
Follow Kwame Christian on LinkedIn
negotiateanything.com
Click here to buy your copy of Finding Confidence in Conflict: How to Negotiate Anything and Live Your Best Life!
@kwamenegotiates across all social platforms
#Negotiation #DecisionMaking #Geopolitics
Vanessa Van Edwards once lost a dream TV deal over small talk. After 20 years of research, she knows how to turn small talk into real connection.
On this episode, Kwame Christian sits down with Vanessa Van Edwards, behavioral researcher, founder of Science of People and bestselling author of Captivate and Cues, to unpack her new book, Conversation: How to Connect with Anyone & Make Every Interaction Count. A self-described "recovering awkward person," Vanessa shares the science-backed conversation skills that changed her life, from escaping conversation dead ends to asking the questions that build deeper relationships.
If you've ever run out of things to say, overthought what to say next, or left a networking event feeling like you never really connected, this episode is for you.
In this episode, you'll learn:
- Why questions like "What do you do?" lead to conversation dead ends, and how to escape them
- The 3 levels of conversation: putting people at ease, connecting deeply and creating meaning
- The memoir question that sparks deeper conversations with the people who matter
- How your self-story (redemption vs. contamination frames) shapes how you listen and talk
- Why naming social cues calms your nerves, plus the body language that signals confidence
- Why talking for more than 40 seconds can turn a conversation into a monologue
- How to disagree respectfully and handle difficult conversations, even with family
- How to turn nerves into "good nerves" before a negotiation or presentation
- Constructive vs. deconstructive language: how to be authentically assertive
- How AI, voice notes and podcasts are weakening our conversation muscles
Recorded in partnership with The Ohio State University Moritz College of Law. Students from the school's new podcast, [STUDENT PODCAST NAME], join the conversation with questions on code switching, speaking a second language, fear in negotiations, toxic positivity and more.
Connect with Vanessa
Get Conversation by Vanessa Van Edwards: https://www.scienceofpeople.com/conversation/
Vanessa's website: https://www.scienceofpeople.com/conversation/
Connect with Kwame:
Request A Customized Workshop For Your Company
Follow Kwame Christian on LinkedIn
negotiateanything.com
Click here to buy your copy of Finding Confidence in Conflict: How to Negotiate Anything and Live Your Best Life!
@kwamenegotiates across all social platforms
#VanessaVanEdwards #SmallTalk #CommunicationSkills
Kwame Christian sits down with psychologist, marriage and family therapist, and founder of Growing Self Counseling & Coaching, Dr. Lisa Marie Bobby, and it quickly turns into two high achievers comparing notes on the hidden cost of always chasing the next win.
CONNECT WITH DR. LISA MARIE BOBBY
Request A Customized Workshop For Your Company
Follow Kwame Christian on LinkedIn
negotiateanything.com
Click here to buy your copy of Finding Confidence in Conflict: How to Negotiate Anything and Live Your Best Life!
@kwamenegotiates across all social platforms
If you've been pushing hard but feeling empty, this episode will challenge everything you believe about high performance. DJ Vanas — Air Force veteran, member of the Ottawa Nation, and author of The Warrior Within (Penguin Random House) — brings centuries of tribal wisdom into a single, urgent message: you cannot be of service to anyone when you are falling apart.
DJ has spoken at Fuqua School of Business at Duke University and Yakima Tribal Jail in the same week. His work spans 574 federally recognized tribes, healthcare systems, military organizations, and Fortune-level business teams. He doesn't teach cutting-edge frameworks — he teaches ancient ones that have been proven under the worst conditions in human history.
Connect with DJ Vanas
nativediscovery.com
Buy the Book: The Warrior Within
Contact ANI
Request A Customized Workshop For Your Company
Follow Kwame Christian on LinkedIn
negotiateanything.com
Click here to buy your copy of Finding Confidence in Conflict: How to Negotiate Anything and Live Your Best Life!
Nidhi explains why the biggest mistake leaders make is rushing from empathy into problem-solving, and why she never gives advice unless someone asks for it. She also asks a question worth sitting with: when we fix, share our own stories, or offer platitudes, whose comfort are we really prioritizing?
If you want to connect more deeply with the people in your life and at work, this one's for you.
Connect with Nidhi Tewari
www.nidhitewari.com
Connect with Kwame:
Request A Customized Workshop For Your Company
Follow Kwame Christian on LinkedIn
negotiateanything.com
Click here to buy your copy of Finding Confidence in Conflict: How to Negotiate Anything and Live Your Best Life!
@kwamenegotiates across all social platforms
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