Brainfluence

Today’s guest is a former hostage negotiator for the FBI. Now you may be wondering what hostage negotiations have to do with you, but the answer is: a lot. Chris Voss has demonstrated that his techniques—which are rooted in brain science—crush the traditional approach to business negotiation, and we can all use his advice for negotiating within our own lives.

Chris’ company, The Black Swan Group, specializes in solving business communication problems using hostage negotiation solutions, and he joins the podcast today to share his expertise, as well as insights from his new book, Never Split the Difference: Negotiating As If Your Life Depended On It. Listen in to learn tricks for negotiating in highly emotional situations, advice for building trust, and more.

You can find show notes and more information by clicking here: http://bit.ly/2IIG2rU 

My guest this week is going to help us with a problem that makes many of us cringe—actually, she’s going to help with cringing itself. Melissa Dahl is an expert on awkwardness, and she's here today to share advice for dealing with this uncomfortable feeling. A senior editor covering health and psychology for New York's The Cut, Melissa cofounded New York’s popular social science site, Science of Us, in 2014. You may have also seen her work in Elle, Parents, or TODAY.com.

In this episode, you'll hear fascinating insights from Melissa's new book, Cringeworthy: A Theory of Awkwardness, on the science behind feeling awkward. She also gives tips for helping yourself to feel less awkward in social situations. Listen in to hear all that and more!

You can find show notes and more information by clicking here: http://bit.ly/2I8oz8U 

Jeffrey Shaw is many things: a photographer, an entrepreneur, the host of popular business podcast Creative Warriors, a featured storyteller on The Moth, a nationally acclaimed keynote speaker, and the author of LINGO: Discover Your Ideal Customer’s Secret Language and Make Your Business Irresistible. As one of the most sought-after portrait photographers in the U.S. for more than three decades, Jeffrey has photographed the families of such notables as Tom Seaver, Pat Riley, David Bloom, and Stephanie Seymour, and his portraits have appeared on the Oprah Show, in People and O magazines, and more.

But his keen eye isn’t just for photography. Jeffrey has also honed his ability to sense the needs of others, as well as trends in business. He uses this skill to teach entrepreneurs how to attract their ideal customers by speaking their secret language, and he joins this episode to share his expertise. Listen in to learn what it takes to build a brand people trust, how to avoid the common mistakes too many entrepreneurs make, and where to start learning and developing lingo that will resonate with customers.

You can find show notes and more information by clicking here: http://bit.ly/2HEtiPz 

Steve Bistritz knows firsthand how to work with C-level executives. With over 40 years of high-tech sales, sales management, and training management experience—as well as over 27 years working with IBM in sales and training-related positions—Steve is the President and Founder of sales training and consulting company SellXL.com. He is also a popular keynote speaker and the co-author of the best-selling book Selling to the C-Suite: What Every Executive Wants You to Know About Successfully Selling to the Top.

In this episode, Steve shares key takeaways from the book, which provides expert advice rooted in 10 years of empirical research conducted through interviews with C-Suite executives in 500 diverse companies and government bodies. Listen in to learn how to gain access to the most relevant executives for any buying decision, common mistakes that too many salespeople make, and more.

You can find show notes and more information by clicking here: http://bit.ly/2vBMPhR 

Any good marketer should try to keep up with Google’s ever-changing metrics, and today’s guest is one of the best resources for doing so. Rand Fishkin is the founder of SparkToro, and was previously cofounder of Moz and Inbound.org. He’s dedicated his professional life to helping people do better marketing through the Whiteboard Friday video series and his blog. He also shares business advice—as well as his personal story—in his new book, Lost and Founder: A Painfully Honest Field Guide to the Startup World.

In this episode, Rand shares the stories behind his entrepreneurial adventures and misadventures, as well as the major lessons he learned along the way. Listen in to hear what Rand says every entrepreneur must keep in mind when looking into funding, timely SEO advice for businesses, and more.

You can find show notes and more information by clicking here: http://bit.ly/2Hz4pFy 

Today's guest is an international speaker and bestselling author on innovation and design. Most recently serving as the Global VP of Innovation and Officer at VF Corporation (a parent organization to over 30 global apparel companies, including The North Face, Vans, Timberland, and Nautica), Soon Yu regularly consults business leaders on developing meaningful Iconic Signature Elements, Signature Moments, and Signature Communication.

Soon has been featured in the Wall Street Journal, Washington Post, Entrepreneur Magazine, and New York Times, and he joins us today to share valuable advice on to how to build a brand's iconicity. Listen in to hear tips from his new book, Iconic Advantage®, and learn what it really takes for brands to become iconic.

You can find show notes and more information by clicking here: http://bit.ly/2GSLu7G 

Heather Ann Havenwood is a serial entrepreneur whose early career accomplishments include starting an online publishing company and taking it from zero to a seven-figure revenue in less than a year. She is also a prolific author—with titles ranging from dating to podcasting to entrepreneurship—and has been named one of the Top 50 Must-Follow Women Entrepreneurs for 2017 by Huffington Post.

Heather joins the podcast today to share insights from her newest book, Sexy Boss: How Female Entrepreneurs are Beating the BIG Boys While Changing the Rule Book for Money, Success and Even Sex. Listen in to hear the important lessons she learned from the struggles along her entrepreneurial journey, as well as her advice for female entrepreneurs to help them become a powerful force in the world.

You can find show notes and more information by clicking here: http://bit.ly/2GC5deX 

Have you ever met someone new, and then five minutes later realized you couldn’t remember that person’s name? Or have you ever tried to learn a language and been frustrated by your inability to recall many of the words that you just learned? Today’s guest can help you with those common memory struggles and more.

Dr. Anthony Metivier is the founder of the Magnetic Memory Method, a systematic, 21st Century approach to memorizing just about anything. What separates his approach from others is that he doesn’t focus on memorizing long strings of digits or training for memory championships. Instead, he focuses on things that are part of your daily life, such as names and faces, material for tests and exams, and foreign language vocabulary.

In this episode, Anthony shares the simple memory techniques that he describes as easy, elegant, effective and fun. Listen in to learn how to use them to improve your memory.

You can find show notes and more information by clicking here: http://bit.ly/2DV1Fil 

How many emails do you delete or scroll past every day without even reading them? Just taking a minute to think about that should give you a good idea of how utterly ineffective most marketing emails are. So what does it take to stand out in a crowded inbox? Today’s guest is here to tell us.

Erin Gargan is an award-winning entrepreneur, best-selling author, and digital persuasion expert who helps sales, marketing, and event professionals become more persuasive online communicators. She sold her first two companies—Jump Digital Media and PMS.com—before the age of 30, and in 2010, she founded Socialite Agency, a social media firm whose clients include The Oscars, ABC/Disney, VISA, Target, Hitachi, Siemens, and more.

In this episode, Erin breaks down her sales messaging formula that has been leveraged by some of the world’s biggest brands and shares advice from her new book, Digital Persuasion: Sell Smarter in the Modern Marketplace. Listen in to learn how to avoid the common mistakes most email marketers make and what you can do to stand out online.

You can find show notes and more information by clicking here: http://bit.ly/2u7ns6C 

Sometimes, learning from your mistakes doesn't work. When a decision you made turns out badly, your first instinct is to not repeat that. But, that decision may well have been the best one with the information you had.

Or, have you ever over-analyzed a decision so much that you prevented yourself from actually making a choice? It seems we've all been there, and today's guest is here to tell us how to overcome this situation of paralysis by analysis, as well as how to become a better decision maker.

Annie Duke is a World Series of Poker bracelet winner, the winner of the 2004 Tournament of Champions, and the only woman to win the NBC National Poker Heads Up Championship. Merging her poker expertise with her cognitive psychology graduate work at UPenn, Annie is now a full-time professional speaker and decision strategist.

In this episode, Annie explains the science behind how we evaluate decisions and how to reframe our thinking to look at decisions objectively. You'll hear insights from her new book, Thinking In Bets: Making Smarter Decisions When You Don’t Have All the Facts, on the biggest problems we have as decision makers, how the wrong kind of decision-making can hurt innovation, and more.

You can find show notes and more information by clicking here: http://bit.ly/2FIaKQo