What if the skills used to negotiate with hostage takers could make you a better leader, entrepreneur, salesperson, and communicator?

In this episode of Unlocked, Michelle Delamor sits down with former FBI lead hostage negotiator Chris Voss, bestselling author of Never Split the Difference, to uncover the communication strategies that helped save lives and now help leaders negotiate better deals, build trust faster, and influence anyone.

Chris shares incredible behind-the-scenes hostage negotiation stories, explains why most people completely misunderstand empathy, and reveals practical techniques you can use immediately in business, relationships, and high stakes conversations.

Whether you're negotiating a million-dollar deal, leading a team, closing a client, or simply trying to communicate more effectively, this conversation is packed with actionable insights.

In this episode:

• The FBI communication technique that instantly builds trust

• Why naming emotions is more powerful than giving advice

• How to influence people without manipulation

• The biggest negotiation mistakes people make

• The psychology behind difficult people and bad clients

• How to know when to walk away from a deal

• The "Late Night FM DJ Voice" that instantly calms people

• Lessons from real hostage negotiations that apply to business

If you enjoyed this conversation, be sure to like, subscribe, and share it with someone who wants to become a better communicator and negotiator.

Stormi Steele built one of the fastest-growing beauty brands in America.

From dropping out of college with just 24 credit hours left, to building Canvas Beauty into a multi-million dollar empire, her story is packed with risk, intuition, resilience, and some unbelievable twists.

In this episode of Unlocked with Michelle Delamor, Stormi opens up about battling depression, walking away from the life everyone expected her to live, building her first hair growth product in her kitchen, scaling to $23M in annual sales, and the shocking moment she lost everything overnight.

She shares the power of trusting your intuition, why comfort can be dangerous for entrepreneurs, the lessons she learned after a devastating business setback, and how she rebuilt from the ground up when most people would have quit.

If you've ever felt called to something bigger, struggled with fear, or wondered what it really takes to build an empire, this conversation is for you.

In this episode:

• The dream that changed Stormi's life forever

• Why she dropped out of college with only 24 credits remaining

• The depression that nearly ended her story before it began

• Building Canvas Beauty from her kitchen

• The Facebook strategy that sparked explosive growth

• Going from $50K to $1M months

• The moment a client pulled a gun on her

• Scaling to $23M in annual revenue

• How she lost everything overnight

• The business mistake that nearly destroyed the company

• Rebuilding from zero through sheer determination

• Why intuition is her greatest business advantage

• What entrepreneurs get wrong about comfort and growth

CHAPTERS

00:00 Intro & Stormi's incredible journey

01:27 The depression that changed everything

03:54 Leaving college with 24 credits left

07:13 Trusting the dream that became Canvas Beauty

08:20 Moving to Alabama with $800 and no plan

11:18 Building a hairstyling business from scratch

14:56 The salon confrontation that changed her life

18:13 Why growth lives outside your comfort zone

20:30 Creating the first Canvas Beauty product

24:24 The first 200 bottles sell out overnight

25:49 A client pulls a gun on Stormi

27:23 The power of intuition in business

29:51 Quitting hair and betting on Canvas Beauty

31:09 The first $50K month

32:01 Cracking the Facebook growth formula

33:40 From startup to $1M months

35:15 Scaling to $23M in revenue

36:06 The shocking moment she lost everything overnight

38:03 Rebuilding from nothing through sales

43:00 Live selling and becoming a phenomenon

50:00 Building a personal brand that converts

57:00 Lessons from scaling a beauty empire

1:04:00 Leadership, intuition & decision making

1:11:00 What success really costs

1:18:00 Advice for entrepreneurs chasing big dreams

1:24:00 Final thoughts & closing lessons

Subscribe for more conversations with world-class founders, creators, and entrepreneurs.

#StormiSteele #CanvasBeauty #MichelleDelamor #UnlockedPodcast #Entrepreneurship #BusinessPodcast #FounderStory #WomenInBusiness #StartupStory #BeautyBusiness #BusinessGrowth #LiveSelling #60DayHustle #FemaleFounder #BusinessLessons

Presented by 60 Day Hustle.

60 Day Hustle presents

Vineet Mehra has spent his career helping build some of the world's most recognizable brands, from Procter & Gamble and Johnson & Johnson to Ancestry, Walgreens, and now Chime.

Along the way, he became one of the most influential marketers in the world, helping launch category-defining products, leading billion-dollar businesses, and transforming how companies think about growth, brand building, and customer obsession. But behind the titles and accolades is a leader who has consistently chosen discomfort over comfort, reinvention over certainty, and long-term impact over short-term success.

In this episode of Unlocked, Michelle sits down with Vineet to explore the realities of leadership at the highest level, what it takes to build brands that truly matter, and why some of the biggest opportunities in life come from embracing uncertainty.

They discuss the hidden cost of growth, the pressure that comes with success, and how leaders can avoid becoming trapped by the very things they've worked so hard to achieve.

Vineet shares:

• Why comfort can be one of the biggest obstacles to growth

• The career decisions that shaped his path from P&G to Chime

• What separates great brands from forgettable ones

• How Chime built a category-defining business by focusing on underserved customers

• Why modern marketing is really about earning attention, not buying it

• The leadership lessons he's learned from managing global teams and billion-dollar brands

• How AI is changing the future of marketing and business

• The mindset shift that helped him continue growing after reaching the top levels of his career