Negotiating - Friday Fundamentals

The Real Estate Way to Wealth and Freedom

Every day you are pitching, selling, and negotiating. While you may not realize it, you are constantly vying to communicate a point to someone else, present yourself in a certain way, and so much more. Just the simple act of communication in your day to day life is a form of pitching and selling. You communicate your thoughts to others in the form of a conversation (or podcast episode in this very moment), using words to express your thoughts and feelings to someone else. Communication, defined, is to share or exchange information, news, or ideas.

From your direct actions to your subconscious thoughts, you are constantly maneuvering so that you can affect the way you are perceived and influence others how you want. This isn't a bad thing; we all do it. From political speeches to casual conversations with friends, the words we use are meant to communicate our points and shape others' thoughts.

There are also nonverbal ways we pitch, sell, and negotiate. How you dress, your body language, your actions, how you listen, among many other factors, are ways you relay nonverbal cues to others.

You may be thinking, I don't have anything to pitch, sell, or negotiate. You might nor be in sales, or be a high profile defense attorney, but none the less you pitch, sell, and negotiate your biggest asset every single day. That is yourself. At work or in a professional setting, you probably dress professionally, speak more properly, and act in a certain manner respective to your location. Let's take that high profile defense attorney for an example. You wouldn't expect him or her to walk in the courtroom to present the closing argument in a sports jersey with flip flops and sunglasses, right? You would especially hope not if you're the defendant being represented! But why not? Perhaps the attorney is well prepared and has a solid defense put together. The reason is the attorney is selling him or herself as someone with status who is knowledgable, respected, and takes their responsibility seriously. They're selling themself first before they even pitch and negotiate to the jury the case at hand.

Beyond your everyday casual interactions with others, there are many other scenarios when you need to pitch, negotiate, and sell. From negotiating a raise at your job to making offers on investment properties, you must know how to frame conversations, listen to and guide the other person's thoughts and actions to create the outcomes you want.

Pitching, selling, and negotiating are subjects that have been researched, studied, and written about in-depth for many years. I've found a few books and resources particularly valuable. They are:

1. Pitch Anything by Oren Klaf
2. Never Split the Difference by Chris Voss
3. Sell or Be Sold by Grant Cardone

You have something that others want and need, whether that's a bit of information that you know that someone else doesn't, or something you have learned from your experience, simply some words of encouragement, a solution you can provide for someone else, or a number of other things. It's up to you to be able to present those ideas, frame them in a way that you can easily communicate them, and ultimately persuade someone to take action. That's exactly what I am doing here. By interviewing guests every week to providing little nuggets of information on Friday Fundamentals, I hope to provide the knowledge and motivation for you to achieve financial freedom, build the life you want, and help others do the same. Someone somewhere wants and needs what you have. It's up to you to find who, where, and how to provide that value.

"You either promote what you've got, or you're demoting it." - Robert Martinez, Guest on Episode 252.