Season 3, Ep. 20: How can we set boundaries when negotiating?

And so I know that you've had a lot, I mean, with all the different entrepreneurial things that you're doing, you do a lot of negotiations and you also wrote a book basically around negotiations.

Why don't you tell us a little bit about that and then we can dive into the topics that you cover in the book.

Yeah, the new book that I wrote is called A Little Bit of A-hole.

It's a little provocative title, but it's purposely provocative because I think there's a lot of people, and this relates really well to negotiation skills.

People get taken advantage of when they're too nice.

And if you're a people pleaser, you almost lose sight of your own identity because you're only focusing on helping others versus helping yourself.

And there's got to be a balance there.

And if you're a people pleaser, you almost lose your self-confidence as well because you don't even know who you are anymore.

So how that relates to negotiation skills, if you're a people pleaser, you agree to literally everything.

You're not worried about getting what you want.

You're worried about ending the conversation as quick as possible.

And so our book really focuses on the ability to say no and be comfortable saying no.

Take a step further, comfortable saying no without having to explain it as well.

And then also being able to put boundaries around a situation and letting people know that, hey, you know, Alice, I'm a nice guy, but I don't want to be liked.

I want to be kind.

You know, I want to be respected.

I'm not worried about being liked.

And I think people over-focus on that, especially when they set boundaries.

So it's healthy to set boundaries between professionals, loved ones, kids, et cetera, because it helps them grow and it helps you grow as well.