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Let's make every conversation a winning negotiation.
Jeff, welcome to the show.
Thank you so much for having me.
I really appreciate it.
Yes, and I appreciate you, my friend.
And now, listeners, I know what you think I'm going to say.
Hey, Jeff, well, let's start off by telling us a little bit about yourself and what you do.
That's not what we're going to do directly this time, because right now in our midst, we have an interview expert.
So before we actually give Jeff the opportunity to answer that question, Jeff, can you teach us what people should be looking for in terms of how to respond to this question and some mistakes people typically make at this point?
Yeah. So just to set the context, tell me about yourself as a first impression question.
So we're trying to win that person over extremely quickly.
And the biggest challenge area is that people forget about the relevancy.
So we're always trying to tap into, well, what's the company we're interviewing for and what's the role relevancy?
So I like for people to keep this answer really short and concise.
Specifically, you're looking to align three key areas that align with the job and the company.
And you're just simply telling your interviewer, you know what?
And my fake interviewer is always Sue.
So I just say, you know, Sue, I thought a lot about that.
And the three areas where I see my background really aligning the best with this role are A, B and C.
I am happy to dive into any of those areas in more detail if you like.
And I'm also happy to walk you through my background if you like.
Where should we go next?
So basically what's happened here is you've shown great role alignment.
and if they really are asking you walk me through your background, you've checked that box.
Because some people, when they ask that question, actually do want you to walk them through your background.
Some don't, but we don't know unless we ask.
And so it's a great tip.
Follow the rule of three and try and keep that answer one minute or less.
Oh man, this is a masterclass already.
40 seconds in. Oh, this is immense value.
Very quickly. Let me speak selfishly.
So usually when I'm booking speaking engagements, I have like my internal team negotiating those deals or my speakers bureau who does that.
And there's a client who or potential client that wanted to know, like, hey, can we interview you beforehand?
And that's I haven't gotten that request in years.
I was kind of I'm almost embarrassed to admit my ego was inflamed.
Like how you want me to introduce myself?
You should do the research.
That's why you're here.
Right. And so when I was thinking that what if they ask me, tell me about myself.
And I was like, I don't know where to even go with the question because I haven't had to answer that question in such a long time.
So the fact that this came up at this time is perfect for me.
So selfishly, I appreciate this.
And I love the fact that we have a very clear mental model for how to respond to this.
Rules of stick with the rule of three and then ending with curiosity.
Keep it short and sweet, recognizing, hey, this is relevant to you.
Here are three ways it's relevant.
I'll let you guide the way.
Tell me what goes next.
And so this is obviously works really well with negotiation strategy, leaning in on asking questions, but not trying to, but doing it in a respectful way in the scenario where you're not like monopolizing the conversation and taking it off track by rejecting the answer of that question, but saying,
hey, I can't answer it.
Here's a short answer.
Where else would you like me to go?
I think that's brilliant.
Awesome. Yeah. So with that, Jeff, tell us about yourself and what you do.
So for the purpose of this conversation, because you focus on negotiation, I'm going to answer that question from this angle, from that angle.
So what I think is important for the audience to know is that I've negotiated over a thousand job offers and over 500 of those have been with candidates who have gotten offers at Google.
And I like to focus in on a lot of items, but if we're just talking about the actual negotiation process, being gracious and kind is my number one.
Going in with a script and being slow, slowing everything down is two.
And then third is a high anchor.
There is tons of data and science to back up the fact that providing a high anchor can really set you up for success.
Now, I'm happy to discuss any of those areas in more detail, which I'm sure we'll cover in this conversation, but happy to let you lead and guide.
I love this. I mean, listeners, you can hear it.
I'm giddy about this.
This is a really strong start.
And you wouldn't be surprised, listeners, but Jeff is very prepared.
So he came with prep for this interview.
And I'm excited about it, because one of the things that you said in the prep that you wanted to talk about that I think is so important is focusing on that rule of no numbers until they love you and want to hire you.
And this applies in job negotiations.
But I think in all of the negotiations that seem to be or appear to be transactional on their surface, we can be drawn into the numbers so soon before we even do any work to establish the relationship.
So tell us a bit about this rule that you've established no numbers until they love you and want to hire you.
So any good point of contact, right?
For the most part, big companies, we're talking recruiters, smaller companies, your first point of contact might actually be the direct hiring manager.
Any good recruiter or hiring manager is going to try to get those numbers out of you right in the beginning.
The challenge is, is you don't actually know much about the job.
You don't know much about the responsibilities outside of the job description, and that's not a lot.
And so deflecting in a really kind and positive way can be really impactful.
So if that person comes in and says, well, what's your salary expectations or what salary range do you have?
You say, thank you so much.
I really appreciate you asking.
I'd really like to learn a little bit more about the role and company meet with the team before providing any numbers.
And then you stay kind of really on that script because again, at the end of the process, if you haven't provided any numbers and all of a sudden they love you, are they going to stretch a little bit on the numbers?
Probably. Now, maybe they're not stretching on salary band because they can't do that for internal equity reasons, but maybe they give you a bigger sign on.
Maybe they give you more equity.
Maybe they're more flexible with your location or overall PTO or a bunch of different items.
So the more you deflect, the more power it gives the candidate and the end of the process.
This is so important for a number of different reasons.
First of all, negotiation strategy.
We recognize that this is sound and we'll go deeper into why this is sound, but I just want to state that and move on to the other things too.
One of the things that you said is that the number might change based on how much they like you.
So this is not a situation where we have this objective reality of the numbers, like the numbers are what they are.
So why don't we just get to it now?
No, I recognize that the numbers are going to be more favorable to me if you see me more favorably.
So let me work on investing in our relationship.
And then we can talk about the numbers because the numbers are often not as concrete as they initially appear to be.
And then lastly, we have to talk about pressure too, because let's say we understand why this is such a powerful tactic strategically, okay, this is why we want to execute it.
We recognize that we can get the power of positive biases moving in our favor by making sure that they know, like, and trust us.
That helps us favorably.
But managing the pressure that you feel in that moment is a completely different element that we often don't appreciate.
So first, let's start off by addressing why this is a sound negotiation strategy, and And then we'll move on to addressing the pressure management portion of it.
So let's really paint this picture as to why this is such a powerful negotiation strategy.
Yeah, it's because the other piece that you just tapped into that I wasn't really thinking about when I brought up these details is up leveling.
So for instance, and we can obviously go back and forth in a number of different areas, but let's say you're interviewing for a director level role, but you go in and you crush those interviews and they have the same opening at the director and VP level role.
Well, they'd still be taking those salary considerations into mind, and that might skew them to just want to hire you at the director level role because your salary expectations are just that much lower.
Something as simple as that, it's just to recognize that importance.
And I don't want to forget this other critical piece.
It's okay to bring awareness into that conversation.
If they really push and say, I really need to have your numbers before moving forward.
We bring in that awareness and empathy.
We say, thank you so much, I appreciate that.
I understand you're doing your job.
It's your job to get these numbers and I get it.
It's also important for me to understand a little bit more about the role and the team before I provide those expectations.
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the thing that i love about this is that you used what i call the reasonable voice you weren't defensive everything that you said was legitimate and i think that the thing that's so important about that even though it seems very simple is the fact that our emotions will lead us astray when it comes
to this analysis because in our mind as we're feeling that pressure we're saying i don't want to set up this boundary i don't want to hurt their feelings i don't want them to think I'm difficult.
But in the way that you articulated that, it did not seem difficult at all.
And so I think that's important to recognize that our emotions will make us feel things that are not necessarily true.
They're true in that it's an emotional experience that is real to us, but that doesn't necessarily mean that it should be what's guiding our negotiation strategy.
100%. Absolutely agree.
Yeah. And do you mind if I put you on the spot here with this?
Because I think this might be a bit helpful with a role play too so i could play the role of the the hiring manager asking for those expectations and you can show how you can give different levels of and layers of resistance in a reasonable type of way yeah 100 and listeners just know like this i'm
it sounds like i'm making this up off the fly because i truly am and i think this gives us a good opportunity for jeff to showcase his skills and show how this does not need to be perfectly curated but you can still make it sound work, make it work and be functional in the moment.
So Jeff, thank you.
We reviewed your application.
Very impressive. And before we start the process, what we do is we ask for salary expectations.
So let's just go ahead and start off with your salary expectations.
Yeah, Kwame, thank you so much for that.
And I come in with the understanding that this is absolutely a question you have to ask, but I'm really looking to learn a little bit more about the team and the role before providing those expectations.
Okay. Well, that makes sense.
And I think that's completely reasonable.
It just puts me in a tough spot because this is part of our policy.
It just helps us to move forward and just kind of check that box.
So I understand what you said.
That makes a lot of sense, but if you could just give us a number, then we could move on.
Yeah. So I just want to throw this back to you if it's okay.
Since I'm in California and this is a California -based role, can you provide the salary range for me, please.
That's so good. Okay.
This is so good because it's a test of my imagination.
Let's keep on going.
So let's make up some numbers here.
All right. So in this situation, what we're looking for as a realistic salary range would be something between 170 and about $190 ,000.
Okay. And just to clarify, just so I'm clear, that is the base salary range.
Is that correct? That is correct.
Okay. Can you tell me a little bit more about the other parts of the compensation?
Do you have a yearly annual bonus?
Do you provide equity sign -on bonuses?
Can you tell me a little bit more about the overall compensation package?
Well, we have a little bit more flexibility on the overall comp.
Those are more based on our determinations of whether or not somebody is eligible for those types of things.
So we have done salary bonuses as sign -on bonuses in the past.
It's not something we typically do, but we have done that.
Full benefits in terms of health insurance and things like that.
Equity, we don't offer equity at this time for this level of position, but that is something that might be a potential down the road.
Okay. Can you tell me at what level you start giving equity to employees?
Is that at the director level, VP level?
Are you able to share that information with me?
Jeff, unfortunately, I'm not able to share that information because I have run out of imagination for this hypothetical.
No, this is so good.
This is so good. So let me give a couple of insights here before I pass it on to you, because there are some nuances that you will see that I probably missed in this overview.
So here, first of all, infinitely respectful, very reasonable.
And listeners, I really want to demonstrate that Jeff was setting a very hard barrier, but he softened it with his approach, with the rapport and decorum that he was bringing to the conversation.
So the delivery was masterful.
So I just want to recognize that tone and delivery is important in this process.
The next thing is he utilized curiosity to gather information, to move him forward in the negotiation, but also as a shield for my continued advances.
And so what you'll recognize is I was starting off asking the questions, and then in a very respectful and subtle way, he started interviewing me and started asking me for the information i was trying to get from him so just like on the surface the surface level analysis there's so much that listeners
can get from this but i want to give it to you too to add on to that too yeah and notice that it was all around graciousness and kindness and then we i always go back to my chris voss like late night dj voice right and i have my mic set up to dark mode so it will make me sound a little bit deeper anyway
but the reality is is slow and gracious and kind right just really thoughtful and then it's almost the simplest statements are so impactful thank you i appreciate that i understand can you tell me a little more and you can see my voice goes down i got a little softer a little slower and and just these
little basic things and i'm sure you talk endlessly with people about pitch and tone pitch and tone and negotiation is three fourths of the battle at least.
Yes, yes, yes. Because again, we can get so caught up in the strategies and the tactics, what to say, but we don't often talk about how to say it.
And less is more in negotiation.
Because when you're feeling that power, that pressure, you feel compelled to say more and more and more and more.
But when you slow down, it takes pressure off of you because you're not trying to say more.
You can say less with more impact and create a connection while gathering information and setting boundaries.
And it's, again, the simplest thing, but often it's the simple things that we overlook in the moment.
Absolutely. Yes. Now let's talk about the pressure.
Now let's just acknowledge the fact that for many people, these are the most impactful, some of the most important, but also the most pressure packed conversations that we can have.
And so people are going to have to perform under pressure.
And so what advice do you have for people when it comes to managing your emotions under pressure so you can actually perform when it matters most.
Yeah. So here's the great news.
It's only in maybe rare circumstances that initial conversations where comp would come up would be done via video.
Almost always, it's still almost always primarily phone.
So the way we reduce anxiety is a script.
And so with all my negotiation clients, I tell them to say no to video conversations, only phone conversations so that they can.
And of course, with the interviews, that's going to, most of them are still to date video, but with the phone conversation, you can just say, oh, I can't hop on video.
I'm in between places.
Can we just hop on a phone call?
But really they're in a very solid place to have the conversation.
And they have a script, not only with the set anchor, but with objection handling.
And so much of that script, and I'm sure we can dive deeper into this, but so much of that script is, thank you.
I appreciate that. And then when we get into really negotiating the numbers, I'd really appreciate if you advocate for me, partner with me, support me, right?
And so you get all these really positive words to use, but absolutely a script just removes a lot of the ambiguity for how to respond.
You actually have an outline of how you are going to answer and tackle those questions.
I love the fact that we don't need to learn any complex negotiation jargon for this.
We can go back to what our parents have been telling us since we're children, please and thank you.
Still works in this situation.
And now let's get into scripts just briefly, because when people see a script, they might think Hollywood, everything is scripted.
They say this, I say that.
And then if it goes off track, then I'm completely lost.
And so when it comes to scripting these conversations, what are the things that people often misunderstand about scripting that holds them back?
It's understanding that probably repetition is okay.
I think they get scared to give similar responses.
And so when I work with my negotiation clients, basically I say, we're not really changing a lot of the script.
And I actually use those three words we mentioned.
So most of my clients are going into big tech.
So their point of contact is a recruiter and recruiters are not incentivized to hold back money so we can talk and use words like advocate and partner and support but it's intentionally repetitive because it means that we are not moving from our position and so when all these objections come through
i say just get repetitive with what you said before but just move out a word change a couple the order of a couple words but you're basically saying the same thing go get me that money and get it for me now in the nicest way possible.
This is good. And I love the fact that you advocate for repetition because I think it's one of the most underutilized negotiation strategies.
They on message. But what if they ask the same question again?
If they ask you the same question, it's the same answer.
That's not your fault.
So don't feel bad about that.
And so repetition is really important.
A lot of times as negotiators, sometimes we test people.
So we'll ask one thing one way, we'll ask it another way.
I'm going to try to figure out a way to soften this boundary that you put up.
But if you just say, yeah, I don't feel obligated to entertain you by spicing up my responses.
The response is the response.
And if you ask the same thing, I'm going to give the same response and that's it.
I think really empowering people to be repetitive on these key issues is really, really helpful because you can confidently state your position and stay on message without having to adopt that extra mental load of digging deep into your bag of trips of saying the same thing in a different way when it's
not necessary. Stay on messages is the perfect piece of advice.
Absolutely agree with that.
And there can also be that piece of space.
If that person just absolutely was a little crazy on you, the goal would be to build the space and say, I'd really like to think about it.
Maybe we can connect tomorrow.
Let's take a look at our schedules, find a time for us to connect.
And I just have to mention it before we hop off.
I'd also really appreciate if you can in that time.
If you could advocate for me, I'd really appreciate it.
And so you're putting in that kind of final poke.
But again, if they do get to some level of rigidity at some point in the negotiation, you want to build in that space.
I am and believe that space can be incredibly valuable in negotiations.
Yes. And sometimes that space does the work for you because you might run into that rigidity.
And that simply might be because they did not consider what you said.
in this negotiation.
And so they don't feel safe accepting or adjusting without giving it fair consideration.
So sometimes when you start to run into a barrier, don't feel obligated or pressured to close the deal right now, because it might not be possible to close the deal right now.
Psychologically, they may not be at a point where they're willing to adjust at this level.
And so sometimes, like you said, the best thing you could do is just say, hey, I think we've made some progress.
Let's follow through tomorrow.
And sometimes they organically make that adjustment and start the conversation with that adjustment and the space did that work for you.
So I love that advice.
Just injecting a little bit of time, that can be all you need in some of these conversations.
Yeah. And remember, and for anybody who's listening, who's considering negotiating a job offer, a lot of times your point of contact is not the decision maker.
So we actually have to build space for them to go talk to the decision makers to see if they can get more money.
And I just historically have not seen, especially if we talk about the big companies, for example, recruiters are not incentivized to hold back money from their candidates.
The candidate actually is a sale for them.
It's a number. It's a checkmark that they need to complete within a month, a quarter, a year, et cetera.
So they want to get you that money if they can, because it makes you easier to close.
So, but they need to go back and speak to the decision makers so if they get really fired up in the in the moment it's just a good idea to build space so that they can say oh all right i don't like jeff but now that we've hopped off let me go back to the decision makers one more time and just see if i
can get a ten thousand dollar sign -on bonus or see if we can add just 50k in equity because with that space they can at least decide that they're going to take that additional step which usually they will oh this is an unexpected gem let me take a slightly selfish turn in this conversation so in a few
days i'm flying to la to do a training for a team of recruiters and so for recruiters who are going to be working with the candidate would it be beneficial for them to almost coach the candidate on how it would be best for them to work with the recruiter oh 100 recruiters should always is recruiters
should take ownership.
I mean, I think it's a little bit of a challenge in the industry for recruiters.
But if recruiters set everything up on the front end for how things work from the interview process to negotiation to the end pieces, they'd be creating a better candidate experience.
And with a better candidate experience, the candidate is more likely to accept the job.
So setting these things up front is really important.
But at the same time, I encourage recruiters to aggressively go after salary expectations in the initial conversations, because that's going to be beneficial for them to return to later on.
Now, my job is to root for the candidate, right?
But if I was a recruiter and when I was, and I recruited for about 15 years, I was so aggressive and I used, again, we brought in a Chris Voss trick, but I also use a Tony Robbins trick when I ask about salary expectations and they say, I don't know.
And I just say, well, if you didn't know, what would it be?
Oh, that's good. And that's the Tony one that I learned years ago that I still use to this day or had used in the past.
And I think that one works really effectively.
But 99 % of the time, I did get their comp expectations or salary range expectations because I pushed aggressively.
But again, in a gracious and kind way, I built the safe space.
I would tell recruiters to try and get those numbers if they can.
Okay. That's good. That is good.
But yeah, I was interested to hear your perspective on that because the two sides of the equation in it.
This is great. And I think we touched organically a lot on be gracious and kind.
But I want to make sure that we give you time to highlight anchoring.
Give us a brief overview of what anchoring is, this context, and then how can we use it?
Yeah. And so I think that we could go ahead and use maybe an analogy would be helpful.
So and this is actually a real case study that I wasn't thinking about talking about today.
So let me fumble through it a little bit.
But basically, there was a case study, and it's good because it's relevant, is real estate.
So they brought in maybe 10 or 20 realtors, and they priced a house at 500k.
And of those 10 or 20 realtors, everybody kind of agreed that that was the right price.
They did the same experiment with 10 or 20 other realtors, and they priced the house at 600K and they all agreed that that was right around the price and why?
We get very attached to the first number that's introduced to us and it's actually psychologically proven that we cannot remove that number from our mind.
So if we want to get paid 80K, we think the job pays up to 100K, then we're going to go anchor at 120K because the goal is to set this higher tone, this higher number that they're going to get attached to and really believe that that's the number we need to achieve.
There's a lot of things that go into anchoring.
I'll stop there and let you dive in with questions, but anchoring is all about setting a really high number with the expectation that you'll start a negotiation that they'll bring you down, but the anchor will be a number we can return to later.
And again, I'll kick it back to you and we can kind of have a discussion around this.
Yeah, this is great.
And my biggest criticism with the negotiation industry or one of them is that we don't talk about anchoring enough because it's not a question of whether or not you should anchor.
It's a reality that whoever makes the first offer is setting an anchor.
It's only a question of whether or not they're doing it with intentionality because every other deal or every other offer is going to be compared to that anchor.
So it sets the reference point for the negotiation.
And now people are like, oh, sweet.
Okay, great. So I'm trying to get, let's use your example, at least $80 ,000, it goes up to $100 ,000, I'm going to ask for $120 ,000.
Well, let me ask for $600K.
Why not? I mean, the more the merrier.
So let's break down some of the mistakes people make with anchoring so they could use it with intentionality in a way that makes it more likely for them to be successful.
There's two really, really critical items here.
One is research. So if you're able to find online what a company's philosophy around negotiation is without having to ask, that's really beneficial.
So I can tell you, for example, if you were going to go negotiate with Google, Amazon, Meta, Apple, you could anchor at $600 ,000 for $120 ,000 job.
They're not going to rescind the offer because you go with a crazy number.
They're just going to provide more realistic expectations for you.
But, if you do that with maybe even a large company or an SMB, they might run for the hills.
They might just say, I'm sorry, we're not aligned, we're rescinding the offer, and it can be hard to get that back.
So, within the research, if you're unable to find out what that company's negotiation philosophy is, you have to ask.
You can say, hey, you're a smaller company or I couldn't find any information online, and this is with your point of contact.
What is your company's negotiation philosophy?
leave it really open -ended so that they can tell you because there is some risk in anchoring with the wrong company so it's a little bit about understanding that philosophy and unfortunately in our research oftentimes we might have to ask that question yep that's great that's great because I want to
make it clear that their anchoring gone wrong is a real thing and so it has to be realistic because if you go way above and beyond it shows like you haven't done your homework you don't care about our negotiation philosophy.
You don't care about what's realistic.
You're being a selfish negotiator and uninformed.
And it diminishes our credibility and makes it hard for us to be persuasive or likable in that interaction, which makes it less likely for us to be successful.
So it's important to have those parameters.
But when you do your research, feel empowered to make this anchor.
Because if you do your research, you're starting the negotiation off with the highest dollar value that you can reasonably justify with the data that you find.
And then you start the conversation off and now most likely they're going to pull back and there's a little bit of give and take.
But again, we've done a great job of starting this conversation off with rapport, creating a strong relationship.
So now we have invested into that relationship, which makes it a little bit more tolerant of the natural give and take that comes with negotiation.
But we've put that toward the...
And I just, yes, this is a very brief, but very important overview on anchoring in the job context because it's something that people often overlook.
Yeah. And let's talk about one other item.
Yeah. It's really powerful in secondary negotiations.
And just to, just to kind of double down on that item, basically what I mean by that is oftentimes we come in with this high anchor.
Let's talk about the big tech companies.
That's where I help most of my clients and come in with this big anchor recruiter tells us we're crazy, all these normal things.
And then they go back and we ask $400 ,000 and they come back with $280 ,000, for example, total comp.
So we're $120 ,000 off.
Now we use the anchor to our benefit to look really reasonable.
And we say to our recruiter, Jane, we say, Jane, I think we're making really good progress.
And I just want to say thank you so much for all the work you're putting into this offer if you can meet me in the middle at 340k from my initial down from my initial expectation of 400k i would strongly consider this offer and so we use that anchor as a data point in future negotiations and we start
to look reasonable even though our anchor was completely not reasonable so it's a really fun tactic and it's one that i use oftentimes and it works.
It starts to make the candidate look incredibly reasonable when, again, their initial anchor probably wasn't that reasonable.
Yes. And again, going back to that tool of being gracious and kind, being a good human in these situations, blending that with the contrast principle of the anchor, the initial starting point and where we actually are, the more you reference that, the more reasonable you become because you say, yes,
my initial offer was 400 ,000, I'm willing to flex on that.
I find ways to reference my anchor throughout the negotiation multiple times because it makes it seem more real and makes my adjustments seem more significant as well.
So just recognize when Jeff said, yes, 400 ,000, that was with intentionality.
That's part of the strategy.
The more you reference anchor, the more real it becomes.
Absolutely. Oh, this is good, Jeff.
This is great. Listen, I think a lot of listeners are saying to themselves, okay, I think I need some Jeff in my life.
And maybe I'm looking for a specific AI tool that might be coming out in three weeks.
Do you have anything that you could give them that could help them with that?
Thank you so much for that.
Yeah. So basically I've spent the last six months building a tool that, and I won't be the only one on the market.
And basically it's an AI tool that helps you improve your interview answers.
I feel so excited about the tool because I've done 2 ,500 one -on -one coaching sessions, interview coaching sessions over the last five years, and I learned so much from people who are listening to this podcast.
They continued to show me what a good answer sounded like.
And so yeah, it sits on chat GPT, but it's really going to dive in and give people actionable advice.
Instead of giving this overview with very cookie cutter or broad advice, it's intended to help people fix parts of their answers in little bite sizes so that somebody could use the app for five or 10 minutes and feel like they got somewhere feel like they improved so the launch date is february 26th
and i say that with dev always being a little scary and but i've put that date out there um if it needs to get pushed that's okay anybody who's curious about finding out more about it it's just practiceinterviews .com they can click on the ai button we're allowing early adopters on there to test it for free
and then if people want to give us user feedback.
We're really excited about that.
I do one -on -one interview and one -on -one negotiation coaching.
And obviously I also have a interview mastery course and all that's at practiceinterviews .com.
Jeff, this was an absolute masterclass, my friend.
Really appreciate you coming in and sharing your wisdom with us.
Kwame, I am just, I feel so grateful to you for inviting me.
So thank you so much.
My pleasure. Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait.
Now, before you sign off i have something to tell you that i've never told you before just kidding i've told you before but you should listen to it again i want you to know about negotiate anything premium imagine all of the things that you love about our traditional feed plus so much more i know you
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I'll catch you later.
Thank you.