Matt Schulz is the PERFECT mentor to teach us how to negotiate because, in his own words, he’s not a natural negotiator. Today he proves that you don’t have to be a natural to find better deals on your credit card interest rates, prescriptions, rental cars, hotel rooms, and more. He’ll walk us through the common misconceptions around negotiating and help us learn to ask politely for more for ourselves.
In our headline segment, small company stocks are struggling to keep up with the S&P 500. Why would someone stay diversified when large companies are doing so well and other stocks are not? We’ll walk through the science of diversification and why it’s a mistake to bail on underperforming asset classes during down periods.
Of course, that’s not all. We’ll share some of Doug’s trivia, answer a question from a Stacker about emergency fund interest rates, and more!
Deeper dives with curated links, topics, and discussions are in our newsletter, The 201, available at https://www.stackingbenjamins.com/201
Enjoy!
Our Headlines
Matt Schulz
Big thanks to Matt Schulz for joining us today. To learn more about Matt, visit Matt Schulz. Grab yourself a copy of the book Ask Questions, Save Money, Make More: How to Take Control of Your Financial Life.
Doug’s Trivia
- This year, the U.S. military received the highest pay raise they’ve had in decades. How much was it?
Better call Saul…Sehy & OG
- Stacker Patrick calls in with a question about where to stack his short-term cash reserves – a high-yield savings account at a bank or in a money market mutual fund.
Have a question for the show?
Want more than just the show notes? How about our newsletter with STACKS of related, deeper links?
- Check out The 201, our email that comes with every Monday and Wednesday episode, PLUS a list of more than 19 of the top money lessons Joe’s learned over his own life about money. From credit to cash reserves, and insurance to investing, we’ll tackle all of these. Head to StackingBenjamins.com/the201 to sign up (it’s free and we will never give away your email to others).
Other Mentions
- Write additional info included in today’s show (websites, books, apps, etc)
Join Us Wednesday
Tune in on Wednesday when we’ll teach you how to avoid the wrong financial brokers.
Written by: Kevin Bailey
Miss our last show? Listen here: Talking All Things Kids and Money (SB1516).
Episode transcript
Hey stackers, hope you had a great weekend. Another note from the road and an
update. We are, I’m currently in the midwest and you know what, I want to hang out with
you.
If you’re in Cleveland, I will be there tomorrow. Tuesday, head to stackybenjamins.com
slash meetup for all of the details. Another update there, OG is not going to make it,
unfortunately Cleveland, so you get me.
But you also get prizes, you get Doug’s Trivia. We’re going to have a great discussion. I
cannot wait.
stackybenjamins.com slash meetup. So that is, today’s the 12th, so that is the 14th,
right? Which means on the 16th I’ll be in Detroit. Detroiters, we’re going to have fun.
We’ll be at the Ferndale Project. By the way, Bookhouse Brewing is where we’re at in
Cleveland. Forgot to say that.
Ferndale, we’re going to be at the Ferndale Project in the northern suburbs of Detroit.
Again, 6.30 to 8 o’clock, all these events will be the same times. Come join us in Detroit
on Thursday.
Grab your ticket, stackybenjamins.com slash meetup. And on Friday, Kalamazoo stacker
Jim, thank goodness for Jim, got us a table for 20 on a graduation weekend. So we’re
going to have some fun.
A little bit more informal in Kalamazoo, still going to be a blast, but come hang out with
us on Friday, stackybenjamins.com slash meetup at The Hub. It’s called The Hub,
downtown Kalamazoo, Michigan. And then next Thursday, we’re going to get Memorial
Day started on the right foot.
You know how? You’re going to hang out with me, Boston, on Thursday,
stackybenjamins.com slash meetup again. And that’s at Faces Brewing. Faces Brewing in
Malden, north of downtown.
So hope to see you there. And you know what? You’re going to love today’s mentor
because he’s going to help us make some moolah. All right, let’s get the show started.
Well, hey there, stacker. Look at you, ready to listen to a podcast. Well, you know what?
Oh, gee, we’re ready to make one.
We’re going to make a podcast if we must. Oh, we must. Absolutely.
We’re all here. It’s Monday morning. Raise your mugs, gentlemen, because I’ve got the
flower pot.
I love my flower pot. The Garvin Gardens, if you’ve never been to Hot Springs, Arkansas,
go to Hot Springs, go to Garvin Gardens. Doug’s got a LaCroix.
Oh, he’s got, oh, a nice mug. What’s your mug say? Oh, gee. Yeah, we know what that
one says.
I can’t read it. You really can’t read it. Not in a family show.
You can’t read it. I do something called whatever the I want. Oh, that’s what I tried to
warn you.
I’m going full steam ahead anyway. Oh, this is real close. Let’s go down that road.
I’ve made a horrible mistake on behalf of smut mouth. Oh, gee, Doug and me. Here’s to
our troops for protecting us all weekend long while we partied so that on Monday
morning we’ll be fresh and ready to go to make podcast in mom’s basement on behalf of
the men and women at Navy Federal Credit Union and the men and women making
podcast.
Here’s to our troops. Live from Joe’s mom’s basement, it’s the Stacking Benjamin Show.
I’m Joe’s mom’s neighbor, Doug, and today you’ll learn how to negotiate everything from
nicer hotel rooms to better rates on loans with speaker and author of Ask Questions,
Save Money, Make More, Matt Schultz.
In our headlines, small company stocks were predicted to beat the market and here at
nearly the halfway point of the year, they’re getting spanked. So what’s up? We’ll ask
OG. Plus, we’ll answer a question from one stacker who thought, you know, I’d better call
Saul.
See, I and OG, and then I’ll share some uplifting trivia. And now the guy who keeps us all
in line. It’s Joe.
Oh, Saul. See, hi. Hey there, stackers.
Welcome to Monday. Sit back, relax. You found us.
Welcome to the greatest money show on earth. We’re happy you’re here with us. We’re
going to have some fun today because you know what, Doug? We are doing three things
today.
Guess what we’re doing? Eating Twinkies. No, we’re going to ask questions and then we
will save money and then we will make more. It’s going to be great.
Matt Schultz is here. OG, how are you, man? I am fantastic. Thank you for asking.
I am so good. You have no future in the theater, OG. That’s right.
And the daytime Emmy goes to for the guy pretending to be happy. He’s here, Mr. OG.
We got a great show.
I’m happy to be here. Matt Schultz is here. How great is that? Have you ever thought
about actually saving money in your hotel room before? Look at the quizzical look on his
face.
What do you mean I could actually save money on that? You know, it’s funny is this
show’s dedicated app says lowest price offered on the presidential suite. That’s right. It’s
a good deal.
This show is dedicated to OG because, OG, you’re going to get so much out of this. I
mean, have you ever won a higher credit limit? Not really necessary. It seems to be
pretty high at the present moment.
But I just see this funny little infinity symbol on my. Yes. Yeah.
What does it mean when it’s eight sideways? Go ahead and do it. Take as much as you
want. Have you ever wanted to improve your financial fitness? Have you ever tried it?
You have actually fought medical bills before.
Yeah. I mean, in the manner of, you know, the credit report. Yeah.
Yeah. Yeah. Well, you also I remember negotiated with the hospital.
You called up and we’re paying for your own. Ever look for lower prices for prescription
medication or a lower fee for a kid’s activity? Michelle’s going to talk about the
prescription medication. Yeah.
Little things, big things, all kinds of things. We’ve got a big headline first trying to find
better prices for drugs. It’s always that guy in the corner’s got the best prices for drugs.
Yeah, we got hands on what kind you need. I got I got your guy. We got a great show.
But first, you know what? This show is free and it’s free because these wonderful
sponsors help us make it free. So stay tuned for them right now. Big thanks to our
sponsors.
Big thanks to you for hanging out with us. Let’s get rolling. Hello, darlings.
And now it’s time for your favorite part of the show. Our stacking Benjamin’s headlines.
Our headline today comes to us from Investment News.
This is an industry rag for financial advisers, financial planners, stock. Are there any
stockbrokers left in America? Is there like one guy waiting for the phone? There’s some.
Yeah, there’s some one guy going someday.
Does anybody actually does anybody charge for stock trade still? Yeah. Oh, yeah. There
are people that you’re in my former firm does.
They still charge. Unbelievable. Like twenty four dollars or something.
It’s in place does stock trade yesterday on Schwab. I was like, are they going to charge
me for this? Nope. What did you sell? I actually bought and it was the most B.S. thing.
I took five hundred dollars. I know. Big money, right? I took five hundred dollars because
I because I saw that the the CEO of a firm was going like all in.
I’m buying stock in our company and I’m the guy that says, do your research, do all kinds
of stuff. This is the Rivian, Doug. This is my Rivian.
I bought Lumen. I might as well tell people I bought Lumen. Oh, I thought you meant you
bought a firm like that.
Isn’t that one of those payment option? Well, because the because the yeah, that’s right.
I bought it. I bought it with Klarna firm with Clark.
I bought as much. You bought a penny stock. I did.
It’s a dollar 60. I was like, when Doug said you bought the firm, I’m like, well, for a dollar
60 a share, I pretty much did five hundred bucks. Joe, you own Lumen.
You own the entire company. I’d like to say hello to all my employees. There’s a story
that I heard.
My brother works in the finance space also, and he worked at a stock brokerage firm
years ago. And there was a guy who was buying up these penny stocks, you know, of
this of this company, because, you know, he would kind of day trade it would be, you
know, buy it for a dollar. He’d sell for a dollar ten.
And so he just kept on making bigger and bigger, bigger bets. Right. You know, he
started with five hundred bucks, then went to five thousand and fifty thousand.
And so he was doing these huge trades. And then he went to go do the trade and the
sell. And they’re like, oh, you can’t trade this.
And he said, oh, why not? Because he had he had accumulated 10 percent of the
company. Oh, my God. So he was now he was now a whatever it’s called, like, you know,
a shareholder of record.
Yeah. Yeah. He was like a legit person that had to like disclose all the stuff with the SEC
and get prior approval to approval to sell it and all that stuff.
And it was like to acquire 10 percent of the company was like fifty five thousand dollars
or something. It was some insignificant dollar amount, like in the grand scheme of things
in terms of investing, you know, not that 50 grand is not a lot of money, but it was
relatively small compared to what you would think it would cost. So he had to do a press
release first and give two weeks notice that he was selling.
Steve basically was just like, it’s just like, what do you mean? How do I get out of this?
They’re like, yeah, we don’t even know what to do with this anymore. You’re going to
have to get a lawyer and call the corporate counsel. He had to let all the GameStop bros
front run him.
Probably had to hire for it first. Had to had to put it on Reddit that he was that he was
going to sell. That’d be good.
Maybe he could get a for the record. Let’s just be clear with Joe stock picking. You are
not advising that other people follow in your footsteps here.
I am not. No, no. By the way, that is a dumb trade.
That is a dumb trade. I looked at the financials. The financials look awful.
Just looked at the CEO and she she that same day was buying a bunch. And I was like, if
she’s buying, I’m buying. And it’s down 90 percent in the last two years.
What could possibly go wrong? I’m like, go up from here. Maybe if Duncan by Rivian, a
dollar 60. I mean, come on.
What could go wrong? I’m going to do the same thing. Hold on. Let me do it.
It’s like this is how dumb we can all be, people. This is what we mean about your money.
But you know what? There’s a reason I bring this up, though, guys, which is because this
piece of investment news is all about this rally that was going to happen.
You talk about penny stocks, OG, a rally that was going to happen with small companies
this year. Right. Everybody had all these year end predictions that small cap stocks were
going to outperform in twenty twenty four.
And Greg Greenberg writes his piece saying whatever happened to that small cap rally,
we are almost halfway through the euro. And there is no small cap rally yet. Greg writes,
OK, so maybe small caps won’t get their day in the sun, at least not yet.
Despite all the year end predictions, small cap stocks outperform in twenty twenty four.
The Russell 2000 index has gained one percent while the S&P is up eight percent as we
record this. When was this written? This was written four days before we record this.
OK. Well, we have a massive rally in the last four days. I think this is an interesting piece
of this because the answer is yes.
In the last week or so, small companies have gone up a lot relative to that previous
number. So they were up one percent or something for the year. Now they’re up five.
There’s a reason I want to bring this up, because last week we did this whole thing about
when do you get more scientific about your asset allocation with your retirement? Go
back and listen to Wednesday’s episode last week, everybody. And you’ll get all that
because, you know, at some point you want to get closer to the efficient frontier. And
that means, oh, gee, maybe adding things like small cap into your portfolio, getting more
diversified, doing a better job of your diversification.
And you may own small cap, but you know what’s been happening all year so far.
Already, you’ve got all kinds of speaking of finance pros, you get all kinds of finance pros
going, oh, small caps getting killed. So I’m going to go ahead and put that in the S&P
instead.
Forget it. I don’t like small cap. That’s horrible.
I think you’re asking for it, aren’t you? If you bail on small caps here five months into the
year. Well, I mean, the thing is, is that you don’t know when or how much or for how long
different asset classes are going to perform relative to other asset classes. You could say
the same thing about international stocks or emerging market countries or big
companies, small companies, the whole, you know, real estate, the whole gambit.
I mean, real estate’s down for the year, but sometimes it’s not. It’s just the whole idea of
being diversified is that you own everything and get to have all of the returns. It just
happens in a random order.
You know, like the order of the asset classes return is going to be different than what you
expect it to be. And I’ll give you an example of this that I remember from some years
ago. Statistically, small companies should do better than big ones.
And the reason for that is if you just kind of look at the big, wide extremes, you take like
a big company like Apple or Coca-Cola and you take a really, really, really small
company like the ice cream shop on the store. Like Lumen, a really well-run company
like Lumen. I was going to say an even smaller company like an ice cream store.
Right. And if you go to the ice cream place and the guy who runs the ice cream store
says, I would like for you to invest in my business and you’re seriously considering it
because you like a bunch of ice cream. And he says, I can, I can get you, you know, I feel
like we can grow at about eight or nine or 10% a year.
I think this would be pretty good. If you’re a prudent investor, you look at that and go,
wait a second, why would I try to get eight or nine or 10% in this really teeny tiny micro
business of an ice cream shop on the corner? And I can get eight or nine or 10% in Apple
or in the S&P 500, the biggest companies in the world, which are run more professionally
and have all the smartest people in the world that work for those places trying to, and
they give you eight or 10%. So in order to be interested in that investment, you need to
have a better return potential.
You need him to say, I think we can grow this thing at 40% or 30% or 20%. And that is,
you know, maybe could be the level at which you’d go. All right.
I’ve got a higher volatility. I’ve got a higher bounce rate. You know, there’s a chance I
can get 20 or a chance I can get zero.
I’ll take that because it’s a higher opportunity versus, you know, eight, nine or 10 in the
big companies. So smaller companies have to perform better because they’re smaller.
So over time, that’s what should happen.
But the reality is, is that it happens in random periods of time. And we can’t predict when
those things are going to happen in advance. And so I’ll take you back to 2016.
So November 1st, did you got the thing? Take us back. Where’s the, where’s the button?
The Wayback Machine? Yes. Take us back to 2016.
Okay. It’s 2016 OG. Or maybe 2015, but sorry.
Even further back. Somewhere in there. Two elections ago, right before the first Trump
election.
Yeah. So it would have been 2016. If you looked on November 1st, or let’s say five-year
period ending October 31, 2016, and compared small companies to big companies
during that period of time, you would see that big companies beat small companies over
that five-year period.
After the election, so go from election day through Christmas. So what is that? A six-ish
week, seven-ish week period of time? Yeah. If then you said, all right, now let me look at
small companies against big companies for the last five years.
Small companies beat big companies. Over the five-year period. Over the five-year
period.
So in six weeks, the five years of underperformance was erased and beaten in that six
week window. This is why you don’t play this game. Yeah.
And then if you go like, well, all right, by the time you got your statement, you know,
December 31st, I went, holy cow, look at how great small companies are. That’s when
that stopped. That was over at that point.
You missed it. It was a six-week window. The same thing happened with emerging
markets in 2017 to 2018.
2017 was an awful year for emerging markets. 2018 were, you know, they were the
number one asset class in the world. So it’s a game you just can’t play, and you have to
recognize what the impact is going to be.
And so when you look at your investment accounts, and if you’re diversified, you see,
I’ve got big companies, I’ve got small, I’ve got international, your money’s not going to
track what the index says. You know, you can’t look at your portfolio and say, I’m up X
dollars. Why am I not the same as Microsoft? Why am I not the same as the S&P? Why
am I not the same as the NASDAQ? Because your money’s not the same as that.
You have a diversification. And over a period of time, whether it’s five years or 10 years
or whatever, you’ll be rewarded with that, or you should be rewarded with that, with that
diversification, because eventually, different asset classes will outperform others. It just
doesn’t make sense that everything is large US tech from now until the end of time.
I think we can all agree that that’s probably not going to be the case. I just can’t believe
Doug that he was telling me that the greatest minds on earth are Apple and not the local
ice cream shop. Like some engineer, Apple is smarter than the guy that’s asking me if I
want magic shell, that amazing thing called magic shell on my soft serve twist cone.
You don’t know. You don’t even know. You don’t know.
That guy could be, he could invent the new magic shell. I think magic shell is the gift that
keeps on giving. I like it.
I don’t know. I got an issue with magic shell. Oh, I love magic shell.
You can’t find it anymore. No, I know it probably because it’s largely polymers. It’s
plastic.
We’re about to find out kids that grew up in the 70s and 80s. If you ate magic shell. The
myth that, you know, if you swallow your gum, it just stays there forever and it never
digests.
No, no, no. It’s magic shell. It’s like those horrible Camp Lejeune ambulance chaser
commercials you see all over the place.
Did you have magic shell as a kid? My issue is magic shell is cool at first, but then the ice
cream starts melting inside the magic shell and then it’s leaking out in little spots. And
it’s just a battle. That’s why you got to devour the magic shell first.
Very quickly. It’s there’s a strategies whole thing, Doug, that you’re missing, you know,
back on small caps are just a second longer. Yeah.
I mean, the magic shell thing, I was going to move on to Klondike bars, but if we need to
go back to finance on dyke. Yeah. You got to devour those, right? Because it’s the same
thing.
They start leaking out. Ellen Hayes and chief market strategist at FL Putnam is talking
about how small caps. She thinks are going to be dead for a while and she’s got all these
reasons.
But this is what she says. When the time comes, it’s going to be big. Hazen says she
doesn’t get out of small caps because when they go, they go to your point and these
more volatile asset classes that you put in your recipe.
You can’t you can’t choose the time. You can’t choose the time, can’t choose the day
because you’re going to regret it because there’s all kinds of reasons why. Oh, it’s not
performing.
It’s not performing. And then you wake up the next day and it performed and you’re not
there. We will link to this and more about asset allocation, proper diversification and how
to make sure you sit on your hands when it comes to your asset classes that aren’t
performing in your portfolio.
Actually means your portfolio is working the way it should at the 201, which is our
newsletter that comes out every Tuesday and Thursday. Always free. Always a great
read.
Hope you can join us over there. You’ll also get details about our meetups. In fact, as we
record this tomorrow in Cleveland, I will be at Bookhouse Brewing in Cleveland.
Head to Stacky Benjamins dot com slash meetup. If you’re going to be if you’re
anywhere near Detroit on Thursday, you can see Doug and I. If you’re in Kalamazoo on
Friday, we’ll be at the hub. Just found that out.
We’ll be there on Friday. And then the following Thursday, we’ll be at Faces Brewing in
Malden. You know where Malden is, Doug? I don’t know where Malden is, but it’s
somewhere near Boston.
It’s where Carl’s from. Carl Malden. Duh, of course.
Yes, that’s for our over 50 out in audience. Shout out to our over 50 audience. Who
knows who Carl Malden is? That’s even a distant memory for the over 50 audience.
Was he like Diners Club or American Express? I think he was. That’s a great call. I think it
might have been American Express.
Might have been American. Wearing a fedora. Yes.
Very stern. Oh, you look like a slapstick comedian. Exactly.
Yes. Making OG look very handsome, too. By the way, Carl Malden, not a great looking
guy.
That was so well executed. Coming up next, Matt Shaw is going to help us save some
money. He’s going to help us do three things.
OG, he’s going to teach you how to. Fight and read the news. I’ve already done two of
those today.
So what’s the third going to be? Well, I had three different ones, but those are good.
Matt’s going to teach us to ask questions, save money and make more. Matt Shaw is the
chief credit analyst at LendingTree.
And he’s got this great new book out where he goes over so many ideas. We’re not going
to talk much about his book. We’re actually going to dive in and we’re going to give you
a bunch of ideas from the book, as many as we can in about 20 minutes so that you can
ask questions, save money, make more.
You want a cheaper hotel room. You want maybe to get upgraded on the next flight. You
want lower interest rates on your credit cards, on your mortgage.
Even we’re going to talk about that and more. But first, Doug, you’ve got an amazing
trivia question. People are going to be talking about for minutes after you finish it.
It’s pretty optimistic, Joe. Hey there, stackers. I’m Joe’s mom’s neighbor, Doug.
Memorial Day is just two weeks away. And I decided I’m finally going to enter a float in
this year’s Texarkana parade. I’ve wanted to do that for years.
You know that. I’ve been talking about it forever. But I hate to miss out on catching all
that candy they throw out all the time.
I’m really good at catching. So it might be hard to suddenly become a pitcher. Heck, last
year I caught enough to get me all the way to the 4th of July parade.
But I’ve come up with a brilliant idea to make sure I don’t miss out on candy while I’m in
the parade this year. I’m going to line the end of my driveway with buckets. And then I
drive past, I tell everybody on my float, hey, throw all our candy into those buckets.
Probably should maybe even hire a local kid to keep an eye on the buckets until I get
home. That’s a pretty good idea, too. Anyway, today’s trivia question is, this year the
U.S. military received the highest pay raise they’ve had in decades.
How much are their wages increasing this year? Is it A, 4.6 percent, 2, 5.2 percent, or D,
7 percent? I’ll be back right after I recruit some neighborhood kids to ride on the float.
Hey there, stackers. I’m Candy Collector and soon-to-be winner of Best Float, Joe’s
mom’s neighbor, Doug.
I can’t wait for everyone to see me driving my El Camino in the parade. And to keep it on
theme, I’m going to dress as Uncle Sam. I just hope it’s not too sexy for people to kind of
get the reference.
That’s a problem I run into quite a bit. Today’s trivia question is, this year the U.S.
military received the highest pay raise they’ve had in decades. How much was it? Well,
the options I gave you were, A, 4.6 percent, B, 5.2 percent, or trace, maybe? 7 percent.
The answer, the last highest pay raise for U.S. service members was a 6.9 percent
increase issued in 2002. This year, the military received its most significant pay raise in
over two decades at 5.2 percent. That bump will raise wages between $1,100 and
$10,000 a year, depending on the service member’s rank.
And now, here to help you talk your way into higher savings and pay, it’s today’s mentor,
Matt Schultz. All right, stackers, you guys ready to save some serious money? Maybe
upgrade some experiences? Well, the man who’s going to do that, no pressure. Matt
Schultz in the basement.
How are you, man? I’m doing great. Thanks for having me. I got to tell you what I like.
The way that you begin this project, Matt, is you kind of say, you’re kind of like, you
know what, I’m not a natural born negotiator, and you don’t have to be either. I mean,
that filled me full of confidence. A guy who calls himself not a natural born negotiator
teaching me how to negotiate.
How did you decide, of all people then, to create a book to negotiate for better stuff?
Well, it’s funny. I’m a guy whose dad could walk into a room and know everybody’s life
story within about five minutes. And I’m a guy who, if I’m in a room of even like friends
that I know pretty well, I’m not necessarily the guy who’s going to raise his hand and
speak up and that sort of thing.
It’s just not really me. I mean, my job is to go on camera and do interviews and all that
sort of stuff. That’s a different animal.
So in the course of doing these interviews, basically, I’ve done a ton of them about the
fact that three out of every four people who ask for a lower interest rate on their credit
card get one, but hardly anyone ever asks. And I got so much reaction over and over and
over again from podcasters, TV folks, journalists, whatever, that I decided that that was
going to kind of be a good theme to approach if I were to ever write a book. And as I
wrote the book, I ended up speaking with 110, 120 people.
And to a degree, it ended up becoming not just building the book, but honestly, a little
bit of a self-exploration and a little bit of a therapy, regular therapy session for me to
figure out how to do some of these things. I feel like, Matt, you put yourself out there as
a guinea pig on some of these and go, let’s just try it and see what happens. Yeah, yeah,
no question.
There are some that I’m certainly not expert on when I started writing the book and
some of these that I’ve been talking about forever. So the hope was to really make the
book as useful as possible, but also just to kind of anticipate people’s objections to these
things and give them the confidence and the belief that they can do them. Well, we’ll
talk about the book itself later, but you’ve been nice enough to say, you know what?
Let’s take as many of these as we can do in our regularly allotted time and see if we can
save people some money.
Then if they like it, go out and buy the rest. But let’s begin here because as you know,
Matt, this is all about confidence. Yeah.
And what I like that you do in this project is you help us build our confidence by going,
you know what? You might think you’re not a good negotiator, but you negotiate more
often than you think than you do. You actually are better negotiator than you think. Tell
us, build our confidence, Matt.
How are we better at negotiating than we think we are? You’re better at negotiating than
you think you are because you do it all the time in life, even if you don’t recognize that
you’re doing it and even if the stakes really aren’t that high. Anybody with a roommate
or a partner has probably had a conversation about what to set the thermostat at in your
house. And that’s negotiation, right? Any parent has probably had a conversation about
who’s taking what day in the carpool to take the kids to soccer practice or things like
when to have that meeting at work.
All of this sort of stuff that doesn’t necessarily sound like it equates to negotiating a job
promotion or haggling over medical bills. All of this stuff matters. And it’s really, if you
view it kind of in a sports kind of vein, it’s really about kind of getting your reps in and
realizing that for a lot of us, we’ve gotten a lot more of these reps in already than we
realize and that we should feel a little better about ourselves going into this kind of stuff.
Well, I think part of it, Matt, is the way we frame negotiation. Like we think, okay, I’m
negotiating against Matt. I got to make him pay.
I got to get every last dollar. And you even reset that. You’re like, whoa, whoa, whoa,
whoa, whoa.
I mean, the thermostat is an example. Everybody to some degree has got to be happy.
Let’s reset for you what negotiation truly looks like and what it’s not.
Yeah, it looks good in the movies where everybody is like really hardcore and alpha and
banging on tables and stuff like that. But when negotiations go really well and when they
leave everybody happy is when it’s a win-win. So you go into a negotiation, not trying to
completely take advantage of the person next to you.
You’re trying to go into it, making it where everybody’s going to be happy at the end.
And a kind of a classic example is if you are negotiating with a contractor or a handyman
or somebody like that, and you say, can you give me a little bit of a lower rate? And if
you do, I’ll make sure to tell my friends about you, to give you a good review online, that
sort of thing. So there’s so many examples of things that you can do to help the other
person when they are trying to help you.
And it’s just a really good mindset to have going in. Yeah, one of my favorite parts of
your introduction here is you’re like, listen, yelling at the customer service rep gets
nobody like that. I’ve seen people do that to restaurant waiters and it’s just like, we all
got to win.
Let’s dive into some of the painful places first and then we’ll get people.
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