Traditional negotiation advice tells you to be aggressive and dominant. As a woman of color most of the time I have not had the power to initiate dominance and aggression against my counterparts and come out winning. Also, I never really wanted to play the adversarial game.

As a child, I used to be so shy that I never even raised my hand in class, despite always knowing the answers. Asking for what I wanted – forget about it.

When I started law school I learned that curiosity was my best weapon. The prime objective was to ask questions, investigate, and understand multiple perspectives. This also happens to be the foundation of negotiation.

At its core every good negotiation is a conversation.

As a practicing lawyer I have learned that the primary objective in any negotiation is the relationship it creates. My clients wanted to establish hierarchies, partnerships, and collaborations. Some with the eye on the long game and some wanting a quick win.

I saw that the ones caring about the long term relationships had the best outcomes. They established trust, truly understood the needs of their counterparts, defined sustainable boundaries, and made more profitable deals.

My entire negotiation philosophy is based on the notion that every time you negotiate the main part of the deal is how the relationship will be structured going forward.

The resources and money exchanged are just an expression of that relationship. If you increase the value of the relationship you also increase the value of the deal and will be compensated accordingly.

At its core business is all about relationships, with clients and customers, partners, employees and so many others. Through negotiation, you can improve those relationships with trust and reciprocity, and you can make the outcomes reliable and profitable.

And I will show you how to do that just that, on your terms.