Chris Voss is the former lead international kidnapping negotiator for the FBI. For seven years, his job was to talk people out of the worst decisions of their lives. He's the reason a bank robber walked out of a Manhattan branch after an eight-hour standoff and surrendered to him personally on the sidewalk. A teammate named Jamie Sedania passed Chris two notes at critical moments. Those two notes ended the standoff.

But Chris didn't start there. He grew up in a small town in Iowa, the son of an entrepreneur who put every kid to work the moment they could carry trash. He joined the Kansas City police, then the FBI, then the New York Joint Terrorist Task Force. He applied for the hostage negotiation team and got rejected. The woman in charge told him to go volunteer on a suicide hotline first. He did. That decision changed everything, because tactical empathy doesn't get built in simulation rooms. It gets built in conversations where the stakes are someone's life.

Today Chris is the founder of the Black Swan Group, named after Nassim Taleb's book on the impact of the highly improbable. He's the author of Never Split The Difference, a book that has sold millions of copies and still ranks #1 in negotiation a decade after release. In this episode of Truth Works, he sits down with Jessica Neal and Peter Clark to unpack how the skills that brought hostages home alive close million-dollar deals, win raises, and transform hiring conversations.

This is not a tactics episode. It's a conversation about what happens inside the human brain when someone feels heard, and why coachability is the rarest and most expensive trait in any room.

What you'll learn:

The 6 second silence rule that triggers oxytocin and serotonin, and why most people destroy it by speaking too soon
Why "negotiate your career, not your salary" is the only raise strategy that actually works, and the exact opening line to use with your boss
The 3 negotiator types (assertive, analyst, accommodator) and how the same silence lands differently with each
How to spot when you're the fool in the game (20% of the time, you are)
Why Stephen Covey got "seek first to understand" wrong, and the small correction Chris makes
The tactical empathy framework, why it was rebranded from plain "empathy," and the neuroscience underneath it
The single observation Chris makes at the grocery store that turns a produce clerk into a personal tour guide
The Robert Greene charmer principle that explains why some people make you feel like the most interesting person in the room
Why coachability is the rarest trait in any room, and the man on a plane who proved it in 10 seconds
The bank robbery story, the swap negotiator tactic, and the two notes that ended an eight-hour standoff
The 22 second silence Elon Musk held with Lex Fridman, and what came out the other side

Learn more about Chris, his Professional Dealmaker Day on May 15th, and his upcoming salary negotiation course at blackswanltd.com.

Truth Works is hosted by Jessica Neal, former Chief Talent Officer at Netflix. New episodes drop weekly. Subscribe for more honest conversations on leadership, work, and what needs to change.