From Iowa Roots to International Negotiator: Chris Voss on Success, Perseverance, and Building Trust
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How did Chris Voss transition from a small town to the FBI?
So the thought of traveling all over the world as a job in law enforcement appealed to me. At the time, the Secret Service was not hiring. The FBI was. I had no idea the difference between the FBI or the CIA or the Secret Service or the FDA.
And now, Escaping the Drift, the show designed to get you from where you are to where you want to be. I'm Jon Gafford, and I have a knack for getting extraordinary achievers to drop their secrets to help you on a path to greatness. So stop drifting along, escape the drift, and it's time to start right now. Back again, back again for another episode of the show like it says in the opening, man, gets you from where you are to where you want to be. And today in the studio, man, I'm so excited. We have waited three months for today. We scheduled this a long, long time ago and in studio today. I'm talking about kids. I got a legend, a legend in the studio today. This dude was the head of the FBI's lead international kidnapping investigation. He was the negotiator for that division. He is an adjunct professor at the Harvard Law School and Georgetown University. He has written one of probably the Bible-type books. It's the Bible for negotiation called Never Split the Difference, Negotiating as if Your Life Depends on It.
He is the CEO of the Black Swan Group, and now he's an AI, which is cool. Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the studio. This is Chris Voss. Chris!
Thanks for having me on, man. I appreciate it.
How are we doing, man?
Good to see you.
Good to see you. And another fellow Las Vegas or a Las Vegas. I am residing here these days, which we like. Yeah. We, we, we always like having our neighbors come on. I'm, I'm sorry that it was such a long drive from your side of town to my side of town. It's getting longer every day.
It seems like opportunity to chill on the way.
Yeah, well, that's a good thing, man. That's a good thing. So I want to get started, obviously, because you are the apex of your career. You are the top dog in your field, I feel. Thank you. And you don't reach that kind of excellence without having some type of internal drive that was embedded in you through youth, through your childhood. My youth, as they would say. Youth, yeah. So what is it about growing up Chris Voss that made you Chris Voss?
I think... My father taught me how to figure things out. Hard work, integrity, figure it out. My father was a small town Iowa, blue collar entrepreneur, owned his own business, but it was very blue collar business. Fuel oil services, worked for my dad, you had to be prepared to get dirty and fix things.
What role does self-responsibility play in success?
And good news, bad news, you like working for a guy that would never ask you to do anything he wouldn't do himself? And there was nothing that was beneath him. So if needed to get done, you know, if he's delivering, if he owns a gas station and a toilet's backed up in a gas station, he'd get in there and clean it himself. So he figured that you should have no misgivings about doing anything. So, and also he'd give you a list of things to do, not necessarily tell you how to get them done. Yeah. So you had to figure a lot of stuff out. So learn how to work hard, how to figure stuff out at an early age. And the basics of negotiation is figuring it out and attention and learning. So I think that's, I applied these ideas to this particular area, but I think it would be applicable to any area.
How'd you get started with the FBI?
Via my father's disappointment.
Okay.
So at about age 16, I saw this movie, The Super Cops, about two New York City cops that were wildly creative, wildly inventive. I didn't realize how much they were mavericks at the time. I was just struck by their creativity. They did a lot of good. They locked up a lot of bad guys in bad areas of New York City. And the community loved them. These were white cops in a black neighborhood, and black people in the neighborhood loved them because they cared about having a great neighborhood. So these guys served the community. And color disappears when you do that. But I was always struck at how creative these guys were. So I wanted to be a cop.
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Chapters
7 chapters
1
How did Chris Voss transition from a small town to the FBI?
0:00–2:43
2
What role does self-responsibility play in success?
2:43–4:47
3
What unexpected opportunities arose from Chris's book release?
4:47–7:32
4
How can mastering client relationships enhance real estate success?
7:32–13:09
5
What techniques help in building trust with clients?
13:09–15:18
6
How did Chris Voss achieve international recognition?
15:18–18:39
7
What lessons can be learned from Chris Voss's journey?
18:39–1:00:51
Speakers
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