Gentle Power – Details, episodes & analysis

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Gentle Power

Gerta and Alex at YourNegotiations.com

Business

Frequency: 1 episode/8d. Total Eps: 65

Join Gerta Malaj & Alex Choi break down our negotiation strategies, unpack real-world success stories, and share practical tactics alongside conversations with leading experts. As cofounders of YourNegotiations.com, they help execs, mid-careers, and founders negotiate job offers and business deals. They're Harvard, MIT, and Wharton alums who have helped hundreds of clients increase their comp packages by an average of $100K, with some seeing increases up to $1.7M. Their backgrounds span tech (LinkedIn, Meta), the US Air Force, venture capital, and building venture-backed companies.

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🇫🇷 France - careers
11/07/2026
#59

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https://www.yournegotiations.com/
48 shares
https://yournegotiations.kit.com/
48 shares
https://calendly.com/alexhapki/call?month=2025-07
47 shares

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Score global : 38%

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64. Where lies your power as a career switcher? | Soumya Maya

Tuesday, July 21, 2026 • Duration 32:44

Most people think negotiation starts when the offer lands. Our guest, Soumya Maya, makes the case that for anyone changing careers, it starts far earlier, back when you decide to switch and begin figuring out your story. Soumya began her career in architecture, spent about a decade exploring different fields, and moved into product management at edtech startups before leaving to build an AI tool for career changers. She also coaches people through their career pivots.

In this episode, we get into why career changers give away leverage they don't realize they have and what to do about it. Our conversation runs from the inner work of knowing your own worth to the practical mechanics of asking, reading the other side, and how to stay engaged and unrattled after hearing the first no.

Why your negotiation really starts on day zero, not at the offer
The reason career changers underrate their power, and how cultural conditioning impacts their thing
Finding leverage when a new field treats your experience as a disadvantage
Why the first no is rarely a real no
Asking more than once, and why a rescinded offer might be a gift

Connect with Soumya: https://www.linkedin.com/in/soumyamaya

For more:

Book free consultation call with Alex: https://calendly.com/alexhapki/call
Get our free negotiation worksheet: https://www.yournegotiations.com
Read our weekly newsletter: https://yournegotiations.kit.com
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/yournegotiations
Gerta's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/gertamalaj
Alex's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/alexhapki

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63. “Don’t solution before discovery” & other workplace negotiation strategies | Amanda Gustafson

Friday, July 10, 2026 • Duration 38:40

Amanda Gustafson coaches leaders through conversations most managers dread: giving a co-worker constructive feedback, telling a direct report they’re underperforming, resetting expectations with a peer. She became a career coach via a very winding road, from a physics degree to running a theater at 23 years old, then to a master's in psychology to software consulting.

In this episode:

• Why describing behavior is better than labeling the person, and how to do it with a direct report

• "Don't solution before discovery," and how that relates to job offer negotiations

• Framing a hard conversation as project management so people don't get defensive

• Building a feedback loop so "we'll do better next time" turns into real change

• Amanda's hot take: the bigger the gap between perceived value and price, the easier the yes

Learn more about Amanda’s work: https://www.amandagustafson.com

For more:

• Book free consultation call with Alex: ⁠https://calendly.com/alexhapki/call

• Get our free negotiation worksheet: ⁠https://www.yournegotiations.com

• Read our weekly newsletter: https://yournegotiations.kit.com

• Instagram: ⁠https://www.instagram.com/yournegotiations

• Gerta's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/gertamalaj

• Alex's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/alexhapki

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54. Don’t memorize negotiation lines and scripts, here’s why.

Saturday, April 11, 2026 • Duration 16:35

This week, Alex and Gerta react live to a short viral video from Alex Hormozi about a discount negotiation tactic. No guest, just the two of them watching the clip and breaking it down in real time. This episode is honest, funny (Alex shares his most embarrassing moment), and gets into something that comes up a lot in our negotiation work: why memorized tactics tend to backfire when it actually matters.

Here's what the episode covers:

• The Hormozi tactic itself: responding to a discount request, “can you do it for less” with "I could do it for more," and the anchoring logic behind it

• The hidden assumption in the clip that quietly undermines the whole tactic• Why short-form negotiation advice tends to reward gimmicks over judgment

• How memorizing scripts makes you less present, and why that costs you in live negotiations

• What Alex and Gerta actually coach clients to do instead: principles with real logic, not lines to recite

• Alex's mortifying elevator pitch story from college that illustrates all of this perfectly

For more:

• Book free consultation call with Alex: https://calendly.com/alexhapki/call

• Get our free negotiation worksheet: https://www.yournegotiations.com

• Read our weekly newsletter: https://yournegotiations.kit.com

• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/yournegotiations

• Gerta's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/gertamalaj

• Alex's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/alexhapki

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53. Let people ask 3 times before you take it more seriously | Tallulah Le Merle

Saturday, April 4, 2026 • Duration 01:05:52

Tallulah Le Merle spent nearly seven years negotiating deals as a management consultant at Kearney, worked as a fractional COO and advisor for AI scale-ups, and is now a partner at Fifth Era, a conscious-tech investment firm. She's also a writer and speaker working on her upcoming book, The Case for Hope in the Age of AI. And she has a lot to say about negotiations.

In this episode, we get into how power reads differently across cultures, why authenticity isn't just an ethical position but a tactical one, the StrengthsFinder concept of WOO (Winning Others Over) and what it actually looks like in practice, and how to hold your ground without turning a negotiation into a standoff.

• How British and American corporate cultures handle power differently, and what that means for how you negotiate depending on the culture

• WOO (Winning Others Over) as a negotiation skill: reading the other side, mirroring their language, and walking into their world instead of asking them to come to yours

• The Rule of Three in consulting: why letting a client ask multiple times before treating it as a real ask protects both the relationship and the scope

• Why lying about competing offers backfires, and what authenticity actually buys you at the table• The difference between being firm and being rigid, and how the clearest negotiators are often the calmest ones

• Why vulnerability is a marker of power, not weakness, whether you're negotiating a salary or a relationship

Connect with Tallulah Le Merle: https://www.tallulahlemerle.com

For more:

• Book free consultation call with us: https://calendly.com/alexhapki/call

• Get our free negotiation worksheet: https://www.yournegotiations.com

• Read our weekly newsletter: https://yournegotiations.kit.com

• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/yournegotiations

• Gerta's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/gertamalaj

52. She turned a no into $50K. Here’s how. | Surina Diddi

Friday, March 27, 2026 • Duration 50:14

In this episode, we invited Surina Diddi, who spent nearly a decade in finance, from equity research at UBS to investment banking at Lazard and Scotiabank to private equity in the renewable energy and energy storage space.

We talk through Surina’s experience negotiating an additional $50K on top of her MBA scholarship at Chicago Booth School of Business. We get into how scholarship pools actually work, why the admissions officer relationship matters more than most people realize, and how she used a real job offer pipeline as leverage. We also talk about what she'd do differently: applying earlier and to more schools.

We Cover:

• How MBA scholarship funds are actually allocated and who controls them

• Why pitching your credentials alone isn't enough, and what actually moved the needle

• The role of persistence after a flat no

• How a real job offer pipeline became negotiation leverage against a business school

• Why Surina deliberately avoided naming a specific dollar amount

• The Forte Foundation and other pre-MBA fellowship programs worth knowing about

Connect with Surina Diddi: https://www.linkedin.com/in/surina-diddi-28824219

• Over many years, Surina has mentored lots of people pursuing careers in finance and admission to top MBA programs, often helping them secure scholarships. Feel free to reach out to her on LinkedIn if you think she can support you.

For more:

• Book free consultation call with Alex: https://calendly.com/alexhapki/call

• Get our free negotiation worksheet: https://www.yournegotiations.com

• Read our weekly newsletter: https://yournegotiations.kit.com

• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/yournegotiations

• Gerta's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/gertamalaj

51. Visualization & the DREAMS framework in negotiations

Saturday, March 21, 2026 • Duration 59:32

What if negotiation isn’t just about tactics, scripts, and numbers? In this episode, we sit down with Julia Martin and Melanie Bettis to explore the intersection most people ignore: mindset and strategy.

Julia comes from the world of manifestation and intentionality. Melanie brings deep experience in job search strategy, interviewing, and salary negotiation. Together, they make a compelling case for something we’ve seen with our own clients: It’s rarely just tactics or mindset. It’s both.

We get into how your internal state shapes negotiation outcomes, why most people start negotiating too late, and how to expand what you believe is possible when the numbers feel out of reach.

If you found this helpful, share it with someone who’s about to negotiate an offer or make a big career move.

What we cover

• The question Julia uses to shift into a confident mindset

• Why negotiation actually starts before the interview

• How recruiters use early salary questions to anchor you

• The “ladder of believability” and how to ask for more than you’ve ever made

• How to identify and reframe limiting beliefs before a negotiation

• Why visualization is used by athletes, the military, and top performers

• How to mentally rehearse a negotiation or interview

• Why likability and genuine curiosity create leverage

• The small language shifts that make negotiation collaborative

• What most people misunderstand about persistence in negotiation

Key ideas from the episode

1. Visualization is practical, not just abstract. From athletes to military training, mental rehearsal is used to improve performance. The same applies to interviews and compensation conversations.

50. ⁠The moment a negotiation stops being rational | Sam Liu

Thursday, March 12, 2026 • Duration 54:49

In this episode of Gentle Power, we talk with Sam Liu, founder of AI startup Fergana Labs and former Stanford PhD student in decision making.

We originally invited Sam on because we love both PhD dropouts and decision making science. What we didn’t expect was how many of his insights about negotiation had less to do with neat frameworks and more to do with how messy real decisions actually are.

Our conversation spans startup risk, taxi negotiations in Thailand, poker, game theory, and the emotional tension at the center of many negotiations.Sam shares why many big life decisions build quietly over time before becoming obvious all at once, why many career risks are actually social risks, and why the hardest part of negotiating is often simply holding your ground while the other side reacts.

We also discuss when negotiations truly become zero sum, why conviction can shape outcomes more than benchmarks, and what game theory teaches us about long term relationships and cooperation.

Learn more about Sam and his company here:

• Sam's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/samzliu

• Fergana Labs website: https://ferganalabs.com

For more:

• Book free consultation call with Alex: ⁠https://calendly.com/alexhapki/call

• Get our free negotiation worksheet: ⁠https://www.yournegotiations.com

• Read our weekly newsletter: https://yournegotiations.kit.com

• Instagram: ⁠https://www.instagram.com/yournegotiations

• Gerta's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/gertamalaj

• Alex's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/alexhapki

49. Can you outsource your negotiation to AI?

Saturday, March 7, 2026 • Duration 25:37

We get this question a lot: “Have you trained an AI on your negotiation framework?” or “Can I just follow a template?”The appeal is obvious. A clean script would be easier for everyone involved and much easier to scale.The problem is that negotiation doesn't really work that way.Every negotiation is different. Different people. Different incentives. Different timing. Different pressure points. Different cultures.In this episode, we talk about why negotiation is both a science and an art, and why the “art” part is exactly what makes it so difficult to automate or turn into a simple template.We also walk through real examples from our work with clients and explain why judgment, context, and timing matter far more than most people realize.We cover:• Why negotiation can’t be reduced to a script or template: Even strong negotiation principles require judgment calls in the moment. The same rule can lead to different decisions depending on the situation.• Why we usually advise candidates not to give a preferred salary number: Every role has a budget ceiling that candidates rarely know. Sharing a number too early can anchor you below that ceiling or signal misalignment with the company.• The rare situations where sharing a number actually makes sense: For example, if you have a higher offer from another company but prefer a different employer that says their current offer is “best and final.”• How company culture changes the tone of negotiation: Some companies communicate very directly. Others use softer, more collaborative language. Adjusting your style to match the culture can make negotiations smoother.• Why compensation data is often overrated: Many candidates rely heavily on salary databases or friends’ compensation numbers. In reality, compensation outcomes are often driven by the company’s urgency at that specific moment.• How timing can dramatically change an offer: If a company urgently needs to fill a role before a major product launch, they may stretch their compensation range for the right candidate.• Small signals that can change your leverage: These include who referred you, how persistent the recruiter is about certain questions, and whether the company hints at other candidates in the pipeline. These details can influence how assertive you should be during negotiations.

For more:

• Book free consultation call with Alex: ⁠https://calendly.com/alexhapki/call

48. Optionality has downsides and complexity | Yehong Zhu

Season 1 · Episode 49

Friday, February 27, 2026 • Duration 54:50

In this episode, we welcomed Yehong Zhu, founder and CEO of Zett AI. Yehong is a former Forbes reporter, a Harvard philosophy graduate, and a former product manager at X (formerly Twitter). We explored how her background across media, tech, and startups shapes the way she thinks about negotiation, decision making, and building companies that last.

We covered:

The “worst alternative” to a deal and the sushi conveyor belt problem of waiting too long for a better option
Poker as a decision framework: protecting your energy stack, knowing when to fold, and developing your own risk styleAnnie Duke’s concept of “resulting” and how to separate decision quality from outcomes
Reversible vs irreversible decisions, infinite games, and building companies that last beyond short term incentives

For more:

Book free consultation call with Alex: Calendly

Get our free negotiation worksheet: YourNegotiations.com

Read our weekly newsletter: Newsletter

Instagram: @yournegotiations

LinkedIn: Gerta | Alex

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47. A personal brand is a negotiation asset

Season 1 · Episode 47

Friday, February 20, 2026 • Duration 38:45

This week on Gentle Power, we sat down with Morgan Snyder for a candid conversation about executive content, personal brand, and the quiet factors that contribute to negotiation outcomes before a call even starts. We also get into what’s actually working on LinkedIn right now, why long-form still matters, and how to build relationships in a way that doesn’t feel like performance art, even though Morgan himself will post over-the-top content that mocks the status signalers.

We covered:

Why Morgan thinks long-form content is where real trust gets built, which is a key pillar in negotiations
How newsletters and consistent publishing increase your “surface area” and create inbound without constant pitching, which helps close deals
Morgan’s take on what performs on LinkedIn in 2026, from “basement tier” posts to genuinely expert content
The “secret sauce” question: what to share publicly, what to keep private, and why implementation is usually the real product
Two simple habits that help you never run out of content ideas

For more:

Book free consultation call with Alex: Calendly

Get our free negotiation worksheet: YourNegotiations.com

Read our weekly newsletter: Newsletter

Instagram: @yournegotiations

LinkedIn: Gerta | Alex

Gentle Power – Details, episodes & analysis

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Gentle Power – Details, episodes & analysis

Podcast details

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Apple Podcasts

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