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Interview & Negotiate Like a Pro

Lesson 30 from: How to Make Money

Ramit Sethi

Interview & Negotiate Like a Pro

Lesson 30 from: How to Make Money

Ramit Sethi

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Lesson Info

30. Interview & Negotiate Like a Pro

Next Lesson: Mock Interviews

Lesson Info

Interview & Negotiate Like a Pro

Session for interviewing and negotiating like the pros all right, so we are going to learn how to interview, negotiate and actually just be more socially skilled when we go to cocktail parties or whatever using some of these techniques were going to some hot seat, so I want people here to get ready, get mentally prepared to get up here. Uh, if you wantto interview or negotiate, okay, so what do we think about when we think about interviewing? How do we feel? Because you're meeting somebody that you don't know and they're evaluating you and what you have to bring to them good? What else? You know, fear not answering questions they're gonna ask you, correct? Yeah, as if it's a test? Uh, anything else? Okay, so it's, almost like you don't know how to study when you when you have an exam, it has a title, it has a focus, you know how to prepare for that this one you can roughly prepare, but you don't know you've never met that person nine times out of ten. So it's a test that's really diffi...

cult toe completely prepare for as if every interviewer is going to ask you totally different questions, and in fact they're not right um in my in my course material, my students actually get literally word for word answers too most interview questions, but I tell them I don't want you reading these off I'm gonna give you the answers and I'm gonna give you great tested answers but if you just read him off if you memorize them, read him off, you'll do ok probably actually get a second round interview because they're good answers, but to be a true master you will internalize them. You will make them your own. You will see behind the answer right? So that you could actually be prepared not only to answer those questions that I gave you tactical, you'll actually be prepared to answer any questions it's the difference between theory and practice it's like the difference between someone who knows howto stitch up a hand or an injury and someone who understands the whole human body, the person who knows how to stitch up something they're tactical they can they can understand like one thing, but if something else goes wrong, they don't understand that causes like a physician would you see the difference? So the reason I'm giving you scripts and answers is that I believe most experts are really general and I believe you can judge me by how specific I'm being with you, right? You can come in here and I could just give you a bunch of ice like go open up some accounts, but I told you the accounts toe open because I've researched it so deeply I could tell you oh go raise your rates but I told you exactly what to say to raise your rates why am I doing this there's two reasons one I wantto help you and save you from all the time that I've spent doing this two I want to impart a meta message is anyone seeing it I am being so specific with you that what is the natural feeling you have when you read one of my scripts and I show you why it works or I show you my actual resume instead of giving you generic advice what how do you feel when you see that you've done it he worked the system I've done the research correct what else trusts you trust speak about that uh you've instilled a sense of trust in me because you've given me like specific answers before why would I not trust you on the next stuff you're going to give me because it should be specific and it should be up to a certain standard would you trust that let's say this is a free course right now and soon it's gonna price is gonna go way up so I encourage you to join this course would you believe that? Um if I tell you in my x y z course I have a bunch of script and even more stuff that I've never even revealed here today would you believe that yeah, of course you would in fact, if I were to quote you a price which I'm not going to do but if I were to quote you, a price price would be what a mere trivialities if I had truly connected with you for someone watching who's like oh my god, I have been sending out five hundred resumes a week and I'm just not getting a job and he just blew my mind in one slide do you think that person cares about the price? No. So the second reason I'm doing this is the meta message and that is what I've been doing all three days is something you can do with your clients and your job search how many ofyou stay really vague when your client asked you about x y z you say stuff like oh yeah you khun you can certainly have all these options you can do this or that or whatever you want. I could help you with whatever you want how many of you say that? Uh uh, how many of you say, oh, yeah, like I've done that or you should definitely look into that as opposed to well, from what I understand of what you need, you're looking for this this this this is the thing I would recommend in fact here's exactly what I did with my other client and hear the results they got I want to teach you the meta story behind what I've been doing the whole time here which is by getting this specific you know that I know what's going on here because I've done it and I'm not just telling you I'm showing you I'm bringing students on via skype I've got another student when you're gonna come out here in a few minutes I'm showing you can you use this as you're growing your photography business or your writing business or you're going to a nine to five uh interview process instead of just telling them what you're gonna do for them can you actually show them well, you see what I'm talking about the meta message anybody here can anyone here think of a way you're going to take what I just said and applied to your own business or your own career? Yeah, I feel like I collected all this data but I haven't been specific on really looking at are developing a system for it. Biggest clients ask hey, I was talking about love all you can do the service of this but it's not that I don't want you to give him a million options right? And when you tell you what's right for them right? I don't want someone to tell me, but why do you think my book doesn't say oh here's here's fifty choices I don't care if I picked up your book and I believe in the book and I believe in you just tell me so what I do my whole approach is like in chapter seven of my book, I talk about investments, I say listen, ninety nine percent of you all you need to know is on the next page there's one type of investment for most of you if you care about how it actually works, read on for the rest of the chapter, but that's for the nerds that's for the one percent people who are the nerds? Nineteen percent you don't care how it works, you just wanted to work. Here you go. How many of you were doing that versus let me give you twenty options and you decide that's? I don't want to decide as a client I'm busy tell me what I should do explain why put me at the centre don't gouge me for prices don't charge me, but don't make me think great book, by the way great book called don't make me think it's about web design, but it it defines the way you should be thinking as an advisor, your relationship does your client really want to think what they want to do? They're paying you so you think about it and I get to live a rich life that's why I'm paying you solve my problem get this off my plate I'm out I'm out with my family I'm traveling I'm saying anybody here surprised by this I want to hear reactions from the web too because I'm not um part is not not surprised that with amongst wedding vendors that's a common thing that like a thinking bride is the worst fry because she's only gonna think negative stuff so whateveryou dio like you like that's just the thing with me but that's something that we would talk about that I would never in a million years approach a bride that way because it would be I don't would not know how the words that or articulate that too even though this could be condescending yeah I think every the problem with weddings in general is that every vendor is going you know will cater to your every whim and the bride's promised well I don't know what I want so I don't know how to tell you what I want and they're going just tell me what you want don't give it how about you and that's where the disconnect is let me take a crack at it yes I'm no wedding planner but oh I'll take a crack at it I say first of all uh thanks so much for coming in I'm really glad that and he referred you tell me how you met we go through that whole thing and you know there's so many different types of options in what kind of wedding you're looking for like really starting off from scratch? What kind of wedding are you looking for? What words would you use to describe it? Blah blah blah so I'm building report I'm spending twenty minutes listening interviewing, taking notes I said, okay, so from what you just told me you're looking for this this this it seems like your budget is roughly this correct me if I'm wrong and a couple things you don't want our blah blah, blah I'm reading her words back to her, but I'm adding my expertise and what is she doing as I'm saying this literally physically yes, yes finally someone's listening to me and not speaking over me and then I say, um, you know, I've worked on a lot of different weddings I've worked on weddings for celebrities I've worked on weddings in the back of a bar and there's a few things I always like to do that's why I asked you so many questions I want to cross something that when when it's your day you feel like it's your wedding it's your best, most beautiful wedding that you dreamed about since you were a little girl here's what I would suggest for you there are three different packages that you could do it's really up to you on what you would choose in fact I I often tell my clients to choose the smallest one whatever is most comfortable for them so what I would do is blah blah blah and here's why when you include this special photography whatever you mentioned to me that you were a little nervous about capturing that special moment, I actually have a photographer that I would recommend happy to show you his portfolio here one of the things he specializes in he used to be a national geographic photographer and now he specializes in photographs for asian couples so he knows the culture blah blah, blah and on on and on okay, I'm going to stop there what did I do customizing and I actually customizing so many people will listen listen listen they don't even listen but they'll listen then they'll customize it by adding the same shit to everyone's packages that doesn't make sense if I'm going to customise something for someone I'll be like, you know what? Normally this package is like ten thousand dollars uh normally I actually recommend blah, blah, blah, but I'm actually gonna cross that out and actually subtract the price out because for you I don't think it makes sense I'm putting them at the center of it the other key thing I did was I listened for twenty or thirty minutes without being able to do that you can customize it so that's just a huge sea change when you do that so you're not, uh going back to your original question of how do I tell the bride that I'm gonna handle everything for her on dh she's not going to think about it not having to think about it is one of many concerns that bright has you need to ascertain those concerns during your twenty or thirty minute interview okay? And if she said I'm so busy, I don't want to have to think about this you know, that's actually no problem I have an additional staff that I bring on so that if you need to reach us any time especially the week before the wedding we were on call twenty four seven that's an additional service but we've actually had clients that have wanted to use that and so I'd built that into my business okay that's how you do alright so introduction interviewing the thing the whole thing we just did there with a client you can also do with the hiring manager and it's not about going in there and answering questions that's not what interviews interviews about presenting your narrative, presenting your message uh there's a group called clarity media group they're terrific they're out of new york if you're looking for media training, I recommend them and they have a phrase called three must say's so what are your three must say's when I uh if I were to go into an interview I might have a must say that said you know I've driven x dollars in revenue through information products or I know how to optimize conversion I've optimized conversion rates or uh I have a relationship with all these media people and I'm happy to introduce this company to them it doesn't always have to be about experience because you can't be generated ten million dollars in revenue if you're twenty two years old it's not gonna happen so these are the things we do in interviews and we're going to give you three techniques and we're gonna bring people up here so get ready number one I know what you're going to say before you enter the room eighty percent of the work is done before you ever walk in the room earlier somebody said they feel nervous about going into an interview because they don't know what to expect eighty percent of the work is done before you ever go into the room what I mean by that go back to the kiss example the analogy here is you've carefully studied what kind of company you're looking for, what job title you've done natural networking with people you've maybe even built relationships a lot of my students walk into the room you know what they say hey mike it's so great to see you again because they had coffee with him last week how do you think that interview goes pretty much like my interview did when I was an intern and I walked in the room and they already love me I don't have to say anything so you've done all this work beforehand you already know other people on the team you've perhaps taken other people in the team out to coffee you walk in a percent of work's done you know the words that the hiring manager is going to use you know their hopes, fears and dreams okay, next don't be a robot um the reporter technique is you guys ever hear reporters are like newscasters they're like today in kansas city there was a bomb that was lodged in a local school and it was like why do they talk like that? Does anyone know why they talk like that when you go on tv like right now people watching me they're actually experiencing less emotion of people in the room you remove that dimension of being live and you actually have to increase the way that you speak well what happens when people get into interviews is they get really nervous and they start speaking like this in a monotone this is especially true for guys, okay it's really bad has anyone ever met people like this? They just like speaking of monitor what do you do when you hear those people goodbye? I'm asleep gone gone so get the practice being a motive this one is particularly for guys okay, we did some stuff especially for women this one for guys guys we tend it I mean, I did this I told you about my smiling example in the scholarship things I tell you this how I uh okay when I was applying for scholarships I started getting all these interviews and then I would lose every single time when what the hell and I finally videotape myself and I was like, I was like speaking like this I wasn't smiling that much and I was like, oh my god I look like, so not fun I look like I'm so bored and just terrible I look like a terrible person and I started smiling I forced myself to smile because it didn't come naturally to me and I started getting scholarship a precaution for a lot of guys just being friendly and approach and like a couple of smiles couple like it's like it actually can change everything okay and there are ways to do this I'll show you how to practice okay rambling anybody here what's the experience when you meet someone you ask him like hey how's it going and then they're like, well the thing is first of all, speedy cares ran over my baby then my car got broken into then uh then my car and what do you do it's like okay imagine if someone does this in an interview the place where they're supposed to be their very best how do you react to them it's an instant no higher I have no hired people many times because they ramble many could be perfectly qualified everybody get this through your head this is the same thing I talked about in terms of yesterday in terms of you could be perfect at your craft but if you don't have these other ancillary factors like rambling no higher why? Because if you can't get this right and in an interview how are you going to be if we get stuck in an airport to give me rambling for next six hours I want to hang out with you goodbye is it harsh? Maybe is it true? I think so. So who here has ever systematically I tried to figure out if you ramble a lot or not you have how'd you do it well I have a lot of people that laugh at me because I do ramble on and okay. So who here has ever been telling a story or something? And you can you can tell that it's just like not hitting and you're just going on on who here? Well, what happens when you do that what's the reaction of people start to look away I'm interested yeah I do I got it from my mom okay, well that's your best excuse that's got it for my mom so I can't do anything about it so I do it to her so I I used to I used to this happen to me a lot and it happens to all of us in different ways we'll tell a joke and it falls flat and like there's that moment where you know the joke is supposed to take off and it just goes like yeah, and you're like, oh, no and I still have to finish the joke right it's terrible or you know, you'd be in meeting saying something and someone just like talking right over and sometimes that like that happened to me over and over and over again and I had to understand why was it my atonality was because I was sitting like this was it cause I actually just didn't know what I was talking about all of the above, okay? And then the worst is when we ramble and we see someone just losing interest, they literally sometimes will go like this. Well, here's the thing I discovered in the research I mean, the people who ramble I usually don't even know like they know intuitively and if you said, hey, do you ramble so yeah probably should fix that, but at that moment they can't figure out that their rambling so don't like and when they do figured out they can't stop, they'll be like, oh, no, no, no in in the middle of their head, this is as air speaking, oh god, I could tell this guy starting to look away, but I'm still rambling because I don't know how to end the conversation, right? Anyone experienced that I've done it. Um, here's a quick way to avoid that. If someone asks you a question in interview, you want to treat it like you're being asked a question on npr or on the today show, watch the pros watch them answer questions, do it today going any talk show uh, like those two shows, watch a professional go on there let's say, I am the host, I ask the expert tell us, what's going on the market today they're going to give me an answer that's like so chris, every word has earned its way into the response and it's about twenty seconds bone and then person stops talking and I say, oh, really tell us about that so it's a dance instead of what most people do when they're going to interview tell me why you're interested in a job blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah two minutes later, I want to kill myself right the hi lo hi technique goes like this he says you know so I might say as an interviewer um uh tell me about your experience working at x y z company what you do and I might say, you know well, at a high level I started off I did all I ran all online marketing including traffic acquisition and customer revenue uh, for example, one of things we did was we actually focused on improving the up sell conversion rate and we were able to move that from sixteen percent to twenty six percent which was actually a one million dollar increase but I could get into all the details if you like, but overall I focused on driving customer acquisition and revenue. What did I just do that I started off at a high level? I did online marketing then I went low. Why? Because as we talked about don getting specific using those real words the words that resonate with the client or the customer or the hiring manager that makes people believe you and make you more specific but don't want to spend too long on there. So I said, you know, I can get into more that if you want but again and I summed it up at a high level I managed all traffic acquisition and revenue see that that whole answer took like twenty seconds but I packed in so much, and I respected the busy person by saying, I, khun, get into the details if you want. But here's what I did here's. A specific example. Again, if you want to ask me more questions, here's, what you can ask me about. See how I'm almost guiding that conversation, super different than what most people do.

Class Materials

bonus material with purchase

Ramit Sethi Interview
3 Negotiation Scripts
5 Negotiation Case Studies
Freelance Email Proposals
Freelance Income Roadmap
List of Freelancing Ideas
5 Resumes That Win
VIP Email Teardown
Updated Resource Link: I Will Teach You To Be Rich

Ratings and Reviews

AshPhoto
 

This course changed my life. After watching Ramit on Creative Live, I bought his book, then signed up for his newsletter, then bought several of his classes. You could say I am officially drinking the Ramit Kool-aid now, but I'll tell you why... His stuff works. You have to trust the system, but I've been able to create a rich life for myself by my definition of rich and I am so happy. It takes work, but I am so grateful I found Ramit in my 20s so I can truly enjoy my 30s over the next decade. Without this course, I would still be complaining that people don't want to hire me because my prices are too high and whining that I am not valued, when in reality, the problem was me. Thanks Ramit for always speaking the hard truths and giving people wake-up calls to get their act together and live the life they want... It's possible!

Adrian Farr
 

Ramit is a huge inspiration, he is not just a 'been there and made loads of money' kind of guy, he is a 'been there and made loads of money, and here's how I did it' kind of guy! Ramit really gets down to helping you understand not only how to make money but also how to save it too. I am looking forward to reading his book and plan to implement a lot of his systems into my own life.

YKR
 

I have taken a few business classes for creatives online, but this is by far the most comprehensive, most practical course of all. Especially for someone like me who loves Ramit's work but has not made a decision to commit to his full courses, this is a great introduction for what he can offer. He pushes you to think outside the box and see all the possibilities that we can have in a very clear, logical way. If you are unsure which class to take to learn about business, this is all you need.

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