257. Chris Voss Returns! Former FBI lead crisis negotiator on reading people, building instant trust, & and turning pressure into power - the negotiation tactics YOU need to know
Trading Secrets
Audioboom Studios
5 • 5.5K Ratings
🗓️ 13 October 2025
⏱️ 75 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Chris earned that title throughout his time serving as the lead crisis negotiator for the New York City division of the FBI, and then as FBI’s Chief International Hostage and Kidnapping negotiator. In 2008, after spending 24 years and working 150 international hostage cases for the FBI, Chris founded the Black Swan group which serves as a consulting and training agency for both businesses and individuals on negotiating skills. He has also published several NYT bestselling books.
The former FBI hostage negotiator pulls back the curtain on the art and science of high-stakes communication. Chris breaks down his thoughts on President Trump’s negotiation tactics, explains what an “accusation audit” is and why it’s so effective, and shares how he reacts when others use his own techniques against him. He dives into knowing when to walk away, why every interaction should end on a high note, and what to do when you’re being ghosted. Chris also brings his negotiation expertise into everyday life—offering strategies for navigating dating, marriage, and divorce, the power of telling the truth, and why curiosity can be a superpower when dealing with tight-lipped people. He reveals how a kidnapping hostage negotiation unfolds, the cost of a bad deal, why trusting your gut matters, and his best tips for negotiating your salary.
Chris reveals all this and so much more in another episode you can’t afford to miss!
Host: Jason Tartick
Co-Host: David Arduin
Audio: John Gurney
Guest:
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Welcome back to another episode of Trading Secrets. Today I am joined again by author, entrepreneur, professor, and most notably former member of the FBI, |
| 0:24.2 | known as the master negotiator Chris Voss. Chris earned that title throughout his time, |
| 0:29.6 | serving as the lead crisis negotiator for the New York City Division of the FBI, and then as |
| 0:35.2 | FBI's chief international hostage and kidnapping negotiator. In 2008, |
| 0:40.6 | after spending 24 years and working 15 plus international hostage cases, 15 plus, 150. 150. We lost the zero there. |
| 0:50.6 | International hostage cases for the FBI, Chris founded the Black Swan Group, which serves as a |
| 0:56.2 | consulting and training agency for both businesses and individuals on negotiating skills. He has |
| 1:02.5 | published several New York Times bestselling books. We're going to get into each of those. |
| 1:07.0 | He is talking all over the country and educating the art of negotiation from all things in the workplace, financially, personally, and of course professionally. Chris, we are so excited to have you back on Trading Secrets. Thank you for being here. At pleasure's mind. All right. I think this is where I want to start. I was thinking, you know, you do a lot of interviews. In a lot of your interviews, there's a lot of similar questions, and we're going to get to those because I got to make sure my listeners get all those tactics. |
| 1:32.6 | But I want to start with something that seems very relevant right now. |
| 1:35.5 | And I don't want to get into politics unless that's the way you want to go. |
| 1:39.9 | But I do want to get into the idea that it feels as though that there's a lot of negotiations |
| 1:45.6 | happening domestically and international, internationally, with President Trump. |
| 1:51.6 | You know, he's written books on negotiating. |
| 1:54.1 | There's a lot happening in tariffs in Ukraine and Russia, now Venezuela, there's the hostage |
| 1:59.5 | negotiation still trying to happen with the Hamas. |
| 2:03.6 | It just seems like every headline in America right now has to do with some form of negotiation |
| 2:09.2 | that is also impacting the economy and business. |
| 2:12.1 | From someone like yourself, the master negotiator, what's your take on kind of his tactics |
| 2:17.1 | and what he's doing? Because it seems like |
| 2:18.6 | everyone's got a different opinion on it. |
| 2:20.3 | If you, I love what he's doing. And I did an interview just the other day talking about, |
... |
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