Gentle Power

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.

Gentle Power is a business podcast hosted by Gerta and Alex at YourNegotiations.com, with 66 episodes on record and a Required Pod Score of 80. PitchCentric scores this show on Booking Probability, Listen Score, and live audience signals refreshed every 24 hours.

Gerta and Alex at YourNegotiations.com hosts Gentle Power, a business show with 66 episodes published.

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  Gentle Power

  65. She made herself sales director at 17 | Annija Eizenarma

  Aug 7, 20261h 9m

  Annija Eizenarma started her first business at 15 at a small school in the Latvian countryside, met her business partner at 17, and spent the next six years building a smart home company that she sold to one of Europe's leading manufacturers in the building automation system industry. Still hungry after the exit, she moved to San Francisco to find her next move. Every step of Annija’s career was negotiated. Nobody showed up with a golden opportunity, so she asked for each one, usually before she had the credentials to justify asking. How she negotiated her way into her first rooms in high school, by walking up to a visiting lecturer and offering to work for free Why getting the seat is only half the job, and what happens to people who don’t advocate for their work once they're in the role The free third party audit that turned "we already have a subcontractor" into a signed build contract What to offer when you hear a no, and how it can hand you an edge on the next opportunity Her hot take on who decided that asking for what you want is masculine Connect with Annija Eizenarma: https://www.linkedin.com/in/annijaeizenarma 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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  Gentle Power

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

  Jul 21, 202633 min

  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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  Gentle Power

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

  Jul 10, 202639 min

  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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  Gentle Power

  62. Gerta’s MIT negotiation professor | Ofer Sharone

  Jun 25, 20261h 4m

  Professor Ofer Sharone has taught negotiations at MIT Sloan School of Management and currently at University of Massachusetts Amherst, and he happens to be one of Gerta’s earliest influences for her interest in negotiations. She took his Power and Negotiations class at MIT during undergrad, and over a decade later, we welcomed to our podcast! Professor Sharone’s path to teaching about negotiations took many turns throughout his career. He earned his JD at Harvard Law School, spent his early career negotiating $100M+ finance deals in Japan, then left law to earn a PhD in sociology and to research how people navigate the job search and workplace. MIT brought him in to teach negotiations on the strength of his legal background, and today teaches the topic at UMass Amherst’s public policy shcool. In this episode: Why power in a negotiation doesn't have to be zero-sum What makes a job offer the rare negotiation where the relationship and the money are both crucial How to run a salary conversation as joint problem-solving, and why "non-negotiable" isn’t a often a hard line The detective work of figuring out why a company picked you, and how to turn it into leverage Why naming a number too early works against you, and what Professor Sharone thinks about “anchoring” in salary negotiations Professor Sharone’s take on AI and the future of work Connect with Ofer Sharone: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ofersharone 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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  Gentle Power

  61. Negotiate like a gardener, not a hunter | Daniel Imberman

  Jun 18, 202645 min

  Daniel Imberman was employee number 10 at Astronomer, the data company that went viral from a Coldplay kiss cam, and he helped grow it from 10 to 300 people. He then left to start his own consulting firm out of Mexico City, where he himself is the product. This career pivot massively flipped his experience with negotiations. He used to negotiate once every year or two as an employee. Now he negotiates every week, and this episode is a crash course on what he’s had to learn to make his business work.We get into what changes when negotiation becomes a weekly habit, why he treats selling more like gardening than hunting, what people really mean when they say that your service is too expensive, and the high-stakes internal negotiation at Astronomer that reshaped an entire product.• Why the once-a-year employee raise conversation is a different beast from negotiating as a consultant every week• The gardener approach to building a pipeline, and why some clients only sign months or years later• What “too expensive” usually means, and how to address this before you ever talk price• How to align incentives so your pay is tied to the other side’s outcome• What to watch for when your comp package is built on milestones rather than base• How Daniel changed a company’s product roadmap by showing up with receiptsConnect with Daniel Imberman: https://imberman.aiFor 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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