he wanted a raise he says you know Mike I got to talk to you no problem we sit down and the first thing he says to me he says I would like a raise I said okay why he said because you need me this place doesn't run without me I'm the guy you see how I work you need me here this place would not succeed without me and I looked at him and I said you know what that might have been true 30 seconds ago he said what do you mean I said well I don't need you anymore you're fired I can honestly say throughout my lifetime I've been involved in countless negotiations you know back in the day when I was part of the Columbo family I negotiated with the likes of John Gotti these are highlevel negotiations Paul castalano boss of the Gambino family at one time Fat Tony solo boss of the geneves family we had highlevel negotiations and you know what at times I was negotiating for somebody's life at other times I was negotiating for a major business transaction action I negotiated with Union heads during that time when I got out of the life you know too I was negotiating with the likes of General Motors with Mazda Motors of America with General Electric Corporation I had automobile dealerships and I had to negotiate deals as a result of my involvement in those companies and they were all pretty high level but I can tell you this the most successful uh negotiation I had uh was with the United States justice department actually the organized crime strike force that that was negotiation that uh lasted over 3 months several meetings over three months because I wouldn't give in we had to give and take give and take but I can tell you this did I come out on top yes I ended up doing eight years in prison I ended up paying a $15 million fine but I ended up gaining my freedom and gaining my life and that was 25 years ago and I can tell you that was the highest level negotiation I Ever Had It was one which I'll be honest with you I walked into the room a little bit scared because I knew uh what could happen to me if I lost and it could have been a lot worse than uh the way I came out of this and you know there's things that you learn on the street that you're never going to learn in the Wharton School of Business and fortunately for me I became very successful and very Adroid at learning the techniques of negotiation if I hadn't done that I wouldn't be sitting here today I can guarantee you that now you may not realize this but negotiation is a major part of your daily life we're always negotiating with something and some somebody it happens all the time you know whether you're in business or whether you're in your daily life you know if you're a husband and a father you're negotiating with your wife your children your family your friends your neighbors may not be something big may not be a big deal but you're negotiating something you know and you don't realize that if you're in business you're going to be negotiating quite a bit you know if you have a new client or whatever there's always something that you're going to be negotiating throughout your life and to learn the skills and the strategies that I learn throughout my life I can tell you if it wasn't for that I wouldn't be sitting here today I'm going to show you how to apply the strategy how to continue the mindset apply the strategy in any negotiating that you have whether it be business whether it be in your personal life whatever the situation might be you're going to learn how to apply it my friends did you know that there are scammers out there that can literally steal your home right out from under you that's right and they don't have to enter through your front door or your window they can steal your house right from under you the FBI calls it house stealing and it's a growing real estate scam targeting American homeowners here's how it works pretty smart criminals Forge your signature on one document they use a fake notary stamp they pay a small fee and then they file that document with your local recorder's office and just like that your home title has been transferred out of your name and you don't even know it then they can take out loans using your equity in that home as collateral or even the property behind your back and you won't even know what's happening not until you start getting collection or foreclosure notices and the bank or the loan company is going to hold you responsible so let me ask you this when was the last time you checked your home title if you're like me the answer is never and that's exactly what scammers are counting on you don't Che your title there's no reason to normally that's why I trust home title lock their million dooll triple lock protection helps keep your home and your Equity safe here's what you you get you get immediate 24-hour 7 days a week monitoring of your property you get urgent alerts if there are any changes in your title and if fraud should happen to happen their us-based Restoration Team will spend up to $1 million to fix the fraud and restore your title at no additional cost to you and here's the best part I've now teamed up with home title lock and because of that I can give you a free title history report so you can find out if you're already a victim God forbid and access to your personal title expert that's a $250 value just for signing up so right now go to hometitlelock.com use my promo code mf250 or click on the link in the description below that's hometitlelock.com promo code m250 to get the protection and peace of mind that you deserve people this is a serious situation these scammers are good and they can steal your house trust me it's being done all the time you need home tial Lock Service that's an offer I really mean this nobody should refuse we talked about having the right mindset whenever you enter into a negotiation this is very very important it's critically important because you're going to negotiate in life for different reasons different circumstances there are times when you're going to be forced into a negotiation you may not want you know God forbid there's a divorce situation break up with your partners something with the government you got to sit down and resolve something an IRS matter all sorts of things where you're not wanting to have this negotiation but basically you're forced into it there are other times when you want to go in and negotiate because you want to gain an advantage whether it be in business something in your personal life so there's different circumstances under which that you're going to enter into a negotiation the mindset you have going in is very important I'll give you a couple of examples there was a negotiation that I had at one time when when I was back in the Life high level I was basically negotiating for somebody's life I realized that and I knew going in I had to come out on top it was a friend of mine somebody I was very close to he made a serious mistake and that life things can get a little bit out of hand I can get a little bit extreme and I knew going in that I couldn't settle for anything other than a win in that negotiation that was my mindset there was another time when I had a negotiation with John Gotti the two of us owned the Market together I realized at some point in time that I couldn't get along with him in that market so I knew going in my mindset was either he had to buy me out or I had to buy him out and during that negotiation I had developed a strategy to get him to buy me out and I was successful in that end he did that there were other times when I entered willingly into a negotiation Give an example when I was out of that life and then in my business life I as a young man had taken over a Mazda dealership sh and it was at a time when you basically couldn't give a new Mazda away they were only the wankle engines they were blowing up quite uh um consistently very hard sell to sell that car so I had to figure out another way uh to develop income and to uh uh to bring money in obviously uh and I had to do that with the help of Mazda Motors of America so I had a negotiation with them I put something on the table they went for it and as a result I was able to sustain the um dealership until they came out with a new car and car started selling again another time I took over a Chevrolet agency that was in default I had to negotiate with the General Motors Corporation to keep the um uh to keep the dealership alive and give me time to bring it back to where it was operating successfully so two instances where I was basically forced into a negotiation I had the mindset going in I knew what I had to accomplish two situations where I wanted to gain an advantage again a mindset going in I call for the negotiation to help it work out properly so there's a lot of different circumstances that you may go through sometimes they're going to be unpleasant uh sometimes they're going to be to your advantage and it's very important that going in you have a a certain mindset going in and saying this is what I'm going to accomplish sometimes you have to compromise sometimes you got to out andout win and sometimes you got to be willing to get off the table and just walk away in developing your strategy one of the main important important tactics I would say is preparation preparation preparation I can't say it enough knowing who you're going to be dealing with knowing who's on the other side of the table doing your research finding out as much about the individual about the company whoever it is that you're dealing with you got to do your homework know the guy that's sitting on the other side of the table it's extremely important there's information out there you know if you're in a company you want a raise you know a little bit about the company you know about the personality of the boss the guy that you're going to sit down with you know you got to know how to approach him if you go in and ask for a $25 rage and the company can't afford it why would you bother you're not going to get anywhere you got to be realistic you got to get as much information as you possibly can about the person that you're dealing with the company that you're dealing with whatever resources you can use maybe you find stuff on the internet maybe you talk to somebody that's dealt with them before maybe you talk to another employee another person a lawyer anybody that you got to talk to to try to gain information so that when you walk into that room you know the personality of who you're dealing with I already explained to you the Gotti personality different people that I had to deal with you got to know who you're dealing with so you must prepare I want to give you an example I had a big Club out in Long Island very successful big Club the manager the guy that ran it for me he was a good guy worked pretty hard did a good job he wanted a raise he says you know Mike I got to talk to you no problem we sit down and the first thing he says to me he says I would like a race I said okay why he said because you need me this place doesn't run without me I'm the guy you see how I work you need me here this place would not succeed without me and I looked at him and I said you know what that might have been true 30 seconds ago he said what do you mean I said well I don't need you anymore you're fired and he looked at me and said what I said you're fired don't tell me that I need you so desperately I said this whole place can burn up and fall apart I still don't need you I said I'll go on in my life so don't ever approach me like that that was the wrong approach now he just you know kind of fell down into his seat he didn't know what to do at that point I rehired him but I told him when you go in the room was kind of an education know who you're dealing with you know me this place can burn fall apart you can go on you know move to California if you had to I don't need you so don't tell me I need you now if you want to explain your value to me and tell me how hard you're working and what the extra things that you are doing and what you want to do to make me even more money to make the place more successful well State your business tell me your your your value and then I'll listen if you want to raise you got to establish your value with me that's how I look at it he didn't know my personality he didn't know what I would do you need to do that you need to know that when you walk into the room I give you another example I had a big deal going on in the contracting business I needed a loan from the bank so I went to a certain Bank I'm not going to name it you know out in in New York and before I went in to sit with the bank manager I did some research on the bank it's one of the smaller Banks wasn't City Bank or Bank of America Wells Fargo was a smaller bank so I did a little research and I found out that bank really needed deposits they actually had a a a sales Conta going some kind of contest going whoever brought the most deposits in okay was going to win something in the bank so what do I do I had a very good relationship with one of the unions that had a big pension fund so I walked into the bank and I said look I need a loan and I said but before we go into that I said I want to ask you something I have a union that's looking for a relationship with a bank they want a good relationship they have a pretty big pension fund that they want to put on deposit are you interested said yes he said what's the union and I told him he said yeah I'm really interested I said well I can deliver that for you but right now let's talk about the loan that I need I got the loan obviously I even sweetened the pot a little bit by giving them a financial Guarantee Bond meaning that it was an insurance company that said if you don't pay the loan back I'll pay the loan back so I mean I gave him every Advantage he had no reason whatsoever not to give me that loan now you can't always do that but I'm trying to make a point anytime that you know the need or you know the personality or you know the wants the desires the status of the company you're dealing with it gives you a big Advantage when you walk into the room you're not going to ask for something that you know you can't get you're not going to challenge somebody where you know you're going to lose you can't do that get as much information as you possibly can last example big Contracting job out in Queens New York it was actually the biggest apartment house to co-op conversion in the country almost 4,000 units well one of the uh uh managers there that was managing some of the construction was a guy I knew he called me up the Union uh was coming in and wanted to unionize the place they said Michael do you think he can help I said well I don't know first of all let me find out who owns this job you know who's the developer so I do my research I find out it's a guy by the name of Jerry Gutman I ask about him does he play by the book what uh other properties has he developed has the union been there has it not been there what's the deal well I find out that he's a guy that's amable to saving a few bucks so that I can use the union to save him some money by keeping them out and in the same time I can make some money for myself he was amable to that whereas some contractors were some developers were not they say no we play by the book we'll use Union people we don't want to bother with you so again I was able to gain an advantage negotiating a very solid deal with him I made money on every apartment that was converted into a co-op because I was able to understand who I was dealing with gain an advantage come out with a good deal he saved money by not having a union in I made money by Union that keeping the union out so it's a good thing but how do I know that because I was able to get information on the person that I was dealing with so preparation is extremely important know who your opponent is if you want to call him an opponent but know who's sitting at the other side of the desk the other side of the table know who you're talking to gain an advantage just by the knowledge you have in knowing who you're dealing with it's very important there are times when you don't have enough time to do that and when you don't have enough time to do that well you go in and you present yourself as best you can but anytime you can prepare and know the personality know the uh uh the status of the company you're dealing with you're going to gain a big Advantage hey my friends a lot of you already know that just a few short months ago I started my private community and we call it the FR e family and I got to be honest I'm really blessed to see that over 500 people have already to become a part of it you know what they're doing they're connecting with one another they're learning and they're growing together basically every single day and I'm going to be honest again it's getting pretty hard for me and my team to give quality time to everyone so here's what we're going to do starting March we'll be making the community for invite only now you still have time to sign up this month and lock in the price of just 10 bucks a month two cups of coffee but after that honestly it's going to be only for select people who we feel can really benefit from what we have to to offer and really who others in the family can benefit from that's where family is all about so don't wait take part in growing yourself in the fres family lock in the price right now and don't miss both the benefits and the success that come from a real Community environment go to Michael francis.com slamily or click the link in the description below to sign up and uh I hope to see you all there because you're going to see a lot of me I do a lot in that Community it's going to be a legacy piece for me I just love helping people so that's an offer you shouldn't refuse people see you in there another important part of your strategy as you're preparing for your presentation is to decide whether you need any resources or tools to bring into the presentation that could you know help uh corroborate uh what it is you're trying to sell let's say you have a business deal you're sitting down with a bank or you're sitting down with some major investors and you want to sell the deal with them well sometimes you know it's important to bring in resources that back up and strengthen your position what are those resources well this could be a big deal complicated deal maybe you need an expert maybe it's something that you're not too versed in that you can bring in an expert to try to you know bolster your position um maybe you need a lawyer you know maybe there's some legal element of the deal that you're presenting and you want a lawyer to come in to express or explain the legality of it make sure everything's on the up and up what the advantages are from a legal basis very important maybe you need an accountant maybe you're not that great at expressing the economics of a deal you bring in an accountant who did their spreadsheets their homeworks they did research on it and they can best explain the economics of the deal you're trying to present sometimes you need certain software you know always a great resource maybe it's a PowerPoint I don't know if they use PowerPoints as much right now I hear that they do maybe sometimes you know the visual element of what it is you're trying to accomplish you know the point you're trying to make your investors uh could be very powerful if you have a PowerPoint presentation a visual presentation you know you can do that in videos in webinars you know there's certain elements that sometimes you know what they say a picture you know is is worth more than a thousand words so sometimes you bring in elements like that written materials maybe they could be videos maybe they could be photographs maybe it could be a pamphlet anything that you can put in front of the investor or the funer that can show uh you know to to help support position and then maybe just from you it's preparing a nice detailed letter in advance that really expresses everything sometimes you may not be the right person to really you know talk through a deal sometimes you're better at writing it down and expressing it you leave it with that person so after the meeting they have something to look at again you impressed them you brought all your tools all your weapons into the meeting now you give them something to walk away with they can read it they can think about it again they can think about what happened in the room and that could be uh you know very helpful to you uh as they make this decision so resources tools very very important think of all of them think if you need them now let me give you the flip side of that Donald Trump you go into a meeting with a PowerPoint with Donald Trump you probably got two minutes of his attention with that he don't want to hear it you know there are some people you don't want to hear they want you to be ready to uh present your case verbally that's it he's not going to look at resources at letters at photographs at webinars or anything like that so you're got to make that decision but resources and tools at some point can be very helpful and other times you leave them out again it's knowing the personality of who you're dealing with at that point in time but take advantage of resources any tools that you can use that can bolster your position and help you give you an advantage in making your presentation could be very important all right it's time to now develop your strategy what are you going to do uh to get your Optimum result in this negotiation well you got to develop a strategy first element of strategy preparation first element of preparation identifying your Optimum result what is it that you want when you walk into the room optimal result this is what I want this is what I'm going to try to achieve try to gain you're going to prepare for that but you have to have a fallback position you may not get everything that you want so what are you going to settle for what do you want what's your Optimum goal and what are you going to settle for you got to prepare for both let me give you an example I had a tremendous trous ly highlevel high stakes negotiation in my life tremendous it meant my freedom I give you a little background 198 485 you probably know a little bit about this the government in New York was going crazy the racketeering laws locking up a lot of people everybody was in trouble during that time this is high stakes I was indicted by Rudy Giuliani I went to trial several months I was a lead defendant after a several month trial I was acquitted in a very serious racket ering case 3 months later four months later I get indicted again on another racketeering case in another District the eastern district of New York Brooklyn actually well what happens they get me with no bail so now I'm locked up and I know the government wants a conviction on me they have uh tried several times I went to trial five times I beat every case so now my thoughts were you know what I'm going to try to negotiate a settlement with the government I'm going to try to Make A Deal a plea not cooperation but a plea for the best possible deal that I can make for myself so that I can you know see the light at some point in time because they were putting guys away for years I mean 50 years a 100 years these racketeering laws were devastating so when I sat down with my lawyer I said look I want to try to negotiate a plea agreement I'll do some time I'll give the government back some money we got to make the best possible deal we can make so the lawyers says to me Mike what do you want I said well let's pay them as much money as they want I don't want to do any jail time he said that's impossible that's not going to happen well that's the optimum result that I want so that's what I want you to shoot for go for it who knows let's see what they say okay but I realize being realistic not going to happen they're going to want some jail time on me so in my mind I'm willing to settle for 10 years because 10 years under the Old Law which I was indicted under we still had a chance of parole not like the new law where you got to do 85% of your time I was under the Old Law this was 1984 uh when this happened I said I'll do 10 years maybe I'll get out in five I still got a life it's little I can do that I'll give him back some money so my Optimum position no time give him a big you know check second position I'll do 10 years maybe I'll get out in five I'll still give him some money maybe less so that was the negotiation it lasted three months they kept re rejecting everything that we wanted they made me uh go through hell in between they kept me locked up they wouldn't give me bail they moved me around they put me in solitary but this was the fight for my life because they originally wanted to give me 25 years I wasn't willing to take that so it was a long long battle I finally won out in a way I guess the government got a little pound of flesh but I really got what I wanted in my second position my fallback position I ended up with a 10-year prison sentence a $14.7 million fine and restitution at the end of the day that was 25 years ago I got my life I got my freedom I got my wife my children I got a business I got a career so at the end of the day the government got a little bit about what they wanted but I got my fullback position Plan B it worked out for me so sometimes you can't get your Optimum result even though you're prepar for that I went in both barrels loaded this is what I wanted I went in for my Optimum position but I settle for my fallback position my plan B and in the end it worked out so here's what you need to do you got to say okay hopefully it's not going to be a negotiation like I had where you're negotiating for your freedom maybe it's a contract negotiation maybe you're negotiating for uh a raise you know maybe it's uh it's a house that you want to buy maybe it's a car whatever it might be know what your Optimum want is and know what you're going to settle for and if you can't get either you got to be prepared to walk away and then maybe come back another time like I said this took me 3 months to negotiate they kept saying no we want 25 years we want a hundred million fine we kept going back in the meantime I'm sitting in jail wasn't do you know it wasn't very comfortable but we just kept going until we got we wanted sometimes you got to be able to back off but remember plan a optimal want and desire but always have your fallback position that's the first thought of your uh strategy knowing and identifying what you want there's another uh section or part of uh preparation that I think might be uh kind of personal to me I call it a tactical Retreat now what do I mean by that there are times you're in the room you're negotiating whether it be for a contract for a raise for something that you want to purchase and it's just not working out it's just not going to happen at this point in time maybe it can happen maybe the company you're negotiating with you want to raise they just can't do it at that point in time maybe the house that you want to buy the owner is not moving off of it but you want that house you don't want to blow it okay you just can't get the price that you want you know maybe it's a contract that you're negotiating that for whatever reason you're in the room you can't get what you want you can't get your optimal result you can't get your fallback position so what do you do do you want to just make an enemy you just want to cut it off no what you do is you say to yourself you know what maybe this is not the right time timing is everything in life and some times it's just not the right time so what do you do you say tactical Retreat we'll come back another day let me rethink this let's see how the market changes let's see how things change that maybe give me an advantage the next time around you know I give you a story it's kind of uh extreme but I'll give you a story my dad gets out of prison he was a captain in the family C regime like me I was a Copo at the same time well my dad gets out of prison Kine perso I think you know who he was he was my former boss he brings my father in and he breaks him what do I mean he takes his rank away he's no longer a cop regime he makes him just a soldier what my father did all of this time you know all of the prestige he had in this life this is how you repay him I was very upset Dad this is an insult how can they do this to you we have to do something about it I got a big crew the family's not going to stand for this what are we going to do about it he said to me son relax the excuse or the reason that Junior Pico used he said you know what Sunny you keep getting violated on your parole I don't want you to have to be around anybody so I'm going to break you you're not going to be a captain anymore I'm doing this for you that's the reason he gave him but you know what we knew differently I was coming up I had a big crew we had a lot of money gas business we had a lot of people that followed us maybe we were getting you know in his mind a little bit too powerful maybe we were going to make a move we weren't didn't have a thought but I was angry you know I was a little bit hotheaded at that time son this is what we call a tactical Retreat because remember in this life it's like a wheel you know things keep turning you know pers Go's on top now he may not be on top later on it's not the right time to make our move we know we have a plan let's just back off and see what happens well things changed I walked away from that life but my dad ended up being the under looss at some point in time he was reappointed to a higher position than what he had before so the Tactical Retreat worked out for him in that way with respect to his position moral of the story here what I'm trying to say sometimes timing just isn't right we don't want to upset people we don't want to go to war we don't want to get everybody mad at us we don't want the whole family to go into chaos so my dad wiser than me tactical Retreat just back off things will change at some point in time well that's what happens sometimes in an negotiation Market changes you know real estate it could be a seller's market rather and the prices could be high maybe things change maybe six months a year from now you want that house the market changes you know prices go down it becomes a buyer's market you go back you make a better deal you know same thing with a car you want a certain car can't buy it today the guy wants things change at the car lot you know you can go back and buy that car or get another car at a better price contracts sometimes it's not the right time to negotiate things that are happening in that company it's not to your advantage at this point tactical Retreat back off you still want the deal you just can't have it now you got to be willing to wait at times so remember that might be my expression something that I've used taught to me by my dad tactical Retreat that's your third position but it's a very important one be prepared to do that you don't want to blow the relationship you want to be able to come back at another time and hopefully at that point get what you want for