The Dealmaker’s Ten Commandments

Chris Curran: Growth Igniters® Radio. Episode 49: The Dealmaker’s Ten Commandments. This episode is brought to you by Business Advancement, Inc. − enabling successful leaders and companies to accelerate to their next level of growth. On the web at growthignitersradio.com. And now, here’s Pam and Scott.

Pam Harper: Thanks, Chris. I’m Pam Harper, Founding Partner and CEO of Business Advancement, Inc., and right across from me is my business partner and husband, Scott Harper. Hey, Scott.

Scott Harper: Hi, Pam. As always, it is such a pleasure to be joining you again for another episode of Growth Igniters® Radio. If this is your first time listening, our purpose is to spark new insights, inspiration, and immediately-useful ideas for leaders to take themselves and their companies to their next level of success. So Pam, what’s our topic today?

Pam Harper: Making successful deals under any circumstances.

Scott Harper: All right.

Pam Harper: Those of you out there who know us know that we’re big believers in collaboration and win-win scenarios as the basis for accelerating growth and success. However, realistically there are also times when self-advocacy requires that we enter into metaphorical combat.

Scott Harper: Okay, yeah.

Pam Harper: Yeah, that’s right. This means we have to be ready to pivot and apply the appropriate guiding principles to successfully navigate rapidly-changing circumstances.

Scott Harper: Been there, done that. Yep.

Pam Harper: That’s why we’re pleased to have as our guest today, Jeff B. Cohen, Esq., author of the highly-regarded 2015 book, The Dealmaker’s Ten Commandments: The Essential Tools for Business Forged in the Trenches of Hollywood. A little bit about Jeff: He’s a prominent transactional attorney and former child actor best known for playing the role of “Chunk” in the Richard Donner/Steven Spielberg cult classic film, The Goonies. Remember The Goonies?

Scott Harper: I do indeed. Great film.

Pam Harper: Yes. He is co-founder of Beverly-Hills-based Cohen Gardner LLP and has been named by Variety to both its “Dealmakers Impact List” and “Legal Impact List”. Jeff is a distinguished lecturer and active writer. He’s authored numerous articles discussing business, technology, and entertainment matters for CNBC, The Huffington Post, Backstage, Lawyerist, and others. He’s also proud to serve on corporate boards in both the non-profit and for-profit arenas, and and you can read a lot more about Jeff by going to the Episode 49 page at www.growthignitersradio.com.

Jeff, welcome to Growth Igniters® Radio.

Jeff Cohen: Thank you, Pam and Scott. Thank you for having me. That was such a great intro. I just want to hang up. Leave the table a winner, you know what I mean?

Scott Harper: It goes up from here, Jeff.

Jeff Cohen: I want to take my money and leave the Blackjack table and just feel good. Hit the buffet.

Pam Harper: I’m excited to have “Chunk” as our guest.

Jeff Cohen: It’s not easy. It’s not easy. I used to be Chunk, but now I’m a hunk. It’s all muscle.

Scott Harper: Well, we’ve seen your videos and pictures and you’re a good-looking guy now.

Jeff Cohen: Well, thank you. Thank you.

Scott Harper: Although you have about as much hair as I do; it’s all face.

Jeff Cohen: I think something about being a former child actor and lawyer makes that hair just fall right out of your head. That hair’s gone. Gone with the wind.

Pam Harper: Business consulting, too, we will say. Except not me.

Jeff Cohen: Clean living. Clean living.

Scott Harper: Not you, Pam. Your hair’s good.

Pam Harper: Mine is good. Anyway, we’re so glad to have you, Jeff. Tell us a little bit about how you got from Chunk to being a top dealmaker in Hollywood. That is a big transition.

Jeff Cohen: I think it’s lack of any other viable alternatives. I was a kid actor and grew up in the entertainment industry in L.A. and had some success. It was really what I wanted to do, but then I fought a child actor’s greatest nemesis, which is puberty, and I lost. I looked different. I went from being this cute, little chunky kid to looking different. On to having acne, and your voice changes and I couldn’t get work. Anyone who says they give up acting intentionally is lying; I want to be clear about that, Pam and Scott. Acting is the best job in the world. Everyone is nice to you. They feed you. You get to play make believe. You get to travel. It’s great.

Pam Harper: Sounds fun.

Jeff Cohen: When I was a teenager I kind of had to figure out, ” Okay, Jeff, it can’t be over. You have to still be good at something.” For me, it was kind of the search of, “Okay, I really love entertainment. I think art and entertainment is civilization’s gift to future generations and how can I make an impact?” Fortunately for me, I ran into this book called, The Prince, by Machiavelli. It was written in the early 1500’s, the early Italian Renaissance. It is, for my money, the greatest self-help book of all time. It was about 100 pages, and it was basically this political philosopher, Niccolo Machiavelli, giving his advice to a prince. “If you want to be a prince, if you want to gain power, if you want to win wars, if you want to build your empire, this is how you do it.” Kind of, I think, combining my love of entertainment, lack of viable alternatives, and The Prince is how I became a dealmaker.

Scott Harper: Early political science and office politics, with a little assassination thrown in.

Jeff Cohen: Yes.

Scott Harper: We see that also you got involved in a whole bunch of other philosophers. How did you decide to put all of this together? You went to law school. Why the book now?

Jeff Cohen: I think I love philosophy − and I’ll say, “philosophy,” broadly. Whether it’s Machiavelli or the strategies of Napoleon or Genghis Kahn or the insights of Oprah Winfrey or Steve Jobs or Aristotle. I love the idea that even though technology changes, human nature is basically the same. For me, the book, The Dealmaker’s Ten Commandments, was kind of my way of taking all these unique philosophers from Jay Z to Plato to Mary Shelley to H.L. Mencken and kind of putting them together to create a toolkit for business people to discover what their objectives are, what they really want, and then find the mechanism to get them.

The reason I wrote it − I’m an entertainment lawyer in Los Angeles. I have a law firm that I started in Beverly Hills back in 2002 when the world was young. Scott, I did have some more hair back then.

Scott Harper: Yeah, I did, too.

Jeff Cohen: Better looking. Right there with you, pal. Basically, I’ve been growing my law firm in the transactional space. We basically represent companies and individuals, media companies, actors, directors, et cetera, and negotiate their deals. I’m a transactional lawyer. I’m a dealmaker.

The American Bar Association came to me last year and asked me to kind of pitch them on an entertainment book. What I did is I kind of went a little bigger because I’m a big fan of business books, generally. I was like, “Well, hey, let me go bigger. Let me kind of put forth the commandments that I’ve learned to negotiate great deals, manage your time, and basically get what you want.” For me, the big idea is that success is life on your own terms and the point of The Dealmaker’s Ten Commandments was help the reader through introspection, through asking yourself tough questions. Discover what those terms for success for you are and then, with the ten commandments, give the reader the tools to get them. That’s kind of the big picture.

Pam Harper: It’s a fascinating read.

Jeff Cohen: Thank you.

Pam Harper: When you talk about all of these philosophers that you packed in there, I lost count. I started, “Oh look, there’s a philosopher. There’s another one.” You have all these quotes, and you pull it together in a compelling way. Really. The most interesting part in a way, though, is that you start the book off with a warning chapter. A little shocking. Can you tell us a little bit about why the warning?

Jeff Cohen: Sure. I start the book off with a warning chapter. I start with a quote, “Good and great are seldom the same man.” I think that’s a really important idea, “Good and great are seldom the same man.” What I say in that warning chapter is, “Look. This is not a book about being good. I’m in no position to judge or to advise, to help you become good. It’s a book about being great.”

I wanted to kind of put forth that warning because the tactics that I advocate are hard-nosed, and they comport with my experience of being in the corporate world generally and entertainment specifically. I wanted the reader to know, “Look, what I’m advocating is brutal.” Just like Machiavelli did in The Prince, but I also think necessary. The warning is, “Look, these tactics are for business. They are not for personal.”

Pam Harper: Not going to make friends and influence people this way, hmm?

Jeff Cohen: Precisely. These tactics are to achieve greatness in business, but can also help you achieve a terrific professional life and a horrific personal life. I really wanted to kind of make that distinction to the reader.

Pam Harper: Use this with care.

Scott Harper: It’s situational.

Pam Harper: It’s situational, and that goes back to the way that I was leading into this − which is that there’s a place for this; we can’t be pretending that we can always get a collaborative outcome. As I said, in my own book, Preventing Strategic Gridlock, I talk a lot about collaboration, but at times you’re in a war.

Scott Harper: It’s not puppies and kittens.

Pam Harper: Exactly. There is definitely a place [for this approach].

Jeff Cohen: Sure. For me − and I kind of put forth this idea in the warning section − which is, “Listen, you may not be comfortable using these tactics, but even if you aren’t, you should know that they exist merely from a position of self-defense, because even if you’re not comfortable using this, many of your opponents will be completely comfortable using it.” Merely from a position of self-defense, you should know what’s going to be thrown at you.

Scott Harper: You need to know about it.

Pam Harper: Exactly. But now, we’re going to take a quick break. When we come back, we’ll speak more with Jeff B. Cohen, Esq., about a few of The Dealmaker’s Ten Commandments. Stay with us.

Scott Harper: You are listening to Growth Igniters® Radio with Pam Harper and Scott Harper, brought to you by Business Advancement, Inc. − on the web at www.growthignitersradio.com. We enable successful companies to accelerate to their next level of innovation and growth. And if you like what you’re hearing, spread the good word. Go to www.growthignitersradio.com, select Episode 49, and use the share links for Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter at the top right of the page to tell your social media communities all about us. And while you’re there, sign up for our weekly alert of upcoming episodes so you’ll always be up-to-date.

Pam Harper: Welcome back to Growth Igniters® Radio with Pam Harper − that’s me − and Scott Harper. Today, Scott and I are speaking with dealmaker Jeff B. Cohen, Esq., author of the book, The Dealmaker’s Ten Commandments about making successful deals under any circumstances. Jeff, how can people find out about your firm and about your book, The Dealmaker’s Ten Commandments?

Jeff Cohen: Great. Thank you, Pam. As far as the book, I would just go to Amazon and just type in “Dealmaker’s Commandments” and that book should pop up. We have it as a Kindle; we have it as a hard unit. Also, if you love my voice, I will actually read you the book on an Audible. We also have a website, www.dealmakerscommandments.com. I’m also on Twitter @Jeff_B_Cohen, and also on Facebook and LinkedIn as Jeff B. Cohen.

Pam Harper: Okay, and we also have a PowerPoint of The Dealmaker’s Ten Commandments that you can access by going to the Episode 49 page for www.growthignitersradio.com. You’re really well connected on the social media here, Jeff.

Jeff Cohen: I love it.

Pam Harper: And by the way, is it important to have that “B” in there? I have to ask − Jeff B. Cohen?

Jeff Cohen: It’s funny, actually. When I was a kid and I was going to join the Screen Actors Guild when I first started working when I was around 7, there was already another guy named Jeff Cohen in the union, so I had to use the “B,” so it kind of stuck.

Scott Harper: Like Michael J. Fox, yeah.

Jeff Cohen: Yeah, there you go.

Pam Harper: There you go; or Pamela S. Harper.

Jeff Cohen: Jeff B. Cohen, Esq. I like that, because it sounds like an aristocrat. I kind of dig that.

Pam Harper: Okay, so speaking as the aristocrat, your first commandment here is, “It’s better to be feared than loved.” Can you tell us a little bit about how you came to that commandment?

Scott Harper: Yeah, why?

Jeff Cohen: Sure. Dealmaker’s Commandment One, “It is better to be feared than loved,” I absolutely stole from Niccolo Machiavelli. The basic premise is as follows: as a leader, as an entrepreneur, as a business person, is it better to be feared or is it better to be loved? We are taught to be loved; that’s the mechanism for success. You’re loved by your teachers, you get a good grade. You’re loved by your boss, you get a promotion. The problem is that to be loved, you usually have to act in the best interest of the institution. The institution is also acting in its own best interests. After you’ve worked at the company for twenty years or thirty years and they downsize and you’re out because that’s in their best interest, you’re out of luck.

The big idea is, if you have to choose between being loved or feared, it is better to be feared because people love you because they want to and they fear you because they have to. If you want to build something substantial, your foundation needs to be on something you can control, and you cannot control if people love you. You can control if they fear you.

Scott Harper: Fear sounds pretty intimidating, and there has to be nuances in fear. You can’t always go in swinging the sword and cursing…

Pam Harper: Or can you?

Scott Harper: What do you mean by fear? Do you titrate it?

Jeff Cohen: Sure. Yeah, absolutely. Absolutely. Fear is punishment, kind of. In that chapter, I basically have this formula, this high-tech formula that I call “the power-punishment paradigm”. Basically, bad behavior requires consequences. Bad behavior being if people or entities act against your interests, and if people act against your interests, you have to be able to punish them to make sure they don’t do that.

In that chapter, I go through various mechanisms of punishment. If you think about it, every powerful institution we have in our society uses punishment. If you offend your boss, you could get fired. If you offend the government, you can be put in jail. People don’t pay their taxes because they’re nice guys and gals. They pay their taxes because they don’t want to go to jail. The big idea’s that you need a mechanism of enforcement if people behave in a manner that is contrary to your interests and creating a system where that can occur.

Scott Harper: That makes sense, Jeff. I’d like to go to another of the commandments, number four, which sounds very philosophical: “Things are precisely as they seem.”

Jeff Cohen: It’s interesting. Dealmaker’s Commandment Four is when I begin to instruct the reader on how to analyze the battlefield. We’re always afraid that the other side is going to lie to us. We’re always afraid that we’re being tricked. What I argue in Dealmaker’s Commandment Four, “Things are precisely as they seem,” is that the greater risk is deceiving yourself than actually being deceived by the other side.

Pam Harper: Deceiving yourself?

Jeff Cohen: Yes, that’s right. To quote Paul Simon in The Boxer, “All lies and jests, still a man he hears what he wants to hear and he disregards the rest.”

Scott Harper: The rest, right.

Jeff Cohen: I think there’s a very human quality which is beautiful, but also potentially destructive, of viewing a set of facts and twisting it to become what you want.

Pam Harper: Constructing a story is really what you’re saying.

Jeff Cohen: Yeah, that’s right. Basically, when you walk in and you see your spouse in bed with your best friend and they say, “It’s not what it looks like,” it’s actually exactly what it looks like, you know what I mean? The big idea is you have to basically eliminate anger. You have to eliminate desire. You have to eliminate morality and just kind of look at the facts exactly as they are and whatever path that takes you down, whether it makes you feel good or bad, it is what it is because if you can’t accurately assess the battlefield as it is, you’re going to make poor decisions.

Scott Harper: No rose-colored glasses.

Pam Harper: No hope-ium.

Scott Harper: No hope-ium, and no awfulizing.

Pam Harper: That’s true.

Scott Harper: Data is data.

Jeff Cohen: Yeah, that’s right.

Pam Harper: You’re just exactly seeing it as objectively as you can.

Jeff Cohen: It’s interesting. Basically through that chapter, what I use is Occam’s Razor, which is the idea that, in its simplest terms, the idea is that the simplest explanation is the best explanation. Scientists use Occam’s Razor to shave away unnecessary variables when they’re using an equation to analyze a phenomenon. What I argue is we have to take Occam’s Razor and basically use it to shave away all these very human desires, whether it’s lust or wanting or anger or morality, and when you shave it all away, what you’re left with is the truth. When you’re looking at the truth, then you can make the best decisions.

Pam Harper: What I really hear is that you have to slow yourself down in some way because in so much of deal making − especially when you’re faced with a combat situation − emotion is a very natural kind of thing, one way or the other. This is an art. It’s a discipline of sorts.

Jeff Cohen: It’s interesting. I think, Pam, you bring up a great point, which is about timing. I think that’s key. Actually, in Dealmaker’s Commandment Seven, “Take yes for yes, maybe for yes, and no for maybe,” the whole idea of that chapter is that deal making is a dance. It’s offer, counter, close. Offer, counter, close. You can go back and forth a number of times, but the dance steps are always the same.

I kind of go through various mechanisms to increase the tempo when it’s in your favor, decrease the tempo, or just stop the dance when that’s in your favor. Absolutely not being impulsive and kind of taking your time and making sure that if you want to be the conductor, you have to be able to change the tempo. I think timing, as far as the back and forth, is crucial. That’s a really good point.

Pam Harper: In terms of part of that, you have to be able to choose the right opponent, as you’ve said. I was fascinated by your Commandment Five, “No pig wrestling.” First of all, who’s the pig?

Jeff Cohen: I guess that’s all perspective, I suppose. I view various opponents as pigs, and I imagine they view me the same way. They give me the same honor. Dealmaker’s Commandment Five is, “No pig wrestling.”

Pam Harper: What’s a “pig,” I guess? How would you describe a “pig”?

Jeff Cohen: The idea is that “never wrestle a pig because you get dirty and the pig enjoys it.” The idea is that combat is honor. A knight doesn’t joust a squire. A major league baseball team doesn’t play a Little League team. A heavyweight champion boxer doesn’t fight an unranked opponent. Combat is honor, and when you engage in combat with someone or an entity, you are bestowing honor upon them. Dealmaker’s Commandment Five is all about discovering, “Okay, who is the right opponent? Who is the best opponent?” Kind of choosing the right opponent, choosing the right battle, and if you can’t − if combat is thrust upon you − using different tools to shape the battle and to shape the opponent to make a more favorable outcome.

The big idea is that combat, as human beings, is kind of the most resource-intense activity we have. Look at a real war like World War II. Whether it’s money and time and lives, fighting takes more resources and always is more challenging than you think it’s going to be getting into it. If you’re going to be an effective dealmaker, if you’re going to be an effective capitalist, you have to allocate your resources appropriately and going into battle is going to take a lot of resources and you need to make sure it’s the right fight.

Pam Harper: That’s true and you have a whole section in there talking about how you come up with choosing the right opponent. We don’t have time to go into it today, but it’s an important chapter.

Scott Harper: Yeah, read it.

Pam Harper: Which takes us to another break. When we come back, we’ll speak more with dealmaker Jeff B. Cohen, Esq., author of The Dealmaker’s Ten Commandments, about three questions you can ask to increase your own success as a dealmaker. Stay with us.

Pam Harper: During this holiday season, Scott and I want to thank you for being part of the Growth Igniters® Radio community. This has been a tremendous learning experience for us and we want to hear from you about the value you’ve been getting from what we’ve been producing every week since February of this year. Go to www.growthignitersradio.com and click “Contact Us” at the bottom of the page. Who knows? Your feedback may end up featured on our website.

Along those lines, who would you like to hear from as a guest in the coming year? We’re always on the lookout for more bestselling authors, innovative CEO’s of successful companies, and emerging thought leaders to learn from. Again, go to www.growthignitersradio.com, click “Contact Us” at the bottom of the page, and we’ll get back with you to follow up.

Pam Harper: Welcome back to Growth Igniters® Radio with Pam Harper and Scott Harper. Over the last two segments, Scott and I have been speaking with Jeff B. Cohen, Esq., about principles of his book, The Dealmaker’s Ten Commandments. Jeff, tell us again, how can people learn more about you and also buy your book, The Dealmaker’s Ten Commandments?

Jeff Cohen: Thanks, Pam. I would just go to Amazon and look up “Dealmaker’s Commandments by Jeff Cohen, then you can get the book as a hard unit, Kindle, or audiobook. We have a website, dealmakerscommandments.com, and I’m available on Twitter as Jeff_B_Cohen, and on LinkedIn and Facebook as Jeff B. Cohen.

Pam Harper: Okay, again, you can go over to the Episode 49 page and download a special PowerPoint deck that Jeff has for us to give an overview of all of those ten commandments, not just the few that we had.

Scott Harper: Yes, that summarizes them.

Pam Harper: Right. Let’s get back to our conversation. This is the part of Growth Igniters® Radio where we like to take time to come up with actionable advice that our listeners can immediately apply to their own lives and businesses. Today it makes sense to talk about some of the self-mastery tips that you have in your book. Why is it important to have self-mastery in this way?

Jeff Cohen: The way I’ve broken down the book is basically there’s ten chapters and each of the chapters has one of the Dealmaker’s Ten Commandments which is kind of like the intellectual foundation on how deals are made, business is done, et cetera. Then within each of those ten chapters, I have a specific question for self-mastery. The idea being − and I’ll use a quote from Steve Jobs which I love − “Your time is limited, so don’t waste it living someone else’s life.” The big idea is that you must have self-examination to really discover what you want, what makes you happy, what you are afraid of, what’s holding you back to achieve success.

Again, as I said previously, I believe that success is life on your own terms, but these questions for self-mastery I hope allow the reader to discover what those terms are and then the commandments themselves enable the reader to actually go out and kind of achieve those terms.

Pam Harper: Let’s talk about one of the first questions for self-mastery. “So what?”, you call it. So what?

Jeff Cohen: Sure. Dealmaker’s Commandment One, as we discussed, is, “It’s better to be feared than loved.” The question for self-mastery is simply, “So what?” Basically, there’s this great story that I talk about in that section. It’s this great quote from Andy Warhol. Andy Warhol basically discusses that he was always afraid. It’s all about fear. What are you afraid of? What terrifies you? Professionally, personally, et cetera. His solution was to ask the question basically, “So what? So what if that does happen? So what?”

Pam Harper: Am I going to be eaten by a bear? …

Jeff Cohen: What if that person doesn’t love you? So what? So what if you lose jobs? So what? It’s kind of being able to say, to look your greatest fears in the eye and say, “Okay, if that happens, so what?” It’s a way to both empower yourself and disempower your foes because you need to know what you’re afraid of because your enemies are going to attempt to use your fears against you.

Scott Harper: Centering and becoming very still and quiet. Using your maximum power.

Jeff Cohen: Yeah, being able to say “so what” to the ways your enemies are going to attempt to terrify you, then you’ve basically taken away their greatest weapon. It’s challenging because we’re wired for fear. Genetically, if you’re afraid and you can run away, you’ll be able to have offspring. There’s kind of this evolutionary thing, we have this strong impulse to be afraid, but “so what” is about capturing it and ultimately not letting fear waste your time.

Scott Harper: It makes a tremendous amount of sense, Jeff. It really kind of dovetails with another of the questions of self-mastery which is, “Do I have a scarcity mentality or an abundance mentality?” How can that be applied in practical terms when you’re negotiating a deal?

Jeff Cohen: There’s this great quote by Theodore Roosevelt which is simple, but I think it’s very important and goes to the idea of, “Do I have a scarcity mentality or an abundance mentality?” The quote is, “Comparison is the thief of joy.” I love that quote, “Comparison is the thief of joy.” It’s so hard to do something that we’re excited about and to achieve something that we’re proud of. Like, “Wow, I just made a million dollars. That’s fantastic.” The moment you go, “Wait a minute. Mark Zuckerberg has six thousands of those million dollars that I just made”-

Pam Harper: Suddenly it’s not the same. Yes, yes.

Jeff Cohen: Precisely. The idea of training your mind to have an abundance mentality versus a scarcity mentality, I think, is really important to maintaining the ability to have joy. The idea being that if you have a scarcity mentality, then anytime your opponent or a competitor gets something, you automatically have less. “Oh, they got that piece of business, so now I don’t have that piece of business. I am comparatively worse off.” If you have an abundance mentality, you take that same piece of information and it becomes empowering. When your opponent or competitor gets a great new client you go, “You know what? There’s a lot of action in that space. I think I’m going to attack that space as well. That’s great. They’ve given me a good piece of information.”

Pam Harper: You see the opportunities, is what you’re saying.

Jeff Cohen: Precisely. It’s basically the relationship between your worldview, joy, and comparison. If you view that there’s enough for everyone, then it allows you to take a piece of information and put it in a way that’s positive and gives you energy instead of something that’s dispiriting.

Pam Harper: We have one more that we have time for. “What do I really want?” I suppose the emphasis is what do I really want?

Jeff Cohen: Really want. It seems simple as a question for self-mastery, but I think it’s actually challenging because I think as people − as social animals − throughout our entire life we’re trained to make everyone else happy. You make your teacher happy, you make your parents happy, you make your spouse happy, you make your boss happy. Ultimately, if you don’t know what really makes you happy, if you’re not able to really brush everything aside and say, “What do I care about,” you’re set up for failure.

I start that question for self-mastery with a quote that I love by Herbert Bayard Swope which is, “I cannot give you the formula for success, but I can give you the formula for failure which is try to please everybody.” I think for me, especially as a kid actor, the whole idea was, “Oh, try to make everyone else happy,” and that can only get you so far. Ultimately, you have to discover, “Okay, what matters to me? What do I care about? How do I want to spend my time?” Kind of through answering honestly that question, you’re allowed to use your resources in a way to achieve those objectives.

Pam Harper: Actually, the emphasis that we had was a little bit wrong. It’s, “What do I really want?”, in some ways.

Jeff Cohen: I’ll take it.

Pam Harper: I think it’s one of those kinds of questions that you can ask in a lot of ways, but so important, and we see it all the time. There are people who are afraid to be honest with themselves, afraid to really say, “This is what I really want,” or they say, “I don’t even know what I really want.” It works in a variety of ways. Jeff, this has been fabulous. We don’t have any more time today, but anything a little bit more you can tell us?

Jeff Cohen: Just one tip that I think is probably the most important tip, it’s buy my book, immediately. You must buy the book. The Kindle, the audiobook, the hard unit. Maybe all three. Maybe you need all three, you know what I mean? [Laughing]

Pam Harper: [Laughing] See, that’s a New Year’s resolution, huh?

Jeff Cohen: Precisely, precisely. If you want to start the year off right, buy The Dealmaker’s Ten Commandments.

Pam Harper: Oh, Jeff. This has been fun. Thanks so much.

Jeff Cohen: Thanks so much for having me. It was a pleasure.

Scott Harper: Thanks, Jeff, and thanks to all of you out there listening to Growth Igniters® Radio with Pam Harper and Scott Harper. To check out resources related to today’s conversation, share on social media, find out about upcoming episodes, download the slide deck summarizing The Dealmaker’s Ten Commandments, or open a conversation with us, go to growthignitersradio.com and select Episode 49.

Pam Harper: Until next time, this is Pam Harper…

Scott Harper: And Scott Harper…

Pam Harper: Wishing you continued success and leaving you with this question to reflect on.

Scott Harper: What can I do to prepare myself to be a more effective dealmaker in all aspects of my life?