High-Stakes Communication: How to Negotiate Confidently, Ask Smarter Questions, and Build Influence with Phil Jones

Have you ever walked away from a conversation wishing you could go back and say it differently? According to Phil Jones, that doesn’t mean you have a communication problem. You may have a moment problem.

Phil, author of the bestselling book Exactly What to Say, joins Jay to talk about the word choices, principles, and preparation that help people show up better in high-stakes conversations. He shares how a simple body of work grew into a global brand, why so many people give up on their greatest hit too early, and how boredom can become a path to deeper mastery.

Jay and Phil also unpack the four cornerstones of conversational excellence, including why the worst time to think about what you’re going to say is while you’re saying it. The real challenge is learning to identify your critical conversations, those small moments that have an outsized impact on your results.

Challenge of the Week:

Identify one critical conversation in your personal life, one as a leader, and one that affects your income. Pick a hyper-specific moment inside each conversation and add more intention to how you show up.

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To learn more, and for the complete show notes, visit: the1thing.com/pods.

We talk about:

[00:00] How Phil Jones Built a Career Around Knowing Exactly What to Say

[05:02] How Repeated Questions Revealed Phil’s ONE Thing

[08:01] Why People Give Up on Their Greatest Hit Too Early

[13:45] Why the People You Serve Keep You Committed

[19:14] The Four Cornerstones of Conversational Excellence

[30:48] The ONE Thing Challenge

Links & Tools from This Episode:

Exactly What to Say by Phil Jones

Magic Words by Phil Jones

Phil Jones’s Website

Free Resources

Produced by NOVA