This week on Gentle Power, we sat down with Mark Mirra, CEO and co-founder of Aligned Negotiation, for a deep (and very practical) conversation on how to make negotiation feel less like “combat” and more like a normal life skill you can build over time.

We covered:

• Why Mark thinks negotiation should be treated like a lifestyle activity, not a scary, high-stakes “event”
• Why internal negotiations (inside your company) often feel harder than external ones
• The 4 negotiation types Mark teaches, and what each one demands from you
• The 4 phases of a negotiation, and how your mindset should shift across each phase
• What to do when a negotiation starts going off the rails

And learn more about Mark ⁠on LinkedIn⁠ and his website here: ⁠https://www.alignednegotiation.com/⁠

For more:

Book free consultation call with Alex: Calendly

Get our free negotiation worksheet: YourNegotiations.com

Read our weekly newsletter: Newsletter

Instagram: @yournegotiations
LinkedIn: Gerta | Alex

In this episode of Gentle Power, we sat down with Kenko Ueyama, cofounder of Tsubasa AI, an AI advisory agency that helps enterprise teams define their AI strategy and then actually build it. Kenko is also a senior advisor at Harvard Applied AI Institute, where he helps design AI coursework and leads executive workshops on navigating AI-driven change.

We covered:

• How underpricing yourself lowers not just your margins, but how seriously your work is taken
• A deep dive into your “resentment number,” where if a price makes you resent the work later, it was too low from the start
• The Japanese negotiation concept of “nemawashi”, where the real negotiation happens before the meeting ever begins

To learn more about Kenko and his work, connect with him on LinkedIn here, or visit his website: tsubasa-ai.com.

For more:

Book free consultation call with Alex: ⁠Calendly⁠

Get our free negotiation worksheet: ⁠YourNegotiations.com⁠

Read our weekly newsletter: ⁠Newsletter⁠

Instagram: ⁠@yournegotiations⁠LinkedIn: ⁠Gerta⁠ | ⁠Alex

In this episode of Gentle Power, we talk about “no deal” scenarios. Not as failures, but as real and often necessary outcomes that people tend to misunderstand, resist, or personalize.

Most negotiation advice focuses on how to get to a deal. But a big part of negotiating well is knowing when there isn’t one. We explore why no deal happens, how to think about it strategically, and how zooming out can turn a disappointing outcome into the right one.

We cover:

• Why no deal usually comes down to misaligned priorities
• Why a strong process doesn’t guarantee results
• When the real win isn’t what you asked for, but what you actually needed
• Why folding can be the smartest move

For more:

Book free consultation call with Alex: Calendly

Get our free negotiation worksheet: YourNegotiations.com

Read our weekly newsletter: Newsletter

Instagram: @yournegotiations
LinkedIn: Gerta | Alex