
Big Swings Only
Kwame Christian Esq., M.A.·1,874 episodes·Several times a week
Quick Facts
From the show
Kwame Christian hosts one of the world's most downloaded negotiation podcasts on communication, confidence, and the conversations that change everything.
Episodes
Latest Episode
October 26, 2026 · 1h 10m
Most people will never learn what you're about to hear... In this one-hour masterclass, Kwame Christian sits down with Mike Inman — the #1 negotiation trainer who has coached over 8,000 B2B negotiations and closed more than $1 billion in deals. Mike shares raw, practical, and battle-tested advice you can use immediately to transform the way you negotiate. No fluff. No theory. Just one straight hour of negotiation strategies that actually work. If you’ve ever wondered how world-class negotiators stay calm under pressure, adapt to any situation, and win without destroying relationships, this is your episode. Connect with Mike Contact ANI Request A Customized Workshop For Your Company Follow Kwame Christian on LinkedIn Click here to buy your copy of Finding Confidence in Conflict: How to Negotiate Anything and Live Your Best Life!
More Episodes
Oct 22, 2026 · 1h 8m
You don't need to be rich or a finance expert to start building wealth. NerdWallet's Sean Pyles and Elizabeth Ayoola are living proof. Kwame's episode on NerdWallet’s Smart Money Podcast: https://open.spotify.com/episode/3JsoelBqytmMXRmcA2qtK7?si=-gs3-9uMR2aZ16PNaKX3bg In this episode of Big Swings Only, Kwame Christian sits down with the co-hosts of NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast. Neither of them started out in finance. They learned it on the job, then used what they learned to transform their own lives. Elizabeth went from $0 saved for retirement as a newly divorced single mom to real financial stability, and Sean went from writing about debt to becoming a Certified Financial Planner. We break down the money myths holding you back, the biggest lie on FinTok right now, how to automate your savings, and the money conversations most people avoid. Plus, a lightning round where Sean and Elizabeth go head-to-head on splitting the bill, pay transparency, and whether buy now, pay later is a tool or a trap. CONTACT SEAN & ELIZABETH Smart Money runs on your money questions. Send yours in: • Call or text the Nerd Hotline: 901-730-6373 • Email: podcast@nerdwallet.com • Leave a comment on the Smart Money Podcast on Spotify or YouTube Connect with Kwame: Request A Customized Workshop For Your Company Follow Kwame Christian on LinkedIn negotiateanything.com Click here to buy your copy of Finding Confidence in Conflict: How to Negotiate Anything and Live Your Best Life! @kwamenegotiates across all social platforms
Oct 19, 2026 · 1h 0m
You saw Kelly Chase say, "I don't." You saw the gasps. The tears. The headlines. What you didn't see is what happened moments before, when the officiant stopped everything and said: "I'm getting word from production." Years later, Kelly is finally telling her side. What really happened at that altar. Why the edit turned on her. The hate DMs telling her she'd "die alone." And the one part of the story the cameras caught… but never aired. But first, Kwame Christian makes her wait 26 minutes before even saying the words "Love Is Blind," because the woman you think you know is only one chapter of the story. Kelly opens up about the isolation nobody saw after filming wrapped, and why she's 41, single, and never married, by choice. Plus: the money belief keeping women small, the attachment style that attracts the wrong partner, why eating more helped her finally lose weight, and the one decision underneath all of it: choosing yourself first. Stay until the very end, when producer Simon reveals how one of Kelly's TikToks became a rule he lives by. CONNECT WITH KELLY Work with Kelly (digital courses + 1:1 mentorship): chaselifewithkelly.com Instagram: @chaselifewithkelly TikTok: @iamkellychase Podcast: Chase Life with Kelly Connect with Kwame: Request A Customized Workshop For Your Company Follow Kwame Christian on LinkedIn negotiateanything.com Click here to buy your copy of Finding Confidence in Conflict: How to Negotiate Anything and Live Your Best Life! @kwamenegotiates across all social platforms
Oct 15, 2026 · 1h 2m
You’ve hit the goals, earned the promotions, and it still feels like it’s never enough. The problem isn’t your ambition. It’s where your ambition is coming from. Former Googler Brooke Taylor, author of Healing the Success Wound, joins Kwame Christian to unpack the one addiction society applauds: the addiction to achievement. Brooke shares how a stack-ranked sales job at Google, her father’s terminal cancer diagnosis, staying silent about harassment to protect a promotion, and getting sober led her to identify the “success wound,” the pain of mistaking success, productivity, and achievement for self-worth. Connect with Brooke Taylor:Book: Healing the Success Wound (Amazon and wherever books are sold)Coaching: brooketaylorcoaching.comInstagram: @brookevtaylor Connect with Kwame: Request A Customized Workshop For Your Company Follow Kwame Christian on LinkedIn negotiateanything.com Click here to buy your copy of Finding Confidence in Conflict: How to Negotiate Anything and Live Your Best Life! @kwamenegotiates across all social platforms
Oct 12, 2026 · 54m
Varun Sharma has spent years working in green energy and hydrogen. So why is he now taking on defense and oil & gas clients? Kwame Christian welcomes Varun back to the show to unpack "pragmatic idealism": holding on to your ideals while staying honest about how power actually works. Drawing on a decade in Estonia on NATO's eastern edge, a father who served in the military, and his years in government, Varun explains why strength prevents conflict instead of inviting it, why doing nothing is still a choice with consequences, and why polarization is costing us the middle ground. Kwame also asks the question he poses to audiences in his trainings: would you rather have every negotiation skill in the world, or all the power and leverage? Varun's answer reframes the whole question. Plus: China, batteries and the geopolitics of the energy transition, AI and job losses, and Varun's three-step process for making hard decisions when your values pull in different directions. CONNECT WITH VARUN Sapient Ventures: https://sapient.ventures Varun's previous episode: Stop Talking: How to Use Silence to Win Any Deal Connect with Kwame: Request A Customized Workshop For Your Company Follow Kwame Christian on LinkedIn negotiateanything.com Click here to buy your copy of Finding Confidence in Conflict: How to Negotiate Anything and Live Your Best Life! @kwamenegotiates across all social platforms #Negotiation #DecisionMaking #Geopolitics
Oct 8, 2026 · 1h 49m
Vanessa Van Edwards once lost a dream TV deal over small talk. After 20 years of research, she knows how to turn small talk into real connection. On this episode, Kwame Christian sits down with Vanessa Van Edwards, behavioral researcher, founder of Science of People and bestselling author of Captivate and Cues, to unpack her new book, Conversation: How to Connect with Anyone & Make Every Interaction Count. A self-described "recovering awkward person," Vanessa shares the science-backed conversation skills that changed her life, from escaping conversation dead ends to asking the questions that build deeper relationships. If you've ever run out of things to say, overthought what to say next, or left a networking event feeling like you never really connected, this episode is for you. In this episode, you'll learn: - Why questions like "What do you do?" lead to conversation dead ends, and how to escape them - The 3 levels of conversation: putting people at ease, connecting deeply and creating meaning - The memoir question that sparks deeper conversations with the people who matter - How your self-story (redemption vs. contamination frames) shapes how you listen and talk - Why naming social cues calms your nerves, plus the body language that signals confidence - Why talking for more than 40 seconds can turn a conversation into a monologue - How to disagree respectfully and handle difficult conversations, even with family - How to turn nerves into "good nerves" before a negotiation or presentation - Constructive vs. deconstructive language: how to be authentically assertive - How AI, voice notes and podcasts are weakening our conversation muscles Recorded in partnership with The Ohio State University Moritz College of Law. Students from the school's new podcast, [STUDENT PODCAST NAME], join the conversation with questions on code switching, speaking a second language, fear in negotiations, toxic positivity and more. Connect with Vanessa Get Conversation by Vanessa Van Edwards: https://www.scienceofpeople.com/conversation/ Vanessa's website: https://www.scienceofpeople.com/conversation/ Connect with Kwame: Request A Customized Workshop For Your Company Follow Kwame Christian on LinkedIn negotiateanything.com Click here to buy your copy of Finding Confidence in Conflict: How to Negotiate Anything and Live Your Best Life! @kwamenegotiates across all social platforms #VanessaVanEdwards #SmallTalk #CommunicationSkills
Oct 5, 2026 · 1h 24m
Kwame Christian sits down with psychologist, marriage and family therapist, and founder of Growing Self Counseling & Coaching, Dr. Lisa Marie Bobby, and it quickly turns into two high achievers comparing notes on the hidden cost of always chasing the next win. Kwame opens up about skipping the celebration of his own graduations, walking away from a national competition award because it wasn't the championship, and turning his marriage into a competition his wife never signed up for. Dr. Lisa Marie explains the psychology behind it (the hedonic treadmill) and why stepping off it doesn't kill your drive. It might actually give you more of it. From there, they get into how social media algorithms are quietly "diagnosing" our partners, the frame game that lets Kwame win a negotiation before it starts, the networking event that sent him hiding in the bathroom five times, and how Dr. Lisa Marie turned the loss of her cousin on 9/11 into her life's work. CONNECT WITH DR. LISA MARIE BOBBY Love, Happiness & Success podcast Connect with Kwame: Request A Customized Workshop For Your Company Follow Kwame Christian on LinkedIn negotiateanything.com Click here to buy your copy of Finding Confidence in Conflict: How to Negotiate Anything and Live Your Best Life! @kwamenegotiates across all social platforms
Oct 1, 2026 · 1h 7m
If you've been pushing hard but feeling empty, this episode will challenge everything you believe about high performance. DJ Vanas — Air Force veteran, member of the Ottawa Nation, and author of The Warrior Within (Penguin Random House) — brings centuries of tribal wisdom into a single, urgent message: you cannot be of service to anyone when you are falling apart. DJ has spoken at Fuqua School of Business at Duke University and Yakima Tribal Jail in the same week. His work spans 574 federally recognized tribes, healthcare systems, military organizations, and Fortune-level business teams. He doesn't teach cutting-edge frameworks — he teaches ancient ones that have been proven under the worst conditions in human history. Connect with DJ Vanas nativediscovery.com Buy the Book: The Warrior Within Contact ANI Request A Customized Workshop For Your Company Follow Kwame Christian on LinkedIn negotiateanything.com Click here to buy your copy of Finding Confidence in Conflict: How to Negotiate Anything and Live Your Best Life!
Sep 28, 2026 · 1h 13m
Nidhi explains why the biggest mistake leaders make is rushing from empathy into problem-solving, and why she never gives advice unless someone asks for it. She also asks a question worth sitting with: when we fix, share our own stories, or offer platitudes, whose comfort are we really prioritizing? If you want to connect more deeply with the people in your life and at work, this one's for you. Connect with Nidhi Tewari www.nidhitewari.com Connect with Kwame: Request A Customized Workshop For Your Company Follow Kwame Christian on LinkedIn negotiateanything.com Click here to buy your copy of Finding Confidence in Conflict: How to Negotiate Anything and Live Your Best Life! @kwamenegotiates across all social platforms
Sep 24, 2026 · 53m
You already know resilience matters. But what if everything you think about it is incomplete? In this episode, Kwame Christian sits down with Dr. Marie-Hélène Pelletier — psychologist, executive coach, and author of The Resilience Plan — to break down why resilience isn't just a trait you either have or don't, and it's not just a muscle you build through grit alone. It's a strategy. One you can actually sit down and plan. Marie-Hélène opens with a harrowing story from an 8-day mountain traverse in the Canadian Rockies — a river crossing gone wrong that nearly swept her away — and uses it to unpack a truth most high performers miss: we're great on "day one," when we're fresh and energized. The real risk shows up on "day eight," when we're depleted, still making decisions like we're at full strength. If you're someone chasing big goals and refusing to slow down, this episode will change how you think about what's sustainable — and give you a real framework to build on. Connect with Marie-Hélène theresilienceplan.com LinkedIn: Marie-Hélène Pelletier, PhD, MBA Connect with Kwame: Request A Customized Workshop For Your Company Follow Kwame Christian on LinkedIn negotiateanything.com Click here to buy your copy of Finding Confidence in Conflict: How to Negotiate Anything and Live Your Best Life! @kwamenegotiates across all social platforms