No Bollocks

Why Most People Are Bad Negotiators And Don’t Know It | Lousin Mehrabi

Jul 17, 2026
No Bollocks with Matt Haycox
No Bollocks with Matt Haycox
Why Most People Are Bad Negotiators And Don't Know It | Lousin Mehrabi
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Lousin Mehrabi has spent two decades in high stakes negotiations and says the best negotiators are all calm, composed introverts.

Lousin Mehrabi joins Matt Haycox to strip the aggression myth out of negotiation. She started in finance on the trading floors, handling M&A, IPOs and lobbying, until a year of corporate training in 2013 under professional negotiators, one from the French special forces, covering lie detection and profiling, changed her direction entirely. She now works from Dubai with companies, governments and hospitals on high stakes deals, divorce cases and suicide interventions, and reckons that in over 90 percent of cases what people say they want is not what they need.

Donald Trump gets a proper dissection: his habit of taking agreed deals off the table and making you beg for what you already had, and why it only works with authority behind it. Hostage negotiation comes down from the movies to everyday life, from why negotiators never work alone to why you keep unreasonable people talking for the intel, with lessons from her mentor George Kohlrieser, the hostage negotiator who wrote Hostage at the Table. Matt puts his own deal record through her three pillars of credibility, competence and composure, and picks a fight with the Starbucks discount method of building a rejection muscle.

Chapters
0:00 – Coming Up
0:16 – Intro
1:28 – The Truth About Negotiation: It’s Not What You Think
8:30 – How to Get the Best Deal: Business & Life Examples
17:53 – Is Donald Trump a Good Negotiator?
24:19 – Hostage Negotiation: How It Really Works
34:01 – Overcoming Fear of Rejection in Negotiation
39:17 – Mastering Everyday Negotiation: How to Get What You Want for Free
42:08 – Final Thoughts & Where to Learn More from Lousin Mehrabi

About Lousin Mehrabi
Lousin Mehrabi is a professional negotiator, keynote speaker and negotiation advisor. She rarely works with the public, sharing free content on LinkedIn and YouTube instead, and previously hosted a podcast interviewing fellow professional negotiators. She has trained leaders at a week long summit in Gstaad and holds that negotiation, leadership and emotional intelligence go hand in hand.

Follow Lousin:
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/lousinmehrabi/
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lousin-mehrabi/
Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@lousinmehrabi

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Connect with Matt Haycox, No BS Business Podcast Host & 8-Figure Entrepreneur.

I’m Matt Haycox, entrepreneur, investor, and your straight-talking guide to building a business that actually works. I’ve raised over £750M, built (and rebuilt) 8-figure companies, and learned the hard way what it really takes to win.

On No Bollocks with Matt Haycox, I cut through the bollocks to bring you raw conversations with 7–8 figure founders, investors, and experts who’ve been there, done it, and got the scars to prove it. No hype, no theory, just actionable strategies you can use today to start, grow, and scale your business.

Whether you’re stuck in your 9–5, building your side hustle, or trying to hit your first £100k month, this is your go-to podcast for entrepreneur tips, startup growth strategies, raising capital, building a personal brand, and avoiding the costly mistakes most founders make.

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