During this episode of the Lab Coat Agents Podcast, Jeff Pfitzer talks to Michael Reddington - President at InQuasive. He has a background in forensics interrogation. Michael works with people to help them become better listeners, interviewers, and more persuasive.  Episode Highlights:  Michael shares how his life has been a series of accidental job acceptances. He discusses his past success in interviews and interrogation and what motivated him to continue in the field.   He really wanted to understand what it takes to sit down with a complete stranger with completely opposing interests, goals, fears, and motivation and persuade them to share most of the truth in a very stressful situation.  Decades of experience with the world’s leading Non-confrontational Interview and Interrogations Training organization made Michael realize that the very best leaders and interrogators capitalize on the same two core skills – Vision and Influence.  Currently, Michael spends most of his time working with executive and business professionals teaching them “How to apply strategic, ethical, observation and persuasion techniques with discipline listening methods.” Jeff is fascinated and is curious to know about some fun experiences encountered by Michael. Several years ago, Michael received a phone call from a Fortune 500 national company where the President of Consumer Marketing was retiring.  The Fortune 500 company wanted Michael to interrogate their Director based on a fraud rumor. If the rumor turned out to be true, then the company would fire the Director otherwise, give him the VP post.  Using good techniques, taking a report-based approach, Michael interrogated the Director. Ultimately, Michael compelled the Director to confess the frauds.  Michael points out the importance of thinking during any conversation or engagement “How will this one conversation take me closer to my goals?” People have far more motivation to project their own interest than work with us unless there is already a strong relationship, says Michael. People in any type of position or authority or expertise can get really tempted to chase the conversation down, says Michael. Michael shares details about the research that came out in mid-2000 on the topic of “Judging somebody’s trustworthiness, just by looking at somebody’s face.”  Jeff and Michael talk about the psychological tweaks one can make during important conversations. In a home-buying scenario, agents can encounter couples with two different mindsets, depending on where they are and how they feel. Michael talks about opting for a value-based approach for communicating with people.  Michael shares few tips about “How to start a great conversation?” “Our brains are wired to listen for information that confirms what we already believe,'' says Michael. Jeff goes deep into a specific scenario and asks Michael about those agents who want to improve their game. “Focus on the process, and the result takes care of itself”, says Michael. 3 Key Points: Michael talks about his journey, the ups and downs, and how he finally got the Certified Forensic Interviewer (CFI) designation. The certification helped him get recruited by the world’s leading Non-Confrontational Interview and Interrogations Training organization.  How can you  create the best possible reputation by building positive client relations?  Michael talks about the 7 automated ways of persuasion.  Resources Mentioned:  Lab Coat Agents  | Website | Facebook | Facebook Group | Twitter | Instagram  Jeff Pfitzer   | Instagram | LinkedIn | Twitter Michael Reddington   | LinkedIn | Website  Books:  Influence, New and Expanded, The Psychology of Persuasion | Pre-suasion: Channeling Attention for Change  | Insight Selling  Chime (Sponsor)