In 1974, Dolly Parton was 28 and had just left The Porter Wagoner Show to go solo. As her going-away song, she had just written the now-iconic "I Will Always Love You." Then Colonel Tom Parker, Elvis's famously shrewd manager, called: the King wanted to record it. Could she be at Studio B tomorrow? She said she "went out of her mind." But the afternoon before the session, the Colonel called back with one more thing.

This week on S4N, Gene works through that phone call using Martha Ackmann's new biography Ain't Nobody's Fool: The Life and Times of Dolly Parton. He looks at why the other side wants you emotionally committed before any terms are discussed (Gene calls it the "puppy first" technique), why the biggest demand so often shows up at the last minute, and what changes when you're dealing with a gatekeeper instead of the person who decides. Then he takes the same questions to two very different arenas, one of them his own practice, where the answers were harder than they looked.

So that the next time a deal feels done, you'll know to ask one more question: leaving emotion aside, is this in my best interest, both now and years from now?

Remember: negotiation is life.

Mentioned in this episode:

Ain't Nobody's Fool: The Life and Times of Dolly Parton by Martha Ackmann

Dolly Parton's Imagination Library