When you can boast having interviewed people like Mark Zuckerberg, LeBron James, and Arnold Schwarzenegger, sponsors come at you like ants to a picnic.

Especially when you have 900M downloads for your podcast.

I’m talking about author, entrepreneur and investor Tim Ferriss.

When you get that level of attention and “courting” from sponsors and advertisers, you have to be selective. And premium.

As you can imagine, Tim Ferriss has a very strict policy for accepting sponsorships and has them go through a couple of hoops to see if they have what it takes.

I loved what he said in a recent interview about his selection process.

Pay attention to something subtle happening here:

“I want to have as many checkboxes on my checklist to ensure that they will be successful long-term before I say yes”

He starts with what he wants…

Then he transitions smoothly into what the sponsors want.

It’s a great example of framing your goal as the other person’s goal.

We’re often so blindsided by our own wants and needs, that we forget how to get into the other party’s shoes.

This is when negotiations end badly.

How can you reframe what you want to happen during a sale or web experience in a way that also fits into what your prospects want?

The way you find out is to ask questions.

A very good one that Tim Ferriss asks each and every guest (and one that I hear a lot of great sales people asking too) is:

What would make this time really well spent for you? What would make this a home run?

Try it the next time you have any interaction of any kind.

I know I will.

Quote and reflection of the day:

“There is a time in every man’s education when he arrives at the conviction that envy is ignorance; that imitation is suicide; that he must take himself for better, for worse, as his portion”

• Ralph Waldo Emerson, Self reliance

Finding your uniqueness is a lifelong learning process.