Alright, let’s do something different today. This is a special bonus episode where you get to hear Chapter 1 of my new book, The Next Conversation. In this first chapter, we’re setting the stage. You’ll get a feel for what’s inside the book, and if it clicks with you, you’re going to love the full audiobook. I recorded it myself, so it’s like we’re sitting down together, walking through these conversations step by step. Take a listen, and if you're ready for more, order my new book, The Next Conversation, or listen to the full audiobook today. Also, come meet me on my book tour! Audio excerpted courtesy of Penguin Random House Audio from THE NEXT CONVERSATION by Jefferson Fisher, read by Jefferson Fisher. © 2025 Jefferson Fisher, ℗ 2025 Penguin Random House, LLC. All rights reserved. Like what you hear? Don’t forget to subscribe and leave a 5-star review! Suggest a topic or ask a question for me to answer on the show! Want a FREE communication tip each week? Click here to join my newsletter. Join My School of Communication Watch my podcast on YouTube Follow me on Instagram Follow me on TikTok Follow me on LinkedIn Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Chapter 1: What is Jefferson Fisher's new book about?
Hey, y'all. Welcome to a special episode of the Jefferson Fisher Podcast. Today's episode is a little bit different, and I couldn't be more excited about it. My book, The Next Conversation, Argue Less, Talk More, is finally here, and so is the audiobook. I am currently sitting in my hotel room in North Carolina on the book tour.
I did four days in New York, did New Jersey, and now I'm here in North Carolina and going to continue on doing it. I wanted to give you, my listeners, an exclusive treat. I want to give you a full listen to chapter one from the audiobook read by me. Now, this chapter sets the tone for everything the book is about.
helping you navigate tough conversations with confidence, clarity, and of course, connection. If you enjoy what you hear, I'd love for you to check out the rest of the audiobook or grab a copy of my book. You can find it wherever books or audiobooks are sold, and you can head to thenextconversation.com, and it'll be down there in the show notes for all the details.
Now, let's dive into chapter one of The Next Conversation. I hope you enjoy it as much as I enjoyed writing it and reading it. Chapter 1. Never Win an Argument I don't trust you as far as I can throw you, he bellowed. In all honesty, it was a compliment. He could have thrown me pretty far.
In his tan coveralls with a white oval patch that had Lepre embroidered in black in the upper left pocket, Bobby Lepre glared at me with enough heat to burn a hole through my suit jacket. Now, generally, I don't know what someone looks like before I meet them at their deposition. And whatever I picture Bobby LaPre looking like, it wasn't this.
Sitting at the conference room table, waiting for people to arrive, I looked up to see a half-human, half-giant. His outline took up the whole doorway. Naturally, I stood up and walked over to him to shake his hand and introduce myself. Jefferson Fisher, I said with a smile. Bobby, he muttered. Now, I'm not a small guy. I'm over six feet tall, but I barely came up to Bobby LaPre's chest.
He was an absolute mountain. As we shook hands, the squeeze from his ginormous, callous hands left an imprint in mine like a scene from a Tom and Jerry cartoon. I'd never been around someone so physically intimidating. The case involved a bar fight, and I was representing a bystander who had gotten caught up in the scuffle.
As part of the case, I needed to depose Bobby LaPre, a witness to the events. In a deposition, I get the chance to ask people questions under oath, typically to learn what they know before they testify at trial. Clockwise around the antique conference room table sat the court reporter writing everything down, Bobby LaPre, the opposing attorney, and me.
After asking Bobby to raise his right hand and placing him under oath, the court reporter gave me her customary nod for me to begin. I asked Bobby LaPre routine questions about his background and what had led up to the fight. They were easy, open-ended questions like, what time did you arrive? Who did you talk to first? Did you see so-and-so or do this and that?
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Chapter 2: How does Jefferson Fisher introduce Chapter 1 of his book?
It's about seeing through the keyhole into another person's world and realizing that maybe, just maybe, the win you thought you wanted isn't what you needed after all. The Challenge to Accept Now, most people understand that success comes from seeing failure not as a setback, but as a stepping stone. Embracing failure is part of the process. You learn from your mistakes to grow stronger.
Failures to communicate, as in disagreements and arguments, they do the same thing. They lead to success because they reveal areas of improvement, offering insights into how you can enrich your interactions. The bigger the conversation, the bigger the need to handle the conflict effectively. And when done right, conflict isn't a fight. It's an opportunity.
It's a catalyst for real, meaningful connection. If, and that's if, you're willing to see it. What life experiences have shaped how you see conflict? When you were a kid, defiantly shouting no or bombarding adults with why was your way of figuring things out, cause and effect.
As a teenager, those simple childhood reactions turned into more complicated questions about finding your place and your identity apart from your family. The clothes you wore, the music you listened to, even the clique you hung around were all statements of who you wanted to be.
Stepping into adulthood, disagreements became less about asserting individuality and more about coexisting with other people. Your conversations turned to topics like children, career paths, and mortgages. Or in my case, what vacuum to buy and whether that piece of furniture I found in my parents' garage still had good bones. As an adult, the stakes change.
Your responsibilities grow as you have to think collectively, now responsible for people other than yourself, such as aging parents or your own children. You take interest in broader issues like politics, news, and global affairs. Despite your age, things may feel even more uncertain. When that happens, you tend to fall back to what you know.
your lived experiences, and the behaviors modeled for you growing up. I want you to ask yourself right now, how did watching arguments in my childhood influence the way that I argue now?
If yelling and aggression were the go-to method for conflict in your home growing up, you might find yourself thinking that's just how things are done, even if you know it's not the best way to get your point across.
On the flip side, if you came from a place where everyone tiptoed around disagreements to save face or avoided conversations out of fear of what the neighbors might think, diving headfirst into an argument might make you feel uncomfortable, to say the least. Take this one time I stayed over at a friend's house during the summer as a kid.
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