For Anyone Who's Ever Said Yes In A Meeting When They Meant No

The Ambush Playbook

Six ways they'll try to catch you off guard, and exactly what to do in each one.

If you've read Screw The Ladder you already know The Indifference Play. This is the uncut version, every scenario it shows up in, full scripts for each, plus how to see one coming before it happens and how to put things right afterwards if it got properly tense.

The Honest Bit

What this actually is, and isn't.

It's not a confidence pep talk, and it won't turn you into someone who never gets rattled. It's the actual scripts I give clients, word for word in places, for six different rooms a power play can turn up in, plus the one before it happens and the one after.

What's Inside

17 pages, six ambush scenarios, plus the prep and the repair.

The Prep, what to do beforehand when you already know a meeting's going to turn hostile, including naming the one question you're dreading before someone else does.
The Boardroom Ambush, the full method behind all six scenarios, Buy Your Beat, Name The Game, Hand It Back, with a worked example.
The Encore, what changes when the same person has a second go after the first attempt didn't land.
The Corner, the private, no-witnesses version, cornered by the coffee machine with none of the performance stripped away.
The Paper Trail, the "just flagging" email cc'd to everyone, and exactly how to reply without matching their tone.
The Instant Message Ambush, the Slack and Teams version, with its own etiquette around read receipts and typing indicators.
The Client Ambush, for when the person ambushing you isn't even on your payroll and might genuinely walk.
The Repair, what to do afterwards to protect the relationship, since winning the exchange and keeping the relationship are two different skills.
The tell, concrete signals for spotting the difference between a genuine worried question and a thinly veiled power play, so you don't use this on someone who's just anxious and clumsy.
Quick Reference, every script from the guide on one page, for the version of you who's got ninety seconds before walking back into the room.

Who It's For

Anyone in property or construction who'd rather avoid the confrontation than have it.

If you've ever left a meeting replaying one sentence somebody said to you, usually in the shower the next morning, this was written with you specifically in mind. None of it is about being the loudest person in the room.

£22 one-off

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