What you don’t know is that John Travolta is a master negotiator and business deal maker. 

All of us know John Travolta as one of the biggest movie stars in the world. He made movies like Saturday Night Fever, Pulp Fiction, and Grease classics. His accomplishments speak for themselves.

But the mega-movie star let me in on something backstage of my 10X Growth Conference before he spoke. 

John Travolta negotiates and closes all his business deals himself.

This is how he negotiated just one of these major deals like a master. 

Would you take a call from John Travolta?

I’m willing to put money down that if John Travolta called, you would answer the phone. 

You have to know the strengths and weaknesses of your position when you are negotiating, and John knows his. He was certain that the CEO of Qantas Airways would agree to a meeting with him to pitch him an idea. Travolta called him up and the CEO agreed to the meeting.

When they sat down together, Travolta explained that he owned a Boeing 707 airliner that used to be owned by them.

The idea he had was that since it used to belong to Qantas, it would mean a lot to him to have their logo painted on the plane. The paint job on his 707 was old-fashioned and he wanted it refreshed.

John offered the CEO up to $100,000 for the airline to do this. 

The CEO was shocked and let John know that usually, things worked the other way around. He told John to let him come up with a proposal. There was no deal there, but the seeds had been planted. 

Countering the counter-offer

When the Qantas CEO got back to John Travolta, his offer was tempting. He offered him a new Boeing 747! But John had a different idea. 

Travolta countered Qantas with this proposal. Instead of a new plane, Qantas would pay for the cost of flying his current plane — approximately $3 million a year — and the new paint job.

In exchange for this, he did a campaign flying the plane around the world for Qantas to show that flying was safe again. (The timing of this deal was after the September 11th attacks in New York City.) 

Qantas accepted and the relationship was profitable for both parties. 

After this story, it is clear that John Travolta is a master negotiator.

He didn’t just get what he initially wanted — a new paint job for his plane — he got other business deals from it. This just shows that knowing how to negotiate may get you more than you even wanted in the first place.

Want to be blown away by stories from other monster speakers like John Travolta? Join us at 10X Growth Conference 2022 — secure your virtual pass ASAP.

Featured image source: John Travolta Official Facebook Page

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