From Hostage Negotiations to Keynote Stages: Jeff Owens on Calm, Respect, and 100 Chicken-Sized Horses

What can a former hostage negotiator teach us about leadership, stress, and communication? A lot — especially when the stakes are life and death.In this episode, Phil Barth talks with Jeff Owens, CSP, about how lessons learned in life-and-death negotiations now help organizations build trust, stay calm, and transform under pressure. Jeff shares stories from the field, his journey from police work to the keynote stage, and why ChatGPT might just be the next great communication coach.Along the way, they tackle the eternal question: Would you rather face one horse-sized chicken or a hundred chicken-sized horses?Highlights:2:20 - One moment as a hostage negotiator that still sticks with Jeff.4:45 - What you can learn from hostage negotiation11:48 - Jeff's definition of respect.13:28 - Winning Hawaii's Top Cop Award15:21 - Transition from cop to International keynote speaker.25:37 - How ChatGPT can help people understand each other.27:16 - 100 chicken sized horses or one horse sized chicken.35:19 - The biggest chicken Jeff had to fry.36:30 - The only two things you can controlJeff's website: https://www.jeffreyowens.com/Jeff on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jeffrey-owens-csp-ctm-cvp/Phil's Substack Newsletter:https://pbarth.substack.com/