this is staying connected with xfinity to make moving... simple. easy. awesome. stay connected while you move with the best wifi experience and two-hour appointment windows. click, call or visit a store today. good morning. coming up, everybody lies. some are big lies, some are small, but how do you negotiate with someone when you're not sure if they're telling the truth? celebrities love her jewelry but then family tragedy struck. how she kept her company going while dealing with her son's scary illness. and is there a robot in your company's future? why robotics isn't just for big businesses anymore. when it comes to making choices for your business, we have your back. that's all coming up next on your business.

"your business" is sponsored by american express. don't do business without it. hi there, everyone. i'm j.j. ramberg and welcome to your business, the show dedicated to helping your growing business. i get this feeling a lot where i'm getting everything done between life and work and everything is going well, but it's so busy that there is zero room for error. well, the truth is that things that are out of our control happen all the time. and it's how we deal with them that matters. we recently went to los angeles to meet a woman who faced a personal tragedy that forced her to rethink how she ran her company. she was at the helm of her accessories line when her son faced a severe medical condition

and she had to figure out how to help and be there for her son while keeping her business afloat. she was at the top of her game in 2016. the jewelry business she started 15 years earlier was doing great. her designs were adored by everyone from paltrow to lady gaga. she and her team were getting ready to launch a direct to consumer website and then the unthinkable happened. >> my son who was diagnosed with ulcerative colitis, we could not get this under control. we were in and out of the hospital. >> her world was turned upside down and things quickly went from bad to worse. >> i remember the doctor saying he might have to have his entire colon removed and then all hell broke loose. i felt the wind had been knocked out of me. >> having a child who's sick is gut wrenching. >> simon easter fiing medical journey had just begun. >> he had three surgeries so if

first surgery he had his colon removed and the second surgery is a big one because they reconstruct everything. it's awful. >> and on the career front she was faced with a hard choice. how could she keep up with the company that she worked so hard to build while her entire being was focused on her son? >> those first few weeks are a blur. i had to do the best that i could given the limited time and resources and mental ka passionpassio -- capacity that i had. >> we had so many horrible surprises. it was triage at that point from a business perspective. i mean, i would just answer things that had to get done but obviously my focus was on my son and getting him well. >> she didn't want to give up the company. she couldn't. but adshe needed to find a way do things differently. suddenly time was precious and she had to eliminate all inefficiencies. >> i will never forget that my factory called me and they were late with something and i

remember just having no tolerance for this, and that turned out to be really a positive blessing almost because there's no room for mistakes that shouldn't be mistakes. now there's no excuse. we really need to build in certain systems. why is it getting shipped late? you know we always order the same chain. let's produce more of it. let's hold stock of it. >> like many founders she had always been in the weeds with every aspect of her business, but no longer. now she had no choice but to trust her employees to make things happen without her. >> this terrible situation that allowed me really to let go and to be able to say, you know what? i have thing more important that i have to dedicate my time to. we have a product and it has to get out the door and it has to get shipped and sometimes decisions have to get made without me there. and they did. i wanted to be very involved in

all the website development and i realized we just have to get something up because me not being able to make every decision and approve every single piece, those we can change. it's okay. so let's get it up there and then when i'm more mentally clear we can take a bigger look at it and make changes. something sometimes is better than nothing. >> what made this possible was an openness with her team about what she could and what she couldn't handle and a group of people around her who were willing to step up when she needed them. >> i would have to call someone in my office and say i cannot send this e-mail. i need you to communicate exactly what i'm thinking and then just hope that they did a great job. because i had to move on and deal with something else. throughout this process you realize you need to lean on people. >> work also became a bit of a lifesaver. a much needed distraction during the hardest times with her son. >> there's a lot of dead time in

the hospital and it's really emotionally grueling and you know, you need things to distract you. >> i actually remember when simon was in one of the surgeries reviewing things that were happening on my website, showing them to my husband and providing feedback on them because you really -- you could go crazy sitting there. >> ultimately simon made a full recovery and is thriving now and although the life changing experience is not something she would ever want to relive, she now sees the profoundly positive impact it had on both her business and her leadership skills. >> i think that you don't emerge from hell empty handed. you definitely receive some gifts from that entire process and i know personally the gifts that benefit me the most really benefitted my business. >> we all lie all the time. now it's mostly harmless like telling someone you like their

jacket when you actually don't, but other times the lies can result in something big and harmful to your company. many of us have faced someone across the negotiating table who we're not totally sure is telling the truth. if that's the case, what do you do? how do you strike a deal effectively if you don't trust the person on the other side. i sat down with harvard business school professor leslie john who gave me some ideas. >> is it easy to spot a liar? >> no, it is not easy to spot a liar. >> there's all these tales that i wrote about, if they blink a lot, if they look down. >> there's lots of other reasons why people may look i a way, maybe they're shy, maybe they lack confidence. we want to believe we can detect lies. the bottom line is we just can't. >> so going into a negotiation and trusting your gut or your own abilities to say oh, i'm going to know if they're lying or not, that is not a strategy. >> no. >> it's not going to work? >> no. >> all right. for fun, we taped a bunch of people lying and not lying and i wanted to see if we could guess.

>> first one. >> i went to an all girls school from kindergarten through 12th grade. >> i'm going to say she's telling the truth. >> i think she's telling the truth also. i went to an all girls school. >> you can relate to it as well. >> and she is -- she's lying! >> i mean, i had no idea. that was so good. >> yeah. >> okay. next one. >> my aunt is a naturally born hawaiian citizen and she was voted ms. hawaii in 1950. >> oh, wow. i think he's telling the truth just because it's like a very creative -- i think it's hard to make stuff like that up but maybe i'm wrong. >> so i am not listening to anything you say when you told me there are no tells because i think he's lying because his eyebrow went up. even though you are sitting here telling me i shouldn't be paying attention to any of that -- >> see, it's so intuitivety compelling this idea that we can

spot a liar. >> i can't help it. >> okay. he is -- oh! you were right. i was -- >> that just proves the point. >> i'm not taking credit for it. it proves your point. we want to believe we can detect lies and if that was a negotiation i've ruined it because i don't trust him and i'm not going to do a deal with him. >> i know all of these people and you don't know any of them. all these people work in my office and yet i'm not doing any better than you are. >> yeah. the fact is people are going to lie. there are some people you'll be negotiating with them and they're going to lie and if i cannot rely on seeing how their facial expression changes or how they have a weird tick, what do i do? >> because we're not good at detecting, we want to try to head it off at the pass and prevent our counterparts from lying to us. so how do we do that? well, there's lots of strategies we can deploy. one is -- there's a lot you can

do with respect to your questioning strategy. so you want to make it hard for them to lie to you. imagine that you're talking to a supplier and you're worried that that supplier is running late, that they're not going to deliver on time. so you want to know if they're going to -- if their work is on time. >> and if i say will your work be on time of course they're going to say yes. >> yeah, so you could ask it and this is subtle, right, you could say, you're running late, right? that's a little bit harder to lie to. >> right and if i say to them you're running late, right? they'll have to say no, i'm not running late. which feels -- feels like it has much greater weight. >> exactly. it feels more like a lie. >> it feels more like a lie. >> and it's so subtle. right?

>> okay. then let's talk about dodging. >> so dodging is when people answer essentially not the question you asked but the question they wish you had asked them. politicians are famous for this. right? >> i was thinking politicians. right. >> when we're on the receiving end of a dodge, if i asked you a question and you played politician and didn't actually answer and said whatever you wanted to say, i'm not that good at detecting that you didn't answer my question. >> and so if i say to you, you know, what's your rate of customer acquisition and you say the first time our customers come to our site they love what we do and the first purchase they always make is the soap and we've gotten such good feedback on the soap and suddenly we're talking about the soap. you've never answered my question. but i love your company and i want to work with you because -- >> right. right. >> wow. >> and so then the natural question is, what do we do? how do we protect ourselves against dodging? one is very simple. write the questions down that you're going to ask and i'm a

big fan of checklists. check off whether that person actually answered the question. >> another thing that can be helpful is to take advantage of information leakage. how we sometimes just will make fleeting comments and they actually reveal stuff about what we know. >> so how do you get people to then, you know, go beyond not lying but actually tell you the truth that they're hiding from you? >> so in a negotiation, what you could do is you can present a counterpart with two different offers that you are indifferent between. so you don't -- offer a, offer b, you're equally happy if that's the one you agree upon. which of those offers would you prefer and what your preference is also tells me about you know, what you care about more versus less. >> so if i said to someone for instance you can get this job done on time and i'll pay you 150% or you can take 3 months

more and i'll pay you 100%. and they pick the latter, then i know they value time more than money. >> exactly. >> which is something they may not want to tell me in the negotiation because that's sort of the secret they have in their back pocket. >> exactly. exactly. >> getting the word out about your product or service is hard. it's really hard as we all know. so for this elevator pitch series we wanted to do something different. we wanted to have our pitchers get to show their product or service to influencers, people who can help them spread the word. so we're in the offices of she knows media. a women's lifestyle brand which reaches 75 million people a month and they have a conference this summer called blog her. if our pitcher gets the heart emoji which you'll see in a second from our panelists they'll get to go to blog her and present their product or service in front of 3,000 people who could write about them and that could totally change the trajectory of their business. lit's see how our pitcher does.

>> brittany, hi. >> hi. >> welcome. >> thank you. >> the company, happily ever borrowed. >> happily ever borrowed which is bridal accessories for rent. >> we rent bridal accessories, everything except the dress. >> it's such a smart idea. >> thank you. >> a lot of people hear about stuff for weddings through friends. >> exactly. we find that most of our brides find out about us through word of mouth from their friends. i always hear people tell me i wish i knew about you before my wedding so the ability to reach all these people before their wedding and let them know they have the option to rent makes them feel super important. >> are you nervous? >> a little bit. >> you're going to be talking to two people. the first is president of she knows and she basically runs blog her, all the inflourensers that are there are there because of her. and the second one is an influencer herself across her social media channels.

she reaches about half a million people. her blog is 12ish style so she's the one that makes products like yours. >> amazing. >> let's see how you do. >> hi, my name is brittany and i'm the founder of happily ever borrowed. >> hi. >> hi. happily ever borrowed is the premier boutique that rents b i bridal accessories. everything but the dress. it's also to reduce the waste in the wedding industry. so we partnered with top designers to bring top product at a low, low price. we rent for 8 to 90% off the price. and brides can have trials and try them in advance of their wedding day. and so having the opportunity to pitch at the she knows blogger conference would be absolutely amaszing for us because we would love to be in front of these amazing female influencers and really be able to help even more

brides find their something borrowed. >> amazing. love it. >> nice job. >> do you have any questions for brittany? you did a good job there. >> my only question is how many competitors are there in the market? >> there's actually very few. we obviously know rent the runway but they're focused on dressing the everyday woman and wedding guests so there's nothing that's really brei tall specif -- bridal specific. we're the only company that does this with bridal product. >> i decide online and does it arrive -- >> we have four eight day rentals so it arrives to you, usually people rent it for a thursday, it arrives on a saturday. arrives on thursday for their wedding on saturday. for people that want it a little bit long they do the 8-day rental. and we have this trial box. you can rent a couple of pieces. >> i was going to ask. >> okay.

i'm going to let you two confer for a second to decide if brittany will be coming to blog her or not. >> i love this idea so much, because look, i'm probably never going to wear this thing again. >> right and something like this would normally cost around $700 and we would rent it for about $50. >> what if we're not totally in agreement. we have to be in total agreement. right? >> sorry, ladies. total agreement. >> so the moment of truth. will brittany be going to blog her or not? >> no. >> brittany, i think what you're doing is smart and i love the idea. i think the barrier for entry is too low for duplicates and that there's something a little bit more innovative needs to be introduced. >> is there anything she could do differently in talking about it that could get people to write about her. >> i need to know why they're different. l although there may be only one company to do this i need

something really specific, really special that you know. i know the four and eight-day rentals, i understand the try on box but i want something differentiating. >> and i think the way we get to write about this, which is still going to come back, i'm sure, with an it ration that we are all about is the personal who uses it. the people who use it, that's the story that you want out there. that's how we write about things. it's a sustainability focused celebrity who decides that the waste and the runway trades that already happen is the right way to go. so it's somebody very high end who can afford it themselves who chooses not to and that's when it takes off. >> can i chime in also? >> i don't usually chime in on these but you're pitching to people to write about you, so talking about what blog her would mean to you is almost irrelevant to them and to use that time to say here's why you -- this is why you should love this thing to make you want

to write about me. >> right. >> so like did any of you get married? how much money did you spend on this? what a waste. >> again. and i want you to talk about stefz stefani in north carolina who saved $2,200 by borrowing accessories. >> then we want you to succeed. >> okay. well, thank you guys both. >> thank you. >> i'm at the collision conference in new orleans where 25,000 people have descended upon this conference center to talk about what's new in tech. what's innovative, what's coming next and i'm here with george to talk about robots. he is the chief product officer and cofounder of the company kindred. it's so great to see you. >> great to see you. >> you are doing some really neat stuff with the robots and retail. back of house, warehouse retail. talk to me about what your company does. >> we are creating artificial intelligence that helps robots learn. robots do a lot of repetitive

stuff in factories but once you get out of the factory, you to a warehouse where things are ing chaing all t -- changing all the time. we're helping say i'm in a warehouse, what does your robot do? >> say i'm in a warehouse what does your ro wot do? >> you have individual or thors from this big batch of stuff that shows up. people sit there all day, and our robots do that part of the task and the workers then go do the packing or the auditing or the, you know the testing and that kind of stuff. >> that is a big help for the warehouse staff, and yet the great fear for so many people out there sfor many people is being replaced by a robot. it is something that you're

nervous about? are you nervous that you're going to be creating machines that take over human jobs? >> now the more time that we spend developing it the more we realize how complex and intelligent and complex humans are. we let the robots do the mundane things they don't like to do, and we let people do creative work and judgment tasks in a warehouse. everyone wants to create a wonderful experience for the customer. so we focus on things that people don't want to do. >> and you equivalent it to a forklift. >> when forklifts people first came out, people were worried about job loss.

when people wanted to be a forklift driver, they got to get paid more, and the robot does the heavy work of lifting 40 and 50 pounds multiple times a day. robots are doing the heavy lifting and the humans doing the helping, training, teaching, judging. >> and they interact with humans, right? they have their own human help center, right? >> ro bobots are not as smart ae think they are. very often they fail. when they fail they call home, they call the help center and say hey, i need help, so our remote pilots will take control of the robots and let it continue it's work. and that way all of our customers, small, mid, and large size customers they have a robot that does the job and we help the robot learn, and that robot

just keeps getting smarter. >> does this mean that some won't have the same efficiencies in their warehouses. >> we don't sell them, we release them as a service. for the same cost as a human worker you can lease one of our robots and use it for as much as you need to. that way anyone has access to the technology. >> it was so nice to talk to you, you're doing really neat stuff, congratulations on everything so far. >> still to come, how to come up with a budget and stick to it. plus why you need to own your mistakes so you can fix them. the line between work and life hasn't just blurred.

it's gone. that's why you need someone behind you. not just a card. an entire support system. whether visiting the airport lounge to catch up on what's really important. or even using those hard-earned points to squeeze in a little family time. no one has your back like american express. so no matter where you're going... we're right there with you. the powerful backing of american express. don't do business without it. don't live life without it. >> in the first couple years we would take money when we could and only spent money when we had to. it seems like we need a budget but we don't have when. how, when do we get a budget, and how do i nut accountability

around the suspebudget. >> first, it always takes longer and costs more as a smart up company than anyone ever imagines and you have to start with a budget to put a pin in the ground to know if you're making your numbers or not. cfo, controllers, they are people entrepreneurs any are extra weight overhead, but one ceo that made a ton of money for us said when i pitched him to hire a cfo it was the best hire he ever made. and we have the top two tips you need to know to grow your business. we have the founder of babble and good life clothing. tell me one tip you learned along the way. >> i would say own your failure

and learn from it. sounds trivial, but it's one of the hardest things to do because entrepreneurs are geared towards believing what they go is -- do is right. at babble, it kind of saved us. we gave into the fact that we have to get people on board that understand language learning better than we do. we understand the app part. >> did it took you longer than it should to own that failure and change. >> yeah, how do you know? >> you know it in your gut, you know it is happening, but it takes a long time to pull the switch. >> you have worked with big brands in the fashion industry and you left to start your own

company that is doing quite well, in department stores nationwide and your own site. how are you running your company differently? >> i realized you can be more productive in the modern corporate world if you have not necessarily less people, but concentrate on a transparent atmosphere in the workplace. everyone is involved in different things not having everyone in individual silos. i think the best thing to two is have employees with their hands in all different things. i think the i could start a company because i had by hands in multiple departments at bigger companies. >> congratulations to both of

you on your success. earlier in the show we met a woman who kept her jewelry business going while she has a scary situation at home with her son. kristine sanders owns green treele grooming in naples, florida. after a year of being open, she was diagnosed with cancer. now she is over 300 clients and she says life is good. send a selfie of yourself and your business to msnbc.com. include the name, the location, and use the #yourbizselfie. if you want to get in touch, send an e-mail to yourbusiness @msnbc.com.

we have a lot more for you on our website, and you can connect with us on digital and social media. check out our podcast been there, done that. we look forward to seeing you next time. we make your business our business. it's pretty amazing out there. the world is full of more possibilities than ever before. and american express has your back every step of the way- whether it's the comfort of knowing help is just a call away with global assist. or getting financing to fund your business.

no one has your back like american express. so where ever you go. we're right there with you. the powerful backing of american express. don't do business without it. don't live life without it. a very good morning to all of you. it is 8:00 a.m. in the east. battle over trump tower meeting. both sides digging in on what he knew and when he knew it. >> he has been lying for years. >> some of the president's closest allies turning their sides on michael cohen after praising him a few weeks ago.