“In less time than it takes to order a latte, I totally derailed my career by trying to negotiate in the way that the books told me to, but was not actually appropriate for me.”
In discussing the tipping point that drove Kathryn to work in gendered salary negotiations, she recalls how she completely bombed an attempt to negotiate a job after her MBA internship period and how that propelled her into her last year of business school with a completely different focus — how to negotiate as a woman.
In 2013, there wasn’t a whole lot of research that specifically touched on negotiation tactics for women. But, of the research that was coming out, Kathryn learned that:
- Negotiation is gendered
- Most advice works for men, not women
- There was a research-based solution
That research-based solution is what she has been helping bring to the forefront over the years.
What is the gender difference in negotiations?
Kathryn and Tori deep-dive into the societal constructs and personal biases that we’re dealing with in our daily interactions and conversations. “What it hinges on is that the world interprets us differently…and so what they’re going to rely on, whatever gender you’re negotiating with, what they’re going to rely on is societal concepts of gender.”
Societal concepts of gender say that as a woman, I should be and act one way — if you’re not, it can trigger a backlash that can look like being told you’re not a “culture-fit” or (on the job) having someone take credit for your work or being passed over for promotions.
Why negotiate? The stats:
According to research, the impact of not negotiating looks something like this:
- It’s equivalent to leaving a million dollars on the table over your career
- It’s equivalent to having to work an additional eight years to retire with the same wealth
And if that wasn’t enough, here’s one more mind-blowing stat for good measure —
Women are negotiating at rates equal to or even potentially slightly higher than men at this point in time but are only successful half the time.
But what if I get fired, or they rescind the job offer?
Whether or not you feel compelled to negotiate for a higher salary is completely and totally up to you as an individual. Kathryn stresses that these are very real fears that should be validated but makes it a point to share that while these things can happen, the research does not show that these things are happening at higher than normal rates.
The key is not to NOT negotiate. It’s to learn how to do it properly and reduce the risk of getting shut down. You’ll learn how to do that and more in this episode.
You’ll also learn in-depth about the 3 Principles of Negotiation as a Woman, which are:
- Think holistically. Salary encompasses more than just money. Think about what would actually make you happier at work — whether that’s more time off, better accommodations, performance bonuses, and ask for it as part of your negotiations.
- Ask relationally. Use the WMRAE (Worth More Relational Ask Equation) method to help demonstrate that what you’re asking for is both legitimate and beneficial. It’s a simple formula to determine past performance plus future vision.
- Discuss collaboratively. Salary negotiations shouldn’t be a “me versus you” dynamic. It should be an “us versus the problem.” And the problem is anything that prevents you from doing your best work at your lowest stress.
The conversation between Kathryn and Tori extends beyond individual negotiations, focusing on how to create more transparent and equitable workplaces as they brainstorm ways individuals can contribute to positive change within their organizations. They stress the importance of knowledge sharing, gender-specific training, and building a supportive network of colleagues.
Kathryn and Tori talk more about mastering negotiation as a woman and unlocking your full potential in the workplace on this week’s episode of Financial Feminist.
Kathryn’s Links:
Additional negotiation resources:
Want to Prevent Burnout? Try Negotiating
3 Negotiation Myths Still Harming Women’s Careers
You Found Out Your Coworker Makes More. Can You Ask For a Raise?
How Women Can Negotiate A Raise And Advocate For Their Careers
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Meet Kathryn
As the child of a single working mother, Kathryn Valentine grew up acutely aware of the many ways in which the working world wasn’t working for women. After starting her career in management consulting, Kathryn spent her time in business school researching how to negotiate specifically as a woman. That work is the foundation of her research-based approach to women’s leadership development.
Kathryn is the CEO of Worthmore Strategies, where she helps companies advance and retain female talent. A top-rated speaker, her clients include multi-national organizations such as JP Morgan, KPMG and TIAA. Her work has been featured in the Harvard Business Review, the Wall Street Journal, Forbes and Fast Company.
Kathryn lives in Atlanta with her husband and their two active sons. She enjoys reading, running, and treasures any precious moment alone.
Transcript:
Tori Dunlap:
There are two ways to change your financial situation, spend less or make more. Today we’re talking about the latter and how to negotiate like a woman. Let’s get into it. Welcome back, financial feminists. I’m excited to see you. Thank you for being here. My name is Tori. I’m a money expert. I’m a New York Times bestselling author. I fight the patriarchy by making you rich and I host the show, which is the number one money podcast for women in the world. I’ve helped over 5 million women save money, pay off debts, start investing, start businesses, and feel financially confident. And if you’re here, you’re in good company. So if this is your first time, welcome. I hope you stick around. And if you’re an oldie but a goodie, welcome back.
We recently did an episode with Erin McGoff about the job market in 2025, and it was one of the most popular episodes we’ve done in a while. One of the biggest questions we got from you all was, “Okay, what happens when you get past the initial stages of the job interview and are ready to get the job offer? How do I know how to negotiate? How do I know even what to say, but also what kind of numbers or things should I be asking for?” I think this is what trips a lot of people up is they know, hopefully, that they should be, but then they’re like, “What do I say? How do I say it? How do I not somebody off? And also, what do I even ask for?” So this previous episode from Kathryn Valentine was so insightful about the negotiation process for both new hires, but also for those of you who are looking to negotiate your salary at your yearly annual reviews. So we wanted to reshare it with you because it is value packed.
As a child of a single working mom, Kathryn Valentine grew up acutely aware of the many ways in which the working world wasn’t working for women. After starting her career in management consulting, Kathryn spent her time in business school researching how to negotiate specifically as a woman that work is the foundation of her research-based approach to women’s leadership development. A top-rated speaker, her clients include multinational organizations such as JP Morgan, KPMG, and TIAA, and her work has been featured in the Harvard Business Review, the Wall Street Journal, Forbes, and Fast Company.
In this episode, Kathryn and I are talking about all of the reasons you should negotiate and though well-intentioned all of the advice to negotiate like a man why that’s more harmful than helpful. We also break down the strategies you can use to advocate for yourself in the workplace and talk through all of the things you can negotiate, and there is a list of all of the things you can negotiate outside of just your base salary. We had a blast in this conversation. You’re going to learn so much whether you’re hoping to get a raise, get a new job, or you want to negotiate anything else in your life. This is a great episode to send to your favorite who’s going in for their annual review, to your daughter who is getting their first job out of college, or to just somebody in your life who could use a pep talk about how to stand up for what they’re worth.
Without further ado, let’s get into it. But first a word from our sponsors. It’s always really funny when you do end up reflecting on what do I actually spending my money on versus what am I spending my money on?
Kathryn Valentine:
Well, also I think the other thing is it changes, right? So as a little couple, we had it all set up, but now that we have kids, you got to go back and redo the whole thing again, I think.
Tori Dunlap:
Yeah, well, any life milestone or any, I remember when my income changed, when I was making my 9:00 to 5:00 salary versus a couple of years into self-employed entrepreneurship, I was making very different money. And so then it was like, “Oh, I guess I value everything.” But then you don’t, you realize, “Okay. Okay, what am I actually going to spend my money on? And then what am I going to be more strategic about saving it instead?”
Kathryn Valentine:
Well, and there’s also when you spend out that, splurge, even if it’s not as large of a percentage of your income anymore, when you space it out, it just feels more like that nice bottle of wine once a quarter-
Tori Dunlap:
Actually feels-
Kathryn Valentine:
… feels very different.
Tori Dunlap:
Right? Well, I have this whole thing. This is an episode for another time, but this treat yourself mentality that we all get into. I love a treat, don’t get me wrong. And I’m not saying people shouldn’t treat, but eventually, if you’re just buying the treat all the time, that’s not a treat. That’s a lifestyle. So it’s like if you want your treats to keep feeling like treats, you have to make them treats, not this thing that you do all of the time because it’s not going to feel as good because it’s just going to be normal.
Kathryn Valentine:
Me and chocolate chip cookies, right there.
Tori Dunlap:
Yo, me too. Oh, hundred percent.
Kathryn Valentine:
I can eat them all day long.
Tori Dunlap:
Oh, yeah. I go into my fridge right after I eat food, even if this is a thing I’m working on. Sometimes even if I’m not hungry, I’m just like, “I want chocolate.” And so then I just go and I have my little chocolate and I’m like, “Did you really want that? No.”
Kathryn Valentine:
Is it just a habit at this point.
Tori Dunlap:
It’s a habit or it just was like that immediate hit of dopamine, but actually it made me feel like shit because I’m already full. Anyway, that’s a problem for another time. That’s a problem for another time.
Kathryn Valentine:
I did have a chocolate chip cookie right before I got on with you. I was like, “Well, this is important work. I need to fuel.”
Tori Dunlap:
Treat. Treat. Treat. That’s great. We love that.
Kathryn Valentine:
It was warm. I mean-
Tori Dunlap:
Do you microwave it a little bit? It was a little gooey.
Kathryn Valentine:
Yes, because that’s how into it I am. Is that at 11:30 on a Friday I will microwave a chocolate chip cookie.
Tori Dunlap:
Honestly, icon behavior. That is fantastic. There is a shameless plug, not sponsored, but there is a grocery store here in Seattle called Metropolitan Market, Met Market, and they have literally, they have trade-
Kathryn Valentine:
Yes.
Tori Dunlap:
Do you know about this? Do you know about this?
Kathryn Valentine:
Well, it’s been a few years since I’ve been to Seattle, but stayed with a friend who is in Seattle. He was like, “You got to come.”
Tori Dunlap:
It is trademarked as capital T, The, capital C Cookie, like The Cookie. And they put it on a warmer all of the time. So they bake them and then they come out and then they put them in their little sleeve package and then they just sit on the warmer. This is a chocolate chip walnut cookie that’s about the size of my face, and that just ooey-gooey, when you spread it apart. It just the chocolate pull is fantastic. It is so good. It is so good.
Kathryn Valentine:
So Tori, I knew about the store. I did not know about The Cookie, and I’m a little disappointed that I went to the store and did not know or find The Cookie.
Tori Dunlap:
We had a conversation on a business podcast in a professional environment, and that means that you can expense a trip out to Seattle for research to purchase The Cookie.
Kathryn Valentine:
Probably less true given that I don’t sell cookies, but yeah, I’m with you on that one.
Tori Dunlap:
Find an accountant who will make it work. Find an accountant Who would be okay with that.
Kathryn Valentine:
Well, actually, if I came out to Seattle, went to the place we talked about, had coffee with you now it’s totally a business expense.
Tori Dunlap:
There you go.
Kathryn Valentine:
Right?
Tori Dunlap:
Easy, easy. We’ll get The Cookie and the coffee. I don’t know if they have the coffee, but we’ll figure that out. Kathryn, we’re so excited to have you. This is such a fun intro to the show.
Kathryn Valentine:
I’m so excited to be here.
Tori Dunlap:
We always ask our money experts and our business folks who come on the show, what their first money memory was. What is the first time you remember having an awareness of money?
Kathryn Valentine:
I love this question. I was raised by a single mom who, this woman is so amazing. She put herself through school with a toddler. She’s next level. But I remember, the first memory I have of money, I was maybe nine or 10, and she called me into om quotations, “her office”, which was a desk next to her bed, and she pulled out this yellow legal pad where she had drawn all these lines and columns on it. And she said, “Hey kiddo, look what we did this month.” And she pointed at it and she had saved $50 for my college fund. And she was like, “Isn’t that great?”
And every month she would call me in, and some months were big numbers, some months were real small numbers and some months it just didn’t happen. But I think from a young age, from her, I learned that you set a goal and you do your best. Sometimes are better than others. And I feel like when I hear you talk about your family, I also got really lucky. My mom was smart with money and talked about it. And so I, luckily, I think grew up with some pretty good habits around it.
Tori Dunlap:
Yeah, it was definitely a privilege that I had from my family that they were diligent about saving money, but also passed that information down to me. I took it for granted for a really long time because I didn’t know anything was different. In our research, we learned that part of why you started researching negotiation, talking about negotiation was that you bombed an interview.
Kathryn Valentine:
Oh, yeah.
Tori Dunlap:
Can you talk to us about what happened and why that drove you to work with gender-based negotiation? Why was that the tipping point for you?
Kathryn Valentine:
Oh, it’s always good to talk about your failures right out of the gate. So I went to business school and was doing my MBA intern. And for anyone that isn’t as familiar, your MBA internship is so important because you have just invested two years out of the workforce and a quarter of a million dollars to go get your MBA. And it really hinges on whether or not that job coming out justifies all of that investment that you made. So your MBA internship is, it’s basically a three-month job interview and people get really wound up about it. So I’m doing my MBA internship and I finished the project that they assigned me about four weeks into the internship. And so I decided that I was going to negotiate to be placed on another team so that I could meet more people, that that would give me kind of a leg up and actually getting a job offer.
And so I spent this decision on Friday. I spent all weekend, this was also when Barnes & Nobles were on every corner. So I spent all weekend at the Barnes & Nobles buying all the negotiation books, underlining, highlighting, writing out what I was going to say, and then getting on the phone with my mom and practicing it. I had it all scripted out. I was very turbo. I probably put, I don’t know, 15 hours into prepping for this. So Monday morning I go in and at 10:00 AM I have a meeting where I try to negotiate to be placed on another team. By 10:06, it was very clear that I had ticked off the intern coordinator. And by 10:10 I was being told that I was not a culture fit and that I would not be getting a job out of this. And so once it’s clear that you’re not getting a job out of this, you’re like, “Well, shit I got to go find a job.”
So I quit the internship because again, needed to get a job. And per company protocol, if anyone quits, they are then escorted out of the building by security. So basically in less time than it takes to order a latte, I totally derailed my career by trying to negotiate in the way that the books told me to, but that were not actually appropriate for me. So I was in a really fortunate position where I had a year left of business school. So I went back to business school and I spent that entire next year studying how to negotiate specifically as a woman. Which no one had talked to me about, but I needed to understand what had happened at that point in time. This was 2013, research was just starting to come out on this. Linda Babcock, who I heard on your show, but also Hannah Riley Bowles, Emily Amanatullah, like all of these researchers at Harvard and Georgetown and Carnegie Mellon are starting to pump this out all at the same time.
And what the research showed basically was, one, negotiation is gendered. What I say and what my brother says, it lands differently and plays differently. I don’t know why that surprised me, but it did. Two, most advice out there is actually for men, but it’s not coveted that way. It doesn’t come with a warning that this is more likely to derail your career if you’re a woman. And the third thing I learned is that there was a research-based solution which has gotten even crisper over time. We now have, I mean I have an Excel of 250 studies that back up what we’re talking about and somehow it’s just not getting to the women who need it. So that’s the gap that I’m trying to fill, is bringing this amazing research to people who can use it in their jobs tomorrow or for their annual review or to get that house they’ve wanted or the car, whatever it may be.
Tori Dunlap:
So my next question is what are the differences? What were you taught or what were the things that we were reading about versus what should we be doing instead?
Kathryn Valentine:
So that’s a really big question. What it hinges on is that the world interprets us differently because in any conversation, the people that we’re working with bring in their own biases. And so what they’re going to rely on, whatever gender you’re negotiating with, what they’re going to rely on is societal concepts of gender. And societal concepts of gender say that as a woman, I should be others focused, and when I’m not, it triggers a response that is the baseline of backlash. And what we see with backlash now is not the Mad Men-esque stuff, it’s much more nebulous. I worked with a woman who used to do analyses and then present to her executive team, and after she had a negotiation that didn’t go very well, her boss started coming by her desk and saying, “Hey, you don’t need to present anymore. I got this.” So she saw us to do the work, but she no longer gets the credit for it. Those are the types of things that we’re seeing in terms of the backlash that comes out of this. Or you may just be told you’re not a culture fit anymore.
Tori Dunlap:
Which, “Cool. Thanks guys.” Super helpful.
Kathryn Valentine:
“So I guess that’s a no to the promotion?”
Tori Dunlap:
This may seem like a straightforward question, but why negotiate?
Kathryn Valentine:
Tori, I’m so glad you asked. So there’s a number of reasons to negotiate. Anything from it positioned you to be more successful to it can lower your stress, to it actually makes it more likely that companies will be able to retain female talent if females know how to negotiate. But for the purposes of this and your audience, I think the financial ones are probably the ones that make the most sense to go into. So Linda Babcock did this research that shows that not negotiating is equivalent to leaving a million dollars on the table over your career. Margaret Neale at Stanford then took that and was like, “That number’s very helpful. Obviously it’s quite sensitive to how old you are when you start and what you make. So let me try and do it a different way.” So Margaret Neale did a round on it that shows that not negotiating is equivalent to having to work an additional eight years to retire with the same wealth.
Now what we built, which Tori I think you’re going to get a kick out of is we built this thing called a negotiation calculator. And if you’re open to it, I would love to ask you a couple questions and just kind of run through what it looks like.
Tori Dunlap:
Sure, that sounds great.
Kathryn Valentine:
So a couple of questions I’m going to ask you is current age, and this doesn’t have to be for you Tori, it can be for a hypothetical listener, but let’s just say how old do you want this woman to be?
Tori Dunlap:
We have a customer persona in mind for Her First 100K, and her name is Jennifer, so she’s 27.
Kathryn Valentine:
I love it already. Okay. And how much does Jennifer make currently?
Tori Dunlap:
$70,000 a year.
Kathryn Valentine:
Great. And when she’s going into her negotiation, what kind of expected raise? And this isn’t just your annual raise of 3%, but she’s really going to negotiate a raise or she’s switching jobs, right?
Tori Dunlap:
Sure.
Kathryn Valentine:
What kind of raise would this negotiation be about?
Tori Dunlap:
I was going to say 10%, but I know for me, when I went into negotiate, I was always aiming for 20. So let’s go big or go home. Let’s say 20%.
Kathryn Valentine:
Oh, okay, let’s do 20%. So then that negotiation, if she can negotiate a 20% raise at age 27 on a base of $70,000, that one negotiation is worth $1 million before she retires at 65. Because the additional money she gets, she gets every year, and then the 3% raises are going to come on top of that. Right? So let’s go back to your other example where she’s doing, I’m going to put in quotations, “just 10%”, right? That’s worth $505,000. Half a million dollars for her to retire.
Tori Dunlap:
Is that because of how she’s also now gets a raise at this job, presumably the next job she’s getting paid more? Is that the idea is that the million dollars she’s gaining helps her career trajectory because now she’s not looking for that 20% bumps from somewhere else.
Kathryn Valentine:
I would argue that’s a bonus. The way that this model is built, it’s just one negotiation that you carry over. It’s not even thinking like, Ooh, now you’ve built this skill, you’re going to negotiate again.” Or, “Oh, now you’ve negotiate yourself into a job with more resources where you can show them what you can really do. You’ll be able to… “. It doesn’t even factor in any of that. It’s one negotiation and then you kind of stay there for the rest of your career with 3% bumps.
Tori Dunlap:
Wow.
Kathryn Valentine:
Isn’t that amazing?
Tori Dunlap:
So imagine then if you were also negotiating at every step of the way, or at least because sometimes you negotiate and it doesn’t pan out like you want. Maybe, yeah, you go in and asking for 20% and you get 10 or you get five, you’re still, can you do 5%? I imagine that it’s cut in half, like a 250-
Kathryn Valentine:
252.
Tori Dunlap:
… probably.
Kathryn Valentine:
252, a quarter of a million dollars because you had this conversation. Now, Tori, another thing that we should talk about is having this conversation. So women are actually negotiating at rates equal to, or even potentially slightly higher than men at this point in time, but we’re only successful half as often.
Tori Dunlap:
We just saw that research come out, right?
Kathryn Valentine:
Yes. What I don’t want to do is give your listeners the impression that we’re saying you have to negotiate. Because what we see from research is that when women are forced to negotiate, they actually get worse outcomes and are more susceptible to backlash. There’s no forcing here, but if this is something that you’re interested in and we’re going to show you how to do it, and throughout the course of this podcast we’re going to talk about the strategies. There is a very real financial incentive to put a little bit of extra time into it.
Tori Dunlap:
That’s incredible. Before we talk about how we do it, I want to debunk one of the fears that I hear from women all of the time and that I tried to debunk in, what is that? Chapter six of my book where we talk about negotiation. Which is, “I’m scared of losing my job, I’m scared of repercussions. If I negotiate, it’ll happen, the same thing that happened to Kathryn, is they’ll hate me. And yeah, they’ll cut my opportunities or they’ll revoke the job offer or they’ll fire me.” Talk to me about that fear of repercussion and what strategies have we developed to help with this?
Kathryn Valentine:
Great question. So from my point of view, I think the first thing is to validate that fear in a global sense. So every now and then you’ll come across, I’m going to put in quotations, “negotiation experts” who are like, “It’s just in your head.” It’s not just in your head. And if you talk to anybody who tells you that, just talk to them about chocolate chip cookies or anything else, but don’t talk to them about negotiation. Globally, we know that women are susceptible to backlash at higher rates than men, and they are susceptible to backlash in this environment.
What I’m concerned is happening is we’re now assuming that backlash is going to occur in every conversation, and that is not supported by the research. There are ways to have this conversation that can virtually eliminate, that’s a phrase from the research, the risk of backlash while increasing your success rates. So we really rely on the research here on how to approach these conversations. And I’m very serious about that because there’s a lot of people who will sort of toss out anecdotes. Your listeners’ careers are way too important to be following like, “Oh, well this time what happened to me… “. Right? No. We’re going to give you real research on what actually is going to make you more successful and reduce that risk that you’re talking about.
Tori Dunlap:
So let’s go ahead and get into it. How do I approach a negotiation as someone who is not a cisgender straight white dude? And what sort of things do I need to be keeping in mind as I progress in that negotiation? What are the common pitfalls? How do I continue to focus on getting more money while also kind of playing the game I need to play it?
Kathryn Valentine:
Okay, Tori, this is a really meaty question. I’m excited to get into it. It’s kind of a lengthy answer because I want to make sure your listeners have what they need. So feel free to jump in at any point in time. We think about it in three steps. Step one, we call the three principles of negotiation as a woman. Step one is to think holistically. It’s not just base salary, but it’s taking a step back and thinking, what would make you happier at work? What would allow you to deliver more impact? What would reduce your stress? I’ve worked with a woman who negotiated a better chair. I’ve worked with people who have negotiated varying degrees of time off or performance bonuses. Or I worked with one woman who was asked to take a role she wasn’t really sure about, but the company said they needed her to. So she negotiated a backup option like, “Hey, if this doesn’t work in a year, then I want you to create this role for me.”
And so we actually have a list of 75 things that we’ve seen women successfully negotiate, but what you can negotiate is very broad. So that’s advice number one is to think holistically. So the second principle is to ask relationally. This is based on research by Babcock and Hannah Riley Bowles that shows that when women are negotiating, if they can demonstrate that what they’re asking for is both legitimate and beneficial, then you can vastly reduce the risk of backlash. The problem that I saw in my coaching work though is that women are honestly just so busy that getting ready for negotiation is already extra work on top of all of the work. And so trying to think about how to do that is really hard. It’s like a step two nebulous. So we created what we call the WRAE. It’s the Worthmore Relational Ask Equation. It’s just a formula you can use, and the formula is past performance plus future vision plus the ask and then stop talking. We had to add that one because in an attempt to make your negotiation partner feel comfortable, women would actually start negotiating against themselves.
So the way that looks is, let’s say that I wanted to negotiate a raise. I would go in and say, “Hey, as you know, in the past year, I’ve been able to… “. X, and you say what your past performance is. “I’ve been able to increase sales by 10%.” Or increase efficiency or whatever it is that you were hired to do. “I believe we can double that this year.” Again, whatever the future goal is that everyone’s behind, everyone wants that thing to happen. “In order to achieve that, I wanted to talk to you about… “. And you can lay out your ask there. “I wanted to talk to you about working the hours where I’m most effective.” “I wanted to talk to you about making sure that I’m being paid according to my contributions, which I think is in this range.” “I wanted talk to you about adding a couple of people to the team so that I can focus on the highest value work.” Right? Phrasing what it is that you need within the context of where that’s going to get you as a team.
And then the third thing that we talk about, which Tori, I’m not going to spend very much time because this is totally what I’ve heard you tell your audience, but the third step is to discuss collaboratively. It’s not me versus you, it’s us versus the problem. And the problem is anything that prevents you from doing your best work at your lowest stress. That’s a problem for you. That’s a problem for your employer. That’s the problem we want to solve together. And Tori, I’ve heard you say, “It’s a collaboration, it’s not a conflict”. Same idea.
Tori Dunlap:
That’s amazing. All of that is so important, especially one of, again, the narratives I’ve talked about on the podcast and in the book is that we just are expected as women to be grateful. And so when a negotiation starts happening. Again, if we’re working in a gender binary, first of all. And two, if we’re working with typical gender roles, what’s happening is that even if our boss is a woman, they’re looking at us and being like, “Why aren’t you just grateful that you have a job and that you are doing the work that you’re doing?” And so I appreciate that it’s focused on, and it should be focused on, “Yes, ultimately I’m negotiating my salary for me.” But you have to frame it in terms of, “Here’s what I can do for you if I have this more freedom in how I work, here’s how the business goals can start to be impacted and start changing.”
Kathryn Valentine:
Absolutely. The other thing I’ve toyed around with in my mind a little bit is that right now women have an extra incentive to negotiate this way because it lowers the cost to negotiation. But as companies and our culture frankly moves from more hierarchical to more collaborative, I’m guessing that in the future, this is the way that men will need to be incentivized to negotiate as well. I mean, we’re even seeing now that men, so genders are at a higher risk of backlash in non-gender conforming negotiations. So for men, they’re at a higher risk of backlash when negotiating flexibility, whereas women are at a higher risk of backlash when negotiating all the traditional things, promotion, money, extra resources. But I wonder if over time we actually come to a place where not only women are incentivized to use this, but all genders, this might become sort of the way we negotiate into the future.
Tori Dunlap:
That’s really, really interesting. And especially, I mean, we know from what the fatherhood benefit, motherhood penalty, this element of, if somebody listening doesn’t know the research, basically when a man has a child, he actually, you can literally see on the graph that his earnings go up because it’s like, “Oh, he’s a family man taking care of his family.” And for women, of course, it either stagnates or starts going down because it’s like, “Oh, this child is going to affect her work performance because she’s not going to be fully present.” So it is interesting that the very thing that probably a lot of women want then when they have children is flexibility. That is actually, it sounds like more easy to negotiate for women versus men. Interesting.
Kathryn Valentine:
It is. Well, it puts you at a lower risk of backlash. Now, the concern, which I have not seen back in the research, of course, is what it does to your long-term career trajectory. But in the short-term negotiation around flexibility, women are not as high of a risk of backlash as men actually are in that conversation.
Tori Dunlap:
Interesting. So we were talking before, and I think it’s important to highlight, I’ve said this before on the show, I say this in my book, but your negotiation doesn’t have to just be salary, and I think often shouldn’t be. And it’s especially, it’s easier to negotiate if you’re at a company where they’ve already told you, “I can’t give you a raise right now. That’s not on the table.” You said 75 things that we can negotiate. I’m thinking, I know PTO is one, potentially working from home some days, your 401k match. There’s a lot of things that you can negotiate outside of a typical salary, a bonus, relocation bonus. So tell me how we can holistically look at our whole salary package or our whole benefits package in a way that isn’t just the number we’re seeing on the check.
Kathryn Valentine:
God, what a good question. Okay, so I would answer this in two parts. One is, if you want to look at it holistically, I would encourage you to ask yourself those three questions, what could help make you more successful? What do you need to deliver more impact and what could lower your stress? And then actually download our list of 75 things, look at it, see if it gives you any ideas. The second kind of path we can take on that question that I’d love to dive into is how to negotiate or really why to negotiate non-salary compensation things. So right now, we know the gender wage gap is about 20%, right? What we know from some research by the Wall Street Journal actually is that that gender wage gap is dwarfed by the gender gap in stock options, which is 80%. So men on average are being given $105,000 in stock options. Women are only being given 26.
By the way, that’s compounded by the fact that 25% fewer women are ever given stock options to begin with. Okay? So we have gender wage gap at 20%, stock options at 80%, 401ks. The gender gap on that is 25%. Performance bonuses, the gender gap on that is 42%. Those two are from some recent research by Robert Walters recruiting. And then we have other things like team size, but I’m going to set that to the side for a second and just focus on the compensation ones. So why does this matter? Let’s imagine a world in which we have our hypothetical white male, and by the way, love white men, marry to one. We’re using this just as a comparison point. Let’s say that that man, for easy math, I’m going to say that his base salary is $100,000. His stock options, let’s say he gets the average stock option of $105,000. His 401k will give him an average match of 5%, and his performance bonus, let’s say it’s 10%, so his total compensation is $220,000.
Let’s look at a comparable woman whose base salary because it’s 20% lower is going to be 80, which she gets the average stock of 26, we’re going to assume she’s one of the people who does get stock, right? Her 401k is 25% lower. So she gets 3.5, and her performance bonus is 40% lower. So she gets six. Her total compensation is 115K. So when we look at the gender compensation gap, we’re really talking about 50%. That is one of those things that that’s one of the reasons why we want to think holistically in negotiations, because to your point, if there’s no room in the budget for base salary, okay, I understand that. What about performance bonus? What about a signing bonus, a relocation bonus? What about a 401k match? What about all of these other places that we can go to? My hypothesis is in a lot of those places, the gender gap’s actually even a little bit larger than what we see in the base salary gap.
Tori Dunlap:
That’s fucked. That’s my official response to that. No. Oh, man. Let’s say I’m listening to, because we’ll do a whole separate episode on stock options and all of that. I don’t work at a tech company, stock options are not a thing. I imagine that there’s also gaps in things like PTO, things like even the flexibility of how and when you work. I imagine there’s data around men getting more lucrative or assigning bonus regardless of whether a woman’s getting one. So talk to me about the other things too, that we’re seeing. Is there other research that is also saying, “Okay, there’s this huge gap in the other benefits that are negotiated.”
Kathryn Valentine:
So I don’t have as much on the other benefits. One thing that I do have that always stuck out to me is the gap in team size, which is really a gap in resources. So women as they’re promoted to first-time managers are getting teams that are 25% smaller than comparable men. And as they get promoted up, it actually gets worse to where we have women in executive levels whose teams are 40% smaller than comparable men’s, right? And so what that tells me is that as a woman, one, it’s really important that I understand all the things that are negotiable, right? So Gail Evans, who for a long time was the highest-ranking female in media, tells the story about how she didn’t even know that CNN gave a car allowance until eight years after she technically qualified for it because it wasn’t written down.
And so as a woman, I, one, need to be doing a lot of research on what the negotiable area is. It’s not just base salary. And then two, I need to be doing a decent amount of research on what the sort of bargaining zone is, which is an annoying strategic term for what’s actually possible. What should my salary actually be? What is a reasonable signing bonus? For a while there in COVID, people were getting retention bonuses. What the heck is that? What is hazard pay? How should I be thinking about all of these things?
Tori Dunlap:
So I want to take us back even before a negotiation or before you realize, “Okay, I need to negotiate.” And do we think that women devalue themselves from the start? We know the research that women often won’t apply to jobs unless they meet most of the requirements, but men will apply if they meet like half. So is this a problem that goes back even further in terms of the jobs we think we’re qualified for?
Kathryn Valentine:
I would argue it goes back even further than that. So research shows that when women are trying to value themselves, we’re off by between 20 and 40%. By the way, we’re actually excellent at valuing other people, and we can go into that in a little bit if you’d like. The research that pops into my mind that I find most stunning when you ask this question is some research done by Arnold and McAuliffe, which showed that you start to see a gender gap as early as age eight. So they did this really interesting study where they invited children into the lab and they gave them a coloring page and they said, “Hey, go color this, and when you’re done, bring it back to us.” So the children went to their tables and colored, colored, colored. Came back, handed it to the researcher, and the researcher said same thing every time, because it was scripted. “Thank you so much for your work. How much do I owe you?”
What they found is that by second grade, little girls were asking for 40% less than little boys were. The researchers would then take the little girls who asked for less to aside and say, “Hey, why did you ask for that?” It’s the phrase, “Hey, why did you ask for that?” And the vast majority of the little girls said something along the lines of, “I thought it was worth more, but I didn’t want to upset anybody.” And so these societal concepts of gender and how they intersect with negotiation is so in the water that we drink that before second grade, so before you’re really reading chapter books, girls are intuitive enough to know that this is a bit of a scary area. Now we have given you solutions and we will keep talking about the solutions because there are solutions. That part is so important to get across. There are solutions, but there are solutions that are because it’s a big problem.
Tori Dunlap:
Listener, you can’t see me. I’m curled up in the fetal position-
Kathryn Valentine:
No.
Tori Dunlap:
Throwing up. There’s nothing worse for me, truly. And I’m not going to talk about it too much. It’s going to make me cry than a little girl who has been told that she can’t do it. It makes me so frustrated and that this shit starts, like I wrote the book, I get it. I did this research too, but every time it’s so frustrating where I’m like, “Oh, this shit goes back so fucking far, and it’s just… Ugh, sorry, I’m having a full conniption.
Kathryn Valentine:
So I agree and I want to build. I agree. It’s incredibly frustrating how far it goes back. The part that I find most frustrating though, is how much bad information is out there. And that’s why I love listening to your podcast and reading your book. But Wall Street Journal, January of last year ran an article about how to negotiate where an expert said, and I quote, “You go in there and you tell them you deserve to be paid more.” As you can imagine, I did not sleep for multiple nights because as a woman, think about the careers that were derailed by that advice being in the Wall Street Journal. It’s irresponsible. Right? Shit. And so anyway, that’s why I just appreciate the opportunity. There are solutions, they haven’t been in the limelight, they’re not getting the spotlight they deserve.
Tori Dunlap:
So for someone who is working in a more corporate job or just in a typical 9:00 to 5:00 from your research, what are some other factors that women face when it comes to negotiation and then career advancement, like day to day? I’m thinking women are less likely to be credited with ideas than men are, right? Or that example you gave of, “Oh, we’re going to take away the ability for you to present your work, even though you’re going to continue to do the work.”
Kathryn Valentine:
Really backlash at its best there. So the gender gap in negotiations, I just want to emphasize that that’s not just the big negotiations. That’s all the micro ones too. When’s the deadline? Who’s presenting? What team are you on? What resources do you get? These are teeny tiny conversations that happen multiple times a day that can really change the trajectory of your career when we optimize how to have them. But that’s absolutely, that gender gap in success in negotiation is not just big, it’s in all the small ways too. In terms of areas in the workplace where we see other gender gaps. So research points to gender differences in a lot of the key business skills. So negotiation, we talked about. Networking, my guess is most of us think that we need to have one type of network, like the broadest network possible, right? Research shows that’s true for men. For women, we actually need two networks. And researchers have talked about what that difference is, right? But it’s not out there.
Time management, “Hey, all your time management things, super great buddy. But you’re telling them in a world where I don’t have an additional 28 hours of unpaid labor to do every week, your time management skills don’t actually work for me.” Feedback, women are much more likely to get “nicer feedback”, which actually isn’t actionable and therefore impacts the trajectory of our careers. To your point, getting credit. These are all places where there is a gender gap, and there’s a fundamental problem we’re hitting, which is that we’re talking about these business skills as if the male perspective is the only perspective. Whereas research is now starting to show that it’s different for women in a lot of these places. And so we actually, we’re running corporate programs now, and what we see is that when we teach business skills with a female lens, there’s a 50% reduction in women who say they’re intending to leave their job because for the very first time, these women have been given tools that are actually built for them.
Tori Dunlap:
And when we had Linda Babcock on too, she was talking about these non-promotable tasks as well, being a huge part of that. Who plans the birthday parties? Even like a DEI coalition at your company is very rarely compensated. And so women and typically women of color are doing a lot of these tasks that take up a ton of your day and a ton of your time and keep an office running. But then at negotiation time, it’s very hard to convince someone who is in a position of power to be like, “You need to compensate me because I planned the retirement parties.” That’s a difficult ask.
Kathryn Valentine:
Yeah, her work in that area is so phenomenal. It’s really eye-opening.
Tori Dunlap:
So we’ve kind of been dancing around this. Talk to me about the mistakes that women make in negotiations. I think of the first one, obviously from our conversation, which is approaching it like a dude that’s not going to work. Or taking the advice that is for men and thinking, “Oh, that’ll work us as well.” And of course, that’s not [inaudible 00:38:37] naivete. That’s the fucking Wall Street Journal telling us that that’s how we should do it. So I feel like that’s probably one mistake. Talk to me about some other mistakes that you’re seeing women make in these negotiations.
Kathryn Valentine:
So there’s three that I would say I see a lot. One is, waiting until your backs against the wall negotiating historically, and I hope now with the tools that we’re talking about, not as much, but negotiating historically has been more difficult for women. And so we tend to wait until we absolutely can’t avoid it. The problem is that you get better results when you negotiate proactively. So Tori, I’m actually thinking of the story that Molly Fletcher told on your podcast about the negotiating that she didn’t have rent in exchange for teaching this tennis class. That’s the kind of negotiation we want to be doing, right? Negotiation where you envision what you want and you think about what you need to get there, and then you proactively negotiate it. So that’s one, is waiting until your backs against the wall. If you can avoid it, I highly encourage you not to do that.
The second one is negotiating just one issue at a time. And a lot of the things that I used to hear from my clients is they wanted to keep it easy for the person they were negotiating with. So they were just going to ask for one thing. The problem with that is if you just ask for one thing, then once budgets are locked or whatever it may be and their hands are tied, there’s nowhere else to go. Instead, I would recommend asking for at least three things. So then, “Oh, well, budgets are closing. We can’t do a raise this year.” “Okay, I understand. What about that extra training? What about the performance bonus? Or what about assigning me a week to shadow X, Y, and Z team?” Or whatever the other things are that you want. In that sense, we know that from research, you are much more likely to at least walk away with a couple of things.
And then the third mistake that I see is one that we talked about earlier, which is just undervaluing ourselves. So my little trick here is because we know that we’re actually excellent at valuing other people, I would encourage you to talk to a friend. “Hey, here’s my background. Here’s the conversation I’m going to have. Here’s what I’m thinking about asking for. What do you think?” If you don’t have time to talk to a friend, then just this is the sort of mental ninja trick. Just act like you are a friend, act like you are advising a friend who has your same background, who’s asking your same thing. What would you say they are worth? And it is hysterical, also a little sad how quickly when I say that to women, their faces changed. Like, “Well, oh, Sally would be worth at least $20,000 more.” It’s like, “Okay, let’s be as good to ourselves as we are to Sally.”
Tori Dunlap:
One of the things that I’ve read in the research and that I try to teach women is even in the negotiation, we are very altruistic and selfless. And so we won’t fight for ourselves. And when I say fight, I mean collaboratively, but we won’t go to bat for ourselves as much as we’ll go to bat for a favorite coworker or our best friend or our partner. So I have people, I have women picture, who are you actually negotiating for? Because unfortunately for women, we’re not enough. So who are you negotiating for? Are you negotiating for your child? Are you negotiating for your partner, your favorite co-worker who you believe deserves the raise and fair compensation? And it’s interesting, it’s almost a flip side of that, of start acting very impartial. If Jane Doe was getting paid X amount with X benefits and had X amount of experience, what would she be getting paid or what should she ask for?
Kathryn Valentine:
I love that visualization trick that, can I use that one?
Tori Dunlap:
Yeah.
Kathryn Valentine:
That’s fantastic.
Tori Dunlap:
It’s unfortunate. We’re so altruistic that we are not as good at fighting for ourselves, but we will go to bat for somebody else. Be a little mama bear for somebody else.
Kathryn Valentine:
It’s unfortunate, but also for me, it’s something that I like about myself-
Tori Dunlap:
Oh, no I-
Kathryn Valentine:
… I kind of like that I care about others.
Tori Dunlap:
We’re beautifully altruistic as women. It’s fantastic. And it’s also at our own detriment.
Kathryn Valentine:
Exactly. And so that’s what I think the WRAE and the relational ask really does give you, is it gives you a tool to ask for what is helpful to you in a way that honors the fact that we care about other people and we care about our broader impact on the team, the company, the culture of the world. What I see afterwards is I have women say, “Oh, I’ve never known how to negotiate and feel like I’m myself. It’s never felt authentic to me. And now all of a sudden we can, because we can honor who we are in that discussion.”
Tori Dunlap:
The thought of negotiating in what we believe is this high-stakes scenario, which is negotiating for my salary. If we’re nervous to do that, what are some ways we can build the muscle of negotiation? One of the examples I give is calling up your credit card provider and asking for a lower interest rate. Or I’m about to have a credit card that is cutting some of the benefits, and I want to call them and be like, “Hi, we’re not going to do this. Don’t do this to me. How do we figure out how to not do this?” So talk to me about the muscle building that we can start to do in our everyday lives. I think if you have kids, you’re a master negotiator already. You negotiate with your children constantly. So what are some of those-
Kathryn Valentine:
And they’re completely irrational.
Tori Dunlap:
Oh, yeah. The low-stakes negotiations that help us build our own confidence and our own negotiating muscle so that we do feel stronger when we go into these higher stakes negotiations.
Kathryn Valentine:
So Tori, to that point of if you’re a parent, this morning, I called my children down, “Hey, time for breakfast, time to go to school.” And my three-year-old clomps down the stairs wearing his tennis shoes and nothing else, he is butt-ass naked and he is trying to convince me that, “I’m ready for school.” Here we go. So to your point, a lot of people think about negotiation as this one time big high-stakes conversation. And it is an everyday all the time skill like communicating or networking. That’s really important for us to learn. And so if to your point, Tori, let’s ladder ourselves up here. Before we go into end of year reviews, let’s talk about smaller negotiations that we can do in the workplace. Can you negotiate for additional resources? Can you negotiate to do that extra stretch project that you’re excited about? Can you negotiate for whatever it may be?
And then also outside of the workforce, can I negotiate, I’m shopping for stationery, this box is kind of open. Can I negotiate 20% off now an open box? These things, and a lot of times you’re like, “Well, is it really worth it?” Yeah, it’s worth it just to build the muscle. We go to the gym so we can get stronger. We negotiate the 20% off so that we’re learning those things. And I think the other important part of it’s we’re also learning how to deal with, “No”. “No”, is another gendered phenomenon.
And Tori, that’s a whole other rabbit hole I’m happy to go down with you, but, “No”, is a gendered phenomenon. And when we hear it is a hit to our identity, which is why we’re scared of, “No”. But if you can put yourself in a situation where you hear it all the time, you realize that, “No”, just means not this exact thing at this exact moment. So let’s take it as an opportunity to learn more. Oh, “Okay, why can’t we do that? What would change your answer? What do I need to do before this time next year to prove that I’m ready for that?” And so negotiating at stores, negotiating because you ordered dinner and you got a glass of wine and it turns out you actually really don’t like that glass of wine. Let’s negotiate that one back out and get another one in. Right? Those types of things are the perfect opportunities.
Tori Dunlap:
I want to highlight what you just said, which is if you hear no, what do you do? And it’s exactly what you just highlighted, which is, “Okay, I appreciate you coming back to me. Thank you for that. What do I need to do in the next six months to get to that salary level? What do I need to do in the next year? What is the plan that we can outline together to make sure that that can happen?” And then when you inevitably do those things, because you’re a fucking badass, you get to walk into your boss’s office and be like, “Money, please.”
Now what I’ve always told people too is get it in writing because I’ve seen companies do the shit, and you can’t see her. She’s giving me a thumbs up, which is great. The things that happen is you have this conversation and your boss is like, “Cool, cool, cool, cool.” And then it’s never in writing. And then you do all of the things and you work your butt off. And then six months later you’re like, “Where’s my raise?” And they’re like, I never promised you that. What are you talking about? You just did your job.”
Kathryn Valentine:
Or they replaced your boss, or they went through a merger or they, a hundred other things. And so to your point, I agree, what we always say is, after you’ve had that conversation, number one, the goal is to walk away with a rubric. “I want a checklist of X, Y, and Z things I need.” And when they say, “Well, you need to… “, do something that’s very nebulous. “Okay, great. How do I do that thing?” I worked with a woman once who in order to get the promotion, her boss was like, “We need to run a P&L.” You just can’t make up a P&L. And she was like, “Okay, well how do I do that?” And he was like, “Oh, right. We haven’t given you the, here. Let me break off part of mine and give it to you to run.” And it was like, “Well, thank you.”
“So here’s the checklist of what I’m going to do. And we’ve talked through how I’m going to do it. I’m going to leave your office. I’m going to write you a note that says, thank you so much for your time. I really appreciate the guidance. Here’s what we discussed. Please let me know if I misunderstood any of this.” And then every time you check a box, you send another note. “Thank you so much for that discussion we had in February. I really appreciate the time. I’m stoked to share that we were able to X, Y, and Z because I did whatever thing you told me to do. Really looking forward to that annual review this year.”
Tori Dunlap:
I will also say as someone who now is a boss, I need that because I have a million things going on and I might not remember. I’m not trying to skirt out of giving you a raise. I might not remember everything we discussed, or to your point about like, “Yep, I did it.” That would be great for me to have a check-in of great. My person that I manage is doing their job and fucking killing it. Great. And then I get a great moment to be hopefully a good boss and be like, “Yay, I’m so excited for you. Let’s have a conversation in the next couple of weeks.” It’s also doing me, as a boss, a favor, because I have a busy life. I have everything going on, and if you can make my job easier, I’m more likely to give you a fucking raise.
Kathryn Valentine:
Well, the thing that I love about that, Tori, is sometimes when we talk about negotiations, there’s a tendency to demonize the manager. And that’s not the case, right?
Tori Dunlap:
No.
Kathryn Valentine:
I guess occasionally it might be the case, but very rarely.
Tori Dunlap:
I would love to give you more money. But sometimes there’s budget restrictions or we just had this huge unexpected cost, or we have to bring on three other team members to hopefully support you and not have you take on as much work. So it’s like there’s a lot of things that we’re always thinking about. And for me, at the end of the day, I want to treat people well. I would love to give you a raise. There might be some factors that play into whether I can do that or not.
Kathryn Valentine:
And that’s why I love this idea of asking for multiple things because one thing that we see a lot of times in bigger companies is that the salary is officially locked. That’s not always a line, but it’s much more fuzzy over here on performance bonus land or signing bonus land or moving bonus land or retention bonus land. These are all, they live on money trees somewhere. And so that’s why I love this idea of always negotiating for more things.
Tori Dunlap:
What is something that we can do in our own organizations where we can advocate for more transparency around pay or just generally build more equitable workplaces without as much gender bias?
Kathryn Valentine:
I really like that you do these softball questions.
Tori Dunlap:
That was sarcasm everybody, in case you didn’t read that subtext.
Kathryn Valentine:
Yeah, we’re going to solve gender equity in the workplace right here, right now.
Tori Dunlap:
Let me break it down. I’m thinking figure out how to not do those non-promotable tasks or figure out a way to show their value or just have conversations about your pay with your coworkers. I’m thinking about is there some actionable things we can start doing as individuals?
Kathryn Valentine:
Yes. I think all of those, right? And the more, I believe the more transparent we are, the better. It’s a rabbit hole by the way that I can go down on how information travels and what that means. But we’ll put a pin in that one. We can really go there if you want to. The way that I am thinking about it right now is really a mindset shift that gives us more grace. And so what I mean when I say that is the business world was not built for us and the tools that exist in that world were not built for us. And so I try to picture, I live in Georgia, and so I try to picture the Masters in Augusta. Going into the Masters and every golfer there being handed a golf club that was built for the average woman who is five foot four, right?
Can you imagine the volume of complaints we would hear, “What is this? This was not built for me. What about this shit? Of course, I can’t do my work with this.” You are asking me every day to do my work with tools that weren’t built for me. So the way that I’ve started to think about it is creating this research backed tool set for women so that we can stop using the things that were built for men. And so I think that what that means for your listeners is like get your hands on gender-specific training and then share it with your colleagues. This episode. Share this episode with your colleagues because now what you’re doing is you’re not only giving them the information they need, but you’re creating a support network. We can now support each other when we’re preparing for these conversations because we’re coming from the same information base. That’s kind of the way that I’m thinking about it right now. The answer to this question evolves monthly though. So happy to have this conversation again soon.
Tori Dunlap:
I don’t mean to ask you the solve inequality question for me, but that ends up happening I think with every guest. We’re like, so I’m just trying to take it because at the individual level, it’s negotiate your salary and learn how to do that, but also none of this changes unless the actual, the aquarium we’re in changes. So I’m trying to figure out what are the ways that we as individuals can help contribute to that change?
Kathryn Valentine:
Well, and I think it’s building awareness around the fact that it’s amazing how I see managers just the look on their face, managers of all genders when they find out that on average women are given 25 to 40% fewer resources to do the same job. “Wait, what?” And then you kind of break it down and all of a sudden it’s like, “Oh, you see behind the curtain here.” And so right now, I think it’s an information game. I would say we know that information travels through historical sources of power, which is white men at this point in time. And so when you are thinking about doing research for your negotiation, make sure you don’t just ask women. Make sure you ask men too, and you can ask, I love asking former colleagues because they don’t have a dog in this fight. They don’t care. You can ask recruiters. We actually have a list of 50 places you can go to, right? But make sure that you’re at not just asking women.
Tori Dunlap:
If you can leave our listeners with one tip or one piece of advice for them walking into a negotiation, what would it be?
Kathryn Valentine:
Well, the first thing is reassurance. You have a huge leg up because you’ve listened to this episode, you realize that there actually is a different way to do it, right, a different way that hopefully honors who you are. The second thing I would say is that it’s really important to plan a reward afterwards, to reward yourself for being brave. And we know from research that if you have something to look forward to, it actually changes how you act in the negotiation. It makes you more successful, but just having this conversation makes you brave. So let’s reward that, right? Maybe it’s a dinner out with the friends. Maybe it’s that you’re going to, “Forget all of the things I need to do at home and I’m just going to go on the hike that I really want to go on.” Maybe it’s that bottle of wine you’ve been eyeing, but can you tell I’m a drinker? That bottle of wine you’ve been eyeing but you haven’t purchased yet. Whatever it may be, plan that afterwards and then give it to yourself just because you are brave.
The other thing that I think is helpful for people to know is when I was coaching, I would have folks come to me and say, “Ugh, I failed because they didn’t agree to it in that meeting.” The average negotiation takes 25 days. Because these things are really big and important, and so give yourself some grace on that.
Tori Dunlap:
That honestly seems quick to me.
Kathryn Valentine:
Well, that’s average, right? Half of them take longer.
Tori Dunlap:
25 days seems fast. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I remember negotiating because I used to do coaching as well, and it took three months, three and a half months, I think to finally go from first ask to the salary number changed in the payroll platform. What’s so important, and what I always say too is that a negotiation success is not you got what you wanted, but that you tried.
Kathryn Valentine:
Oh, I love that, Tori. Yes.
Tori Dunlap:
Success in a negotiation is, “I was brave enough to show up and I prepared and I did all of the shit. And even if they said no, or even if they said not now, that is success because I showed up and I did my best and I prepared all my research.” And you’ll love this. I actually was cleaning out my closet probably about two months ago, and I found my manila file folder of all of my data and my stuff I had put together to ask for my first raise at my first big girl job. And it looked like a crib sheet. It was in pencil and then three different colors of pen when I would remember a new things. And I had it labeled of, “First you’re going to say this and then you’re going to say this.” And then I had gone, I don’t recommend this, but I had gone to coworkers and basically been like, “Hi, can you give me a review of working with me?” Because somebody reviews books of, “Tori is a well-organized and helpful member of my team.” I literally went-
Kathryn Valentine:
So now I have a testimonial.
Tori Dunlap:
… Literally. I was like, I put together testimonials and I remember my boss being like, “These are unnecessary.” And I’m like, “Okay, great feedback. Good to know.” But I found the folder. I spent weeks preparing for this, 23-year-old me, weeks preparing. And I look at that and I’m like, “God, she did so much work and she was so fucking brave.” And I ended up getting what I wanted-
Kathryn Valentine:
Good for you.
Tori Dunlap:
… which was great, but I was also just like, “You know, you know what? She worked her tail off.” And I could have looked at that and been like, “You know what? A little cringe.” It wasn’t. It was sweet and it was just great. That was success. It was like I was doing this really scary thing with my white man boss who was in his fifties and like, oh my God, it was so scary. But we did it. And that was the success is we did it well.
Kathryn Valentine:
Well, and the thing that really drives me is picturing that, right? You picture that ambitious woman who cares that much, and what she did was she went to a Barnes & Nobles and she got all the information she could get, right? Or she Googled it today and she read that Wall Street Journal article and she integrated it into her plan. That’s just not fair. Like what we’re doing there is wrong.
Tori Dunlap:
Yeah. What is the pep talk that you wish you could give women? I am thinking about the pep talk I would give 22, 23-year-old me. Give me a sentence or two. What is the pep talk? If they’re about to walk, maybe they’re listening to this as they’re about to walk into a negotiation. What do you want to say to them? What’s the pep talk?
Kathryn Valentine:
The first thing I want to say is that you’re incredibly brave and we are totally behind you on this one. The second thing I want to say is you have a huge leg up now because you’ve listened to this episode and you actually know there’s another way that isn’t being talked about. And the third thing I want to say is just remember the WRAE. No matter what you’re asking for, just remember the WRAE, past performance plus future vision. It’s really important. That’s the thing we’re all behind. Plus your ask and then stop talking. No matter what you’re asking for, if you can just run it through that formula, we know your chances of success are much higher and your risk is much lower. Which means frankly, you can ask for whatever the hell you want. If there’s no risk, right? Just go have a field day.
Tori Dunlap:
Amazing. Kathryn, thank you so much for your time and for your work. Where can people find out more about you?
Kathryn Valentine:
Tori, it has been a true pleasure to be on this with you. Thank you for the opportunity. For any listeners, I would say there’s two things. One, I want to offer you our resource of 75 things that we’ve seen women successfully negotiate. And so if you go to our website, it’s worthmorestrategies.com. At the top, there’s a yellow bar, click on that and we’ll have that list emailed straight to you. And the second thing is we’re not coaching anymore, and I’m really focused on speaking and trying to get this message out to just as many women as I can. So if you happen to be part of a women’s organization or an ERG, or if you’re organizing a conference, consider recommending me as a speaker. Help us get this message out to more women.
Tori Dunlap:
I love it. Thank you so much for being here.
Kathryn Valentine:
Thanks, Tori.
Tori Dunlap:
Thank you to Kathryn for joining us. You can find out all of the information about how to work with her, how to get her salary information, her calculators that she talked about in the episode down below, linked in the description. Thank you so much for being here, financial feminists. This episode I think is especially important to share, to make sure that you and the people in your life are getting compensated fairly for their work and how to go about asking for more money if you discover you are not being compensated fairly. So please feel free to share this episode four and wide. We would so appreciate it. Thank you so much for being here. I hope you have a kick-ass week. Good luck in your annual review, and I’ll talk to you soon.
Thank you for listening to Financial Feminist, a Her First 100K Podcast. For more information about Financial Feminist, Her First 100K, our guests and episode show notes, visit financialfeministpodcast.com. If you’re confused about your personal finances and you’re wondering where to start, go to herfirst100k.com/quiz for a free personalized money plan.
Financial Feminist is hosted by me, Tori Dunlap. Produced by Kristen Fields and Tamisha Grant. Research by Sarah Sciortino. Audio and video engineering by Alyssa Midcalf. Marketing and Operations by Karina Patel and Amanda Leffew. Special thanks to our team at Her First 100K, Kailyn Sprinkle, Masha Bakhmetyeva, Sasha Bonar, Rae Wong, Elizabeth McCumber, Daryl Ann Ingman, Shelby Duclos, Meghan Walker, and Jess Hawks. Promotional graphics by Mary Stratton, photography by Sarah Wolfe, and theme music by Jonah Cohen Sound. A huge thanks to the entire Her First 100K community for supporting our show.
Tori Dunlap
Tori Dunlap is an internationally-recognized money and career expert. After saving $100,000 at age 25, Tori quit her corporate job in marketing and founded Her First $100K to fight financial inequality by giving women actionable resources to better their money. She has helped over five million women negotiate salaries, pay off debt, build savings, and invest.
Tori’s work has been featured on Good Morning America, the New York Times, BBC, TIME, PEOPLE, CNN, New York Magazine, Forbes, CNBC, BuzzFeed, and more.
With a dedicated following of over 2.1 million on Instagram and 2.4 million on TikTok —and multiple instances of her story going viral—Tori’s unique take on financial advice has made her the go-to voice for ambitious millennial women. CNBC called Tori “the voice of financial confidence for women.”
An honors graduate of the University of Portland, Tori currently lives in Seattle, where she enjoys eating fried chicken, going to barre classes, and attempting to naturally work John Mulaney bits into conversation.
