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SECTION 1
YOUR MINDSET
Whether you think you can or think you can’t, you’re right.
—Henry Ford
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MYTHS YOU NEED TO STOP BELIEVING
Myth 1: Money can’t buy happiness. (Bullcrap!)
Money used well can support our inner happiness, provide the resources for experiences, help us create and sustain important relationships, help us to help others, and help us gain access to additional knowledge.
Money is a tool to support happiness, if you are already happy.
Many clients I coached when they were searching for a new job had what I call “head trash” around the concept of money. They thought of it as bad or corrupt. If this is you, let it go. Money is a tool that can help you get what you want. It’s not the goal, it helps you meet your goals. It’s like gas in the car: more gas = more miles, more miles = more experiences, more experiences = more growth, more growth = more satisfaction.
Myth 2: The amount of money I can earn is determined by my position or my boss.
As capitalism started to flourish in the early days of the United States of America, people started to use the phrase, “making money.”
Ayn Rand, the famous novelist and philosopher, pointed out that a long time ago, before the free market economy was an idea, money, wealth, and status were just passed down from generation to generation. She said, “No other language or nation had ever used these words [to make money] before; men had always thought of wealth as a static quantity—to be seized, begged, inherited, shared, looted or obtained as a favor. Americans were the first to understand that wealth has to be created.” America provided immigrants with the right environment. Americans were free to work, free to fight, and free to be creative with the ways they lived and exchanged goods and services. Somewhere along the line, someone thought it was clever to announce that he was making money, and it stuck. The same is globally true today throughout the free nations. You get to create money for yourself. We still trade money for perceived value. Only always.
Myth 3: There is an easy way to make money.
There is not. Period.
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THE BIG IDEA YOU NEED TO START BELIEVING
I’m a straight shooter. I’m not going to sugarcoat this for you: the only way to continuously make the money you want, to lead the happy life you want, is to produce more measurable value.
You need to produce more and show your boss that you have produced more.
One of America’s favorite motivational icons, Zig Ziglar, is famous for saying,
“You will get what you want, if you help enough other people get what they want.”
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STRATEGIES THAT DON’T WORK
If you are thinking about asking for a raise, please don’t take advice from your friend’s friend. If you’ve ever used one of the ineffective tactics I’ve listed below, don’t fret. You can repent by using the Earning Advantage Toolbox. But there is a chance it will take you a bit longer if you’ve already sinned (*wink*)!
Let me tell it to you straight: my clients (remember, they are bosses) have seen and heard crazy tactics when employees ask for raises. Everything from: “Lunch is expensive downstairs; I need a raise so I can afford it,” to “I’m saving up for a tattoo, so can I have a raise?”
In a survey of over 100 actual bosses, here is what they said they thought about the following tactics:
The employee used:
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The boss was thinking:
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Fear: “I’m going to leave if I don’t get more money.”
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Okay, leave.
Not a team player.
Not committed to his co-workers or the company.
Not loyal.
Short-sighted.
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Guilt: “I’ve been here for two years and have not received a raise.”
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But you’re still doing the same amount of work.
So?
What are you doing to better the company or yourself?
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Justification: “I do so much for this company; I should be making more.”
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I feel bad I don’t have more to offer her.
We all should be making more.
Does she know that I didn’t pay myself last month to cover her paycheck?
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Shame: “My friend at makes more than I do and works less hard.”
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Then maybe you should work there too.
I wonder if I’m a bad boss.
How does the other company do it? What other corners are they cutting?
That’s a lie.
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Whining: “I need a raise because I have to pay for .”
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We all have needs.
Is it a need or a want?
If he can’t manage his money, can he manage his job?
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The main observation I made when I dug into these thoughts of bosses was that they were all defensive! If you use words like these when asking for a raise, your boss feels like they need to defend their position, or essentially, fight back. This is the worst position to be in when you are trying to get something you want. When any human feels defensive (think back to the caveman days), his or her brain releases a chemical that triggers protective reactions and the primitive part of the brain takes control. When talking to your boss about a raise, you want her to use the logical, evolved, and intelligent part of her brain—the one that can see and calculate the added value you bring.
Additionally, even if these strategies do work in the short term, notice how they set you up in the mind of your employer as weak and not the kind of employee that can produce for the company long-term.
The tools I’m going to teach you will set you up for a lifetime of continual increases in your money-making!
You’ll continue to make more money because you’ll consistently produce value wherever you are.
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WHAT DO I MEAN BY “PRODUCING VALUE?”
To understand this...
