Work Besties Guide to Salary Negotiation

Have you ever looked at your paycheck and thought, “Wait… is this it?” Or watched someone else get promoted while doing work that looks a lot like yours?

This episode is all about helping you ask for more at work — whether that means salary, a promotion, better boundaries, or new opportunities. We talk through one of the biggest myths in the workplace: that if you work hard enough, someone will automatically notice and reward you. Then we break down a simple three-part framework to help you advocate for yourself more clearly: Proof, Position, Pause. 

We also cover:

•  how to lead with results instead of emotion 
•  why clarity matters more than hinting 
•  how to prepare for the ask before the conversation starts 
•  why silence after your ask is powerful 
•  small ways to practice negotiation before the stakes feel big 

This week’s challenge:  Share this episode with your work bestie, practice your script out loud, and make one clear ask this week. 

FYI Key States with Mandatory Salary Range Posting: California, Colorado, New York, Washington, Illinois, Rhode Island, Maryland, Nevada

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Work Besties! Theme Song Written by Ralph Lentini @therallyband

Transcript

Salary Negotiation

Jess K 0:00

Have you ever opened your paycheck and thought, wait, is this it? Oof, or watched someone get promoted and thought, I'm doing that same thing, so why not me?

Claude F 0:10

Or rehearsed, asking for a raise in your head, and then immediately decided, yeah, not today. If that's you, welcome to April. Secure the bag. Hi, I'm Claude. And I'm Jess. We are corporate employees by day, entrepreneurs by night, and work besties for life.

Jess K 0:29

Join us as we explore how work besties lift each other up, laugh through the chaos, and thrive together in every industry. Work besties. Work besties, welcome back. April is Secure the Bag, and we're doing it in our work bestie way.

Claude F 0:48

Which means we are not underpricing ourselves or overthinking or talking ourselves out of opportunities before we even ask.

Jess K 0:57

This month, your work bestie is your hype team, your script editor, and your accountability partner. Wow, a lot. And we're very busy.

Claude F 1:06

Very busy. And by the end of the podcast, you'll have a simple negotiation framework, a few scripts you can actually use, and one action you can take this week. Even if asking feels uncomfortable.

Jess K 1:20

Because you're not waiting to feel ready. We're getting ready. And then asking.

Why Hard Work Alone Isn't Enough

Claude F 1:27

Da-da-da! All right. So let's start with the biggest myth. If I deserve it, they'll notice. What do you think?

Jess K 1:37

This one hurts. I mean, let's be honest. I feel, especially with women, we all think this is the case. We're gonna get recognized for our performance and the value we bring the organization. And I'd love to say that's the case. And it could be, it really could, but my experience, no, sadly, a lot of years of experience, that's not the case. Yeah. It's like it's a good strategy, but it's not going to secure the bag for sure.

Claude F 2:03

Yeah. I think that what the organization really likes more, or look into is more like visibility and clarity. Like the whole silent excellence, it doesn't really work, which sometimes I have to say I'm being one of those is a bit annoying.

Jess K 2:26

It's fair. It's not fair. It's not fair, right? It's not fair, but like how you're stating it, it's fair to be annoying for sure. I mean, the difference between being a high performer and just expecting to get paid for it, versus to your point, really showcasing the rewards, making sure they're visible, really being clear about it, showcasing your value. It will work if you're very clear with your expectations.

Claude F 2:57

More or less is what? What like let's do it in uh Claude 101. Cloud splain for just plain. Just plain. So more or less is like you're not asking for a favor, but you're aligning on value, right?

Jess K 3:12

Yeah. Yeah, I think that's uh a really diplomatic, nice way of saying about it. And I th I honestly think too we need to sit be frank about normalizing conversations around salary and negotiating. Because most people don't ask, right? They feel like they're being greedy, they feel like they're I don't know, afraid.

Claude F 3:38

Or not being like also not being thankful.

Jess K 3:42

I honestly don't know that they're unthankful for asking for it, but you could be. I honestly think what's the bigger difference is you're not confident enough to showcase and state what your worth is. We possibly sit there and know it, and our expectation is that the organization will just figure it out and not take the time to just recognize us. Gone are the days that you just get recognized for performance. You really do have to put it out there.

Claude F 4:11

But you know what? I'm going to tell you something. Something that irritates so much for me is the people that has no substance, but they just and everybody was like, oh, that's great. And I can't stand that.

Jess K 4:28

The parrots. The parrots, the rephrasing parrot what I say, and somehow you're the genius. Yeah, but why is that? Why do you think they get right? They are doing it because of confidence, but why do they get promoted over the others? It's because they're being clear and explaining what they want. Does it mean that they actually have original thought and deserve it? No. But they're being very clear. And the organization, like, just like the rest of society, everybody has very short attention spans, and you're gonna remember the people who make the comments. And it's gonna be the ones who make the comments stick.

Claude F 5:08

Yeah.

Jess K 5:09

That's the difference, right? Yeah. So I know it's hard. It's a hard tree.

Claude F 5:14

It's a hard one for me. I know. So also, like we speaking about confidence, right? So confidence doesn't come before the ask, right? It comes like every time every other situation is after press uh practice, right? So the goal today isn't to eliminate fear, it's to move with a plan.

Jess K 5:39

So what you're saying is to never expect that you're gonna be 100% confident in this. You you're always gonna have an element of fear, especially if you're somebody who suffers from imposter syndrome. Not calling anyone out on this podcast. And not someone that's uh what was it has a little bit too much knowledge of their self-worth. We'll just go with that. I agree. I mean, even we talk all the time that I don't suffer from imposter syndrome at work, but even though I don't, doesn't mean that I'm not fearful at times too. And I honestly, one of the conversations I'm always fearful of and have to plan, plan, plan, plan, plan a lot is negotiating and salary conversations for sure. But yeah.

Claude F 6:25

That I I mean, to tell you the truth, I am so not comfortable. So this podcast is for me as well. We framed this for Claw me. Watch out this way.

Jess K 6:42

The ultimate accountability partner, a podcast up.

Proof Position Pause Framework

Claude F 6:47

So we're going to replace how do I ask with a simple three-part framework. Proof, position, and pause. I love this, Claud. So proof is show your impact, right?

Jess K 7:02

What you've been doing. So your your thought process for for show your impact or prove is really where this is the majority where I spend my time, is start with facts. Take feeling out of it. So I have a very emotional feeling-driven type of personality. So I like to write it out everything. Yeah, I agree. Like I write it down, and sometimes I do write it down in my aggressive way. I make sure that there's still points of results that I can clearly call out and what the value add is. And then what I do is I reframe it. I take out the emotional aspect and I say, really, knowing what our career, our company goals are, which ones prove that I've moved the needle? Whether that means I've helped them gain market share, I've helped them gain more shoppers of a particular cohort, whether I've helped them shift the strategy that has led to better ROI on their media span. Whatever those strategies are or KPIs that your individual company or your role supports.

Claude F 8:06

Yeah, I put those and frame those up. Exactly. Because at the end of the day, you want to show the outcome and unfortunately not as much the effort, right? Yes. So I agree. Because they don't care. Yeah. Yeah, yeah. So then we have position, which, like you say earlier, make the ask clearly.

Jess K 8:30

I think this is the part that people confuse the most. If you're too vague, it's not gonna get you anywhere, right? So you really have to be clear that what is your expectation? What are you trying to get or ask for? So I'll give you an example, right? Like, let's say you do feel that you are not paid your worth. You could go in and say, like, here's why I deserve to get paid more and list out your facts. But you really want to scope it with something more clear and state, I'd like to discuss adjusting my salary to reflect my current scope and contributions. And what that does is it really makes it clear what your current scope and contributions are, and then you can add on to it. And here's what else was added to my plate that was not a part of my original scope. But I've done it, and here's the other added contributions.

Claude F 9:28

Yeah. And or for example, I'm interested in taking on a more senior role and would love to talk about what that path looks like. So it's not salary per se, but it's going to the next steps and asking to be part of it.

Jess K 9:46

I love when people on my team come to me and have that conversation, that open-ended, hey, I am interested either in the next level or this other position. What would it take? What's the career path? What are what are my skill sets that align versus where I still have opportunity to tighten? You're really you're providing the clear, distinct direction you want, and you're being very professional about it. I think that is spot on, Clyde. I love that.

Claude F 10:16

Thank you. Good job. Well, thank you. The and five the third one and final one is really which is the hardest, is let them respond. The silence. You say clearly what you want and let them talk.

Jess K 10:39

Or pause. I love the two-minute three P's. You know how I love alliteration, proof position pause. I would agree. I that's one of the skills I uh always have to strengthen is the silence, letting it sit in silence. Power. So you ask, you put your ask out there, and then you kind of stop and you just kind of sit back. It's on the other person then.

Claude F 11:01

Exactly. It's okay if you don't give me the whole thing or nervous rambling, like uh, well, you know, which I would you know tend to do that. But now that I have the proof positioned pause, I'd be able to do it.

Jess K 11:17

And you understand why you want to do the pause too, right? Because the silence, although it feels uncomfortable, it doesn't necessarily mean rejection, right? Like I think about think about it from the roller verse, Conn, when somebody on your team comes to you and asks that. I love the clarification you came up with, where it's like, I want this next step. How do I get it? I don't always know the answer. I have to sit there and think because I sometimes they ask the question of a role that I'm like, wow, I never thought they would want that role. That's a completely different department. So I don't have on the ready. Here's what I think about that. So I will say, don't take the silence or my pause as a sign that I am not here. You want to let me take some time to think about it. Because I obviously we want to provide back the feedback that's real, honest, and direct as well. Yeah, otherwise, why are you working at a company that's not supporting you?

Negotiation Prep Scorecard

Claude F 12:09

And and I have to say, pores for me is so powerful. You know, it's like I'm in charge. It's on you now. So we're going to have a mini-tool, which is kind of a negotiation with a prep scorecard. So before you ask, rate yourself one to five on evidence of results, the clarity of your ask, market awareness, what others in your role earn. So it is important that you do your homework, right? Because you're going to give them the fact, even the fact on uh what the the same person in the industry is doing. Okay, then the flexibility, if you want to be flexible, for example, what else you would accept, and after delivery, so more or less happy with your work bestie, do a role play, right?

Jess K 13:13

Right, yeah, yeah. So obviously, if you have Pierce in the industry, um, doesn't have to be at your company, but in the industry that you feel confident, comfortable with having that discussion, please do. Um, we highly do encourage it. I know it's not, it's not a comfortable conversation, but believe me, it helps both. Um however, if you if you don't feel comfortable, or you can't find that out on your own, those are great resources too. Okay, so Claude, you came up with this amazing negotiation prep scorecard. So from your perspective, five is the best, correct, right? Okay. So that if I rated five on the majority, if not all, then we're saying you're good. Go and have those conversations. So that would mean then if you're rating most of them threes, you're probably not ready yet. Continue to prep, find that solution and understanding. Um, and if you're low scores, this doesn't mean don't do it. This means you really just need to prepare. You have not really taken the time to prepare. So really sit in each one of those sections and find the answer.

Claude F 14:18

Yeah, because at the end of the day, it's not about perfection, it's being intentional. Right. It's intentional and preparation. Yeah. Like that's like anything, right?

Practice Drills Micro-Asks And Market Checks

Jess K 14:30

And that will alleviate substantially your imposter syndrome or your areas where you don't feel confident. Exactly. If you have it practiced, then you're you'll feel so much stronger going into it. Totally. So for this week, we recommend everybody think about negotiation as a skill. So it's something that we should be practicing. And it's just as like playing the piano. The more you play it, the stronger you get at it. You might not be amazing, but you'll get better at it. Um, so let's think about that. Pick one area of those elements. Let's, we're gonna give you a couple of experiments to try. Pick one of these to work on. Okay. So I'm gonna go give you some. Claude's gonna give you some. So experiment one that I thought of was saying your script out loud. So for me, as many of you know in my background, I do a lot of presentations. I do them to small groups, I do them to medium groups, I do them to large, huge audiences. No matter the amount of people, it could just be one person I'm presenting to. I take the time to not just write the script, but say it out loud. And that is the game-changing difference. You should do that as well with this negotiation. Write it all out and look at yourself in the mirror as you're talking about it. Totally.

Claude F 15:51

That is so important. The experiment number two will be the micro micro ask. So ask for something small this week, right? A timeline, a support, visibility. The goal is to get comfortable hearing yourself ask.

Jess K 16:09

Well, I like that one. It feels less daunting, right? Yep. And it will help you get to see what works in discussing with your manager, too. So that kind of ticks two boxes. Experiment three, the market check. So we mentioned this before. It is highly recommended that you spend time researching what your role's salary range is. So that should be not only your role of what you do in your type of department, but also the level you're at, right? And I would recommend looking at some of the roles across multiple industries too, to get a sense of how it varies. The more time you spend on that, the more that will help build your confidence and understanding of when you come up with your ask that that number is a realistic number. And that's the intent. One quick thing: the in certain states, it's mandatory to put the salary ranges on job descriptions. So in those states, go and look for them. And if you're not in one of those states, look up which states have it. We'll put it in the show notes because that's also a good place to go. We have another one that is called the negotiation sprint. It's about a 12-minute sprint, meaning you have back and forth on this, in which you role-play with somebody. So you want um someone you're comfortable with, think of your work, bestie, that's going to take on different roles when you come in and talk about whatever you're asking for. So, role one would be you want them to mirror what you're saying.

Claude F 17:50

For example, you sound confident here, you hedge here. The other role that they're looking for is the filter. Yeah.

Jess K 18:00

Like, are you asking clearly or hinting? So, how clear are you in your expectation? And then the third thing they're looking at is the script check.

Claude F 18:10

And that is like Jess was saying, say it again and again and again. Cleaner, shorter, stronger each time.

Jess K 18:19

So, April challenge. This whole month will be around helping to strengthen those skill sets with negotiating for elements at work. It could be salary, it could be role responsibility, it could be a combination of multiple. So, for the challenge, what we really want you to focus on is make one clear S.

Claude F 18:43

If, of course, if it applies, right? If it's in your timeline, do the yes.

Jess K 18:48

The S doesn't have to be for just a raise or more money. It doesn't have to be for a new promotion. It could be, hey, I would really love to pick up this other skill set. How can I get that as a part of my responsibility? Or have noticed I have taken on all these other responsibilities. How can we set better boundaries? Because they actually are not in my job description. That love that one.

Claude F 19:13

Yeah, it could be any of those things. And then you can debrief with your work bestie, right? Like what felt strong, what was uncomfortable. In that case, you can practice some more until it becomes comfortable. And what would you differently next time? I love having your work bestie do that.

Jess K 19:32

And again, again, if it's not the work bestie you feel comfortable with, find somebody that you do, right? It doesn't have to be at your current company. Claude talks all the time about how she she chats with her work besties across uh previous companies. That's why you keep all these work besties around, right? Because they're all such great confidence and people that you have trust, you have that built trust and credibility, and they know you better than anyone. So definitely take advantage of that. This month is a series to build your skill sets on negotiation. So each week we will have guests that will help us with negotiating your salary, promotion conversations, how to really make that land, boundaries as a part of your compensation, advocating for yourself without feeling too much. So stay tuned.

Claude F 20:24

This month is all about ownership. No hesitation. So if you're waiting to feel confident before you ask, clip it.

Jess K 20:36

And confidence will follow. So share this with your work besties and practice your script today. And keep teaching. Keep supporting each other. Bye. Bye! Remember whether you're swapping snacks in the break room, rescuing each other from endless meetings, or just sending that perfectly timed meme. Having a work bestie is like having your own personal hype squad.

Claude F 21:00

So keep lifting each other up, laughing through the chaos, and of course, thriving. Until next time, stay positive, stay productive, and don't forget to keep supporting each other.