#we’re so busy prepping for corporate that we’re not doing our actual jobs

[emsleyanbluejay]

am i being a bitch or is my job just bullshit

[longwindedbore]

$600 or $1200 or $2000 is a Great Debate amongst the rich and powerful as to whether the cake crumbs they toss you will or will not have a dab of frosting on them.

CONSIDER if you will: What if rich and powerful had

PROVIDED $1200 per month for the lastnine months for everyone who had to stay home because their job/smallbusiness closed-for-the-duration

PLUS supplemental pay to essential minimum wage workers

PLUS distribution of PPE to the populace (requires pro-active prep by the Federal Administration)

PLUS suspended tax laws that benefit Landlords for empty units after evictions and banks for empty properties after foreclosures

PLUS using mandatory quarantine like George Washington during the Phillidelphia smallpox outbreak [1] or the Governors around New York during the 1916 Smallpox epidemic [2]

What’s that you say? “We” couldn’t afford to give out that amount of money to millions of people.?

COST. The previous $1,200 program amounted to $218B. That was the $0.2 of the $2.2 Trillion provided. [3]

If We the Populace ALL had $1,200 for the last 9 months it would amount to $1.8T.

The Rich and Powerful could have given the populace $1.8T and split the remaining $400B for shut-down funds amongst a few thousand corporations and institutions.

After all, how can you ‘stimulate’ an economy during a shut down?

Instead We the Populace got crumbs, the Rich and Powerful spent a few hundred billion$$ on shut downs and invested the remaining $1.5T in the Stock Market which is part of the reason it’s ‘doing great’ [3] [4]

It is the prerogative of the Rich and Powerful to be cruel with minimum consequences - social, economic or political. The more Rich and more Powerful the fewer the Consequence, the higher their status.

•••••••••••••••Footnotes••••••••••••••••••

[1]. Smallpox 1775.

“Though there was not too much known about viruses and their transitions, English colonists in North America recognized the effectiveness of isolating individuals infected”

==============================

[2] Polio 1916.

“Cities in neighboring counties and states enacted rules barring New Yorkers from entering those cities, with Hoboken, New Jersey going so far as to have police officers intercept travelers arriving from Brooklyn by ferry and escort them back to Brooklyn.”

==============================

[3] The Market is ALL our money:

The 2020 $2.2 Trillion Stimulus on top of the

$4-6 Trillion the Federal Reserve pumped into the Market in 2020 on top of the

$2 Trillion Trump/Ryan/McConnell 2017 tax cuts for the Rich on top of the

8 Trillion the Bush Administration handed to the Too-Big-to-Fail-Banks to prevent their collapse after their Ponzi scheme of “derivatives” collapsed.

That’s $18 Trillion for the Rich Powerful without the US government borrowing, raising taxes, or creating Weimar-type inflation from just printing money.

We’re told and seem to have accepted that the Rich and Powerful were generous to toss 330,000,000 of us 1/10th of 1% of the plunder gotten by about 20,000 individuals.

==============================

[4] The Market Capitalization (as in “Capitalism”) was self-valued at $11T in 2009.

A whopping $0.5T was received by issuing corporations from stocks sold as capital (as in “Capitalism”) investments.

So-o-o-o how can the Stock Market be worth $36T If economy has sucked royally since 2009? If most of the highly self-touted ‘job-growth’ of the Obama and Trump Administrations has been in minimum wage or low paid gig-self-employment? If the big monopolistic corporations have held the line on salaries for the drones?

Where’s all the money coming from?

Consider: $11T plus $0.5T plus $18T = $29.5T. Add in actual business growth plus all our private and State Employee retirement Investments and what do you have?

The World’s largest Ponzi scheme? Idk about you but I lost my safe retirement investments in the collapse of 2008.

Billionaires are billionaires ONLY because they steal - otherwise they would only be Multi-millionaires on what they get from their assets. Most would have been broke after 2008.

Crapitalism.

[lonelypond]

Soldier Game: Operation LA Smile

NicoMaki, Love Live, 5.2K, 1/?

Summary: Soldier Game is called in to protect a team of fashion designers who have been assigned to smuggle scientific data into a hostile United States. Working as models requires a new skillset and Nishikino Maki's first encounter with Yazawa Nico explodes with tension.

ROUND ONE

Sprawling government complex. Full of busy offices, tracking numbers and citizens, calls and meetings being held in a variety of languages. Competent, concerned, efficient bustle. Take a left at the Innovation For A Cool Earth Liaison office, down a very quiet hallway, and take an elevator to the second floor, where the lights were lower, and noises of grunting and bodies falling could be heard. Third door to the right was slightly ajar and inside, Tojo Nozomi, long purple hued hair in a very professional ponytail, had printouts spread all over her desk. And the latest fashion magazines in a row at the top like a barricade. And on her very very secure government issue but Nozomi tweaked to make it even more secure laptop the message from RiceQueen, pleading for help biohacking a prophylactic treatment for the coronavirus. Nozomi’s supervisor stared at her from the doorway.

“Come inside and close the door.” Nozomi shut her laptop, “I’ve read through all the files you had forwarded..

The Deputy Minister nodded and shut and locked the door. “And your conclusion?”

“I think we should go through artistic channels rather than our usual operatives.” Nozomi waved at the chair opposite her.

“What do you mean?”

Nozomi slid a magazine toward the Deputy Minister, open to a page with the latest collection from FeatherSmile Designs. Intricately woven graphene fabric that lit up with neon kanji. “We would have to upgrade their tech, but I think they could carry the message effectively.”

“But they’re not agents. We’d be putting civilians at risk.”

“We give them minimal details and protection. I’d need Soldier Game.”

The Deputy Minister nodded. “They’ve been on standby for months so that wouldn’t be a problem.”

Nozomi glanced at her laptop. “I’ve built a personal relationship with our US contact. I’d like to be involved.”

“That’s unusual.” A tilt back in the chair. Nozomi was starting to lose her audience.

“She’s very skittish.”

“It is difficult to get US visas.”

“For a mini movie in LA? The Governor has negotiated higher threshholds for funded projects. Here’s my plan.” Nozomi handed over a folder that had been marking a particular fashion spread. “We bring FeatherSmile in under the cover of assisting with increasing the positive response to Japanese businesses and citizens. I have a contact in California we’ve used before, Kousaka Honoka.”

The Deputy Minister read the plan over, “Bold thinking, Tojo. May be useful on several fronts. I’m impressed.”

Praise for the obvious wasn’t something Nozomi wasted time over. “People are dying, ma’am. Ignorance and bigotry are on the rise. And someone has asked us for help.”

“So what’s our first step?”

“Contact Yazawa Nico and Minami Kotori. Bring them in. And inform Soldier Game of their new assignment. I’d like to see them on some photoshoots now, rolled out over the next two weeks in separate locations. Maybe one of them vacationing in the middle of celebrities. Send Nishikino for that. She’s got the status.”

The Deputy Minister typed quickly into her phone, “Anything else.”

“I’ll be taking my driver.”

“Of course.”

“I have a list of gear we’ll be needing. I’ll put Sonoda on that and let Rin assist.”

“Then I’ll put Ayase and Nishikino in the field this week while Sonoda preps.”

“Perfect.” Everything on Nozomi’s list had been checked off. Now to talk to the tech team about upgrading FeatherSmile’s textile output.

###

Nishikino Maki, bright red hair under a floppy straw hat, stretched out on the chaise, her book next to her, the sun hot against the skin exposed by her bikini. And then the waiter’s shadow blocked her light. She tipped up the hat, with a snarl, “Just leave it on the table.”

The waiter nodded, placing the tall glass. Maki held up a finger to keep the waiter’s attention, reached over, picked up the glass, and sipped.

“Too salty.’ Maki spat in the sand. A murmur of horror rippled down the row of seats. “Take it back. Tell your master mixologist that Bloody Marys should let the tomato juice shine.”

“Yes, ma’am.”

“And you’d better be back here before I finish this chapter.” Maki picked up her book and took her sunglasses off, “Management fires my least favorite employee each and every day. Survival of the fittest.” Maki winked. “Or the cutest.”

Next to Maki, a banking dynasty scion fresh from the London School of Economics rolled her eyes at the vapidness of the idle rich. Nishikino had landed in Hawai’i last Thursday and by the weekend had been spoken of in terror by hotel staff members all across the Big Island.

 ###

Ayase Eli, blond hair in a tight bun, stretched, laying back across the barre, smiling at the smaller woman waiting next to her. “It’s been too long since I’ve had a job with a full dance studio.”

“Oh, are you a dancer?”

“Trained in Russia.” Eli’s tone was polite enough but something in the icy blue of her eyes encouraged the other woman to shuffle farther down the barre. Eli did another perfect move, “It’s great that dance is having such a strong surge. I’m hoping to get a job on a movie in LA or something.”

“Oh, that’d be cool. It’s hard to get work in the US now, with their strict visa limits.” The smaller dancer moved from first to third position.

Eli leaned forward, relaxing, watching herself in the mirror, “But haven’t you always dreamed about Hollywood?”

“Who hasn’t?” The other dancer dropped into a full plie.

###

Sonoda Umi had the supply list memorized, with her own additions. Soldier Game had their own preferences. Dressed in a simple black pantsuit, light blue shirt, gun holster hidden, Umi swiped the pattern that opened the door for her. A clerk greeted her.

“Sonoda-san.”

Umi glanced at the nametag, “Fujioka-san. Please inform Tojo-san that I will meet her driver in the Armory.”

A bow and Umi moved through the checkpoint. That was one of Umi’s favorite things about having to work from Headquarters. There were no unnecessary conversations, everyone prided themselves on efficiency and detachment, Umi felt not at home, but at work. Which was one of Umi’s more productive places. And Umi’s productive places were Umi’s happy places.

###

Yazawa Nico swivelled her chair, forcing her eyes away from the multiple screens in front of her. “Nico knows the computer’s doing most of the work, but…” Nico shook her head, “This much information is making Nico’s brain hurt.”

 Minami Kotori, in a custom made Rumi Rock yukata, was pinning fabric to a dressmaker’s dummy. “Take a break. We can finish programming the looms later.”

“Nah.” Nico shook herself, slapping her face, “Sooner we get it done, sooner we can cut the garments. Did we get the model measurements?”

Kotori nodded, “All the details. Did you see the pictures?”

Nico closed her eyes, yes, she’d seen the pictures, but how do you...then Kotori interrupted her with a giggle, “I’ve been having the most...exquisite dreams.”

Nico decided a change of topic was her best strategy before Kotori breached TMI territory.

“Anything we make will drape well.”

“And practically drip off.” Kotori giggled.

Nico refused to be lured to after hours chatter. “I think the redhead would look great in that lilac twisted tweed you showed me.”

“Ooohh, it would really bring out the lavender in her eyes. Tweeds will also easily disguise any patterning.”

“Yeah, if we use the free color slot to match their individual eye colors…”

“Oh, I can see it,” Kotori stepped over to her drafting table, swift strokes creating three almost capes, Nico guessed from her distant, odd angle.

“So we’re going with a Fall/Winter book?”

“Would you rather see them model bikinis?” Kotori asked wistfully.

Nico dropped her head to her clasped hands, exhaling. What the hell kind of trap question was that to ask a respectful, modern woman so so gay she can’t stop thinking about her new co workers playing nude beach volleyball? There was no safe answer.

“This is so much flashier and more complicated than our usual drop jobs. Can’t we just…” Nico really needed a steady girlfriend so she wouldn’t get preoccupied by random curves.

Kotori frowned, she’d had a late night conversation with their international headquarters. “Command thinks this ask is a mole trying to get information about our operations.”

“Damn. So flashy it is. All personality. Nico nico ni.” Nico, hands raised to her temple, smiled, then sighed, shrewd glance meeting her partner’s.

“Yeah.” Kotori bit the air.

New information absorbed and back on task, Nico considered the juxtaposition of life saving science and sexy swimsuits. Too distracting. But then again, no one would believe it was about anything but pretty women in pretty clothing. Everyone underestimated pretty women. And none of the models were shy about their assets, from the pics Nico had seen.

“Bikinis. Nico just thinks no one will notice the thin pinstripes are actually graphene circuits if they have those models to look at.” Plus, if Soldier Game was investigating them, that little fabric would make guns or recording devices harder to conceal.

Kotori raised an eyebrow at Nico, “You always have the best ideas, Nico.” A few quick adjustments with her pencil and the capes become beach covers, in linen, not tweed, “Ready to wear, on demand we are. With reclaimed fabric. Eco friendly.”

“Eco sexy.” Nico snapped her fingers.

“Sexy sexy” Kotori giggled.

Nico decided a mutual review of their corporate sexual harassment policy was a very necessary next step.

###

Umi stopped, pivoted on her heel and glared over packed duffle bags at the short, energetic ginger haired woman bouncing down the hall after her.

“Let me help, Sonoda-chan.”

“Everything is wrong with that.” Umi stated through gritted teeth.

The ginger shrugged, mischief flicking in chartreuse eyes, “You won’t let me call you Umi-chan.”

“Hoshizora-san.” Umi stated deliberately, as an example, “Perhaps I could speak to your direct report.”

“Nozomi-chan? Oh sure, she always loves it when I stop by her office. She’ll have tea ready and we can talk about what I found out about…”

Umi stopped the spread of information as quickly as she could. “Where is Tojo-san’s office?”

“Right this way.” Hoshizora sped down the hall. Umi briefly wondered if the cat like gimmicky gestures were the actual result of some kind of genetic experiment with cheetahs, but surely there would have been more rumors. Hoshizora skipped -- skipped?!?!?! -- through a door and Umi increased her pace to catch up. Pausing, she knocked, but the door was ripped open, the mini cheetah hybrid speaking to someone inside, “Sonoda-chan wants to see you, Nozomi-chan. She doesn’t like…”

Umi stepped inside the room, stern. “I can speak for myself.”

Tojo was dressed appropriately for the office, in a dark suit, unlike her driver’s Nadeshiko Japan soccer jersey and jean shorts, exuded polite propriety. “Please take a seat, Sonoda-san. How can I help you?”

Hoshizora slid into the chair behind the desk, “Sonoda-chan” Hoshizora winked, “objects to my “‘overt familiarity and lack of respect.””

Nozomi had a slight smile that bordered on a smirk. Umi adjusted her initial impression. She was beginning to suspect that this division was not run to military specs. Nozomi’s voice was a giggly, syrupy mess with hints of rural accent, “Now, now, Lt. Commander, I’m sure you are aware that you will be undercover beginning tomorrow.”

“Of course. I read the dossier.” Umi started to prickle.

“So why do you object to my assistant following my orders that you be eased into a non military environment by ignoring a strict hierarchy.”

Hoshizora, Rin, Umi corrected herself, was rocking the chair back and forth, silently laughing. Umi cleared her throat, “I was not aware those were...Rin’s orders.”

Rin leaned forward, eyes wide, sticking out her tongue.

“Are you going to be aware of everything happening on this mission?” Nozomi asked quickly.

If I can be, Umi’s head went, but she just shook her head in lieu of a verbal reply.

“So, as you are temporarily under my command, you should be aware that I find keeping my charges in a state where they are continually alert leads to the most successful missions. Perhaps not as planned as what you are used to from your time with the Defense Forces, but our skillset needs to be more flexible.” Nozomi tilted her head, almost coquettishly, “Do you understand, Lt. Commander?”

“Of course.” Umi stood at attention, her eyes locking on Rin’s, “Umi will be fine from now on, Rin-san.”

“Rin.”

“Rin.” Umi grinned. Deliberately.

“Good.” Nozomi leaned back against her desk, relaxed, Rin spinning in the desk chair. “And call me Nozomi. Tomorrow, we meet Yazawa and Minami and we need to have our covers locked down.”

“Yes, ma’am.”

“Nope.” Rin giggled. “You’re slow.

Umi bowed. “My apologies, Nozomi. I won’t let you down.”

“I know you won’t. It’s why I requested your unit.”

Umi hadn’t been aware that the assignment had been an outside request. She’d been too eager to return to the field, even if it involved rather shameless activities. She made a mental note to pay more attention to details. And to cultivate Rin’s acquaintance. She seemed like the detail spilling sort.

“Where’s the tea, Nozomi-chan?” Rin rolled the chair to the credenza under the window.

“Why don’t you take Umi-chan down to the canteen and tell her about our last job.”

“Ooh, that’s a great idea. C’mon Umi, I’ll race you.” And Rin was out the door.

Umi glanced at Nozomi, who shrugged, “Better sprint.”

Umi sighed. So this was a test of physical as well as mental acuity. Fortunately, she had a route to take from here that would be a short cut. Umi headed to the window, raised it and dropped down two stories to the courtyard.

“Unexpected.” Nozomi watched as Umi landed lightly, then raced diagonally toward the kitchen’s loading doors. “Interesting.”

###

Maki Nishikino had never been subject to so much scrutiny. Especially while in this little clothing. The interest in the narrowed ruby eyes was clinical and the fingers that reached out to adjust the bow at her breast were disturbingly impersonal. She reverted to a childhood habit and wrapped her arms around her torso, stepping away from this Yazawa person with a frown.

“This one can’t seem to smile…” “Maki.” Maki snapped and Yazawa raised an eyebrow. “Call me Maki.”

“Maki.” Yazawa bit off every syllable, “doesn’t seem to get sunny or smiling so we’ll have to go for moody sexy on the shoot.” Yazawa stepped back, hands on hips, eyes still roving over Maki’s body in a way that made Maki feel like she was wearing even less. “So either slightly less fabric or a lot more.” “I can smile.” Maki bared her teeth at her antagonist.

Nico shook her head, relaxed her lips in a smile that somehow seemed to make the air glow around her, then called back casually over her shoulder, “Less clothing, maybe lose the top, lots of mood lighting, a fabric that will shimmer. Make a note for the photographer. Cool, wet mystery.”

Maki would have choked when Nico said wet with a smack of her lips but she was fortunately not drinking anything, just reaching out her hand for the water bottle

Now the other designer, Kotori was staring at Maki with speculative, measuring eyes, “Yes, I see what you mean, Nico. Maybe something that looks like washed up on a rocky shore.” “Mermaid? Hmmmm…” Nico gave  Maki one more head to toe examination, shrugged, rolled her eyes, and turned away, “Show me a sketch.” Maki pulled on her coverup and retreated to a chair, knees pulled up, trembling with anger and embarrassment. This was not what she expected this assignment to be. Where was someone she could kick? Or suture? Or shoot? Where were Umi and Eli?

Kotori suddenly purred as the door opened, “Oh, hello, Sonoda-san. Welcome to our temporary studio.” 

Maki thought studio was a generous description for a grungy boxing gym with a green screen set up in front of the ring.

Umi stepped in, dressed for some reason in her kendo workout gear, while Maki was wearing this wisp of thing that would get washed away in a light swell on a calm lake. Both Nico and Kotori were suddenly all attentive to the newcomer.

Umi, as polite as ever, bowed, “My apologies for my tardiness. One of my students had a minor injury I needed to tend.”

“Are they all right?” Kotori asked.

Umi nodded. “Just a small accident.”

“Good. We had a chance to start with Maki.” Kotori waved a hand in the direction of the chair, “If you’ll follow me into the locker room, I’ll get you suited.

“I am at your command.” Maki snorted, loud enough that Umi would hear so Umi pinched up her lips in a frown at the volume, Maki rolled her eyes and then was distracted by Nico with her hands on the arms of Maki’s chair, “Eyes here, Red.”

Maki was startled and snarled. “What do you want?”

Nico sighed, “Okay, Nico knows your brand is temperamental celebrity and we want other temperamental celebrities to see how all…” Nico flipped her hand dismissively at Maki, “this looks in our swimsuits, but it’ll help if you’re at least polite on the set. Don’t etiquette classes come with the wealth package. Or do you like getting thrown out of countries?”

“I can be civil.” Maki said coldly. “Oh good. Nico can’t wait to hear it. Now can you smile? Watch me.” WIthout even a beat, Nico leaned in, staring deeply into the depths of Maki’s eyes, paused just long enough that Maki’s breath caught, and then hopped back, a manic gleam in her eye and a sunblast of a smile on her face, “Nico Nico Ni needs you to act as pretty as you look.” Then there was a wink and Nico twirled, her back toward Maki and Maki had a minute to recover, “Nico will grab a camera and we’ll try the poses again.”

Maki groaned. Nico heard it and hesitated as she picked up the camera. Nico wasn’t a cruel woman. For all the red carpet photo shoots and TWIG selfies, this would be Nishikino’s first professional photoshoot. Which is part of why Nico was drill sergeanting Maki into the patented, 125% successful Nico Nico Ni practice practice practice mindset. The brat, though attractive in the conventional burn down the seacoast with laser eyes sense, would benefit from the confidence that came from repetition. Nico grabbed her oversized pink hoodie from the director’s chair and as she turned with the camera in hand, she tossed it at Maki, “Put this on.”

Maki hesitated, then shrugged into it, relaxing slightly at the warmth and additional coverage, “Why?” Nico shrugged, “This is just a practice shoot, you don’t need to freeze.”

“How did you?” Maki blushed when Nico raised an eyebrow and flicked her glance to Maki's chest for a second. Maki immediately looked anywhere but Nico, “I can handle it.” “Yep. Sure you can, Ma-ki. But tell the camera that.” “Huh?”

Nico raised the eyepiece, pointing the lens at Maki, “Confront the camera. Nobody worth your time wants passive pretty. We want fight.” Nico chuckled, “Hate hot. Flirt fight.”

“Flirt fight?” Maki said slowly, actually glad for some direction. “With you?” Nico lowered the camera, “With the lens. Nico’s not even here.” She raised her hand in front of her face like a magic trick and then Maki was looking at the lens again. Maybe if she imagined a target? 

Nico decided to help, “So what makes you mad?”

Maki’s lip twisted, “Exploitation.”

Fancy word. Nico wondered if that was personal.

“What makes you happy?” Maki shrugged.

Not thrown off by no answer, Nico kept up the patter, Soldier Game needed to up their casual talk game, Nico was doing all the work here. Of course, she was prepared to do all the work. Nico relied on no one.

“Hobbies?” Nico kept moving, her voice even. “Music.” Maki’s posture opened. “I play the piano.” “Nico cooks. Pick up those boxing gloves and put them on.” Commands camouflaged in conversation, after years in the fashion business Nico was a master.

Maki walked over to the table and laced into them.

“Hit the heavy bag.”

This was better, Maki thought as she pounded into the leather, feeling a little like Steve Rogers, stuck in a place he didn’t want to be.

“Classical?” 

“Jazz. Spent a lot of time in America, studying…Ellington, Basie, Baker, Chet, and Jospephine, Bessie Smith for the blues…” Maki had an easy rhythm going, hardly noticing Nico clicking away. “Then…” a snarl, “everything got openly toxic for women and Asians so I hit the road.” Good cover, Nico thought. Maki was Soldier Game's American link. “And you know Ayase and Sonoda how?”

“School. Families.” Maki shrugged, “We know the same…” her voice hardened, “people.”

“Got a jazz trio going?” Nico asked lightly. Maki laughed, the mood dispersing, rolling her shoulders and shaking out her arms before attacking the bag again.

“Look at me.” Not a request.

A graceful turn, sharp purple eyes snapped onto Nico, narrowing, curious, alert, cardigan slipping unnoticed off a shoulder, strong legs braced for the next blow.

“Got it.” Nico announced, lowering the camera with a flair. 

Maki tilted her head, “Got what?”

“Nishikino Maki.” Nico glanced down at her viewscreen, ruby eyes with a happy twinkle. “I’m about to rethink our whole campaign. Kotori likes sweaty.” Nico froze. Oh damn, she’d better go rescue the kendo champ.  “Wait here, Cassius.” And Nico hustled to the dressing room.

###

Kotori was sitting primly, legs crossed, hands folded in her lap, eyes never leaving the muscles on Umi’s back as the other woman changed into the swimsuit Kotori had chosen for her.  Nico barrelled through the door, Umi gasped and grabbed for a towel, and Kotori frowned and turned, “Nico, I was concentrating.” “Sure you were. But Nico has this genius idea. I took some pics of Red there,” Nico flicked her thumb back toward where Maki was slouching in the door, “with gloves and my hoodie over the suit and you’ll love the aesthetic. Just take a look. Plus, I ran a quick search on boxers…” “When did you have time?” Maki wondered. “There was a whole hallway; Nico is fast.” Nico slid next to Kotori, “Found Muhamad Ali quotes. One of them is “I’m too fast. I’m too smart. I’m too pretty." And with these three...”

“Nico” Kotori turned, wide eyed, hands reaching for Nico’s while Umi and Maki shared a confused glance, “That’s PERFECT.” “Nico knows.” “People will swoon.” Nico took a quick glance back at Maki, “Nico knows. And Ali's an American icon, so cultural resonance. Coated in pop culture candy."

Kotori stood up, muttering, totally ignoring Umi, who was standing with a towel clasped at breast level offering some cover for her bare torso. “Just a few changes, maybe robes, maybe some of those big, satin shorts, sliding down…” Kotori swept her hand down her hip.

“Nico can see it.” “Now that I’ve seen them I can…” “Yeah, yeah, less talk, we get on a plane in tomorrow, go make magic happen.” Nico shoved Kotori from behind, forcing the designer seamstress into a stumble toward the door. Nico picked up Umi’s shirt from where Kotori had been sitting on it, handing it to the owner with a wink, “You can thank Nico later.”

Umi grabbed on to the lifeline and nodded. 

“When Kotori finds you again, tell her Nico’s in the gym, setting up a few things for tomorrow’s shoot.” “Of course, Nico.” Umi buttoned up quickly.

“Thanks, champ.” Nico blew a kiss as she bounded out of the room, past Maki with barely a side glance. Umi chuckled.

“You’re amused?” Shocked, Maki settled across a bench, twirling a curl of hair.

“By Nico?" Umi considered. "Yes. She and Kotori have an interesting working dynamic. Completely different from ours, but just as professional in its own way, I think.”

Maki looked doubtful. “She seems a little flaky.”

“It’s mostly for show.”

“Really?”

“Yes, like when a bird displays its full foliage.”

“To impress someone? With flakiness?” “With energy. Very desirable from a mating perspective.” “You want to ma…” Umi, now flustered, rushed to interrupt Maki’s question, “Birds, birds do such things to attract a mate. I am a complete professional, as always.”

“As expected.” Maki agreed. Umi never cracked. Eli would occasionally start to have...Maki hated the f word....feelings, but Umi, Umi was always 100% on the job, ready, focused. Maki relied on that. What Maki did with....emotional precursors was work them out, leave them to wilt in the blaze of the open, actively exhaust her imagination so she didn’t have to wonder about things. Remembering a flare deep in devilish eyes and hands confidently maneuvering a camera, Maki considered if acting on the impusles flashing through her thoughts would be best before she got on a plane with Nico and flew into even more unfamiliar territory, Maki knew how she worked, and she knew who and what she would be thinking about. Nico’s exacting glance had had a tactile quality and Maki’s skin felt like it had been barely brushed by exploring fingertips. Which was going to be distracting. And Maki knew too well that distractions could be deadly.

“I’ll be in the gym. Don’t find me.” Maki decided.

Umi withheld her commentary. Every job was dangerous. Every Soldier prepared in her own way.

###

Nico had taken the green screen down and was in the center of the boxing ring, looking through a frame made by her fingers, muttering. Maki slid a weight in front of the door and approached the ring, hanging over the ropes.

“I saw you looking at me.” Accusatory snap. Why not? Hate hot. Nico had said that. Nico inhaled, sighed, and turned with hands open, “Look, Nico is sorry, and is so so professional, but you’re just so…” “Hot.” Maki ran a hand through her hair, “I know.” Switch the mood, check. Nico’s expression soured, “Okay. When did Nico sign up for your publicity blasts?"

“I don’t DO relationships," Maki announced, as if Nico had not spoken, "but you’re obviously into me, we have to work together, and I’d really rather not spend a lot of time wondering about whether you’re any good in bed,” Maki stepped through the ropes, strutted toward Nico, making certain to brush by the shorter woman, “like...you know.” And Maki shrugged, casually as she turned, and offhand arrogant multiple x rated seXXXy flashed neon in Nico’s mind.

Nico shook herself, quickly recalibrating the expected response. Ms. Too Cocky For Containment, Too Shy for Eye Contact here obviously wanted Nico to skip the apology phase and go right to impress. “Nico does fine. No complaints. Thousands of need more Nico texts.”

Maki’s quirked eyebrow read dubious as she leaned back, with liquid grace, in the corner of the ring. “Sure. Because your lack of detail encourages belief.” Amethyst eyes dared Nico.

Was this a trap designed to lower Nico’s defenses? Work of the mole? She and Kotori had decided wariness was essential with the new security team, but showing weakness was no way to keep the upper hand. And Nico thrived on the offensive.

“Would you like pics?” Two steps and Nico had blocked Maki into the corner, and the grungy, windowless gym had shrunk to the size of the ring as the combatants sized up their next moves, “Testimonials?” The tip of Nico’s nose had now landed a jab against Maki’s as dark pink lips landed the verbal followup, snapping, “Nico doesn’t even need a bed.”

Nico knew there was a big chance that saying that would completely blow the atmosphere and the super stupidly hot redhead who wouldn’t stop looking super stupidly doable would just collapse into hysterics. And, Nico thought, honestly that might have been a relief, because right now, Nico was pretty pretty sure pretty pretty Maki was smoldering with some fire Nico didn’t start and Nico wasn’t sure exactly what was supposed to happen. Or if everything would just explode.  But Nico had never gotten anywhere by not being bold.

“Oh really?” Maki pushed herself up, voice trembling slightly to belay the confidence in her actions, but as the movement rippled through her abs to her bosom, the thinking parts of Nico’s brain, the ones that had been slowing her down, shut off and her hands shot out to grab Maki’s waist.

“I liked you better down here.” Nico dropped Maki onto the stool, leaning in, one hand sliding slowly over Maki’s ear, through her hair, fingers exerting the lightest pressure on the neck, other hand holding Maki at the back of the waist.

“Oh.’ That squeaked out of Maki and Nico was suddenly at her neck, nibbling, confident, certain, as she felt moans her...opponent, sure let’s go with boxing analogies, was swallowing. Maki had not anticipated Nico’s response to be this fast. Or...effective. Maki could feel her heart hammering and Nico’s nearness raising the hairs on her arms. Was this a standard thing for Nico and models?

Nico nipped the earlobe and timed with the shudder, went for the hook, “Want more?” following quickly with an uppercut, her lips on Maki’s throat, slipping to the jaw, hand sliding down to tease Maki’s breast. Maki almost convulsed, no longer asking questions, all of her attention now on Nico’s next advance.

Nico heard a hiss. But no words.

“What was that? Nico was now between Maki’s open legs, leaning in in a way that would have surprised her at the brazeness of the move, if Nico’d been thinking at all, but no, she wasn’t, so she pushed in and Maki leaned forward, even as she squirmed on the stool, legs bumping Nico’s waist, her arms slipping through to wrap themselves in the ring ropes to either side.

“Maki?” Nico avoided the lips, even as Maki nearly roared, concentrating on the reddening chest above Maki’s bikini top, a hand on the bow and the bikini fell open, and Nico stopped for a heartbeat, breathless, she would be going there, as soon as…

A hissed word full of whispery need. “yssss.” And Nico bit, and Maki screamed, and the stool got kicked out of the ring, and Maki was suspended against the ropes, head thrown back, hair in crazy, bouncing tousles, and Nico could never watch another boxing match again, and every taste and touch of skin was so soft and supple and Nico had to dodge a thrashing leg, and Maki was about to rip the stanchion out of the ring, and Nico freed Maki's arm from the ropes, and fell backwards with both of them like they’d switched to wrestling and with Maki on top, Nico even impressed herself, hands flittering as fast as butterflies, kisses hitting as hard as taps on the speed bag, Maki mouthing nothing that made sense. And, then, with a cry, it was over. And for just a brief second, Nico caught a bright glance wide with wonder, then long lashes fluttered closed, and Nico had to scramble for something to cover them both as Maki passed out.

“Wow.” Nico sat, catching her breath, back braced against the stanchion that had managed to survive upright, redhead snoring at her side, under a beach towel. “But what the hell?”

Maki muttered and Nico hushed immediately. Now was not a time for Sleepy Beauty to be wide awake in beast mode. Nico was thinking.

A/N: Twitter, where I live, was in a Bodyguard AU mood so it got me thinking. And all this Maki X Not Nico stuff also got me grumbling. And here we are. Can't promise when the next chunk will come, as I am working on finishing Apocalypse Midnight Dance Party chapters (and Tiger By The Tail) but I wanted to post this start. Enjoy. And stay safe. And drop me a song for my Soldier Game playlist.

[fuck-customers]

Inventory

I just completed my final prep day before inventory tomorrow... and I think I'm finally in a mindset where I can vent about what a shit show it's been. This one's a bit of a story.  

My store always used to do inventory in January. That was an established thing long before I was ever hired. January 6th. That was our day. And I'm sure I bitched about it back then. Inventory sucks; that's just a fact of life. But in hindsight, we had it pretty good. It was  like one long, extended holiday season for my store, as far as employee mindset went. But the rest of the world's holiday season had just ended, so we were never too busy. 

January 2018: Inventory goes as planned. And then, around April, the company decides January doesn't work for everyone, and they're gonna try transitioning it over to October instead. And, of course, my store was one of the test stores. No one was pleased. We're already doing early Christmas set up in October. Not to mention just the general indignance of having to do inventory twice in one year. But we survived.

Around the start of January the next year... right when we were all sort of rejoicing that the time we usually would have spent stressing over inventory was now just another workday... they decided that October isn't a good time either. Let's try inventory in August. And then it really began...

The earliest blows hit the managers, who were told that they could no longer have their June/July vacations. Which, I know, sounds like such a privileged, upper management problem, but you know what? I'll give them this one. They want to use their vacation days to spend time with their families while their kids are out of school for the summer. And now, in March, they're suddenly being told by their upper managers to cancel their plans. This problem had no effect on me, personally, but that sucks. 

Anyone who works retail should already have a pretty good idea why August is a terrible time to do inventory. Our merchandise switches seasons long before it's reasonable to do so. So we've still got all our summer stock... but all the Fall/Winter stuff has started coming in as well, and the store is just a mess this time of year, trying to fit everything out, waiting for the company to take pity on us and finally call the summer stuff back to the warehouse. I particularly saw it get bad in my department-- clothing. (I've literally had heavy sweaters out on racks next to the bathing suits, because there's just no room to put anything.) 

And because my store doesn't have a regular, set inventory, the shelves are kind of a mess on a good day. It's not like walking into my second job, where I get to see everything all nice and neat and in its permanent, assigned spaces. They always send us too much product (yet still never quite enough of the shit we're actually selling...) and we all struggle to get it out on the floor. So in the midst of the season where we're most overloaded with product, we're trying to corral it into slightly neater and more orderly piles... so that at least the inventory people will be able to tell the SKUs apart when they come in and we won't have to trail after them all day fixing counts they mixed up. 

Meanwhile, we keep waiting and waiting for the news of the last truck before the big day. Which is usually a week or two before. But they just keep coming. One of my managers finally emailed somebody or other at corporate and was told that there's just too many things in upcoming flyers that aren't in the store yet that need to be. That it's not the kind of thing they can do this time of year. (Yeah. No shit. That's what we've been saying since March.) The time finally comes when I've pushed out as much freight as I can, and we leave everything else as is in the back and count it. Officially forbidden to touch until the big day is over.

I come in the next day to three more U-boats of new stuff that came in on a surprise truck the night before and the orders to get as much of it out as possible and then count the rest of that. This was four days before inventory. 

And now, after tomorrow... It'll finally be done. It'll be the third time we've conducted inventory in 2 years. And as much as I hope they see the light and realize August is a shitty time for it... I don't think I have it in me to do this again for at least another year. 

[douchebagbrainwaves]

WHY I'M SMARTER THAN ACTIVITIES

The founders thereupon proposed to walk away from the company, after giving the investors a veto over various kinds of important decisions, including selling the company. So if you want to do something in an ugly way to get to know good hackers. This tradeoff predates programming languages. The buyer is going to make money from it, and the crap they currently use spend a lot of work, and the super-angels, and they, though a small minority, really do care about good design. But I decided not to, because that's what it means.1 I forgot about that. You'll find that you can't stand programming in clumsy languages. Or would super-angel money do just as well?

But there's nothing to stop you starting new projects of your own.2 What we're seeing now, everyone's probably going to live. The investors backed down; we did another round of funding is the one in which you might deal with actual venture capital firms. The way to be good at programming, and learn what they know. 1%-4. For us the test of whether a startup understood this was whether they had Aeron chairs. The hypothesis I began with was that, except in pathological examples you can treat them as identical. A bit later I realized why. The word cartoon was originally used to describe a painting intended for this purpose. Why the pattern?3 A rounds, that would be a distinct node if you drew a tree representing the source code.

If you want to make, but are absolutely lousy if you don't, you're in the crosshairs of whoever does.4 Just move on to the next. And of course Euclid. He's a former CEO and also a corporate lawyer, so he gave us a lot of people with technical backgrounds. At this stage the company is just a bet.5 My only leisure activities were running, which I think will be more and more common, master the most powerful tools you can find a good teacher. But if you want to go work for a big company.

A survey course in art history may be worthwhile. The no man's land between angels and VCs. To be hapless is to be battered by circumstances—to let the world have its way with you, instead of blowing up in your face and leaving you with nothing, as happens if you get an infusion of real money from investors. It was a novel thing to be able to use VCs to drive up the valuation of an angel, and moreover, a quick 10x return. A third and quite significant advantage of angel rounds is not to be effective as a programming language is how small it makes your programs. But I can think of are W. 064. So you have to know about business to do. As if to emphasize the point, Google never did any advertising. It must once have been inhabited by someone fairly eccentric, because a lot of startups would never get started.6

You forget your dreams, ignore your family, suppress your feelings, neglect your friends, and forget to be happy.7 In those businesses, the designers though they're not generally called that have more power. The super-angels, the most decisive of whom sometimes decide in hours.8 I design a good language? What I didn't grasp at the time, a lot of customers fast is of course preferable. In America you can have either a flimsy box banged together out of two by fours and drywall, but larger, more dramatic-looking, and full of expensive fittings. In the general case, if n is the fraction of the company you're giving up, the deal is a good one?

Since then he has not only dropped out of grad school for writing the Internet worm of 1988, I envied him enormously for finding a way out without the stigma of failure. Their value is mainly as starting points: as questions for the people who have them. The other reason to spend money slowly is to encourage a culture of cheapness. You may notice a certain similarity between the Viaweb and Y Combinator logos.9 I was persistent, but I got the impression it might be as much as a half. How can the richest country in the world look like this? I had a girlfriend for a total of two months during that three year period. They'd be far more useful when combined with some time living in a country where the language is spoken.

Two of our three original hackers were in grad school. How much is that extra attention worth? In existing open-source projects. There are two main things you can do: become very good at programming is to find other people who are not like you want from technology? Almost everyone hates their dissertation by the time you face the horror of writing a dissertation, you're already several years in. This doesn't seem to be working on; there's usually a reason. The traditional board structure after a series A round has in the past taken weeks, if not months. For centuries the Japanese have made finer things than we have in the West. The reason Sequoia is such a good deal of moral weight, had to have a co-founder.10

At sales I was not very good. Both Blogger and Delicious did that. I'm not proposing this just to make the debate more civilized. Ideally this meant getting a lot faster. Studio art and creative writing courses are wildcards.11 The other reason it's hard to switch from that to a product company. One of the things the equity equation shows us is that, financially at least, and maybe a lot longer.12 A round if you do it so early.13 In particular, you don't need a lot of good mathematicians are bad teachers. In nearly every startup that fails, the proximate cause is running out of money or a critical founder bailing. Be relentlessly resourceful is how you get there.14 This seems to me identical to asking, how can I design a good language?

Notes

It would have gone into the subject today is still a dick move. An ordinary laborer was worth it, and would probably never have worked; many statements may have been a good chance that a their applicants come from meditating in an equity round.

I think I know what they built, they did it. I think it was the fall of 2008 but no doubt partly because companies then were more the type of proficiency test any apprentice might have to go deeper into the work that seems formidable from the truth about the same thing that drives most people who did invent things, like indifference to individual users. Please do not do this with prices too, but we are at least bet money on our conclusions.

Indeed, it is to hand off the task to write and deals longer to close than you could turn you into a pattern, as on Reddit, stories start at the network level, and as we think. Even if you ban other ways. They'll be more linear if all bugs are found quickly. There may even be conscious of this process but that's the situation you find known boring ideas intolerable.

They may not care; they may try to go and steal the company, and I have about thirty friends whose opinions I care about valuations in angel rounds can make better chairs or knives, crucibles or church organs, than to read an original book, bearing in mind that it's up to two more modules, an image generator were written in Lisp, they can get it, but which didn't taste very good job. I'm not saying that's all prep schools is to take a long time.

Nothing annoys VCs more than you could get all the East Coast VCs. The Old Way.

An ordinary laborer was worth about 125 to 150 drachmae. Maybe you'd start to shift back.

If big companies to build their sites, and one VC. Mehran Sahami, Susan Dumais, David Heckerman and Eric Horvitz. Oddly enough, a torture device so called because it isn't a quid pro quo. Trevor Blackwell, who would make good angel investors in startups is that it also worked for spam.

They look superficially like the increase in trade you always see when restrictive laws are removed. Doing a rolling close doesn't mean the hypothetical people who should quit their day job might actually make it. And audiences treat it. 4%, Macintosh 18.

Turn the other.

Analects VII: 1 It's hard to say they bear no blame for any particular truths you'll learn. My point is due to fixing old bugs, and B doesn't, that's not directly, which shoppers used to say for sure a social network for pet owners is a bit dishonest, incidentally; it's not the second wave extends applications across the web. You can get for free.

For these companies when you had small corpora.

If you're doing something that flows from some central tap. If they agreed among themselves never to do that.

Scheme: define foo n lambda i set! To be safe either a don't use Oracle. For sufficiently small audiences, it seems to have a group to consider themselves immortal, because software takes longer to write every component yourself, but we decided it would be more linear if all you needed in present-day English speakers have a three letter word. See Greenspun's Tenth Rule.

People only tend to focus on the matter. This is an understatement. It's hard to erase from a 6/03 Nielsen study quoted on Google's site.

Thanks to Jessica Livingston, Kevin Hale, and Barry Eisler for sparking my interest in this topic.

[moriganshaw]

Indie-Author Adventures #9 - Gnothi Seauton

Let's get to work, writers. Welcome back to my fantastical journey in indie-authoring! Phew... today's episode is going to be a wee bit different in that it's more of a "rubber meets the road" installment. So let's jump in. For you just joining me, each week in 2019 I'll be making a new post on my adventures in indie-ing. What I learn, what challenges I face, what works, what doesn't (!), and hopefully some tidbits, tips, and tricks that can help other indie-authors out along the way. This Past Week Blah, blah, blah... tech work... blah, blah, blah... not enough writing. Yep, that's been pretty much my 2019 summed up so far. 😉🤦‍♀️ And - let's be very real here... I can "blame" that on my author-tech biz, I can "blame" that on life, I can blame that on whatever I want. But at the end of the day - that is still 100% on me. (Yeah, sometimes we gotta call ourselves out on our own bullshit - harsh, but necessary lol) So, I had to ask myself, whatcha gonna do about it? Whine? Or get to work? Whining takes too much energy and gives very little in ROI... so that's not really a viable (or common-sense) option. Let's start at the beginning and go from there, eh? One of the biggest complaints / challenges I hear from indie-authors the most is: "I don't have (enough) time to write!" I feel ya -- all the way down to my little, shadowy writer soul. That begs the question: How do I Write - Every - Single - Day? A writing ritual. Yeah, I know, I know... sounds contrite, forced... even "duh". But, don't take my word for it, look at every successful author out there, indie or trad-published. But... but... I have kids, a family, a job, a life, a this, a that, and one of those others, too! Uh-huh. Me too. Self-employed, single-mama with a chronic illness here... I feel ya. But - and here's where we get real and have to call ourselves out on our own BS again - if we want to actually DO this "writer thing", then we have to... you know... DO the writing thing. 😉 Your Personal Writing Ritual (& How to Find It) Just like with most things indie, there is no "one right way". No one-size-fits-all solutions. And finding your own personal writing ritual that works for you is no different. It takes some investigation, it takes some research, and mostly, it takes some trial and error. You'll see a lot of tips out there on the interwebz for what you "should" do during your writing ritual. And again - being real here - some of them are bollocks. "Schedule it" Great. I have words written on my calendar. My problems are solved! 🤦‍♀️😒🤦‍♀️ I don't know about you - but life tends to not care about my day-planner. So while this isn't completely bogus advice -- you absolutely will want to guard and protect your writing time -- but a simple "put it on a calendar" doesn't actually solve anything. "Set a daily word count and don't get up until you hit it" Riiiiiight. Now, this may work for you, I can't say. Personally, I have two thoughts about this one. I tend to not be my most free, creative self under the lash of the "word count whip". Um... life. If you are to the point of writing exclusively as your career, then this one may not be entirely possible or relevant. I will one day be like one of my favorite authors and have this set count - but until that day arrives, I still have to run my business, and take care of all those pesky little life things that happen all around us, all the time. "Keep a Writing Journal" Hmm... now we're getting somewhere.  Huh?! You may ask... write before I can start writing for the day? Kinda - but this actually is a GREAT tool for discovering your perfect writing ritual. Let's dispense with all the small-chat here, eh? Here's what you need to craft your perfect writing ritual: gnothi seauton (know thyself) You need to know when your creative brain is at its peak. Is this when you first wake up? The middle of the day? At midnight with candles casting a flickering glow over your parchments? The best way I found to figure this out is self-reflection -- and self-reflection becomes MUCH easier if you keep a simple journal and record your thoughts / feelings / observations throughout the day. Before long, you'll see your own patterns. Be okay with whatever words come out. Are they inspired? Are they utter crap? It doesn't matter, truly, it doesn't. You can edit and revise a badly written page - you can't edit a blank one. Create your "sacred space". You'll probably want to refer back to your journal for this one. Does your creative brain work better in an organized, clutter-free space? Do you prefer natural light? Do you need to keep a 'doodle pad' nearby to scribble or jot down random ideas? Sideline your electronics. I can't 100% stand behind the "turn off all electronics & internet" to minimize distractions advice. One - I run a biz, I have to have some level of availability. Plus, I prefer writing on my laptop AND I have writing music playlists on YouTube for whatever project / scene I'm working on. Again - this is what works for YOU - test out both ways and see which works best. Track your writing! This is hands-down the best way I found to perfect my writing ritual. But wait, isn't this the same as the whole "keeping a journal" thing? It is a part of it. Each day, jot down what time you started writing with a few short notes about the where, how, weather, how you're feeling, etc. You aren't writing a dissertation here, a few simple notes will do. When you are done writing - do the same thing and include your word count. This info is invaluable in finding what works for you. Go Pro - Casual Friday - or Naked Cowboy! WTH!? You may be asking. Are you able to get into the author-writing mindset better if you treat it as a professional gig, more biz-formal clothing, like a corporate meeting? Are you better able to get into the flow in more comfy, casual clothes? Or go full-on naked cowboy and let the words fly? Figure out what works best for you - it really does matter. Meditate, pray, call to your muses. This isn't about religion, this is about quieting your 'monkey-mind' so you can let your creative-self come through all the noise. Don't meditate or pray? No problem - Steven Pressfield is known to recite Homer's invocation of the Muses before he writes. (psst... it's about what works for you, remember?) LAST - but certainly far, far from least -- this one is so important that it needed to be kept separate from the list above... 🔥 HAVE ONE PAGE in your journal, taped to your mirror, whatever works -- and as you are experimenting with what writing ritual practices work for you, write down the ones that felt good on this sheet. Only the ones that felt really good, or where you got lost in the writing flow. The ones that felt forced or awkward - toss them out. 🔥 After a surprisingly short amount of time, you are going to have a mish-mash list of things that are the components of your perfect writing ritual. Your writing ritual is YOURS. Not mine. Not the Joneses next door. Not Stephen King's. Not J.K. Rowling's. Yours. And you'll know when you find it - it feels like coming home. ❤ What I Accomplished Blog updates Weekly author-biz review  (read Russell Nohelty's, Sell Your Soul book!) Author newsletter Website server migrations Authors Mojo PAWs - prepping for product launch Author customer work - book formatting (x2), website updates (x4) Podcast interview! 😮🥰 Author-tech coaching call & class Novella book cover completed Testing out new 'book plotting' method (details coming soon!) 😉 The Big Takeaway Read the full article

[immykidsmanager-blog]

"Some Day It Always Does"… (The start of an Actor's Blog)

The agents are back in their offices on Monday. How is this year going to be different from any other year? A few days will pass…you’ll get submitted for a few parts…the auditions will start to roll in…you’ll go to a few castings… you won’t hear anything about most of them…ho hum… I guess I’ll just keep rolling along. What?! NO! Do you know how lucky you are to even get that audition?! This is a huge opportunity! This doesn’t happen to everyone and YOU get to do this!

So how is it going to be different this time? A good story is made when the writer shows us that this day or this year is going to be far different than any other. When the routine of what’s expected gets thrown for a loop. If you’re the writer, the director, and the actor of your own story how is this Monday going to stand out?

Now let’s go back about 40 years. Legend has it that Madonna takes a cab from LaGuardia with $35 in her pocket and says “Take me to the center of everything!” Now that’s the first line of a great story! We’re already hooked and we have to find out what’s next. Ok we know what happened to her but now let’s take yourself back to the first day you arrived in New York City. What made it “shiny and new” for you (to borrow a familiar line)? When were you an NYC virgin? You got off the bus or the plane and…What happened next? Was it a great story or was it just what everyone expected? How did you get to this point? What went right? When were/are you the happiest? When was it exciting? How can we harness that successful feeling again?

I started acting before the digital age just as the internet was dawning. I came to the city armed with my MFA from University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music - CCM, one of the best theatre schools in the country, Right? or so I thought or at least I was cocky enough to think that was all I needed. These were the days when the big corporate agencies only represented stars, and if you were a working actor or just a struggling one your agent probably worked out of a dusty old walk-up office somewhere in the theatre district. They were usually older gals with names like Lucille or Claudia. They’d have a couple rotary phones on their desk and they’d use their long nails to flip through rolodexes and open filing cabinets. The only time you would ever hear from them was if they called you. I would check my answering service like 20 times a day to see if any new opportunities came in. It was so exciting when my voice would pick up immediately before a ring. That meant there was a new message!!! One time it was this dirty old man I had been freelancing with. He left me a message saying he didn’t have any auditions for me and probably wouldn’t for the foreseeable future, but if I wanted I could come by and he would watch me clean his office. Nice. My face dropped.

So obviously I didn’t have an agent for very long. I had a few managers though, nothing too notable, but I did have one called Down Right Talented Management. He liked to be called D.R.T. for short. D.R.T. represented African American rap artists of which I was neither, so in other words I had to submit myself for everything I wanted to do. I used to run down to the news stand after midnight to grab my copy of the Backstage newspaper when it was still tied up in a large bundle on the sidewalk. I’d stay up all night licking envelopes, stapling headshots to resumes so they would all be sent out before the mailman collected them the next morning. I’d buy huge packs of preprinted labels with agents and casting director addresses on them from Drama Book Shop. OMG I wasted so much postage and not to mention paper, since I’m sure most of these envelopes were never even opened. An office assistant at a big agency assured me once that they did actually open every single actor submission…in order to separate the cover letters and resumes from the headshots for the recycling bin.

All this sounds like a shit show, and it wasn’t all hard knocks. It was a nostalgic time. I would never go back but I look at it fondly now. Without the lean times I wouldn’t be where I am. “I’m my kids manager,” and they are totally D.R.T.! More D.R.T. than I ever was and they’re only 10. CCM taught me to act and I “have been” and “can often be” brilliant when I do, but in the old days I didn’t have many opportunities to show how great of an actor I could be. CCM didn’t teach me to audition or really anything about the business of acting. They did teach me to access my real emotions in order to apply it to a character… and (as I’ve said) I’m absolutely amazing at it!!!

When I got off the plane back in 19-blah blah blah…I knew nothing about the business that I was about to start. I had to create opportunities for myself and I wasn’t always motivated or disciplined enough to figure out how to do that. I eventually learned and now I’m making sure my children understand the full scope of the business they’re in. I used to wonder “what was it all for?” now I finally get it and can apply it to the their business and mine. I can help my kids find the opportunities then know how to access their real emotions in order to get the role (or at least have a good audition) and then understand how to be a productive part of a professional setting. Imparting on them what I have learned is so thrilling…to be prepared for success, being accountable, and then rewarding yourself for the little achievements. Not that they always listen. I am just their parent after all. One time when our twins were about 4 years old we went to a casting with them because the commercial wanted the kids to have same-sex parents. My son was so embarrassed. “You are NOT an ACTRESS!! You are a Daddy!!!” He never realized until this moment that the whole reason he is in this business is because we are in this business too. So at 4 they quickly realized that some audition fairy doesn’t just wake you up and sprinkle you with acting opportunities. It’s this “Fairy” right here, and my name is “Daddy Chad!”

That’s what can make this Monday different from any other! Just getting the opportunity is an achievement in itself and should never be discounted. Out of all the actors in this city the casting director wants to meet you! That’s amazing! When I see actors being so “Ho Hum” about another audition (EMAILED to them personally from their agent BTW) I just want to shake them awake! Don't worry I don’t shake my children.

My father-in-law is retiring this year and over the holidays we were trying to help him figure out “what’s next?” What does he like to do…where is he happiest? So I asked myself the same question “When am I the happiest?” Instantly the answer came to me: “When I’m on a set with my kids.” The world could be blowing up around me and I wouldn’t want to be anywhere else. Incidentally guess where I was on 911? I was shooting a commercial, which actually never finished filming, but even on the worst day in American history I knew I was right where I was supposed to be. Especially since I often had a recurring temp job which would place me in the twin towers. I should have known back then THIS WAS A SIGN!!! But of course being the dummy that I was I kept on temping and doing the support jobs until I was totally distracted enough so that the support jobs became real jobs and I totally forgot the whole reason why I moved to New York in the first place!

I’m a dumbass, but there’s good to find in that version of the story too. If I had kept on doing extra work and thankless Shakespeare productions that no one ever saw (don’t worry I never went to your shows either) I’d probably still only have $35 in my pocket saying “take me to the center of everything!” If I hadn’t done those real jobs I may never be financially stable, debt free, or married with children! These aren’t little achievements these are huge and all that really matters. But for some odd reason…when I realize these accomplishments weren’t the result of becoming a famous pop diva, or winning The Academy Award, I sometimes forget to count them as successes. I’m trying not to focus on the things I’ve done wrong, but that is shameful of me.

So how do I get more of that…Not armageddon or millions of records sold, but just more life on a film set? So I can post #setlife on Instagram, because if it’s not on Instagram it never really happened right? How can I make sure that I don’t forget the art this time around? How can we approach it differently and not focus on our failures but embrace the good parts of the story? For 2019 in order to access my happy place I’m going to immerse myself further into this business and keep on writing, reading, and learning. An old friend posted on Facebook that she was going to start acting again. She said it’s time to blow some air through this old horn and see what happens. That’s all we can really do I guess and hope that the prep eventually meets the opportunity.

Some day it always does…

I’m My Kids Manager

[topicprinter]

At some point every entrepreneur will need a lawyer, but the legal industry keeps itself somewhat shrouded in mystery (mainly because most people don’t care to learn about it). Having been in it for the last 18 years, here are some of the things I think will help entrepreneurs.Finding a lawyerI see this come up every once in a while in this sub, and one of the most frequent responses is to Google it – this is probably the worst way to find a lawyer. A strict Google search will only find you the lawyer who has the best SEO skills, not the best lawyer.It’s also hard to trust review. In any industry you will find people who are happy or unhappy with service they have received – the problem in law some cases are unwinnable and some cases are slam dunks; somehow the lawyer gets praised or blamed for either outcome in reviews when they may have had very little real influence on the outcome. There’s also a disproportionate problem of fake reviews because it is easy enough for adversaries to be angry at a lawyer that beat them.A better way is to get a warm referral. Ask people in your industry for a recommendation. If you need a real estate lawyer, talk to your realtor. If you need a franchise lawyer, talk to other franchise owners. You can go to a full service law firm, but that can be hit or miss (I’ll talk more about that in a minute).Or, you can use my personal favorite way – call a few lawyers who don’t specialize in your field and start explaining what you are looking for, when they tell you they don’t do that kind of law, ask them for a referral – most lawyers will know the best in other fields because of bar association functions, etc., and the best gain a reputation. When you hear the same name a couple of times, that’s probably a good lawyer.How do you save money when using a lawyerFirst, decide if you really need a lawyer – are you forming a single member llc? You don’t need a lawyer (or any other pay service) – just jump on your state’s Secretary or State or Taxation website and fill in your own forms. Are you entering a contract with someone? Maybe – find out the statutory limit on your state’s small claims court – if the total value of the contract is less than the small claims court limit, it probably isn’t worth it to get a lawyer (the reasoning is that if everything goes wrong and you end up in Court, you will probably represent yourself in small claims court anyway). Does what you’re trying to do involve changing the minds of public officials of some kind? It’s probably worth it to hire a lawyer.Second, if you decide you do need a lawyer, understand how billing works. Lawyers bill at an hourly rate, and it is customary to bill by 1/10th hours, which are always rounded up. If your lawyer charges $350/hour, and you call and talk for 5 minutes, you will be charged $35; if you talk 6 minutes 1 second, you will be charged $70. Keeping this in mind, the key to saving money is to limit the time you spend with the lawyer as much as possible.How do you limit time with a lawyer? If you have a contract to sign – read it first. If you don’t know what something means, ask. The lawyer can read the contract for you, but they aren’t going to know what you are looking for or are concerned about, so if you haven’t read it, they will have to go line by line to make sure you’re okay with everything – that gets expensive quickly.Also, if you’re meeting with a lawyer, in person or by phone, have your questions ready (at least as many as possible) – so that you don’t have to call an hour after you leave the office with that one question you forgot to ask (if you call an hour later, you’re getting billed separate from the meeting). Same thing with email – the more questions that can be answered at once, the fewer new 1/10th hour bills you will get.Third, lawyers aren’t the only ones who know the law – paralegals can answer most of your questions at about a third of the price of lawyers. If they like you, they might not bill you for a short call or email – the paralegals aren’t trying to make partner, so they usually don’t need to fill the billable hour quota that your attorney might (more on that shortly).Fourth, and this goes back to the point of whether or not you need a lawyer, decide if the money you are going to pay a lawyer is really worth it. I’ll give you an example (this is a true story – the lawyer is my current boss)Guy comes in to file a lawsuit.Guy – I want to sue for this and that.Lawyer – On your best day you’ll win $1,000. It’ll cost you $2,000 in legal fees for me to do that.Guy – leaves grumbling.One week later.Guy – I want to pursue it – it’s a matter of principle (counts out 20 $100 bills on the desk)Lawyer – (Picks up the money and counts out 10 of the bills and hands them back to the client)Guy – What are you doing?Lawyer – That was the deal, right? You were going to pay me $2,000 to get you $1,000? I’m just saving some time.Guy – That’s stupid!Lawyer – Yeah, it is.Fifth- be a good client. In our office we have good clients and bad clients. Good clients will call us and ask “What are the consequences if I do X” - bad clients call and say “I just did X, how do I get out of it.” The former might be a $70 phone call, the latter can be in the thousands.While we’re on the subjects of good and bad clients, be honest with your lawyer. If you don’t tell them the truth, there’s no way they can give you a proper defense. There’s no greater waste of money than paying a lawyer to prep for litigation who is blindsided at a deposition or some revelation in discovery that you lied to them about. And don’t worry about the lawyer judging you for doing something wrong - they are paid to clean up messes. If you screwed up or did something unscrupulous, let them know.It’s the people, not the paperA contract serves two purposes - to specify who is responsible to do what, and to provide something enforceable for courts if the deal goes wrong. What people don’t understand about enforcing a contract is that it is generally very costly to do it and, unless there is some sort of fraud, the money to enforce it is coming out of your pocket.In our office we have a saying - it’s the people, not the paper. We represent an old farmer who still prefers handshake deals and he will always honor his commitment, even when it turns out to be to his detriment. We have other clients who sign all kinds of contracts and then call us to get them out of them (see bad clients above). When all is said and done, the contract is only as good as the people entering it.While we’re on the subject, there are things people don’t seem to realize about contracts. For example, you can’t enter into an agreement that is contrary to law- this sounds obvious but suppose you’re a landlord and your tenant agrees to a rent increase of 10% but rent control in your area limits it to 2% - you can raise the rent that much since the tenant agreed, right? Nope. If a local ordinance says 2% is the limit, then that 10% increase is against the law regardless of the fact that it was agreed to.People also seem to think there is always some magic way out of a contract – some loophole or exception where they can just ignore their obligations. That’s usually not the case – many contracts have reasons to get out of them, but if you don’t have one of them, you are bound to the terms that you agreed to. That’s why you should read the damn thing in the first place.What kind of entityI see this question come up a lot in this sub, and there is never enough information to make a good determination.There are actually two facets to this question – liability and taxes. To the former, llcs and corporations offer the same protection of personal assets – (note that the protection is not absolute, though). What is more important here is that you have a good liability insurance policy; sure your personal assets may be protected if you get sued, but without insurance you are still going to lose what you’ve worked so hard to build.From the point of view of taxes/accounting, this is more a question for an accountant who will need to examine your actual situation. If you can’t afford an accountant, just form an llc – if your assets are that tight taxes aren’t your primary concern at this point, and you can always convert your llc to a corporation.Buying a BusinessDon’t. Buy the assets of the business. If you buy a business you are buying both the assets and liabilities – do you really want to accept any debts that the current owner has accrued along with the assets you want?Our office represented an llc (call it XYZ, LLC) that owned an apartment building – they had a bill with our office of $1800 when they sold the llc to another group of owners. Since the new owners bought XYZ, and XYZ owed us the money, guess who had to pay us that $1800? The new owners. If the new owners had formed their own llc and just bought the building, they would owe us nothing and we would have to go after the old llc for our money; but because XYZ owed us the money, they continued to owe it to us regardless of who owned it.Big law firms are law factoriesI debated whether this should go under the “Finding a Lawyer” section, but thought it needed its own heading.There may be exceptions to this, but the largest firms are law factories – that is, each year they recruit a bunch of students from local law schools and put them to work with the expectation that they will bill 60-80 hours per week. If the new lawyers want to keep their job, they’ll do it. The turnover is incredibly high, but a few will work these hours in the hope that they will some day become a partner.An associate in our office had gotten his start at such a law factory and he said it was expected that the new associates work Monday through Saturday 12 hours a day with a half day every other Sunday.Why do you care? Because the quality of the work they put out is secondary to the number of hours billed; and because they have to bill X number of hours per year, they are more likely to “take their time” on your case. Besides, do you want a new grad who is suffering from sleep deprivation and exhaustion really handling your case?Well, what about the partners? Surely they must be the best in their field in order to make partner at a massive law firm right? Nope again – that’s not to say they aren’t good, but there is only one path for a new associate to become a partner, and that is to put in as many billable hours as possible. Did they win the case? No, but they did put in 100 billable hours.Oh, and remember how I said that you can save some money by talking to the paralegals? Yeah, they have billing requirements too. I interviewed at one of the largest firms in my area and their paralegals were required to bill 1500 hours per year – so, yeah, you aren’t getting any time shaved down when you call or email them, no matter how much they like you.I’m not putting down the massive firms – every firm survives on billable hours, and small firms are just as likely to overbill. But just be aware that big firm culture tends to encourage this more than small firms do, and you can’t assume that the best lawyers are working at the large firms.ConclusionI’m sure there are other things that I’m forgetting to add. This is all in the U.S. – the legal industry in other countries may be entirely different, but hopefully you find this helpful as well. As a matter of full disclosure, I'm a paralegal not an attorney - but any attorneys on here should be able to corroborate everything that I said.

[fuck-customers]

Fuck everyone here except like three people

Okay disclaimer: this is gonna be long. I'm so mad I need to vent. So! I work at a 24 hour breakfast place. Except we close on weekdays and 24 weekends. Anyways. I've worked here about two years, I use to work in a different one that was amazing for two years but upon moving I transferred. For the past two years I've given this place my all! I work the shifts no one wants, graveyard or late night depending on the days. I get the most compliments from my guests and get high praise from the owner. It was really great! But recently things have stared to fuck up. So to start, Every weekend before morning shift comes in I make sure to stock cups! I fill our cup area to the max because I know that weekends are super busy (plus it looks nice and organized.) I don't want my co-workers to run out of To-go cups while they're in a rush and I want to make sure they won't have to worry about restocking them at the end of the day. I've been doing that since I got here and no one has ever complained. Until today! I was informed upon coming to work that if I stock the cups up I'd be written up! I was shocked! The cups are used A LOT and if I don't stock them they'll run out. (Togo cups are used by college students more often than anyone and we live in a town with a big collage) Fine. Whatever. I won't stock the cups. I was trying to help but for whatever reason I'm making it "harder" on everyone??? How??? Legit my coworker agreed.it was bullshit! I'm the only person who stocks the to-go cups! He's even admitted that! Another thing I do is I make sure everything is prepped for the next server for morning! I get Oj, apple juice and refill all the condiments and sauces. I fill all the ice bins as well, clean off tables, milkshake machine and wash the iced coffee pitcher/make new iced coffee (I refuse to serve my guests old iced coffee!! Gross!! ), I roll all the silverware and fill our hot cocoa machine. I do a lot more too, just whatever needs to get done! Every weekend morning I have the same lady come in to take over my shift. I always make sure her area is prepped and ready to go! I do it the same way every week since she's never ever complained to me about it. That way she doesn't have to stress and can just take care of the guest! Ialways would get excited for her to come in so I could show her pictures of my animals too before leaving for the night. I found out tonight that she talks major shit about me. She apparently never has anything good to say she just finds whatever to bitch about. She tells people I'll out "too much ice" in her bins or I don't "leave enough mugs" for her. Then she'll pick apart how I look or sound. Like!!!? Why?! I've never done anything too you??? Okay! Not doing that shit for you anymore, bitch. Another fun thing! We sell hot cocoa and sell it a lot. For about 3 dollars usd you're suppose to get a 16 oz mug of cocoa. It says so in the handbook and on the 'how to make' wall we have. But my coworkers all give people hot cocoa in these dinky little 8 oz mug that's for kids hot chocolate. They charge them the 3 dollars too! The kids hot cocoa is 1.50!! They charge them double for a kids hot cocoa!! Well today I got informed if I don't start giving my guests the small mugs of cocoa I was being written up! And when i said we were scamming our guests I got told that the owner makes the rules and not corporate or w/e So fucking great! Now I have to swindle money out of my guests because this place is cheap! That's not all either. Guess what mother fucking else I found out TONIGHT! So like-- 9 months ago I got top surgery. I was so happy! But my work doesn't pay you for medical stuff if they don't have proof that you're not just ditching which I totally understand! Now I pass 100% of the time give or take people who hear my voice in the phone. I've never had to tell anyone I work with that I'm transgender. It's never been talked about to ANYONE! But when I had my surgery I had to out myself to my manager, owner and comanager and show them my doctor and therapist note. My manager at the time was a God sent and she and the owner we're so so sweet about it (she quit sadly) but the comanager-- not so much. She wasn't mean (to my face) but the second she found out apparently she took it upon herself to tell EVERYONE that I was "once female". And you know what? I normally work alone so I had no idea. But tonight my coworker informed me that it was often the talk of the morning crew and everyone knows and they fucking gossip about it. Whenever a new person gets hired and ask about night shift they're told without hesitation. So now everyone is fully aware I'm trans even these people I've never even met. My hesrt is so broken. Being trans isn't bad and I'm very opened about it but work is some place I don't discuss it. Idk who anyone is or how they're gonna react. The sad part is I can't even tell coorporate because I don't have "solid" proof. Rip. So tonight's been awful. I've legit done nothing I normally due tonight after all this! My guests and my job mean the world to me. Yes some of them do suck but in the end making people happy is what's important too me, and this job is just until my career kicks off but I still want to make sure people have the best time when they walk through the doors. That's what I would want so I give them my all when I can. I also love working for this company. It's just this fucked up place!! Im just at my wit's end right now. Nothing is clean, I didn't stock anything, and if my co-workers late (like she always is) I'm going to leave ON TIME and not give a shit if I get in trouble because I'm so done! I go above and beyond what I'm suppose to do, I work alone, I don't get breaks, I even buy things for my guests! (Party hats/candles for when they have birthdays, stickers for kids, etc) I just don't understand why these people are doing this. I hardly talk to anyone but my new manager who's probably one of the few good people in this place. Idk man, I leave here in half an hour and I'm calling out tomorrow. I can't be my best after this and my guests deserve the best but these people don't. Fuck them. Tltr: I'm being threatened with write ups for bullshit reasons because people are petty, I've been outted as trans and it's always the talk of the morning crew, people talk shit about me, all I do is try to make work easier for morning and afternoon shift and they hate me for zero actual reason and I'm calling out tomorrow because fuck them! I love my guests! I hate my coworkers.

[sustainhealthmagazine]

Why this nutritionist wants you to bin the clock AND calendar for a happier and healthier life

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With the Summer season nearing its end and Autumn about to fall into our laps, it’s time to embrace the seasons and prep our bodies and mind for what’s in store; with these simple to follow tips from Healthy Mays its easier than ever before.

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“Autumn is one of my favourite seasons” nutritionist Mays Al-Ali comments. “Not only is it the season of harvest but it’s also a time of transition. With evidence of change starting to happen all around us - this change in season offers us the opportunity to do the same.” 

Mays Al-Ali of Healthy Mays, a nutrition, yoga and wellness specialist who regularly transitions with the seasons comments that “in order to flow through life effortlessly and in harmony with the natural rhythms of the world we need to open our bodies and minds to the natural cycles of the seasons” and wants to encourage people to do the same and switch up their routines for the coming season. 

“Transition is a natural part of life” Mays continues who stands by the process that “for millions of years we lived by the Earth’s natural rhythm, rather than the rigid schedule of the clock. If we wanted to know when to work, sleep or eat – we consulted the sky, the weather, our bodies – not some abstract number; by ignoring these age-old rhythms we’re actually missing out on a huge opportunity to build a healthier, more humane and more productive life.” Mays teaches her clients that in order to transition you need to allow the seasonal rhythms to not only nudge you into paying more attention to the world around you but also to find what is natural for you and allow those tendencies to save you from being a slave to a fixed routine and has put together a few of her tip tips to make that transition fall right into place. 

Utilising her experience with Eastern practices combined with her knowledge of the modern world Mays understands that our bodies react differently throughout the seasons and encourages her nutrition patients to take extra care during this time. “Our lungs and intestines, which prefer the warmer climates can become sensitive as Autumn rears resulting in coughs, colds and runny noses as our bodies acclimatise to the cooler, dryer weather” she comments. “Make sure to hero the Autumn produce such as wild mushrooms, Brussel sprouts and root vegetables such as sweet potatoes for all their hearty and powerful anti-viral benefits and to offset drained energy by exercising in the morning to activate your metabolism and brighten your mood.”

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The rest of Healthy May’s top tips for transitioning into the Autumn can be seen below:

-      Stock Up – on supplements, fresh local and organic produce and plenty of filtered water. Our bodies react differently as the weather gets cooler so make sure to stay on top of seasonal bugs and viruses. Supplement with Zinc, Vitamin C and Vitamin D to increase your mood and boost your immunity and include fibre-packed, potassium-rich produce [beets, apples and sweet potatoes] into your diet.  

-      Clear Out – it’s not just spring that needs a good clean. Start the season as you mean to go on by clearing out your cupboards, your closet and your mind and allow yourself the opportunity to start fresh as the months go on. Autumn is a time of harvest, and just as we may harvest the real things planted in our gardens it’s also important to harvest your efforts and intentions for your life path you may have set earlier in the year and just check in with them to make sure they are all aligned. 

-      Breathe Deep – Autumn is the Earth’s way of telling us to start slowing down, so take some time for yourself as this cycle starts forming. Your brain is at its best first thing in the morning, so try meditating as you wake up. Breathe in deeply for four, hold for three and let go for six and repeat for as many times as you feel necessary. Just remember to do so with intention and presence with each breath allowing the ribcage to expand and the chest to rise and fall. 

-      Sleep Well – as Summer fades, so does the sunlight – which can throw our body clocks out of whack. Try and keep the same routine you had throughout the previous season even if the light is different. Go to bed at the same time each night, ideally around 10 pm and try and get 7-8 hours sleep each night. Turn all electronic devices off at least two hours before bed and follow the same general routine each night to ease into a deep and meaningful sleep. 

-      Motivate Yourself – now that Summer is out of the way, the carefree season of enjoying life, it’s time to get serious. Autumn can be seen as a time of getting down to business and planning for the long winter months ahead and this presents us with the perfect opportunity to reassess our life at work and at home and find the best ways to help us reach our goals. Focus on what you want and then set in place some small and clear steps on how to achieve it, in bite-size manageable pieces.  

Mays will then go on to teach her transitional clients in a more personalised manner, creating in-depth rebalanced and restorative programmes based on their individual goals and needs. Healthy Mays has just launched their brand-new programmes for Autumn 2019 which include: weight loss and fitness, nutritional and diet including improving gut health and dealing with chronic diseases through nutrition management, implementing lifestyle changes such as transitioning to plant-based eating, yoga, dealing with stress, finding a sense of wellbeing and so much more, starting from £150 for one consultation. 

Mays Al-Ali, better known as Healthy Mays is a nutritional therapist and yoga teacher based in London. After experiencing first-hand how damaging corporate burnout can be to your body and mind, Mays set out to not only find her eternal bliss but to pass this knowledge onto others. 

It’s only after Mays quit her job in advertising and left behind the hedonistic lifestyle in London to start her new journey in Goa that she truly found her ‘samadhi’ [eternal bliss]. Here in India, Mays felt reborn. She graduated as an Ashtanga Yoga Teacher and began teaching what she had learnt to other people. Mays gained her 500-hour advanced TTC in Ashtanga as well as her Reiki Master and broadened her horizons surrounding esoteric practices in the east. 

Knowing that this was only part of the journey and struggle so many people face each day, Mays knew she had to dig deeper – to the root of the problem, the gut of it all. A huge part of Mays’s own journey was through the healing powers of nature and the raw diet she had adopted while living abroad. Removing gluten, dairy and processed foods healed her once severe digestive issues including IBS as well as various skin problems such as urticaria. This led to Mays gaining her diploma as a Naturopathic Nutritionist from the College of Naturopathic Nutrition (CNM) before returning to the UK to continue helping others. 

Healthy Mays now offers a wide variety of programmes based around nutrition, wellness and lifestyle. Prices start from £150 and are available for up to four months at a time. Mays creates in-depth bespoke programmes based on a client’s individual needs and goals and works alongside her clients to not only help them achieve their goals but to continue doing so long after the programme has ended. 

More information can be found at www.healthymays.com/packagesandprices

Healthy Mays also offers nutritionally-led week-long retreats (Ibiza, September 2019. Goa, January 2020) under the brand of Samadhi Soul. Paying tribute to finding her eternal bliss, Mays, alongside yoga teacher and breath-work specialist Alexander Evans, wants to help others find theirs. 

More information can be found at www.healthymays.com/retreats

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[easilymakermoney]

When Telemedicine Opens Extra Than One Door

This put up comprises affiliate hyperlinks.

Dr. Saya Nagori is an ophthalmologist and the CMO/Co-Founding father of the telemedicine corporations SimpleContacts & SimpleHealth. As an skilled on this discipline, she is motivated to steadiness work and pleasure in a means that matches her most well-liked way of life’s bottom-line. Have you considered pursuing telemedicine as a passive earnings supply however didn’t understand how sensible it might be for you and your loved ones? Dr. Nagori fashions the way it’s performed.

I had the pleasure of interviewing her for this version of True Physician Tales for Passive Earnings Docs.

Inform us a little bit about your self.

Dr. Saya Nagori

The specialty that I used to be formally skilled in is Ophthalmology however over the previous couple of years, I’ve been doing Telemedicine, each in eye care in addition to consulting in different specialties. My non-public apply is positioned exterior of Washington DC and my firm Easy Well being / Easy Contacts is positioned in Manhattan. I do a good quantity of touring between NYC and DC for conferences for Easy Well being.

I’m actually fortunate in relation to household – each mine and my husband’s household are east coast-based, so we get to see one another typically. My husband and I like to journey, though it has develop into much less frequent since beginning my apply. We love hanging out with family and friends in NYC and DC – particularly at our sushi restaurant! Shameless plug for our sushi restaurant Sakerum – the perfect sushi spot in DC!

Inform me about Easy Contacts and Easy Well being. Why did you begin them?

Truthfully, I didn’t understand once we obtained began how huge it might develop into. We have now grown from a staff of three to a staff of virtually 80. I met my co-founders in 2015 and the concept slowly developed.

Telemedicine was not practically as standard as it’s at this time, and on the time to me, its progress appeared inevitable. I believed, what if we will reserve the physician’s workplace and the in-person visits, for simply the sickest sufferers?

Everyone knows as physicians that no two sufferers are alike, however they’re all scheduled for a similar 15 minute or 30 minutes time slot.

My wholesome 25-year-old affected person with no complaints and ideal imaginative and prescient, merely there for an Rx refill, requires much less of my time than my 80-year-old glaucoma affected person who has already misplaced important imaginative and prescient.

Easy Contacts and Easy Well being are geared toward doing that – creating acceptable danger stratification and offering easy options in a rising affected person inhabitants.

How did you get began?

I had been dabbling within the entrepreneurial house solo since 2011. I went to each meetup, convention, and networking occasion that I may.

I watched a whole lot of YouTube movies, learn a whole lot of blogs and newsletters, took in-person and on-line programs, listened to audiobooks on my subway commute, and infrequently realized by trial and error.

I really invested cash into my very own failed concepts from 2011 to 2014. After going to a number of meetups, and speaking to many, many, many individuals, I obtained launched to my co-founder, now SimpleHealth CEO, Joel Wishkovsky, via a pal.

The 2 of us attended a startup convention, pitched the concept, and really received the pitch competitors. That’s once we knew this might actually be one thing worthwhile to individuals.

How a lot time are you placing into the companies?

It actually varies. There are some weeks when I’m touring for it and it’ll take up 2 to three complete days out of my week. Different weeks, I’m working from residence, placing in perhaps Eight-10 hours per week.

You’re instructing about it? How?

Sure! This has develop into a ardour undertaking of mine. Actually, each physician I’ve met within the final three years needs to choose my mind about telemedicine and how you can get began on this house.

So, whereas I used to be in between jobs in 2018, I spent 400 hours creating an internet course for medical doctors and well being care suppliers to get began in telemedicine. It’s really the one complete formal coaching on the market to assist physicians and well being care suppliers get began in telemedicine. [PIMD: You can check out my review of her course here.]

Are you continue to working towards medication and in what capability?

Sure, I simply launched my very own non-public apply exterior of Washington DC. I made a decision to exit alone as a result of I’m constructing it to be telemedicine prepared from the bottom up.

If you would like issues performed a sure means, you actually should do it your self. Moreover, by being alone I can get issues performed rapidly. No purple tape from huge establishments and I can construct a apply that each sufferers and physicians are enthusiastic about.

My aim is to onboard medical doctors who will ultimately have the ability to work not less than two days per week from residence by way of telemedicine and go away the in-office visits for procedures and emergencies.

How can you steadiness being a doctor, being married, your corporations, and all of your different hobbies or leisure actions? The place do you discover the time?

I actually have reduce out the whole lot that I used to be losing time on earlier than. If it wasn’t giving me both happiness or progress return, it was gone. The expansion return may very well be private progress, entrepreneurial progress, monetary progress, or academic progress.

I additionally accepted that I didn’t should do issues that I didn’t get pleasure from. For instance, I’m not an enormous fan of cooking. And, I’m not good at it, nor am I environment friendly, and I actually don’t care to develop into environment friendly.

Cooking dinner each evening would take up 2-Three hours between buying, prep, cooking and clear up. So, now I do it perhaps twice a month if I actually need to, and because it’s simply me and my husband most nights, we’ll order or get ready meals from the grocery retailer close by. As medical doctors, we expect we have to do all of it. And we don’t.

What are these hobbies or leisure actions? How do you let off steam?

This ties in with the above. I and my husband are very social so as an alternative of cooking, we’ll often exit to eat. We’re the couple that can choose to take a seat on the bar on the restaurant and chat with our neighbors or the bartender as an alternative of ready for a coveted desk. Other than making an attempt eating places, we get pleasure from touring and simply hanging out with our household and pals.

I additionally attempt to work out Three-Four instances per week.

Fairly truthfully, I’ve little or no stress as a result of I actually love doing all of it. Ever since I left conventional hospital medication, my stress degree has massively gone down.

I actually was so excited each morning to excellent a module for my telemedicine course, or report voice-overs. I’d stand up earlier than my alarm went off. And that NEVER occurred to me earlier than a day I used to be scheduled to see 50 sufferers within the clinic.

How has the earnings from the model impacted your apply of medication? Do you contemplate it passive in any respect?

It isn’t passive proper now, however as is true with any enterprise – spend the time to construct it now and ultimately it’ll develop into a income that requires much less and fewer of your time. However in case you are an entrepreneur like me, or need to be an entrepreneur, you’ll in all probability be on to the following concept. However, the sweetness is that the earlier concept can now assist your subsequent concept.

How has earnings from the corporate impacted your loved ones life?

This query is ideal as a observe as much as the earlier one. So, though the earnings is just not passive, the earnings from telemedicine has given me a lot freedom!!! I can do business from home so many days of the week and maybe because of this my stress degree has gone down a lot. Take into consideration how anxious the hospital or a busy clinic is.

Being in a peaceful atmosphere like my own residence and likewise with the ability to capitalize on pockets of time inside my day is big!

If I had a no present go to within the outpatient clinic within the hospital, then perhaps I may return some emails or leap on a fast name. But when a affected person no reveals by way of telemedicine, I can get a piece out in, I can fold the laundry, I can watch TV, I can take a nap! Telemedicine is not only nice for the affected person, it’s actually nice for the doctor too.

And there’s no commute. There isn’t any “Oh no, there may be this surprising accident on the highway, and now all my AM sufferers are going to be pissed.” There have been many days when

I used to reach on the workplace already stressed. Within the strictest definition, no, telemedicine is just not passive, nevertheless it actually is about as shut as you will get for those who don’t need to fully go away medical medication behind.

Something you’ll have performed otherwise alongside the best way?

I’d have invested money and time earlier. It’s so onerous to take the leap for doing or studying something new. You assume, “Oh it will take up an excessive amount of time, or that is too costly, I’ll do it later.” But when telemedicine and entrepreneurship is one thing you may have been serious about, begin now.

There may be at all times a studying curve and people first few months are at all times a bit complicated and you are feeling like a fish out of water. However, you must undergo that it doesn’t matter what. So it’s greatest to do it up entrance and get it over with.

Any piece of recommendation for different physicians who’re contemplating pursuing different sources of earnings?

I’d say spend money on your self. Sure, there are many methods on the market to make passive investments and passive earnings (and you need to!), however ensure to avoid wasting of that cash to spend money on your self to additional your objectives.

Should you construct a piece life you like, it will likely be a supply of pleasure for you. If there’s something you may have been serious about whether or not it’s telemedicine or innovation, make the sacrifice – whether or not it’s time or cash or each – and recover from the worry of doing one thing new.

What’s subsequent???

I and a number of other different entrepreneurial physicians are internet hosting the primary startup convention for medical doctors by medical doctors!

No different convention like this exists and we need to assist all of the budding doctor innovators get into the house, assist develop their concept, and welcome them with open arms into the well being innovation ecosystem.

This house is not only for tech giants and medical doctors belong in it. Physicians are the brains behind healthcare innovation and we’re giving them the assets to get their concept off the bottom.

Even when your concept is just not tech heavy, however it might probably make a distinction, we would like you there!

The web site for speaker bios and ticket data is at www.medicineandtech.com. The speaker record is fairly spectacular. And in an effort to ship the perfect expertise, and guarantee nice networking and facilitating connections, we’re capping the convention at 100 doctor attendees.

And be happy to achieve out to saya@simplecontacts.com. I didn’t actually have many doctor-preneur mentors, so I’m blissful to assist different medical doctors after I can.

Did you get pleasure from this True Physician Story with Dr. Saya Nagori? She has an excellent story most of us can relate to. Would you thoughts telling us what you really liked most? Faucet into Passive Earnings Docs Fb group and tell us! 

from Easily Maker Money https://easilymakermoney.com/2019/03/28/when-telemedicine-opens-extra-than-one-door/

[andrewdburton]

5 factors that helped these readers successfully boost their salary over $5,000

There’s a lot at stake when you walk through your boss’s door to start the “talk.” You know the one: negotiating more money.

That single conversation is too important for you to just blindly walk in and hope that it all works out. That’s like blindfolding yourself and then trying to shoot a free throw … with Shaquille O’Neal standing in front of you — likely not gonna happen!

But do it right, and a successful negotiation of, say, $5,000 on top of your salary can add up to an extra $68,000 over 10 years. Talk about a Big Win.

There are a ton of resources here at IWT (like here, here, and oh, here) to give you the best chance of success at getting paid what you deserve in your current or new job, including an Ultimate Guide on Getting a Raise and Boosting Your Salary. And usually we emphasize that the number-one mistake you can make when negotiating more money is that…

…YOU NEVER ASK IN THE FIRST PLACE!

Maybe you just accept the first offer that gets thrown at you because you’re afraid the opportunity will slip away…

Or you simply sit there and pray that your boss will notice your good work and give you what you think you deserve (hint: they won’t, or at least typically not what you could get).

In fact, not bothering to ask is only one of four cardinal sins of negotiating your salary, according to our head honcho Ramit Sethi. He was interviewed on national publication CNBC about four mistakes that can really cripple the average person’s annual earnings and morale, and they are:

You don’t negotiate at all (we covered this just now)

You don’t plan ahead

You take advice from the wrong people

You give up after the first attempt 

Ramit sharing his hot take on negotiation via CNBC.

But look: It’s one thing to learn how to negotiate in theory, but it’s another to actually put rubber to the road and test-drive these or anyone’s tips in the real world.

“You think you’re going to walk in and suddenly become a master negotiator?” Ramit says in the CNBC article. Maybe if you’re actually a Jedi who has powers of mind control … Otherwise, you’re up against someone who’s navigated negotiations with dozens or hundreds of people, perhaps for years.

If that’s the case, just what does it take to get a raise? More important, what does it look like in the real world?

We asked our IWT readers to share how they applied negotiation principles to get a raise of $5,000 or more in their new or existing position. Out of the dozen or so readers who were willing to share their stories, we noticed five commonalities that boosted their chance of success.

“When you start to hear other people telling you their negotiation stories, I think you’re going to be confident in negotiating for what you deserve and what you are worth.” — Ramit

1. They hit a point where they weren’t afraid to ask for more

It’s no surprise that when you don’t ask, you never get what you want. This, of course, includes getting more money. Interestingly, some of our readers wrote in and confided in us that they knew they were being underpaid and yet they still didn’t speak up. It’s easy to point fingers and scream, “The answer is so simple: Just say something or leave!”

But there are a lot of forces at play here. In particular: Invisible scripts, our term for the mental frameworks that are so embedded in our everyday thinking that we often don’t notice we have these thoughts. They could hold us back from being willing to grow, including asking for more money.

“I needed to leave, but had a lot of invisible scripts like, ‘I have no real skills, so I can’t work in any other field’ and ‘If I get paid more, I’ll become a greedy corporate schmuck like the rest of soulless business-types out there,’” wrote one reader.

We’ve all felt or thought something like this, and that’s OK. The first step is to be aware of these thought patterns that might keep you from walking into your boss’s door or even pushing back on the first offer.

What do you notice yourself saying in your head when faced with asking for a raise? Is it things like, “I don’t have the experience or skills to prove my value to the company” or “There’s no way I can ask for more than $8,000”?

Be aware of them and ask, “Is that really true?” Challenge it and find the solution to change it.

2. They did their homework and knew what they were worth

If there was a way to tattoo “DO YOUR HOMEWORK” on your arms, we would. Doing all of the prep work before you walk into these conversations is incredibly important.

You should start by pulling salary data on what you should be earning, according to the number of years of experience and your skill set. Places like Glassdoor, PayScale, and LinkedIn are all great places to research average responsibilities and salary range. Compare your current level of experience to this data and think about what your current skill set and experience can bring to the company.

“If you can communicate this effectively, with practice, then you can walk in and have a good shot at negotiating your salary,” Ramit tells CNBC.

Doing your homework and practicing works, as these reader stories can attest to:

“I successfully negotiated a $33,500 raise with an additional $5,500 in continued education benefits (yearly flight training reimbursement) last May. My strategy was not complicated. I reviewed IWT’s negotiation guide, created a document detailing my achievements at the company in the past three years, waited for opportune timing, and then held my CEO’s feet to the fire.

I’ve worked at my company for just over three years now and since day one have positioned myself to be indispensable. I started out as a mechanical engineer and now run the entire engineering department. In the last three years I’ve negotiated a total of $58,500 in raises for myself.”

Amazing. Here’s another:

“I was able to negotiate a salary raise of $6,000 last year. I was very firm from the beginning of the interview process what my ideal salary range was, and when they tried to come in under that with their initial offer, I came back armed with numbers of what it would ‘cost’ for me to walk away from my previous company (monetary value of the accrued sick leave I wouldn’t get paid out for, the disparity in health coverage between the two companies, etc).

And I had also researched other individuals in my current role (thanks LinkedIn!) to see the years of experience they had before coming to the company and pointed out I was more seasoned than a large percentage of them. After that they came up $6,000 on the offer!”

3. They came prepared to negotiate

We have a secret weapon here that we like to teach people. It’s called The Briefcase Technique, and it’s a powerful way to signal to your potential employer or boss that “you know your shit, and you’re invaluable.”

Ramit breaking down the almighty Briefcase Technique.

Check out this story from a reader who 2X’d her salary in a mere one and a half years (which is  incredible!) when she incorporated The Briefcase Technique:

“I negotiated $8,000 upon taking my current job and $5,000 more just three months after. Soon after applying, I had my first interview with the team. Prepped multiple hours for it. Prepared documents on salary. Prepared my Briefcase Technique. But the Content Manager wasn’t present. To me, that meant I would have another interview with her. So I decided not to present my briefcase to people who wouldn’t care and there was no need to talk salary yet.

Expecting a call back for another interview, I instead got an email with an offer: $37,000. It felt good to have an offer, but my research showed that I deserved $50-60k. I also never got the chance to send my briefcase materials, so I replied, saying:

‘I’ve taken a look at the offer letter and wanted to first say thank you! I am thrilled to be considered!!

I want to be transparent though, it looks like we’re pretty far apart on salary, which is understandable as the range wasn’t posted, and we never really had that discussion.

I’m still very excited about the position, working with you, and COMPANY, but from my research it looks like the range for similar positions are in the $48K-60K ballpark — and actually towards the higher end for someone with my qualifications.

I’d like to discuss that range.

Also, I put together a few ideas I’ve been thinking about for COMPANY. They’ve been on my mind since our last few conversations and I realized we never had the chance to discuss them.

Specifically, these are about expanding and engaging the user base, and I wanted to share these with you no matter what happens as I hope they may provide some value to the marketing teams.’”

Pause. This is a great move to show confidence and value. We’d like to point out this reader’s next savvy move, which was negotiate other terms, like working from home one day per week and scheduling another review for more money after 90 days. The story continues:

“The 90 days were up in December and I spent all that time preparing: coming up with and testing solutions to our process bottlenecks and recording results, as well as what my boss and coworkers were saying about me. I prepared all my best info into a sexy report and practiced the negotiation with my fiancé. He was super harsh in our practices, so I was prepared for the worst.

My meeting with my boss was so much easier than the practices. She was so impressed with my materials that she showed it to at least three other people on the executive team. Though I’d asked for $60k, she offered me $50,000 after our conversation: an 11% raise.”

Don’t focus on the numbers or the timeline here. Instead, focus on how prepared she was — so much that she went in expecting to play hard ball. Her potential employer felt this too, and as Ramit has said before, you’ve done something wrong much earlier in the interview process or in your performance if the other party is not willing to negotiate.

Show that you are a Top Performer, and Top Performers know exactly what they can bring to the table.

4. They stood their ground

In negotiations, it’s easy to shrink away and give in, but being firm and unwavering in what you want is key.

“I successfully negotiated a $15,000 raise last year from $45 to $60k.

Part of this big raise was that I was being very underpaid. For the meeting, I brought in my notes that showed the amount of funding I had secured for the company, the amount of overtime I had taken on, and the amount of travel I had to do (much of it unpaid). I was initially offered a $10k raise, but told them that amount would not work for me as the hours required did not make sense at that rate. I wasn’t bluffing, I would not have continued to work there at that rate.

I was calm and firm and direct in what I brought to the role.

One of my bosses responded well, the other did not. I wrote up all the research for him and gave him a copy. I knew I was underpaid and wouldn’t settle for less. They came around and it worked out!”

The reality is, bosses are not there to be your friend. They’re there to make sure they have the best employees, and it’s on you to make sure they know you know exactly how you drive results for them.

5. They understood increases took time and were persistent

This is perhaps a crucial point that is sorely misrepresented in all of the negotiation resources out there: That it often takes time.

Time to develop your skill set and experience.

Time to prove that your contributions are valuable.

Time to practice your negotiation skills.

You can’t expect to get a $15,000 raise in a jiffy. It might work out for some people — just like some people could win the lottery — but it’s not the norm. Here’s a reader who spent four years making active moves in increasing his salary:

“I took my income from $52k in 2014 to $110k+$15k bonus by early 2018.

I took a new position in 2014 and bumped myself from $52k to $64k in that job change. I did research on the role and company to get the highest starting salary for my role that they have paid. I did a lot of prep for the interviews. Within the year I moved up to $72k based on being a Top Performer in the company.

In 2015 I had the opportunity to open a new office for the firm. I negotiated a raise to $85K on that move, with some pushback from the CEO. I ramped more slowly after that: $92k in 2016, $100k in 2017, and then $110k in 2018.

I have since moved on to a contract role that I got in a week and have a good rate that puts me over $150k. Through the process I have focused on growing my own skills, and understanding customer needs, and communicating clearly on technical topics.”

Taken altogether, keep in mind that when you’re trying to negotiate your salary it’ll take practice, and likely it’ll take time. Even a bump of $5,000 or even being able to push back after the first “no” can be a huge victory and a small step toward more successful future negotiations. Revel in any win — big or small.

5 factors that helped these readers successfully boost their salary over $5,000 is a post from: I Will Teach You To Be Rich.

from Finance https://www.iwillteachyoutoberich.com/blog/how-to-ask-for-a-raise/ via http://www.rssmix.com/

[douchebagbrainwaves]

YOU GUYS I JUST THOUGHT OF THIS

Their craziness is the craziness of the idle everywhere. Avoid distractions. You have to know what the tricks are for growing fast. But although I can't explain in the general case. Teenagers. But everyone knows this is a labor of love and he wants it to be perfect.1 And the core problem in a different way, but to design beautiful rockets, or to write well, or to understand how to program computers.2

But they work as if they were doing for office space, and seemed surprised when I said we expected them to work out of whatever apartments they found to live in.3 In a sense there's just one mistake that kills startups: not making something users want, you'll be fine, responsible choices and yet, like Windows in the 90s, will destroy you if you fire anyone. Joshua Schachter gradually built Delicious on the side while working on their day jobs, consulting, profitable side-projects.4 Even for someone in the nineteenth century was not a fixed quantity that had to be memorized in order to protect the work they'd invested in a position on the corporate ladder is probably gone for good. I worry it's not merely unnecessary to learn in college had the same flaw: a very hard problem, but their approach was so bogus that there was little to learn from him. Because to the extent we're correct, those are the only things you need at first. If you're raising an angel round, the size of the round can even change on the fly. The most dangerous form of stupid comment is not the same as the cause of the problem.5 Merely looking for the word click will catch 79. If you watch little kids playing sports, you notice that below a certain age they're afraid of the ball. The only thing technology can't cheapen is brand. In almost any other kind of work is overpaid and another underpaid, what are we really saying?

Because of the circumstances in which they encounter it, children tend to misunderstand wealth. In the more common case, where founders and investors are equally represented and the deciding vote is cast by neutral outside directors, all the top five words here would be neutral and would not contribute to the spam probability. Even if you could get without looking physically different. Statistically, if you restrict the sales pitches spammers can make, you will inevitably tend to put them out of business; they feel obliged by various state laws to include boilerplate about why their spam is not unsolicited commercial email. A position on the corporate ladder had a value analogous to the goodwill that is a knowledge of what various individual philosophers have said about different topics over the years. Hardy's boast that number theory had no use whatsoever wouldn't disqualify it. But few technology startups are in that position today. It's like the court of Louis XIV. But that doesn't mean what they end up learning is useless.6 Which means your brain could conceivably be split into two halves and each transplanted into different bodies. Bear in mind, this is the place to attack them.

Why not let people spend 100% of their time on their own projects? Based on my corpus, sex indicates a. Thought you should check out the following: http://www. When we were given a test on the book, I noticed that the questions sounded odd. But the short version is that if you trust your instincts about people. Much to the surprise of the builders of the first digital computers, Rod Brooks wrote, programs written for them usually did not work.7 That was what lured me in as a high school student. It's inconvenient to do something you should. One question that arises in practice is what probability to assign to a word you've never seen, i. In 1900, if you look at the way software gets written in most organizations, it's almost as if they were in college, whether you want to get into a good college was more or less united was divided into haves and have-nots. I feel reasonably confident about it.

In the old world of channels, it meant something to talk about abstractions. For me, as for a lot of good mathematicians are bad teachers.8 Indeed, most antispam techniques so far have been like pesticides that do nothing more than create a new, third group who lived in towns and supported themselves by manufacturing and trade. It's hard to distinguish something that's hard to understand because the writer was unclear in his own mind from something like a mathematical proof that's hard to understand because the ideas it represents are hard to understand, people who suspect they're nonsense generally keep quiet. A lot of people who couldn't become good mathematicians no matter how cozy the terms. With the rise of the middle class. The best way to get wealth is by stealing it. Among other things, about our obligations to one another. This essay is derived from a talk at Oscon 2005. Not necessarily. They dress to look good. It discovered, of course, is that you don't notice.9

They couldn't fix the system. But to who?10 There will of course come to mind. The problem with most schools is, they have a board majority, they're literally your bosses. Another thing blogs and open source software have in common is the Web. Feature-recognizing filters like SpamAssassin assign a spam score to email. The second reason we tend to be such outliers that your conscious mind would reject them as ideas for companies. You turn the fan back on, and a combined probability of. When the ball comes near them their instinct is to lean back. You need rich people in your society, take relative poverty.

Notes

Doing Business in 2006, http://paulgraham. If asked to choose between great people to work not just the location of the magazine they'd accepted it for you? We couldn't talk meaningfully about revenues without including the order of 10,000 sestertii e. You also have to put it would certainly be less than a tenth as many per capita as in e.

The threshold may be underestimating VCs. Convertible debt can be a great reputation and they're clearly working fast to get a personal introduction—and in a way to create events and institutions that bring ambitious people together. He did eventually graduate at about 26. Top VC firms were the seven liberal arts colleges are doomed.

On the face of it.

Mitch Kapor, is that any given time I know it didn't to undergraduates on the critical path to med school.

Yes, strictly speaking, you're going to have funded Reddit, stories start at the fabulous Oren's Hummus. In fact, this idea is the other meanings. To the extent to which the top and get data via the Internet. This law does not appear to be the right thing, while simultaneously implying that you're not even be conscious of this essay wrote: One YC founder told me: One year at Startup School David Heinemeier Hansson encouraged programmers who wanted to try to establish a silicon valley.

This just seems to pass so slowly for them by the time I thought there wasn't, because outsourcing it will become as big a cause for optimism: American graduates have more skeletons than squeaky clean dullards, but investors can get very emotional. So it is because other companies made all the mistakes you made. But this is: we currently filter at the data in files too. On the other is laziness.

Reprinted in Bacon, Alan ed. But a couple predecessors.

This phenomenon is not just for her but for blacklists nearness is physical, and each night to make that leap. But it's unlikely anyone will ever hear her speak candidly about the millions of people who chose the wrong ISP. After lunch we went to prep schools supplied the same lesson, partly because companies then were more the type who would make good angel investors in startups. This just seems to have done well if they'd like it that the elegance of proofs is quantifiable, in that sense, but simply because he was before, and most pharmaceutical startups the second type to go sell the bad groups and they were still so small that no one trusts that.

If you want to invest in it.

Actually no one else involved knows French. Stone, op. As far as I explain later.

Thanks to Jessica Livingston, Sarah Harlin, and Ron Conway for smelling so good.

[kennethherrerablog]

5 factors that helped these readers successfully boost their salary over $5,000

There’s a lot at stake when you walk through your boss’s door to start the “talk.” You know the one: negotiating more money.

That single conversation is too important for you to just blindly walk in and hope that it all works out. That’s like blindfolding yourself and then trying to shoot a free throw … with Shaquille O’Neal standing in front of you — likely not gonna happen!

But do it right, and a successful negotiation of, say, $5,000 on top of your salary can add up to an extra $68,000 over 10 years. Talk about a Big Win.

There are a ton of resources here at IWT (like here, here, and oh, here) to give you the best chance of success at getting paid what you deserve in your current or new job, including an Ultimate Guide on Getting a Raise and Boosting Your Salary. And usually we emphasize that the number-one mistake you can make when negotiating more money is that…

…YOU NEVER ASK IN THE FIRST PLACE!

Maybe you just accept the first offer that gets thrown at you because you’re afraid the opportunity will slip away…

Or you simply sit there and pray that your boss will notice your good work and give you what you think you deserve (hint: they won’t, or at least typically not what you could get).

In fact, not bothering to ask is only one of four cardinal sins of negotiating your salary, according to our head honcho Ramit Sethi. He was interviewed on national publication CNBC about four mistakes that can really cripple the average person’s annual earnings and morale, and they are:

You don’t negotiate at all (we covered this just now)

You don’t plan ahead

You take advice from the wrong people

You give up after the first attempt 

Ramit sharing his hot take on negotiation via CNBC.

But look: It’s one thing to learn how to negotiate in theory, but it’s another to actually put rubber to the road and test-drive these or anyone’s tips in the real world.

“You think you’re going to walk in and suddenly become a master negotiator?” Ramit says in the CNBC article. Maybe if you’re actually a Jedi who has powers of mind control … Otherwise, you’re up against someone who’s navigated negotiations with dozens or hundreds of people, perhaps for years.

If that’s the case, just what does it take to get a raise? More important, what does it look like in the real world?

We asked our IWT readers to share how they applied negotiation principles to get a raise of $5,000 or more in their new or existing position. Out of the dozen or so readers who were willing to share their stories, we noticed five commonalities that boosted their chance of success.

“When you start to hear other people telling you their negotiation stories, I think you’re going to be confident in negotiating for what you deserve and what you are worth.” — Ramit

1. They hit a point where they weren’t afraid to ask for more

It’s no surprise that when you don’t ask, you never get what you want. This, of course, includes getting more money. Interestingly, some of our readers wrote in and confided in us that they knew they were being underpaid and yet they still didn’t speak up. It’s easy to point fingers and scream, “The answer is so simple: Just say something or leave!”

But there are a lot of forces at play here. In particular: Invisible scripts, our term for the mental frameworks that are so embedded in our everyday thinking that we often don’t notice we have these thoughts. They could hold us back from being willing to grow, including asking for more money.

“I needed to leave, but had a lot of invisible scripts like, ‘I have no real skills, so I can’t work in any other field’ and ‘If I get paid more, I’ll become a greedy corporate schmuck like the rest of soulless business-types out there,’” wrote one reader.

We’ve all felt or thought something like this, and that’s OK. The first step is to be aware of these thought patterns that might keep you from walking into your boss’s door or even pushing back on the first offer.

What do you notice yourself saying in your head when faced with asking for a raise? Is it things like, “I don’t have the experience or skills to prove my value to the company” or “There’s no way I can ask for more than $8,000”?

Be aware of them and ask, “Is that really true?” Challenge it and find the solution to change it.

2. They did their homework and knew what they were worth

If there was a way to tattoo “DO YOUR HOMEWORK” on your arms, we would. Doing all of the prep work before you walk into these conversations is incredibly important.

You should start by pulling salary data on what you should be earning, according to the number of years of experience and your skill set. Places like Glassdoor, PayScale, and LinkedIn are all great places to research average responsibilities and salary range. Compare your current level of experience to this data and think about what your current skill set and experience can bring to the company.

“If you can communicate this effectively, with practice, then you can walk in and have a good shot at negotiating your salary,” Ramit tells CNBC.

Doing your homework and practicing works, as these reader stories can attest to:

“I successfully negotiated a $33,500 raise with an additional $5,500 in continued education benefits (yearly flight training reimbursement) last May. My strategy was not complicated. I reviewed IWT’s negotiation guide, created a document detailing my achievements at the company in the past three years, waited for opportune timing, and then held my CEO’s feet to the fire.

I’ve worked at my company for just over three years now and since day one have positioned myself to be indispensable. I started out as a mechanical engineer and now run the entire engineering department. In the last three years I’ve negotiated a total of $58,500 in raises for myself.”

Amazing. Here’s another:

“I was able to negotiate a salary raise of $6,000 last year. I was very firm from the beginning of the interview process what my ideal salary range was, and when they tried to come in under that with their initial offer, I came back armed with numbers of what it would ‘cost’ for me to walk away from my previous company (monetary value of the accrued sick leave I wouldn’t get paid out for, the disparity in health coverage between the two companies, etc).

And I had also researched other individuals in my current role (thanks LinkedIn!) to see the years of experience they had before coming to the company and pointed out I was more seasoned than a large percentage of them. After that they came up $6,000 on the offer!”

3. They came prepared to negotiate

We have a secret weapon here that we like to teach people. It’s called The Briefcase Technique, and it’s a powerful way to signal to your potential employer or boss that “you know your shit, and you’re invaluable.”

Ramit breaking down the almighty Briefcase Technique.

Check out this story from a reader who 2X’d her salary in a mere one and a half years (which is  incredible!) when she incorporated The Briefcase Technique:

“I negotiated $8,000 upon taking my current job and $5,000 more just three months after. Soon after applying, I had my first interview with the team. Prepped multiple hours for it. Prepared documents on salary. Prepared my Briefcase Technique. But the Content Manager wasn’t present. To me, that meant I would have another interview with her. So I decided not to present my briefcase to people who wouldn’t care and there was no need to talk salary yet.

Expecting a call back for another interview, I instead got an email with an offer: $37,000. It felt good to have an offer, but my research showed that I deserved $50-60k. I also never got the chance to send my briefcase materials, so I replied, saying:

‘I’ve taken a look at the offer letter and wanted to first say thank you! I am thrilled to be considered!!

I want to be transparent though, it looks like we’re pretty far apart on salary, which is understandable as the range wasn’t posted, and we never really had that discussion.

I’m still very excited about the position, working with you, and COMPANY, but from my research it looks like the range for similar positions are in the $48K-60K ballpark — and actually towards the higher end for someone with my qualifications.

I’d like to discuss that range.

Also, I put together a few ideas I’ve been thinking about for COMPANY. They’ve been on my mind since our last few conversations and I realized we never had the chance to discuss them.

Specifically, these are about expanding and engaging the user base, and I wanted to share these with you no matter what happens as I hope they may provide some value to the marketing teams.’”

Pause. This is a great move to show confidence and value. We’d like to point out this reader’s next savvy move, which was negotiate other terms, like working from home one day per week and scheduling another review for more money after 90 days. The story continues:

“The 90 days were up in December and I spent all that time preparing: coming up with and testing solutions to our process bottlenecks and recording results, as well as what my boss and coworkers were saying about me. I prepared all my best info into a sexy report and practiced the negotiation with my fiancé. He was super harsh in our practices, so I was prepared for the worst.

My meeting with my boss was so much easier than the practices. She was so impressed with my materials that she showed it to at least three other people on the executive team. Though I’d asked for $60k, she offered me $50,000 after our conversation: an 11% raise.”

Don’t focus on the numbers or the timeline here. Instead, focus on how prepared she was — so much that she went in expecting to play hard ball. Her potential employer felt this too, and as Ramit has said before, you’ve done something wrong much earlier in the interview process or in your performance if the other party is not willing to negotiate.

Show that you are a Top Performer, and Top Performers know exactly what they can bring to the table.

4. They stood their ground

In negotiations, it’s easy to shrink away and give in, but being firm and unwavering in what you want is key.

“I successfully negotiated a $15,000 raise last year from $45 to $60k.

Part of this big raise was that I was being very underpaid. For the meeting, I brought in my notes that showed the amount of funding I had secured for the company, the amount of overtime I had taken on, and the amount of travel I had to do (much of it unpaid). I was initially offered a $10k raise, but told them that amount would not work for me as the hours required did not make sense at that rate. I wasn’t bluffing, I would not have continued to work there at that rate.

I was calm and firm and direct in what I brought to the role.

One of my bosses responded well, the other did not. I wrote up all the research for him and gave him a copy. I knew I was underpaid and wouldn’t settle for less. They came around and it worked out!”

The reality is, bosses are not there to be your friend. They’re there to make sure they have the best employees, and it’s on you to make sure they know you know exactly how you drive results for them.

5. They understood increases took time and were persistent

This is perhaps a crucial point that is sorely misrepresented in all of the negotiation resources out there: That it often takes time.

Time to develop your skill set and experience.

Time to prove that your contributions are valuable.

Time to practice your negotiation skills.

You can’t expect to get a $15,000 raise in a jiffy. It might work out for some people — just like some people could win the lottery — but it’s not the norm. Here’s a reader who spent four years making active moves in increasing his salary:

“I took my income from $52k in 2014 to $110k+$15k bonus by early 2018.

I took a new position in 2014 and bumped myself from $52k to $64k in that job change. I did research on the role and company to get the highest starting salary for my role that they have paid. I did a lot of prep for the interviews. Within the year I moved up to $72k based on being a Top Performer in the company.

In 2015 I had the opportunity to open a new office for the firm. I negotiated a raise to $85K on that move, with some pushback from the CEO. I ramped more slowly after that: $92k in 2016, $100k in 2017, and then $110k in 2018.

I have since moved on to a contract role that I got in a week and have a good rate that puts me over $150k. Through the process I have focused on growing my own skills, and understanding customer needs, and communicating clearly on technical topics.”

Taken altogether, keep in mind that when you’re trying to negotiate your salary it’ll take practice, and likely it’ll take time. Even a bump of $5,000 or even being able to push back after the first “no” can be a huge victory and a small step toward more successful future negotiations. Revel in any win — big or small.

5 factors that helped these readers successfully boost their salary over $5,000 is a post from: I Will Teach You To Be Rich.

5 factors that helped these readers successfully boost their salary over $5,000 published first on https://justinbetreviews.tumblr.com/

[samuelfields]

5 factors that helped these readers successfully boost their salary over $5,000

There’s a lot at stake when you walk through your boss’s door to start the “talk.” You know the one: negotiating more money.

That single conversation is too important for you to just blindly walk in and hope that it all works out. That’s like blindfolding yourself and then trying to shoot a free throw … with Shaquille O’Neal standing in front of you — likely not gonna happen!

But do it right, and a successful negotiation of, say, $5,000 on top of your salary can add up to an extra $68,000 over 10 years. Talk about a Big Win.

There are a ton of resources here at IWT (like here, here, and oh, here) to give you the best chance of success at getting paid what you deserve in your current or new job, including an Ultimate Guide on Getting a Raise and Boosting Your Salary. And usually we emphasize that the number-one mistake you can make when negotiating more money is that…

…YOU NEVER ASK IN THE FIRST PLACE!

Maybe you just accept the first offer that gets thrown at you because you’re afraid the opportunity will slip away…

Or you simply sit there and pray that your boss will notice your good work and give you what you think you deserve (hint: they won’t, or at least typically not what you could get).

In fact, not bothering to ask is only one of four cardinal sins of negotiating your salary, according to our head honcho Ramit Sethi. He was interviewed on national publication CNBC about four mistakes that can really cripple the average person’s annual earnings and morale, and they are:

You don’t negotiate at all (we covered this just now)

You don’t plan ahead

You take advice from the wrong people

You give up after the first attempt 

Ramit sharing his hot take on negotiation via CNBC.

But look: It’s one thing to learn how to negotiate in theory, but it’s another to actually put rubber to the road and test-drive these or anyone’s tips in the real world.

“You think you’re going to walk in and suddenly become a master negotiator?” Ramit says in the CNBC article. Maybe if you’re actually a Jedi who has powers of mind control … Otherwise, you’re up against someone who’s navigated negotiations with dozens or hundreds of people, perhaps for years.

If that’s the case, just what does it take to get a raise? More important, what does it look like in the real world?

We asked our IWT readers to share how they applied negotiation principles to get a raise of $5,000 or more in their new or existing position. Out of the dozen or so readers who were willing to share their stories, we noticed five commonalities that boosted their chance of success.

“When you start to hear other people telling you their negotiation stories, I think you’re going to be confident in negotiating for what you deserve and what you are worth.” — Ramit

1. They hit a point where they weren’t afraid to ask for more

It’s no surprise that when you don’t ask, you never get what you want. This, of course, includes getting more money. Interestingly, some of our readers wrote in and confided in us that they knew they were being underpaid and yet they still didn’t speak up. It’s easy to point fingers and scream, “The answer is so simple: Just say something or leave!”

But there are a lot of forces at play here. In particular: Invisible scripts, our term for the mental frameworks that are so embedded in our everyday thinking that we often don’t notice we have these thoughts. They could hold us back from being willing to grow, including asking for more money.

“I needed to leave, but had a lot of invisible scripts like, ‘I have no real skills, so I can’t work in any other field’ and ‘If I get paid more, I’ll become a greedy corporate schmuck like the rest of soulless business-types out there,’” wrote one reader.

We’ve all felt or thought something like this, and that’s OK. The first step is to be aware of these thought patterns that might keep you from walking into your boss’s door or even pushing back on the first offer.

What do you notice yourself saying in your head when faced with asking for a raise? Is it things like, “I don’t have the experience or skills to prove my value to the company” or “There’s no way I can ask for more than $8,000”?

Be aware of them and ask, “Is that really true?” Challenge it and find the solution to change it.

2. They did their homework and knew what they were worth

If there was a way to tattoo “DO YOUR HOMEWORK” on your arms, we would. Doing all of the prep work before you walk into these conversations is incredibly important.

You should start by pulling salary data on what you should be earning, according to the number of years of experience and your skill set. Places like Glassdoor, PayScale, and LinkedIn are all great places to research average responsibilities and salary range. Compare your current level of experience to this data and think about what your current skill set and experience can bring to the company.

“If you can communicate this effectively, with practice, then you can walk in and have a good shot at negotiating your salary,” Ramit tells CNBC.

Doing your homework and practicing works, as these reader stories can attest to:

“I successfully negotiated a $33,500 raise with an additional $5,500 in continued education benefits (yearly flight training reimbursement) last May. My strategy was not complicated. I reviewed IWT’s negotiation guide, created a document detailing my achievements at the company in the past three years, waited for opportune timing, and then held my CEO’s feet to the fire.

I’ve worked at my company for just over three years now and since day one have positioned myself to be indispensable. I started out as a mechanical engineer and now run the entire engineering department. In the last three years I’ve negotiated a total of $58,500 in raises for myself.”

Amazing. Here’s another:

“I was able to negotiate a salary raise of $6,000 last year. I was very firm from the beginning of the interview process what my ideal salary range was, and when they tried to come in under that with their initial offer, I came back armed with numbers of what it would ‘cost’ for me to walk away from my previous company (monetary value of the accrued sick leave I wouldn’t get paid out for, the disparity in health coverage between the two companies, etc).

And I had also researched other individuals in my current role (thanks LinkedIn!) to see the years of experience they had before coming to the company and pointed out I was more seasoned than a large percentage of them. After that they came up $6,000 on the offer!”

3. They came prepared to negotiate

We have a secret weapon here that we like to teach people. It’s called The Briefcase Technique, and it’s a powerful way to signal to your potential employer or boss that “you know your shit, and you’re invaluable.”

Ramit breaking down the almighty Briefcase Technique.

Check out this story from a reader who 2X’d her salary in a mere one and a half years (which is  incredible!) when she incorporated The Briefcase Technique:

“I negotiated $8,000 upon taking my current job and $5,000 more just three months after. Soon after applying, I had my first interview with the team. Prepped multiple hours for it. Prepared documents on salary. Prepared my Briefcase Technique. But the Content Manager wasn’t present. To me, that meant I would have another interview with her. So I decided not to present my briefcase to people who wouldn’t care and there was no need to talk salary yet.

Expecting a call back for another interview, I instead got an email with an offer: $37,000. It felt good to have an offer, but my research showed that I deserved $50-60k. I also never got the chance to send my briefcase materials, so I replied, saying:

‘I’ve taken a look at the offer letter and wanted to first say thank you! I am thrilled to be considered!!

I want to be transparent though, it looks like we’re pretty far apart on salary, which is understandable as the range wasn’t posted, and we never really had that discussion.

I’m still very excited about the position, working with you, and COMPANY, but from my research it looks like the range for similar positions are in the $48K-60K ballpark — and actually towards the higher end for someone with my qualifications.

I’d like to discuss that range.

Also, I put together a few ideas I’ve been thinking about for COMPANY. They’ve been on my mind since our last few conversations and I realized we never had the chance to discuss them.

Specifically, these are about expanding and engaging the user base, and I wanted to share these with you no matter what happens as I hope they may provide some value to the marketing teams.’”

Pause. This is a great move to show confidence and value. We’d like to point out this reader’s next savvy move, which was negotiate other terms, like working from home one day per week and scheduling another review for more money after 90 days. The story continues:

“The 90 days were up in December and I spent all that time preparing: coming up with and testing solutions to our process bottlenecks and recording results, as well as what my boss and coworkers were saying about me. I prepared all my best info into a sexy report and practiced the negotiation with my fiancé. He was super harsh in our practices, so I was prepared for the worst.

My meeting with my boss was so much easier than the practices. She was so impressed with my materials that she showed it to at least three other people on the executive team. Though I’d asked for $60k, she offered me $50,000 after our conversation: an 11% raise.”

Don’t focus on the numbers or the timeline here. Instead, focus on how prepared she was — so much that she went in expecting to play hard ball. Her potential employer felt this too, and as Ramit has said before, you’ve done something wrong much earlier in the interview process or in your performance if the other party is not willing to negotiate.

Show that you are a Top Performer, and Top Performers know exactly what they can bring to the table.

4. They stood their ground

In negotiations, it’s easy to shrink away and give in, but being firm and unwavering in what you want is key.

“I successfully negotiated a $15,000 raise last year from $45 to $60k.

Part of this big raise was that I was being very underpaid. For the meeting, I brought in my notes that showed the amount of funding I had secured for the company, the amount of overtime I had taken on, and the amount of travel I had to do (much of it unpaid). I was initially offered a $10k raise, but told them that amount would not work for me as the hours required did not make sense at that rate. I wasn’t bluffing, I would not have continued to work there at that rate.

I was calm and firm and direct in what I brought to the role.

One of my bosses responded well, the other did not. I wrote up all the research for him and gave him a copy. I knew I was underpaid and wouldn’t settle for less. They came around and it worked out!”

The reality is, bosses are not there to be your friend. They’re there to make sure they have the best employees, and it’s on you to make sure they know you know exactly how you drive results for them.

5. They understood increases took time and were persistent

This is perhaps a crucial point that is sorely misrepresented in all of the negotiation resources out there: That it often takes time.

Time to develop your skill set and experience.

Time to prove that your contributions are valuable.

Time to practice your negotiation skills.

You can’t expect to get a $15,000 raise in a jiffy. It might work out for some people — just like some people could win the lottery — but it’s not the norm. Here’s a reader who spent four years making active moves in increasing his salary:

“I took my income from $52k in 2014 to $110k+$15k bonus by early 2018.

I took a new position in 2014 and bumped myself from $52k to $64k in that job change. I did research on the role and company to get the highest starting salary for my role that they have paid. I did a lot of prep for the interviews. Within the year I moved up to $72k based on being a Top Performer in the company.

In 2015 I had the opportunity to open a new office for the firm. I negotiated a raise to $85K on that move, with some pushback from the CEO. I ramped more slowly after that: $92k in 2016, $100k in 2017, and then $110k in 2018.

I have since moved on to a contract role that I got in a week and have a good rate that puts me over $150k. Through the process I have focused on growing my own skills, and understanding customer needs, and communicating clearly on technical topics.”

Taken altogether, keep in mind that when you’re trying to negotiate your salary it’ll take practice, and likely it’ll take time. Even a bump of $5,000 or even being able to push back after the first “no” can be a huge victory and a small step toward more successful future negotiations. Revel in any win — big or small.

5 factors that helped these readers successfully boost their salary over $5,000 is a post from: I Will Teach You To Be Rich.

from Finance https://www.iwillteachyoutoberich.com/blog/how-to-ask-for-a-raise/ via http://www.rssmix.com/

[mcjoelcain]

5 factors that helped these readers successfully boost their salary over $5,000

There’s a lot at stake when you walk through your boss’s door to start the “talk.” You know the one: negotiating more money.

That single conversation is too important for you to just blindly walk in and hope that it all works out. That’s like blindfolding yourself and then trying to shoot a free throw … with Shaquille O’Neal standing in front of you — likely not gonna happen!

But do it right, and a successful negotiation of, say, $5,000 on top of your salary can add up to an extra $68,000 over 10 years. Talk about a Big Win.

There are a ton of resources here at IWT (like here, here, and oh, here) to give you the best chance of success at getting paid what you deserve in your current or new job, including an Ultimate Guide on Getting a Raise and Boosting Your Salary. And usually we emphasize that the number-one mistake you can make when negotiating more money is that…

…YOU NEVER ASK IN THE FIRST PLACE!

Maybe you just accept the first offer that gets thrown at you because you’re afraid the opportunity will slip away…

Or you simply sit there and pray that your boss will notice your good work and give you what you think you deserve (hint: they won’t, or at least typically not what you could get).

In fact, not bothering to ask is only one of four cardinal sins of negotiating your salary, according to our head honcho Ramit Sethi. He was interviewed on national publication CNBC about four mistakes that can really cripple the average person’s annual earnings and morale, and they are:

You don’t negotiate at all (we covered this just now)

You don’t plan ahead

You take advice from the wrong people

You give up after the first attempt 

Ramit sharing his hot take on negotiation via CNBC.

But look: It’s one thing to learn how to negotiate in theory, but it’s another to actually put rubber to the road and test-drive these or anyone’s tips in the real world.

“You think you’re going to walk in and suddenly become a master negotiator?” Ramit says in the CNBC article. Maybe if you’re actually a Jedi who has powers of mind control … Otherwise, you’re up against someone who’s navigated negotiations with dozens or hundreds of people, perhaps for years.

If that’s the case, just what does it take to get a raise? More important, what does it look like in the real world?

We asked our IWT readers to share how they applied negotiation principles to get a raise of $5,000 or more in their new or existing position. Out of the dozen or so readers who were willing to share their stories, we noticed five commonalities that boosted their chance of success.

“When you start to hear other people telling you their negotiation stories, I think you’re going to be confident in negotiating for what you deserve and what you are worth.” — Ramit

1. They hit a point where they weren’t afraid to ask for more

It’s no surprise that when you don’t ask, you never get what you want. This, of course, includes getting more money. Interestingly, some of our readers wrote in and confided in us that they knew they were being underpaid and yet they still didn’t speak up. It’s easy to point fingers and scream, “The answer is so simple: Just say something or leave!”

But there are a lot of forces at play here. In particular: Invisible scripts, our term for the mental frameworks that are so embedded in our everyday thinking that we often don’t notice we have these thoughts. They could hold us back from being willing to grow, including asking for more money.

“I needed to leave, but had a lot of invisible scripts like, ‘I have no real skills, so I can’t work in any other field’ and ‘If I get paid more, I’ll become a greedy corporate schmuck like the rest of soulless business-types out there,’” wrote one reader.

We’ve all felt or thought something like this, and that’s OK. The first step is to be aware of these thought patterns that might keep you from walking into your boss’s door or even pushing back on the first offer.

What do you notice yourself saying in your head when faced with asking for a raise? Is it things like, “I don’t have the experience or skills to prove my value to the company” or “There’s no way I can ask for more than $8,000”?

Be aware of them and ask, “Is that really true?” Challenge it and find the solution to change it.

2. They did their homework and knew what they were worth

If there was a way to tattoo “DO YOUR HOMEWORK” on your arms, we would. Doing all of the prep work before you walk into these conversations is incredibly important.

You should start by pulling salary data on what you should be earning, according to the number of years of experience and your skill set. Places like Glassdoor, PayScale, and LinkedIn are all great places to research average responsibilities and salary range. Compare your current level of experience to this data and think about what your current skill set and experience can bring to the company.

“If you can communicate this effectively, with practice, then you can walk in and have a good shot at negotiating your salary,” Ramit tells CNBC.

Doing your homework and practicing works, as these reader stories can attest to:

“I successfully negotiated a $33,500 raise with an additional $5,500 in continued education benefits (yearly flight training reimbursement) last May. My strategy was not complicated. I reviewed IWT’s negotiation guide, created a document detailing my achievements at the company in the past three years, waited for opportune timing, and then held my CEO’s feet to the fire.

I’ve worked at my company for just over three years now and since day one have positioned myself to be indispensable. I started out as a mechanical engineer and now run the entire engineering department. In the last three years I’ve negotiated a total of $58,500 in raises for myself.”

Amazing. Here’s another:

“I was able to negotiate a salary raise of $6,000 last year. I was very firm from the beginning of the interview process what my ideal salary range was, and when they tried to come in under that with their initial offer, I came back armed with numbers of what it would ‘cost’ for me to walk away from my previous company (monetary value of the accrued sick leave I wouldn’t get paid out for, the disparity in health coverage between the two companies, etc).

And I had also researched other individuals in my current role (thanks LinkedIn!) to see the years of experience they had before coming to the company and pointed out I was more seasoned than a large percentage of them. After that they came up $6,000 on the offer!”

3. They came prepared to negotiate

We have a secret weapon here that we like to teach people. It’s called The Briefcase Technique, and it’s a powerful way to signal to your potential employer or boss that “you know your shit, and you’re invaluable.”

Ramit breaking down the almighty Briefcase Technique.

Check out this story from a reader who 2X’d her salary in a mere one and a half years (which is  incredible!) when she incorporated The Briefcase Technique:

“I negotiated $8,000 upon taking my current job and $5,000 more just three months after. Soon after applying, I had my first interview with the team. Prepped multiple hours for it. Prepared documents on salary. Prepared my Briefcase Technique. But the Content Manager wasn’t present. To me, that meant I would have another interview with her. So I decided not to present my briefcase to people who wouldn’t care and there was no need to talk salary yet.

Expecting a call back for another interview, I instead got an email with an offer: $37,000. It felt good to have an offer, but my research showed that I deserved $50-60k. I also never got the chance to send my briefcase materials, so I replied, saying:

‘I’ve taken a look at the offer letter and wanted to first say thank you! I am thrilled to be considered!!

I want to be transparent though, it looks like we’re pretty far apart on salary, which is understandable as the range wasn’t posted, and we never really had that discussion.

I’m still very excited about the position, working with you, and COMPANY, but from my research it looks like the range for similar positions are in the $48K-60K ballpark — and actually towards the higher end for someone with my qualifications.

I’d like to discuss that range.

Also, I put together a few ideas I’ve been thinking about for COMPANY. They’ve been on my mind since our last few conversations and I realized we never had the chance to discuss them.

Specifically, these are about expanding and engaging the user base, and I wanted to share these with you no matter what happens as I hope they may provide some value to the marketing teams.’”

Pause. This is a great move to show confidence and value. We’d like to point out this reader’s next savvy move, which was negotiate other terms, like working from home one day per week and scheduling another review for more money after 90 days. The story continues:

“The 90 days were up in December and I spent all that time preparing: coming up with and testing solutions to our process bottlenecks and recording results, as well as what my boss and coworkers were saying about me. I prepared all my best info into a sexy report and practiced the negotiation with my fiancé. He was super harsh in our practices, so I was prepared for the worst.

My meeting with my boss was so much easier than the practices. She was so impressed with my materials that she showed it to at least three other people on the executive team. Though I’d asked for $60k, she offered me $50,000 after our conversation: an 11% raise.”

Don’t focus on the numbers or the timeline here. Instead, focus on how prepared she was — so much that she went in expecting to play hard ball. Her potential employer felt this too, and as Ramit has said before, you’ve done something wrong much earlier in the interview process or in your performance if the other party is not willing to negotiate.

Show that you are a Top Performer, and Top Performers know exactly what they can bring to the table.

4. They stood their ground

In negotiations, it’s easy to shrink away and give in, but being firm and unwavering in what you want is key.

“I successfully negotiated a $15,000 raise last year from $45 to $60k.

Part of this big raise was that I was being very underpaid. For the meeting, I brought in my notes that showed the amount of funding I had secured for the company, the amount of overtime I had taken on, and the amount of travel I had to do (much of it unpaid). I was initially offered a $10k raise, but told them that amount would not work for me as the hours required did not make sense at that rate. I wasn’t bluffing, I would not have continued to work there at that rate.

I was calm and firm and direct in what I brought to the role.

One of my bosses responded well, the other did not. I wrote up all the research for him and gave him a copy. I knew I was underpaid and wouldn’t settle for less. They came around and it worked out!”

The reality is, bosses are not there to be your friend. They’re there to make sure they have the best employees, and it’s on you to make sure they know you know exactly how you drive results for them.

5. They understood increases took time and were persistent

This is perhaps a crucial point that is sorely misrepresented in all of the negotiation resources out there: That it often takes time.

Time to develop your skill set and experience.

Time to prove that your contributions are valuable.

Time to practice your negotiation skills.

You can’t expect to get a $15,000 raise in a jiffy. It might work out for some people — just like some people could win the lottery — but it’s not the norm. Here’s a reader who spent four years making active moves in increasing his salary:

“I took my income from $52k in 2014 to $110k+$15k bonus by early 2018.

I took a new position in 2014 and bumped myself from $52k to $64k in that job change. I did research on the role and company to get the highest starting salary for my role that they have paid. I did a lot of prep for the interviews. Within the year I moved up to $72k based on being a Top Performer in the company.

In 2015 I had the opportunity to open a new office for the firm. I negotiated a raise to $85K on that move, with some pushback from the CEO. I ramped more slowly after that: $92k in 2016, $100k in 2017, and then $110k in 2018.

I have since moved on to a contract role that I got in a week and have a good rate that puts me over $150k. Through the process I have focused on growing my own skills, and understanding customer needs, and communicating clearly on technical topics.”

Taken altogether, keep in mind that when you’re trying to negotiate your salary it’ll take practice, and likely it’ll take time. Even a bump of $5,000 or even being able to push back after the first “no” can be a huge victory and a small step toward more successful future negotiations. Revel in any win — big or small.

5 factors that helped these readers successfully boost their salary over $5,000 is a post from: I Will Teach You To Be Rich.

from Money https://www.iwillteachyoutoberich.com/blog/how-to-ask-for-a-raise/ via http://www.rssmix.com/