How To Make More Money In Your Career – Tried and True Strategies For Success | Ep. 235

Intro/Outro: You know what it is. That’s right. It’s time to talk money with your money nerd and financial coach. Now tighten those purse strings and open those ears. It’s the Money Talk with Tiff podcast.

Tiffany Grant: Hey everyone. This is another episode of Tiffany’s Take where I answer your money questions. So if you want your question answered on the podcast, go to www.moneytalkwitht.com/.

Ask Tiffany, and I’ll be more than happy to answer. So for today’s episode, I had someone ask, okay, Tiffany, I need more money. How do I get more money in my career? And so, you know, and this could pertain to whether you’re working for someone or you’re working as an entrepreneur, but their question was, look, I just need more money, which.

Honestly, um, sometimes it’s not that simple. Sometimes it’s just a matter of managing what you have. Uh, sometimes it’s just a matter of cutting expenses. But for the purposes of this episode, I’m just going to directly answer their question and how to make more money in your current role or industry. So, First and foremost, um, depending on what your industry is, you may need to acquire additional certifications or degrees.

Now, I bring this up as number one because a lot of times people get very, very comfortable with where they are, what they’re doing, so on and so forth, that they don’t recognize that, hey, if you just did a little more extra to get a certification or a little more extra to get a degree behind your name, it actually can.

Make you more money. So, uh, how this kind of happened in real life was one of my clients, very, very talented, um, at his job as an electrician for a company. And I said, have you ever thought about asking your company, um, to pay for your electrical certification? And he never thought about that. And so I said, that is absolutely what you need to do.

It’s right in line. With what you’re already doing. So the chances of them saying yes is pretty high. And then also you could use that certification to do work outside of the company as long as you know it doesn’t conflict. And he went and asked, and lo and behold, boom. They said, sure. Go ahead. Um, we would love to sponsor this for you.

So now he’s able to get an electrical certification, um, and be certified in it so that way he can take that skill and knowledge and make more money. So all of that to say, highly recommend looking at what type of certifications or degrees are eligible, um, available, sorry, not eligible, available in your field.

And then see, Okay, what are some steps that I can take to get there? I had a client that loved doing hair. She decided that she wanted to get her hair, um, certification went ahead and did that. Now she’s making a lot more money than, you know, when she was just doing hair out of her house. Uh, for me, for instance, when I was in hr, I negotiated, which I’ll talk about a little later.

For HR certification. That helped propel me to the next position. So just think about what type of certifications or degrees are available that you can acquire and that can potentially help you out in a big way. Second, I wanted to bring up networking. Now you might be thinking, okay, Tiffany, I know I need to network, but hear me out.

Networking is crucial to advancing your career. Especially in a, um, I guess kind of expedited way. I network my little heart out wherever I am. I love networking. Now, not everybody’s an extrovert like me, which I completely understand, but just as simple as asking your friends and family, Hey, you know, um, you know, if they’re in a position that you would love to have, do an informational interview, or if they know someone that’s in a position that you would love to have.

Say, Hey, can you connect us so we can do an informational interview? Check out LinkedIn if there’s a company that you really, really wanna work for. I had actually had a student do this. She really, really wanted to work for Disney cuz she loved illustrating. She went to LinkedIn, she found somebody that worked at Disney doing illustrations and did an informational interview.

What that did for her was open up the door for internship, right? Because they’re like, oh, this person’s really interested in the field, really interested in getting to know what I do. Let me see. Give them a shot firsthand. And so you never know what type of opportunities will arise just from networking with people.

A lot of positions, um, that I’ve held, not just in career, but outside of career, just, um, you know, Being on boards or what have you all came from networking. So I stress this so much with my students and I’m stressing it now. It doesn’t matter how old you are, get out there and network, um, that can open the door for new opportunities for you.

Um, I also, along that same line, wanna point out, seeking out mentorship and coaching. One of the reasons why I progressed in my career so fast is that I had a mentor that was coaching me, teaching me the way, right? Um, her passion was to teach other black males and females, you know, with degrees and stuff, how to navigate the corporate arena.

And guess what? I navigated it. Perfectly. She said that I’m one of her best students, but I didn’t know what I didn’t know. And it wasn’t until I soughted out her mentorship and she decided to mentor me and coach me through the process that helped me out. So please, if you, it doesn’t matter where you are in your career, there’s always someone that’s a step ahead of you, or there’s always someone that can help you make it to the next step.

Seek out. Who those mentors are, even if you wanted to change careers. Um, mentorship is, I consider it crucial to career success, um, or business success. So make sure you’re seeking out those mentors and coaches. And I actually have quite a bit of people that, um, mentor. Under me or purchase my business consulting.

And I love helping small business owners or people that are in careers kind of navigate, um, you know, maybe pay raises and things like that. But you have to reach out to these people. Now, I will. Put a word of caution out there. Not everybody’s meant to be your mentor. So even if there’s someone that you really, really love and you’re like, oh my gosh, I really, really want, you know, to do this with this person, it’s okay if they say no, find someone else cuz what you don’t want is someone that’s really not.

Into mentoring you or really into coaching you along. Um, and they just, you know, just doing it because you ask them, you want somebody that’s gonna be really invested into your success. So make sure that you’re seeking out the right mentorship. I’ll go ahead and add that in the right mentorship. Um, and that can help you tremendously.

Also I wanna add, taking on extra responsibilities at work. Now you have to be careful with this cuz you need, you know, work life balance. Um, but I will say it does make a difference when you know you’re. Manager or the company sees that you are like, you know what? I wanna lead this project, or I wanna join this committee.

Um, so on and so forth. Or volunteering for different things. People notice that stuff. And I know somebody might be listening, like, Tiffany, I don’t even like these people. I don’t wanna do any extra, like, I’m already showing up. You mean I have to do extra? But honestly, when you take on the role of. What’s considered entrepreneurship, and if you wanna learn more about that term, I did a whole article on it on my website.

I’ll make sure I put a link in the show notes. But when you take on that mentality of entrepreneurship, actually treating that job like it was your own, then people will notice that. And not only will they notice that you will be rewarded in. Some cases, I’m not gonna say all cases, but you’ll be rewarded for that.

Um, which brings me to my next point. And you need to have a career advancement toolkit. So what is a career advancement toolkit that is something that showcases your accomplishments, um, strengthens your value proposition? You know, you wanna learn how to negotiate your salary or hourly rate, and it allows you to identify career growth opportunities.

So the first thing I wanted to, um, highlight with that is that showcase your accomplishments. One downfall that I see people do when they’re at a job, or even when they are their own business owner, is that they never showcase their accomplishments. They don’t keep a record of any achievements they’ve had positive.

Feedback, recognitions, awards, so on and so forth. So when it comes time for the annual review, or if it comes time to where a client reaches out, like, Hey, have you done this before? You have no idea. And so what I like to do, so when I was in corporate, I kept a list. I kept a list of everything that I achieved in that year.

So that way when op. Um, not open enrollment. When, um, reviews came around, I knew exactly what I did and I showcased my value, and they could, I, I always received the highest pay raise available because I showcased my value. I told them how valuable I was to this. Organization, and this is what I did. This is the information to back it up.

Now that I’m an entrepreneur, I do the same thing. I keep a record of everywhere I’m featured, I keep a record of all of the positive feedback I receive. And you know what that does? It helps other people make a determination about me. So I’ve gotten clients because they’re like, oh, I know this person and they referred me to you.

Or, oh, I saw you know, your Google reviews and. That’s why I made the decision. So make sure that you are collecting and keeping a record regardless of whether you’re in corporate working at a manufacturer. So it doesn’t matter. Whatever it is that you’re doing, keep a record of the wins that you have, so that way when it comes time to negotiate, which you know I’ll hit on a little bit.

When it comes to negotiate, you have all of your data, you have all of your information in a row, and it’s gonna be hard for them to say no. Okay, so make sure that you keep a record of that stuff. Also make sure that you can articulate what your unique skills, experience, expertise is. Make sure you are telling them what you bring to the table, even if it’s something that you do outside of work or outside of your business, you’re volunteering.

How does that translate to what you’re doing? In your current role and make sure that you can articulate that. What does that look like? Even if you volunteer and you’re serving food for the homeless, right. How does that, and sorry, don’t mean homeless unsheltered. How does that. Translate to your current role.

To give you an example, I could say I serve Food to the unsheltered is one of my passion projects. And the reason that that translates over to what I do now is because I care about the people I care about, whether they have food on their table, I. Um, am one of the people that organized this. So it shows my leadership ability.

I know that I’m a good leader because I’m able to manage a kitchen full of let’s say five or six people as we do this. And so that’s how you can kind of articulate, you know, even if it’s unrelated experience, skills translate. So keep that in mind. When it comes to negotiating, make sure I did a whole article on negotiation tips.

I think I put like 15 in there. So go check that out. I’ll make sure it’s in the show notes. But when it comes to negotiation, make sure you’re doing your research. Make sure that you’re being prepared to present your case, um, based on your research. Your accomplishments, your skills, so on and so forth. It doesn’t matter if you’re in career, doesn’t matter if you’re a business owner, it’s the same thing.

You still have to showcase what your value is and you can negotiate even as a business owner. What your pay is gonna be. So keep that in mind. And I’m not gonna go into too depth, too much depth with that cuz I did with the article. I’ll just put in the show notes. But check that out, y’all. I don’t care what you’re doing.

Check that out. Because I was dropping so many gems on how I negotiate and it’s something that you definitely wanna tap into. All right, so I know this episode is going a little long, so I’ll go ahead and wrap up. But really y’all just make sure that you’re doing your continuing education. You know, there’s a saying where it says, uh, the person that knows that, thinks they know everything, knows nothing at all.

Always be learning. Always be learning. It’s so important to learn on a daily basis. And even if you have a mentor, you are teaching that mentor. And the mentor is teaching you. It’s a, an, it’s an exchange. And so you’re doing these exchanges on a daily basis. Just make sure that you keep your. Mind open enough to intake the information that is coming to you.

Don’t go into situations where you’re like, oh, well I already know this. I already know that I already know this. Once you do that, you’re blocking off any of the good tidbits that you could have received. So make sure that you’re always educating yourself, whether it be in interactions, whether it be with books, whether it be with movies, it doesn’t matter.

Um, everything around us plays a role in education. Make sure that you’re also understanding your market trends. So is your career, you know, or what technologies are coming out that could interfere with your career or help your career. So, to give you an example of how I use that in business, you know, ai, everybody’s talking about ai and they’re like, oh my gosh, AI is gonna take over.

It’s gonna take jobs. It’s, you know, gonna do this, do that. I’m using AI to help my business, you know, and so you can take the route of, oh, the sky is falling, or you can look at these new trends and these new technologies and say, okay, how can I leverage this for myself versus trying to combat against it?

Um, so highly recommend that. Also make sure you expand your reach. So to give you an example of how this played out in business, when I first started, I was like, oh, I only wanna help, you know, these certain people that do this certain thing, and so on and so forth. But come to find out the people that come to me, um, don’t fit any of those boxes that I had previously.

And so just thinking outside of. Who you think your target market is? Um, it may can look. Many different ways. And so just keep your mind open to that. And like I said before, upscale, constantly identify gaps in your skillset and work to fill them by learning new tools, techniques, and approaches that can make you more versatile and valuable in your role, whether it’s a small business owner or whether it’s in career.

Make sure you are upskilling. There is always a gap. It’s up to you to identify where those gaps are. I know where my gaps are. One of them is sales. Okay. But guess what? I have been intentionally getting books from the library, learning more about sales, learning more about marketing a little more, you know, just doing things to kind of fill that gap because I know that although.

I don’t love it. It’s something that I have to do in order to run my business. And even if I decide to hire somebody to do sales, I still need to know the basics so that way I can be well prepared if they have any questions or if, um, you know, so nobody can get over on me as well. So, Always upscale constantly.

So I know I gave you a lot to think about, but I wanted to thoroughly answer the question of how can I attract or make more money? And these are some ideas and some ways that you can do so. So if you want your question answered on the podcast, go to www.moneytalkwitht.com/tiffany, and I’ll be more than happy to answer for you.

So until next time. Bye.

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