Welcome to the first episode of my new series about underearning! I will not allow you to make less than your worth. Let’s make a goal for 2024 to leverage earning potential and get the salary your experience, expertise, and knowledge demands.
The root cause of under-earning is a mindset block. You aren’t earning more because you aren’t asking for more. But breaking free from under-earning isn’t just about asking for a raise. It’s about confronting the fears that hold us back, like the fear of hearing “no.” Rejection is part of the journey but also a stepping stone towards growth. Surrounding yourself with people who uplift and support your financial goals and building a financial safety net will also give you the confidence to ask for a raise.
Throughout this series, I’ll dive deeper into each aspect of under-earning and how to overcome it. It’s time to stop settling and start making the money you deserve!
Stay tuned for insights on these topics:
- [02:40] Keina’s experience asking for and earning more
- [07:15] You don’t earn more because you don’t ask for more
- [07:23] Find your number
- [09:19] Fear of hearing no
- [12:37] You have a broke money team
- [15:51] Building an emergency fund
Tune into this episode of Money Files to learn how to break free from mindset blocks, confront fears, and get the salary you deserve.
Are you ready to start asking for help with your finances? Apply to work with me, and let’s start working towards your financial goals.
IF YOU LOVED THIS CONVERSATION ON, THREE SHIFTS YOU NEED TO STOP UNDEREARNING, CHECK OUT MY EPISODE ON HOW TO STOP ALLOWING YOURSELF TO UNDEREARN!
Transcript for “Three Shifts You Need To Stop Underearning”
Intro: Hi and welcome to Money Files. I’m Keina Newell from Wealth Over Now. I work everyday with professional women and solopreneurs to help them get out of financial overwhelm and shame so they can experience more flexibility and ease with their finances. Are you ready to gain confidence and learn to manage your finances intentionally? Tune in and grab financial tips that will help you master the way you think about and manage your finances.
Keina: Hello and welcome back to another episode of Money Files. So we’re going to talk about something today that is very near and dear to my heart and I’m actually going to expand it into a series. I want to talk about underearning and I see so many of my clients who are underearning and they could already be making six figures, but I still would say that they’re underearning. And if you work with me, we cannot be okay with underearning. I won’t allow you to be okay with underearning. And sometimes there is a block in terms of managing your money because literally you don’t have enough money there and you could be making more in order to help you pay off some debt or save more money. And sometimes it’s like literally looking at your salary and being able to point out like you’re underearning right now.
And I have clients where I’ve said to them like, can I be really honest with you? You need to make more money, but not just like a $5,000 pay increase, but I’m looking at your salary and I know that you’re underearning, given your age, given the things that you’re telling me you do in your role and we need to fix what’s happening. And what comes up generally is a lot of gunk and you’re like, Keina, what’s gunk? Just thoughts about what it would take to earn more money. So one of the gifts that I love to give to clients is just simply the thought that they can earn more because someone gave me that gift. So I want to be able to pay that forward. You’ve probably heard me talk about on other podcasts how I came out of education and in education the thought is that educators aren’t paid that well.
I think that’s a similar thought in the nonprofit space. A lot of people in the nonprofit space are generally underearning and they’re martyrs to the field and they’re like, yes, but you know I’m doing good work and I don’t need to be paid in order to do good work. Like that’s one of the things that I hear a lot. And when I got out of education, I was making about 115, $120,000 as a vice principal. I worked in DC. And in DC I would say like educators for the most part are paid pretty well. But also as an educator, what’s true, generally speaking, I mean I worked in charter schools, so at the time salary wasn’t as transparent. But what was really transparent is as you look in other school systems, is that you basically can look and pull out a sheet that tells you, you are a certain step, you have a certain number of years and you kind of know what you’re going to be making that next year.
It’s like a stair step, like generally speaking in the charter school role that I was in, like there would be a general like cost of living adjustment. I probably made my biggest increase in my pay when I went from being a teacher to a vice principal. And guys, I only got that increase not because of being a vice principal or being a teacher to being a vice principal, but I had to open my mouth and say something because I can’t remember the exact numbers, but I have a master’s and I was being paid, like I said, fairly well as a teacher. I was making upwards of $80,000 at the time. And I can’t remember the exact offer that I got from my boss, but it was a couple of thousand dollars more. And I remember saying to him excuse me, basically like, do you know how much I get paid? I genuinely do not understand why I would leave the classroom, which I loved to become a vice principal to only make like 3 to $5,000 more, like that was the conversation.
And my boss at the time, he wasn’t really actually aware of how much I made, which totally makes sense. And that’s just simply because he’s not HR. Sometimes people just don’t know how much you make. So because I said something and ended up earning more money and they started me at a different place as I went from teacher to vice principal. But if I hadn’t have been willing to speak up for myself and just like been complacent and been like, oh, I should be so grateful, like some of these age old stories that some of you are probably telling yourself or you’ve heard, then I would’ve just accepted the status quo as I moved from being a teacher to being a vice principal.
But when I left my role as a vice principal and I went into business for myself, I remember my first goal, I want to even expand it like it was my first goal, but it was kind of like the cornerstone of it all that I was like, I just need to replace my salary. And in my thinking it had a period on it like I just need to replace my salary period. And I was talking to someone and she asked me a simple question of like what happens if you earn more? And that brought up for me just like a flood of things that I hadn’t ever considered because I don’t know what would happen if I earned more. And so it has definitely, it’s impacted the work that I do with clients in terms of underearning because I need people to know the answer. What happens if you earn more?
And this is even in a position as a W2 employee. Because when you ask yourself that question, it’s going to bring up thoughts and feelings that you have about your own earning potential that you need to be able to process because those are the things that are getting in the way. They’re basically like barricades and they’re preventing you from being able to move forward into the other side to earn more money. And it could be that you realize that your parents have told you some things about earning more, you maybe have some thoughts, whatever it is, but like something is there. So I want you to know that I believe that you don’t have the amount of money that you want to make simply because you are not asking. And you have not because you ask not.
And there are a couple of reasons that you’re not asking. And the first one is kind of what I’ve already been talking about is that you only believe what’s in front of you. So you can identify this in your life if you’re like, this is the most I’ve ever made. It took me a lot to make this much. People in my area, in my field, they don’t make that much money. And so like you’ve given yourself a ceiling or I just got in this role, I hear this one a lot, I just got this role, I just got to this company. And so if I ask you to have a conversation about earning more, you believe you can’t ask to earn more because you just got there. And so no, you have to be able to call yourself out on your own mess. You are the only reason that you’re not earning more. You are the only reason that you’re underearning and you don’t have what you want because you’re not willing to ask.
And the solution if you’re like, okay, I am one of those people that I’m only believing, it’s like right here in front of me. The exercise that I want you to do is I want you to find your number. Your number is like what is the amount of money that you want to make annually? I want you to ignore the mess in your brain and I want you to know, like you could be, maybe you’re at 115 and you’re like, you know what? My number would be like 140,000. Ignore the mess in your brain that’s telling you you can’t make 140 because I can show you three people who have what you want. That’s the crazy part is that people tell me they can’t make certain amounts of money. And I’m like, I have clients that make $300,000. I have clients that make $200,000. Guess what? They’re actually not stressed. They look pretty happy to me.
And so you affirm for yourself that you can’t make more money because of the fact that you go around telling yourself, this is the most I’ve ever made before. It took me a lot to get here. People in my area and field, you put that ceiling on yourself. So I need you to find your number and I need you to just be thinking about like what if I could make 140? What if I could make 200? Just sit with that number in curiosity. So that’s one reason that you don’t have what you want because you ask not.
The second thing, the reason that you have not because you ask not is because you’re afraid of hearing no. I had a beautiful conversation with one of my friends this morning and she’s like, oh my goodness, this makes sense. And I was actually telling her that my friend DL, and she’s also my business coach, we were talking about, I was complimenting DL and I was telling her, I was like, oh my goodness, you are so smart. And she was like, I’m actually not smart. I am just really quick. Like when I think of an idea, I implement it. When I think of an idea, I implement it, like I find solutions really quickly. And that made a lot of sense to me. And I was thinking about how my friend and I, we were talking about how in some areas of our life we think we’re quick people, but how are we not as quick as we think we are?
Because someone else, like we were actually saying that we are not afraid to hear no.
But we were talking about the fact that someone else is willing to hear more nos than we’re willing to hear. So maybe we’re willing to hear no every 90 days, like if we actually looked at our data, but what if we changed it to being willing to hear no every single month or every single week we were willing to hear no. Because the more nos that you get to, the closer you’re going to get to yesses or the closer you’re going to get to being able to shift something in the process that you need to be able to tweak and just think about, like if you have this salary and this goal in mind for how much you want to make, but you’re afraid to hear no, I want you to think about what if hearing no is a good thing. What if hearing no actually accelerates your progress because you hear no like at one door and it’s going to show you a different door to go through.
So what you are probably afraid of is that you’re going to hear no. And then what you’re going to go do is sit on the curb and I’m like, okay, get up off the curb, thank you. Dust your shoes off and go through another door. There are multiple doors in front of you and so just really being able to lean into the nos. So you’re someone who recognizes that you’re afraid of hearing, no, I want you to get more nos. I want you to actively seek nos. You’re going to be surprised how many yeses you get during this process, which is going to impact just how you view life, how you view yourself. And the thing you have to question is what do I make the no mean about me? What do I make the no mean about myself and my ability? That’s the thing you need to process.
You can take that to your therapist, you can bring it to me in coaching, but like what are you making it mean about yourself when you hear the no? And so this week I want you to focus on getting more nos. I want you to build time into your calendar to get a no. I want you to apply to a new role and I want you to be willing to hear no. I want you to ask your supervisor about opportunities for growth in your company and be willing to hear no, I want you to ask your supervisor about how you can get closer to the salary that you guys discussed in your last performance review in the next six months. And I want you to be willing to hear, no. I want you to be willing to apply to a job that just opened up within your company that you know you would be perfect for. And I need you to be willing to hear, no.
I want you to ask to be compensated for the extra work that you’re doing while two or three coworkers are out and I want you to be willing to hear no. I want you to also share with two to three mentors that you are open for employment and name the role and the salary range that you desire. And I want you to be willing to hear that they don’t know of anything. But I want you to be willing to hear no, the faster you can get through your no, you’re going to get to a yes and you’re going to identify and shift like a plan that you have and we’re going to stop being an under earner. The third thing is that the reason you have not because you asked not, is that you have a broke money team.
You have a broke money team. I have a whole podcast on the value of a money team. But you listen to other broke people, it’s similar to you telling yourself like this is the most I’ve ever earned. It took me a lot to get this job. And so maybe you actually, you’re like, Keina, I have identified how much money I want to make. And someone told me I can’t make $140,000 in the state I live in, the field that I’m in. And so fire that person from your money team. They’re broke. And I’m not telling you like the one who’s giving you like really sound advice where maybe you live in the boonies, people just aren’t making $140,000. No, I am talking about the one who has some messed up money mindset. And when you share your hopes and dreams with them, they immediately crush them.
They need to be fired from your team. They are not allowed to give you advice at all. Don’t ask them nothing. They’re broke. They are broke and they’re keeping you broke. So you have to edit your money team and you need to build a new one. And so the easiest way to do that, you’re like Keina I don’t know nobody, okay, cool. I want you to like add a new podcast in your ears. Maybe you listen to my podcast every week. That’s great. What’s another podcast that you can listen to where people are talking about career shifts or people are talking about doubling their income? Like where can you have a new input? Is there a book that you can either read or listen to on audible that’s going to inspire you when you think about earning more money?
Two of my favorite books are You’re a Bad Ass At Making Money by Jen Sincero. I read that one years ago when I was struggling with my own belief to earn More. And the second book is Overcoming Underearning. Those are both two really good books. I’ll make sure that we link those in the comments as well. But you have a broke money team and so you gotta actually edit your money team and build a new one. So the step I’m giving you to build that new money team, it’s like actually going to some resources that are going to provide you with some new thoughts, provide you with some new feelings about your ability to earn more. And they’re going to make you question what you believe right now. So I’m going to dive deeper into each of these three areas in this series, but I want you to know that you have not because you asked not.
And so we’re going to be asking, this is the year of the ask. In a year from now we’re going to be making more money. I realized that one of the things that probably held me back the most when I’m thinking about my career in education is that I got comfortable and I put on blinders. And don’t get me wrong guys, I loved the work I did. I loved the people that I worked with, but those are also the things that held me back and didn’t keep my eyes elevated to different opportunities that I wanted to take advantage of. And so I’m sure some of you can relate to that where like you just have on binders, you’re comfortable. So this year we’re shaking up some discomfort and intentionally leaning into discomfort. And yeah, like I said, I’ll dive more into that. Oh, hold on, I got to circle back. I forgot something really, really important.
So when I was talking to you in the second step about being afraid of hearing, no, the last thing I was going to say, and I meant to add on to this, is that you need to build your emergency fund. That’s another solution to not be afraid of hearing no. And the reason I say that is because when you got money in the bank, you are not going to be worried about whether or not you can negotiate a job. You’re not going to be worried whether or not am I going to lose my job if they say no? Like those are some irrational thoughts sometimes that we have. I don’t want to seem greedy and I don’t want to seem ungrateful. Those are the thoughts that come into your head. But when you got money in the bank, you ain’t got nothing to risk. When I was talking to my boss about the fact like, hey, why would I be a teacher to vice principal? I didn’t care if he said no. If he had said no, I’d have been like, well, I’m going to stay in the classroom. It financially doesn’t make sense for me to move.
And I wasn’t worried about losing my job because I was a good teacher and I can go and work somewhere else. I had that level of confidence because I’m able to manage my finances well. When you got money in the bank, you could be a peacock, like you can feel more confident. And that doesn’t even have to be a lot of money in the bank, but just when you know you have the confidence to manage your finances, you are going to be more comfortable leaning into these discussions because you are not going to be thinking about like if I lose my job, because I ask about getting paid more then I’m not going to be able to pay my bills. And I’m pretty sure you’re not going to lose your job by asking to be paid more. But it’s where your brain goes because it’s insecure about your finances and it’s the number one thing holding you back. It’s also why you need to hire me because we don’t have time to be scared and to continue underearning because we’re scared of hearing no. And it all comes back to like you don’t have what you want because you’re unwilling to ask.
Alright, so this is for real the end of the podcast, and thank you so much for tuning in this week. If this podcast snatched your [17:56 inaudible], hit you in your soul, you feel like I was on your Alexa, share it with someone, you can tag me on Instagram if you share it on Instagram. And thank you so much for tuning in and I look forward to talking to you next week. Have a good one.
Outro: Thank you so much for listening to Money Files. If you’re ready to take the next step to reach your financial goals, head to www.wealthovernow.com/appointment and let’s get started.
