It's time for the big a q A, the big a q A, which is saying the Big a q eight with Manda, the b a q A with Ti Today the b a q a A, It's time for Brown a Vision, the question and answers. You have questions, we have some answers. We are your smart, savvy, beautiful if I do say so myself, and I just to say myself financial friends, but we're not your attorney, we're
not your financial advisors. So certainly leaning to people that you pay for the next level advice and just take what we say with a grain of salts.
Get your salt shakers out. We should make ba branded salt shakers.
So we got some really good questions.
We're doing career questions today, So for Brown A Vision b a q A. You know we take career questions, personal finance questions, business questions, and so we've got some career questions that I write up at Mandress.
So I'm excited to dive in.
Oh can I say a quick shout out because I just remember remember our fave Kevin Kas with wife and with the wife. Yes, and if you guys, I think we had it done a whole ba qa dedicated to Kevin and his wife, but the whole family is now into BA now because he DMed me to let me know that he signed his daughter up again. Kevin always meddling the woman in his lives, but he's signed his daughter up for my negotiating master class. Like, I just want to know she's going to be there. Here's her name.
I'm good for you.
Kevin's like, yeah, he's doing what's he's doing, Like the last episode of Like, I'm just walking in your house to make sure you're good.
You're like, uh, okay, we'll take care of myself.
Thanks, But no, I mean I love it though, because Kevin just wants what's best with the women in his lives.
But but I love this one.
Women to win, all right, But let's get into these questions. There's some juicy, juicy ones you want to read. The first one to.
City Floor says, Hey, Mandy aunt Tiphony, I so love your podcast. Y'all got me crying and leafing at the same time. Yes, I listen to every one of your podcasts. I would love to see you guys live, like on a book tour or Smiley face. My question, flast decision is that I need some advice that I need some advice on is this. I was recently offered a new job at a reputable and stable been around since the eighteen hundred type of stable private company that also offers
an annual bonus, stock options, and yearly pay increase. I get none of these perks at my current job, sadly, and it would be a ten thousand dollars increase from my current salary.
Sounds awesome.
My issue is that I am thirty seven years old and I'm planning to have a baby soon, hopefully get pregnant before the end of the year. Would it be unwise of me to take this new job because I missed out on FMLA benefits because I wouldn't be at the job for a year before giving birth. Or should I stay at my current job and have the stability and peace of mind knowing that I'll QUI for FMLA and keep my job post pregnancy leave. Please help with
lots of love and appreciation. City floor translates to city flower cute.
First of all, our country is trash. Why do we still not offer I like, why do we still not offer family parental leave just as a blanket policy? I just have no idea, and thank you City Floor for reminding me how trash our policy is. Because even with a Family Medical Leave Act Act, you do need to work at a place for a year to qualify, and even then, all you're qualifying for is twelve weeks of
unpaid leave and some job security. So I'm guessing at her current job and this new job, they don't offer any like of their own maternal leave benefits, So they don't give you any kind of paid family leave.
Like they're good, yeah, if you just compare to some of the stuff they don't offer, like the bonus in the stock options that sounds like this place doesn't is very bare bones.
Yeah, So I'm trying to like work out the timing here. I mean, you, it takes nine months to cook a baby, that's simple. You could wait a few months, you know, and and you may want to just wait a few months to kind of get your feet under you at this new job. But then I feel like if you start after a few months, then you're pretty much guaranteed unless the baby comes early. I mean, who it's hard to plan around a pregnancy because it's so much of it as out of our control, right, But to that extent.
You could wait a few months. I know you're thirty seven, you're still I mean, I'm thirty five too, so I know it's in that geriatric pregnancy phase. And I don't know anything about your I know, right, I don't know anything about your fertility journey or if you've had struggles getting pregnant. But you know it may take longer than
a few months to get pregnant. Unless you married a Dominican like me, there is no try there's only do you know, you say we're gonna try instant pregnancy any but yeah, so you could wait a few months and then start trying, and then you know you'll be around that year mark. There's there's better benefits though, the annual bonus, you have stock options, you get a yearly pay increase, a ten k increase from your current salary. It's difficult. I think you're just going to have to choose how
you want to gamble it. But if you do choose to go to the new job, regardless, even if you did qualify for the FMLA, you'd still have to be bankrolling your own attorney leap. It sounds like so you'd want to start putting aside the funds now and figuring out how much time do I want to give myself off? Hopefully it's that full twelve weeks. Even the Lord knows we need more? Yeah, and how much? How much is your noodle budget? Right, so Tiffany go to Tiffany's noodle budget,
like what do you guys need? Although it's like noodle plus a baby budget? So more, I want your noodle budget with me because pampers ain't cheap, and start, you know, start to like plan ahead to see, okay, how much would you need to set aside? And hey, maybe with that with uh, if you could ask for a signing bonus. I know that they offer an annual bonus, but maybe
there's still time. I don't know when this job offer came through, maybe you could still ask for a bit of a signing bonus and kind of bank that to go toward your maternity leave fund. But dang, I just hate that we don't we don't do better for our our working families out there, especially mothers. This family because this company could miss out and a badass woman because
they don't. They don't recognize that we are whole human beings who want to have families and don't make it possible for us to do both relatively easily.
The only thing I'm going to add, just because because Mandy cover basically everything, is that I just want to commend you for understanding that family planning is also financial planning. You know, unless you're like sixteen, you're like, uh, you know.
And so like you know that.
You know, as an adult, you know, as you're planning your family, you want to be intentional about Okay, you know that. I mean, certainly you know you don't know what your fertility journey to mandy'scot is going to be, but you do know my financial journey is going to have to support whatever my fertility journey is. And so I'm just going to commend you for just thinking these things through, because not to say people just have babies don't think about it. Certainly people do, but I don't
think people realize just the amount of planning. Because the truth is, I'm sure Mandy could tell you could plan, plan, plan, and the baby gets here and it's like, wait, you know, like some of the best laces plans go out the window because things are more.
Expensive than you think. You know, there are things you didn't even think of.
It's like there's a favorite quote that says everyone has a plan until you get punched in the face, you know, And I feel like you know in some ways you know you have your baby, especially if it's your first, it's a punch in the face. So I just want to say that that, like, you know, continue to make those plans, like Mandy said, stack up as much as you can. It might be time to ask yourself, are the things we can do to downsize to leave a little more space for money, But certainly having a child
that you desire to have is a blessing. And so I wouldn't wait on anybody's job or whatever to dictate that, you know, because one of the things I've heard from every single mama is that you find a way. You know, you find a way. Not to say it's easy, but you find a way. And so we wish you luck on the on the baby journey and the financial journey and city floor continue to bloom.
And I will just give you peace of mind that like you were able to get another job opportunity, and there will be other ones, you know, if you're if that's what you want, a better job opportunity, and so if you decide listen, with my tolerance for risk and my stress levels, I just want to have something that I know for sure, like the devil that you know. And you want to state where you are because you have the benefit and like you said, you have that
relative job security. There's no shame in that, you know what I mean. It's really just down to every decision is a little bit of a gamble, So what can you tolerate and working that out if you have a partner, and settling on what's best for you and your family. But I wish you all the best, like Tiffany said, and thank you so much for sending us your question. But yeah, back to our country being trash, I don't understand. Okay, let's take a quick breaking break and we'll be right
back with question number two. This was a long and juicy one. Y'all do not want to miss this. Okay, all right, we got a big question. How do I even approach this? Just repart one?
First?
Yes, but I well, I think read it through and they will break it down. But maybe I'm nervous about this might be her own name, so let's call her something else because this is very specific and she's.
Young, so I don't want to refer to her as b okay. B okay.
Yeah, she says, refer to me as be okay And this is from a young and so we want to take good care of you oka b B says, Hey, ladies, I'm twenty three years old and your podcast and book Tiffany have been essential in helping me navigate the financial part of adulting tremendously. Thank you for all your tips and tricks. Will you refer to me as b Yes. So here's the thing. I am a full full time
graphic designer at a small creative agency. Recently, I went in for my six month review and I received a raise. During this meeting with my boss, however, I found out she's only been paid me based on a thirty six thousand dollars salary, but I didn't agree to that. I agreed to thirty eight thousand dollars when I moved into
a full time role from my internship. I explicitly remembered taking the weekend to think about it and counter offering with a number closer to forty two K. She ultimately offered me thirty eight K and agreed to bump me up to forty K. When my review came up. It's only a two K difference, but it's bothering me because I would have never agreed to thirty six k because after doing the math, it was less than what she
paid me as an intern. Okay, my question is, and this is the first part of a question, should I ask for back pay and proof of the now forty K salary so I don't get bamboozled again?
Yes, yes, immediately.
Yes.
My first response is like, where's the where's the receipts? You know this? Please tell me there is paperwork like you had an offer letter, the letter, Yes, there was some sort of agreement that you had to sign that you mails, Yeah, even emails, any kind of paper trail that you can find. I'm also wondering did she acknowledge that she had screwed up in the review cycle.
It sounds like she might not have brought it up. It sounds like she probably was like, you know, you said the kind of stunned. It sounds like maybe B was like, wait, yeah, you know so B.
I feel like in this situation, I think if you're someone like me to be able to write down like your own timeline of events and offer the receipts and then present that to your boss as hey, you know, after our six month review, I started to get confused. So I just wanted to write down my recollections and the documentation that I have of our earlier agreement to
my salary. I understand, Like, maybe you can even throw her a little bit of a you know, a bone and be like, I understand sometimes clerical error, clerical oracles, clerical error errors can happen, but I expect to be compensated for backpay because I have not been paid according
to the salary that we agreed upon. And you should see what she says, and then, honestly, if the response is no, I think you have I think you have all the rights to contact an employment law attorney, and I would say, based on your age and your salary level, maybe they'd even offer you like pro bono advice or pro bono help. Sometimes you don't even need to like
go with a full fledged lawsuit. Just a letter from an attorney showing that they're going to have, like you know that you have some legal advice on your side could be enough to get them to get their shit together, you know, like anything you would add to that.
Yeah, also too, this like, oh my god, she's so young, the fact that she said, should I ask for proof of my now forty thousand case? The thing is, yes, that's just standard, like so many said, Like so for example, when someone signs on with me, even if it's just a contractor there's a contract in place where it says, you know, this is how much you're going to make. This is you know, like you get paid every you know, first and the fifteenth or whatever that there's a contract
in place. So one, there's an offer letter, depending on what type of if it's a full time or part time employee, you get an offer letter, but at the very least, on top of that, you also get a contract because we have to be you know, we have to legally be binding and so but I get it because it's a very small business, and if I'm being honest, we didn't start doing that until maybe like five years ago. So ten years in we were just flying like this
small business is doing. So I'm not even shading them because I get it, but you should ask, like, hey, you know, one, i'd love an offer letter for this, and then two, is there a contract for my for my my forty thousand so that's not something extra, just so you know, moving forward, always, always, always, at the very least, they should be a contract in place.
So yeah, and that contract should explicitly state here's your annual compensation, and then here's what it is on a bi weekly basis. So it should say here's what you can't expect to get paid, you know, on your paycheck, just to make it abundantly clear. So let's go to part two of her question, because there's more Now for the next part, she says, this review came a few weeks earlier because I disclosed to her that I was applying for a freelance position, unaware that she doesn't want
us freelancing. On the side, she mentioned there's a non compete agreement, but I never signed one with her, though I know her disapproval for me freelancing. I am tight on cash. No shit, you're only making peanuts, Okay. I live alone and I pay nine to seventy five in rent. Downsizing isn't an option because of the benefits of my current place stabilize, rent payment flexibility, et cetera. Long story short,
I need more money. Since she's not willing to supplement the money I would be making with freelance work and I don't want to serve tables anymore because it's demeaning, straining, and not to mention, I have a degree I could be putting to use morally, should I continue to freelance? Discreetly? Sorry for the long message. I hope you can offer some clarity. Thank you for your time.
Oh baby, I know.
You need to get up on out of here, go to get all on about it. Are you a danger girl, b B You're in danger? Yeah, So I would make sure that your LinkedIn and you are applying and getting your name out there. I know there's tons of places that would love to work with a talented graphic designer,
plus you have a degree in that field. That being said, the thing is you should be working at a place that's going to compensate you fairly and compensate you and value you correctly so that you're not in a position where you need to be doing a lot of extra freelance work. And this whole non compete bullshit. I really take issue with that because as a journalist, it became more common that media sites would have us sign non compete agreements, which is really difficult because you know, you're
not in a field. We're getting paid a lot in the first place, and would they would like limit your potential for additional income. And I have a friend who just quit a huge job at Bloomberg because they would not allow her to make any money using her skills as a financial journalist.
I know what it is. I talked to her.
You know what, everyone knows who that is.
I was like, wait, a bite, that's.
So yeah, so yeah, So I think if this is going to become a recurring theme for you as you go through working full time as a graphic designer, Unfortunately, there's not much we can do as long as we want to work full time. If a company has a non compete, you know they can enforce it. It doesn't sound like you actually signed one with this company. You say that you didn't, So I would say, she can't
stop you. I would continue doing it discreetly. Also, honestly, you need to make ends meet, and like you said, you need to actually use your Like if you had a choice between waiting tables or using your degree and building your skill set to bring an additional income, Hell, yeah, you should be doing that. So I mean I fully support you continuing different lands. I just wouldn't. I just wouldn't, you know, tell her that you're doing it and be
as discreed as you can. And on top of that, i'd we start making moves so that you can move on to a new firm, leverage the experience you have. You're already interning with her, now you're working full time for six months. You probably have a year's worth of experience at this point, you know, and move on to a new role that is going to pay you better hopefully, and like actually have their documentation in place so that they can't propose to you like this, because.
I'll say, like this, so so here over at budget these to ink right.
We do have a non compete, but it's non compete, like you can't do this for a similar company, not that you can't do this at all. So if you like, say, run ads for us, you can run ads for anybody, but not also a financial a personal financial brand in this way, you know, because then you're like, you know, using all of our trade secrets to then do this for someone else.
So that's what our non compete.
That it's not that you can't work other places, it's just you can't work for a similar company like this, and I think, you know that makes sense. And I'll just say all this to say so one of my employees actually contacted me, and I was so proud of her. I said, many you would have been so proud of her. She was like, hey, you know, she got on my calendar and I think we're gonna talk about something else, and she was like, I just wanted to reach out
to you. I said, did you take Mandy's own networking class? Because you know, if I say her no, You're.
Like, oh, I love her.
She was like, so with the current, with inflation of happening, you know, the income that I'm making is not quite enough. So but I and I know I have to I have to have a second source of income. And so she was like, but I love working here, and so I have a couple of companies. She works at one company, and she's like, I would love to you know, if there is space. I've she's been helping out with my
other companies. She's like, I would love for that second source of income to come from you know, this other company, because I you know, I love working within the Budgetista family because either way, I have to make more money. She had a presentation broken down and I was like, okay, So I said in my head, I thought she was just thinking about it. I was like, do you have an idea of what you want to make? She's like, I actually do. I did a little market research about that.
I was so proud of it. I was like, does she take me in this class?
So she gave me this like presentation yes, with market research about like the range of how much da da da, And I just was like, but I've learned because old Tiffany just be saying yes, yes, that's the tificany slow down because one I have to ask the company of mine that she does work for, to ask that CEO like, you know, do you have the space I don't want to encroach, like if you're like, oh my gosh, we're drowning here.
And then too, because I was like hell yeah.
Then I also but I also asked my team, you know, is this is this a position that you're needing me while my team is like MirOS and Logan.
So I just asked Logan, I'm like, you need this girl, you know? She was like yes, girl. So I was like okay.
So I was like, I'm learning too that even when if it seems like this amazing opportunity that like to slow down. I said, I'll let you know by monday with you yesterday and then I said, you know, so I was like, I spoke to the other the.
Other CEO, I spoke to our team. Everyone's in agreement.
Now I'm just going to talk to finance, you know, and I'm going to share with her your you know, financial assessment, and then we're going to because sometimes what people do is when they make an assessment, they make this generalized assessment like I'm a CMO and this is what they make. Yes, but is it in the same industry, same business size, and so at the end of the day,
our numbers are our numbers, you know. So I said, I can't you know, so I'm going to ask my CFO today, can you take a look, And then I'll ask our HR person does this make sense?
And then I'll make current offer.
But one I just say all that to say that, like you see how that all work professionally, because then she'll get a nothing necessarily an offer letter, but she'll definitely get like a new contract with with you know, with with my company. To say, you know, in addition to this, you have this kind of like additional income, but you should be you should feel free to have those kind of conversations. There should be some sort of
like paper trail that comes along with it. And like, you know, you want people to value the things that you bring to the table. And so I just you know, you're really young, and I you know, I don't want you to be afraid to say, hey, should I get proof of what I'm getting paid? Absolutely, that's like that's that's the bars is in Its a zero for that.
And so we wish you well be and you know, and you're really young.
So I'm hoping too that you know, put your work out there, you know, and you know, honestly, send me an email, send me a link. Like you know, I'm tippy at the budget needs to send me a link to your stuff. Because sometimes we do have outside things like you know where I'm just like, oh, we need somebody to make that for us.
You know, you know, Mandy might need that too.
So one thing you'll learn with especially when you work with entrepreneurs, is that people tend to come to us and say, who do you use for this? I love this thing that was made and so like you know, join.
Entrepreneurs like designers.
What you're on high demand economy girl, everybody's a gigs out there.
Yes, I'm just like, who needs.
This kind of help?
I promise you could make more than thirty something just off freelancing if you got yourself out there. There's literally like a Facebook group. If you haven't, even though you're young, you're probably not on Facebook. Join. There's a group called build It Launch It holds it with Rsha Arsha Jones. And I like this group because it's full with entrepreneurs,
mostly women, and they're looking for people. And I would literally go into groups like this type in Graphic designer where people are saying they're looking for someone and then message them or say hey, I can do that, you know, like so I like I like doing that. So like it's I'm going to find you.
Build brand.
Let me see what is it with Arsha Build Okay brand, Build plus Launch with Arsha Jones. And it's literally tens of thousands of entrepreneurs and there's thirty five thousand, almost thirty six thousand members and almost all there I'm entrepreneurs. And if you type in the search bar graphic designer, I prompt you'll find work, and so we wish you well being like, you know, don't let them people take
advantage of you. You're young, but you're not foolish, and so sometimes people see youth and they want to take advantage like, no, that's not okay.
Yeah, absolutely, And this is a great learning opportunity for
you too, and a good learning lesson. Everyone's got to start somewhere, right, you're an intern, then you got paid kind of crappy money, like I had the same start in my career too, But it's just about how long are you going to stay there and allow them to continue to undervalue, right, So not any longer than you absolutely need to start building up that freelance those those freelance gigs you can start building that incremental in common then looking for, you know, a full time role that
will actually pay you well. But we thank you for your question. I know it was a big one, but it was juvecy nonetheless, and thanks so much for listening. Yes, all right to fu feel like we put some good out into the world. We did, right, that was a good ba Qa. Thank y'all so much for your questions. How can y'all send us questions? You can hit us up at brand Ambisson Podcast on ig slide into our
d ms. You can also email us. We're Brondambision Podcasts at gmail dot com dot com and your questions there. We love them. Career, money, business, relationship, parenting, how to be a woman in this world, all the above. Okay, hit us up. We can't wait to hear from y'all and until next week, Bye bye, hey ba fam. We could not do this show without your support or the support of our team behind the scenes. The Brown Ambition
podcast is produced by Cumulus Podcast Network. It's edited by the wonderful email Any Crosby and produced by Tanya Bustos. Dennis Stimplinsky is our in house tech guru, and I am Bandy Wodchard Santos, your co host, and I will see y'all next week.