BA Q&A: Shift Your Side Hustle

their time in Europe, all right? I see how you treat how you treat miss Tiffany at a Beyonce show, Try and talk about your credit score on the floor when Queen bees fan is blowing in the background. No no, no, no no. I will not give her location away. But I am happy to be here as always with our BA fam. And I got y'all, I got your career questions.

I'm even I'm gonna sneak a little business advice in today because you know, I know some things now, tiffank the only one, although if you haven't checked out her mentorship program. What the hell are you waiting for? Go to mymentor Tiffany dot com for twenty bucks a month or something like that, and you can join her Patreon and she gives just like endless business advice and it's a really amazing community that only Tiffany could create. As always,

so I'm very excited about that for her. On today's episode with Just Me, I'm going to be answering a couple questions, like I said, tiptoeing into how you can make your online business as a side hustle start thriving so you can sort of move from side hustle to full time hustle. Is that a thing? And then we've got a really juicy question that I still haven't figured out.

How the hell I'm going to answer about a young woman who is new at a job and wants to quit after just two months, just two months on the job, but could potentially make a huge raise if she does it. So let's get into it, y'all. I'm Mandy woodrif Santo's aka Mandy Money. Y'all know I am a career and negotiation expert. I have my own business called the Mandy Money Makers, which is an online community for women of color specifically, but you know we have other We have

all kinds of women in the group. And I help y'all master your careers. I help you learn how to negotiate and to turbo charge your career so that finally it's a wealth building engine and not just a job from job to job. Right. So that's who you've got talking to you today. I'm going to jump on into the questions. Before I do, let me remind you how you can get on the baq and A. You can slide into our DMS on IG. By the way, holy crap, we got twenty k, twenty thousand followers on ig. We

just passed that mark this past week. So thank y'all so much. That is incredible. And hey, shout out to our amazing social media manager Amber and to the team at Cumulus looking at you, Imani and Dennis for cutting those clips for us for our reels. Could not have done it without y'all, So we're just very excited about that. While you're there becoming our twenty thousand and one, two three and beyond follower, slide into our DMS with your question.

We'd love to hear from you. Ask us anything about career, money management, credit, relationship advice, why not business advice. We got it all for you. You can also email us directly brond Ambition Podcast at gmail dot com or check out our website bronambitionpodcast dot com. Contact us. Also, stick around and look at episodes of previous shows. There's so much there. Join our newsletter, just join the BA fam. Okay, all right, let's get into today's question. I am going to start

with listeners. Sarah, who slid into my DMS at Mandy Money on ig and has a really juicy question. She's also from London, so that means I get to use my Love Island accent and no one's here to tell me to stop. So I'll just keep doing it. And you know, hopefully you won't stop listening in your cars or on your walks or wherever you are. All right, Sarah, Hey Mandy, she'sa I love you in Tiffany. I listen

every week. I'm from London and although the finance systems may be different, I was hoping to get some finance and career advice from you. I called you, queen, caught you. I'm a new mom. Oh she spells it. Mom, that's so cute. Well, okay, I'll stop, it's too much. I went back to work three months ago. My baby is now ten months old. Congrats, lady. I am married. My husband's currently working but doesn't have a permanent role, so

he's looking but hopefully we'll find something soon. I'm a teacher. I also do wedding planning as a side hustle, but I stopped for two years and I've recently started again. Financially I should be a lot more secure, but due to getting married two years ago and having a baby, yeah, that'll do it. I don't have any savings. I have a loan from the bank, which I will finish paying

off in March next year. We want to do things like buy a home, but we're a long way away from doing that, and as it happens, I am paying for most of the expenses in her home Right now, I think I need to focus on getting my business off the ground. Please can you give me some tips on how I might be able to do this. I currently get business from word of mouth, but I'd like to create a better online presence and hopefully get business like that too. I have coordinated two weddings so far

this year. Any advice would be greatly appreciated. Thank you so much, Sarah. Okay, Sarah, I got you, and it just sounds for you like there's a lot of life happening right now, which is all beautiful. Congratulations on your baby, Congratulations on your marriage. I know from experience, those are two very expensive things. I spaced mine married in twenty seventeen, first kid in twenty nineteen, a couple years apart, so,

you know what, not that far apart from you. It is challenging, especially if the wedding itself, you know, was expensive enough to deplete your savings and then you, you know, turn around have the kid. I'm not going to spend time because Sarah. Of course, if you went back in time, I'm sure you'd be like, maybe we should save more for the wedding and set aside extra on the side. But we all don't have that luxury, right. Can't just not let life happen while we're waiting to have the

perfect amount of you know, savings in the bank. You guys sound young. You did your thing, you got married, you had a hope, it was a beautiful wedding, and now you have a baby and you are where you are. What's exciting about you and why am I really excited that you've reached out is because you have so much potential. You are working full time as a teacher, and believe me, I know what it's like to be the bread winner and the pressure that that entails, whether it's you or

your partner. But for it to be on your shoulders while you're also in your first year of motherhood, oh girl, I know exactly what you misbe feeling. And then on top of that, you're going to want your thinking about what more you can add to your plate. Like it's not enough to be a new mom and to be you know, covering the household bills and to have like a side hustle. It's like, okay, well, let's you know, ramp this up even more. So, first, I just want to honor the fact that you have a lot on

your plate and you're incredible, Like all mothers are. We will be striving to continue leveling up. And just because you become a mom, it doesn't mean that you stop having ambitions of your own. And you're finding out the same thing that I found out about entrepreneurship, which is like it's pretty great for moms. It's pretty great to be able to work from home and make her own

hours and have flexibility. Like when I tell you when I found out that the Universal pre K that we were supposed to be so, I mean, I am excited that we got through the lottery in our town to get my kid into Universal pre K is only from nine am to two pm. I'm sorry Universal for who if you're working like part time at Target or something like, do you understand even to pay, like you have to pay to have extra care if you want to leave your kid there past two pm and drop them off

before nine am. Like when the mom in the open house at the pre k that I went to for my son, when she raised her hand and was like, excuse me, I live in Manhattan. That's about an hour and a half commute. How and you don't let me drop my kid off earlier than seven thirty? How Am I supposed to be in my seat at work at

eight thirty or nine like I need to be. It's insane what they ask us to do as parents, right, So being an entrepreneur, like as you're probably thinking of, and as I can attest to, it is so great for moms, like for working moms, and I know so many moms who choose to pursue entrepreneurship, myself included, you know, after having a successful sort of nine to five career, not because you don't love what you were doing anymore, but because life is changing and you need to change

along with it. All right, So I'll put that spiel aside, but I just wanted to like acknowledge where you are, Sarah, and let you know I see you. I deeply see you, even in this message, Okay. And I'm really really proud and just excited for you in general as far as your wedding planning business. Okay, I love that for you. I love and the fact that you know it seems like my dad always makes us joke about if you want a recession proof business just by a liquor store.

He's like, it's always going to be liquor people always going to want their alcohol. Okay. I don't know if that's true or not, but it seems right. I feel like weddings are an industry that is only going to continue booming and booming and booming. A lot has changed in our society, but we still love a party when it comes to celebrating love. So I feel like, you know, it's definitely ripe for you know, new businesses to come.

And as an entrepreneur, it's perfect because like you can take on one client, or two clients or three clients. Now at this point you have been getting, like you said, word of mouth recommendations, which is amazing. What I love about that. And it's similar to how I approached my business as a career coach. Was I started out by giving you know, a lot of free sessions because I

wanted to build once one. There's a thing when you're new at something, they can't complain if you're doing it every right kind of but you feel less pressure because you're going to be figuring out your approach. You're figuring

out what works for you. You're going to be figuring out what systems and tools and processes make your planning easier, what vendors you like and don't like, what you understand about scheduling, how do you deal with you know, personality differences from the bride side or the groom side, or the grooms and the groom side, you know, and you're going to be fine tuning your skill set as a

wedding planner with your first clients. Right, So it's great that you're getting word of mouth, but as you build up that confidence, as you get those testimonials from your clients saying how incredible you are, that's when you want to start thinking about marketing it out. In my experience, so when you so, for example, right now, what I would say is if you're thinking about, like, okay, I should be finding new clients on Instagram and social media.

I think that's a lot of people's first thoughts as entrepreneurs. But as a wedding planner, think about where your perfect customer is. Are you trying to plan weddings for people around the UK? Are you trying to plan weddings for people where you're going to be physically present, like need to travel to wherever they're going to be getting married, Like, you want to think about where your customer lives, and then you want to think about where you're going to

reach them. Of course, Instagram is great for attracting an audience and gaining followers, and you could totally start making reels today about what all goes into planning a wedding and I would gobble that shit up. And so with a lot of people, but I'm here in the US, I'm already married. I'm not your perfect customer, am I. You want to figure out how to find people who are engaged, about to be engaged, thinking about being engaged,

or getting remarried or whatever. You're going to want to find them where they are and be sure that when you do find them, they have the potential to actually use your services. Right. So that's why I'm saying, just think a little deeper about the whole social media thing. I do think it can be an incredible tool to gain notoriety and to gain a following, But at the end of the day, you got to think about one

word conversions. How are you going to convert the person who CLI follow on ig or TikTok into a customer. I'm thinking about that every day, Sarah. This week I went viral on Instagram and I gained two thousand plus followers in forty eight hours. But do you know how many actually went through my forms to join my email list? Like two hundred And I'm sitting here like, holy crap.

Two thousand Instagram followers is cute, but email is even more powerful, And I need to figure out what is broken in my funnel, Like that's what we call it a little funnel because I brought them through the top of the funnel. That's Instagram. Right. Why aren't they getting

to my email list? And what is it about my sales my marketing that is not converting people to my email Because when you convert them to your email, you're much more likely to be able to sell your services to them, because then you're going to get more intimate with them. You're going to you know, cuddle up with me in my email inbox. Okay, I'm going to move you to the primary section. No more updates are social.

You're going to be in the primary section. Okay. Gets a real intimate okay, and you can actually engage with them. You can you can put them into what I have. For example, you join my email list and I start sending you not every day. I'm not trying to spam, but sending you like helpful content, valuable content. I'm nurturing

our relationship together. I'm trying to show you who I am so you can get to know me, start to engage even more with my content, and then maybe a few months down the line, when I'm hosting when I'm opening enrollment for the Mandy money Makers as I do periodically.

You're really excited by that point and you want to join, or for example, for you, you want to be nurturing that relationship so that when they get engaged, or if they're engaged now, when they actually get serious about planning, they think, I saw I remember that, like Sarah, that wedding planner I just followed on Instagram, like last year, I remember her. Let me go to my email and see, you know what her website was. They're going to be

able to find you. So you're going to stick in their mind, and that is why that relationship is so important to nurture. So don't just think about social media. Then how are you going to get them into your world for real? Through email? Now, I have just shown you that even I haven't mastered that. Some things I

do I get hundreds of email subscribers. Some things I do I get, like I said, two hundred out of two thousand new follows, Like damn, I feel like I should do better than that, right, So what I will say is to start building your email list. You want to find people who are going to be your perfect customer. Think about how old, are they where do they live? Are you going to have any particular niche like, for example,

my niches I really focus on women of color. So I understand that I'm going to be turning away some people who don't feel included in that, And that's okay for me because I just want to be laser focused because I know my message is going to appeal to a woman of color between the ages of twenty five to thirty five. Okay, so who is that person for you? Are you going to specialize in elopements? Are you going

to do destination weddings? Are you going to do weddings just in London and become the master planner for London or you know, wherever in the UK you choose, think about what makes you unique and then start to think about how to tell that story to your you know, your favorite customer. So then we've talked about social media. I think that that's fine. I think you debt. Like I said, you can definitely have it, but before you go viral, you want to have the infrastructure to convert

those followers into customers. Okay, convert, convert, convert, How can we talk about converting? So having a lead magnet is great. So like, what if you create a document that is just you know, you can do it in Canva, but you aren't. You know, you're an expert at wedding planning

right now where you're becoming one. Maybe it's top ten mistakes or the top you know, top ten wedding mistakes you don't want to make, or it's five ways to save money on your wedding you have to get this guide, or you know, there's different ways you can entice people, give them something valuable for free. For me, I have four free scripts you can use to ask for a raise at work right now, at work, right now, right

So that appeals to my favorite customer. She's someone who's ambitious and wants to advance in her career but doesn't have the language. I'm giving it to her and all my colors. My branding is going to appeal to that kind of person. So anyway, so think of something that they really want, and you know how the best way to get understanding of what they want is to really survey the people that you're working with now, the people

that you are providing services for as a wedding planner. Now, ask them what do you wish you would have had starting out, what do you wish you would have known? What could be helpful? Or here I made this thing because you look it over, does it feel useful to you? And then you create that download you create, you can go. You can create a Squarespace website or very simply, I mean shout out to Squarespace. They are a sponsor. Okay,

but there's other websites you can also do. But just find the simplest way to get that form up so you can link to it on your Instagram so when they follow you, they can also go to your link and join and get that freebie, and you can say, you know, get on the wait list. Here's a freebee. In the meantime, I'll let you know when I have more wedding tips to share. And then you start to

build your email list at the same time while you're growing. Okay, and even then, just like me, you'll tinker with it, right, you'll kind of tinker and say, okay, well, this lead magnet didn't really convert that much to like people sending their emails, or maybe I need to have this or that. Like you'll you'll learn some things. Okay. I could go on and on and on about this, But like, what else could I say about, you know, shifting your side hustle into a full into full time work as a teacher.

You have summers. I'm going to assume that you have off or at least that's kind of perfect for you as a wedding planner. So I feel like you're fine to continue teaching while sort of treating your wedding planning as a side hustle. I think that kind of works in your favor. But think about the timelines of when people get engaged. They're getting married in the summer, but they're getting engaged around the holidays, right, think that's still

the most common time to get engaged. So you want to think about starting this lead magnet, getting your email lists built up like right now, heading into the fall, because if you start getting people's attention now and then you start building on that while they get engaged over the holidays and they start googling for wedding planning in the UK, they'll find you, my dear. Okay, so think

about that. It can feel really overwhelming to be starting a business while also being a mom and a bread winner at that, but don't let that sort of weigh you down, think about what your ultimate goal is. It is to be able to provide for your family, to have the flexibility that you need in your schedule, and to build something of your very own and that I think is worth fighting for. I'm real excited for you. I will say it takes time. It's going to take

time to build an audience. It's going to take time to find your perfect customer. You're going to need support. I need you to find two to three other wedding industry people doing the kind of business that you want to be doing. Go find them and start following them and engage with them right now. Figure out where they hang out. Figure out if there's a conference, if there's like a mastermind group or something like that where you can engage with people who are doing similar work to you.

Why because not to copy what they're doing. There's plenty of space for all, y'all. Okay, there's plenty of room. It's about finding that community and that support and the people you can go to every day when you have a question, you know, have you tried this vendor? Have you thought about this? Have you you know, what about the what about could I hologram the groom in because he's trapped, you know, his flight, he didn't make his flight.

Those types of questions you can ask from your tribe, you know, from the people that in your community that you're going to build. And I think that that was one of the smartest things that I did early as an entrepreneur, was really put time and effort into building those relationships with new peers so that I could feel supported. Okay, I will leave it there. I really hope that that was Those were some tidbits for you, for you that you can use. Good luck with everything, and thank you

so much for tuning in from the UK. Okay, I did have to end on a little British accent there, y'all. I watch way too much Love Island and I'm not ashamed of it. Do you have any idea how long this show would be if Tiffany actually also watched television? But she doesn't, so I have no one. She gives

me nothing about my reality TV obsession. Okay, it's probably better for y'all, But I'm going to take a quick break now and I'm going to come back and answer question number two, So stay tuned, ba fan, I'll be right back. Hey, ba fan, we are back with question number two. It's me Mandy Money, writing solo without my beloved Tiffany, but hopefully she's off gallivanting in Europe with Supergirl and having an amazing time. I am also having an amazing time, believe it or not, because I love

answering y'all's questions. And we have a brilliant question from a listener today who wants to be called the Cashback Queen. I think you might have to take that crown from Tiffany because she is like the queen of cash back anyway, but I'm gonna give it to you because she's like here to defend her crown, so you can wear it. Here, Cashback Queen, here is your crown. I am a relatively new grad as of December twenty twenty one, congrats, and

I'm in the early stages of my career. I just started a new job as a market researcher at a company and I've been there for almost two months. But we've been experienced some turmoil in terms of reorganizational restructuring of teams. People have been leaving and two people at the VP levels were fired. Ooh juicy because the company is moving from being a startup to an early stage company. They said, this is not part of a larger layoff for the future, but I'm not so sure, considering the

recession is looming. That being said, a recruiter at a different research market company reached out to me and is offering me thirty two k more than what I'm making right now for the same position. The salary bump would be life changing. Is it too early to leave a company after being there for two months? Love the cash back, queen. I thought I was going to get some explanation of why you deserve that crown, But it's fine, you can keep the crown. Nothing about cash back here, but a

very very juicy proposition career wise. Okay, so a couple of things. Hear you. I love here here. I love that you are young. You just graduated a couple of years ago, but you already understand that no one is safe, not even you. And of course your company is not going to tell you, oh yeah, this is going to be part of a larger layoff later, of course they or not. They don't want to cause a panic and

they don't want more people quitting, right. I will say that this is I'm actually kind of I think this is good for you to experience early in your career. A lot of opportunities can come from turmoil. And in fact, you know, like who I'm thinking about in this moment right now. Whenever there's chaos in my house. You know who always benefits My dog. She waits to the point where she can. She recognizes the sound of when one of us has made amsay, will me go oh crap

or ugh or ah or what like? She will run into the room and look to see if food was involved. And typically it is because we have a toddler and we're always in the kitchen doing something with him, or

he's dropped something, something has spilled. And even if it's not food related, let's say, you know, the baby has a blowout diaper and we're like, oh no, she will run in behind us while we're distracted by the baby with the blowout, and she will find the food that we have forgot lying on the table in her path

and she will gobble it up. Now, I need everyone early in their careers or in their career in general, to think of turmoil at the office as opportunity the same way that my dog thinks of a blowout diaper or spilled milk as an opportunity to come and get a little bit of extra something something, You know what I'm saying, So for stick with me on this analogy, okay, or the metaphor just to stay with me, because what I'm saying is that when things are kind of crazy,

it's an opportunity for you to shine. It's an opportunity for you to swim, not just to take things that you know are lying around, but to pick up opportunities. So when people are leaving, that means they need a hero. They need someone who can step up and help things move a little bit smoother. So can you be the most reliable person on your team right now? Like, Hey, I know someone so and so just left last week.

I know you're looking to backfill the role, but in the meantime, is there anything I can do to support you? This is a great time to show that you're a team player, that you think on your feet, you can be flexible, you can roll with the punches. The last thing people want when the shit's hitting the fan at a company, on their team, like bosses, managers, the last thing that we want is for someone to be a baby about it and to be like, oh, when the

change is happening, what does this mean? Talk to me? Have a one on one every day so you can quell my fears about life and my anxieties like we don't want that. Well, we deal with it, sure, But what would be infinitely more valuable to us is someone who can get with the program very quickly and start helping us, like catch the water as it's leaking from the roof, you know, like let me go find a bucket, let me find a pan, what can I do? Put

me in coach. That kind of attitude will get you so so far, and even if it's like you end up getting let go later on, you know who's also gonna get let go? A lot of more people who were gonna move on to new companies, have new opportunities, and who will they remember. They are not gonna remember the one who put their hands up and was like, y'all,

this is crazy. I'm checking out late today, or I'm gonna I'm gonna log off early today, or I'm not even gonna get on Slack today, y'all, it's too crazy. Like the people who check out, they're not gonna remember them. They're gonna remember the Mollie dogs of the world. They can remember the ones who swooped in and looked for an opportunity to pitch in, help and shine. Okay, so don't look at it like I say, like a negative thing. Think of it as opportunities. And I use the same

mentality throughout my career to thrive Yahoo. When I joined Yahoo, it was going through a lot of turmoil. They had a new CEO. I mean, the Yahoo's Yahoo's all through turmoil, but I still shined. I look for opportunities. I was like, oh, they're they're short on video staff. Let me pitch my own video series called Money Minute, which ran for two years. Like that's the kind of thing that you can grow out of those moments of turmoil. You're at a startup

right now. They and you say they're moving from a startup to being an early stage company. It's kind of but I know what you're saying kind of the same thing. But I get it. As they're growing up, Like how can you also be growing up with them? And where do you see yourself at the next stage for them? Stage for them? You know, think of it, think of it that way. It doesn't have to be scary it can just be a healthy, natural, you know, progression of

a younger company. Also, don't forget how this feels to be a part of a startup, because I think some people think of startups as like, Ooh, I'm going to join and they're going to get acquired, and I'm going to become a bajillionaire because I'm going to get all this equity and you know, I'm going to be employee number seven at Uber, employee number seven at Google. Whatever. But it does always work out that way, or even if it does, it's still really crazy to work there.

Things are not figured out, they don't have all the grown ups in place to handle things. Systems are not fine tuned. You know, people have not entirely figured out what they're doing. They're all kind of just flying by the seat of their pants in the best exciting way possible.

But if you're going into a startup expecting it to be, you know, like a blue chip company that's been around for decades and has everything sort of organized and everyone knows where everything has been filed away, you're going to be disappointed. You're going to be you're gonna be upset, You're going to be stressed, Okay, So you want to have realistic expectations for where your company is at that

you're joining at the time that you're joining it. And if you can at least get like a real realistic understanding of where the company is, I promise you're going to be much more adaptable and flexible and be able to become molly dog in that moment and find opportunities to help. You're not going to be panicking because you will have seen it coming. I'm joining a startup. Yeah, it's going to be a little jinky from here and there, you know. All right, So that's the first piece of this.

I know. Now two months in, while there's blood in the water and you're sensing chaos at your job, you have this incredible opportunity to be making thirty two k more for doing the exact same work. I would say it'd be really hard for you to turn it down at this point, Like, are you going to turn down thirty two k early in your career? When I agree, I think you should be making You should be taking these big risky swings with your career while you can. You know, I think it was really hard to turn

that down. At the same time, you want to understand, like this company itself like thirty two K for the work you're doing now, I can see that happening. You're at a startup, maybe the budget's a bit lower, but you want to you know, look into the company that you're joining. How are they doing financially? Are they having any turmoil and if so, where what departments have been affected by that? You know, if it's the same industry, then what's happening to your company maybe happening at others.

If what's happening at your company is likenomically driven you know, by what's happening in the economy, not just you know, driven by the fact that it's a younger company. So you want to ask, you know, questions of this company, like you know, if they're public, you can read their quarterly their last quarterly UH market call and one am I thinking of the word quarterly earnings report, yes, which they have to provide. You know, you could read through

it see what's happening. Yeah, and it's marketing research right now. As someone who came up in journalism and marketing through my career, I can tell you that a lot of the same economic trends are impacting all organizations and marketing budgets are getting hit, you know, so I don't think that you can say any company is necessarily going to be safe, you know, for the long term, but I would see I would ask them if you had, you know, any reorganizations recently, you know, if if so, which which

departments were impacted? You can ask them, you know, I underunderstand that there are some challenging economic times. How has the marketing research team pivoted or made changes in light of this? Have you had to you know and sort of ask them questions about strategy and where they're thinking of going in the future. Good for you to know, And also I think it makes you an even more promising candidate because they're like, oh, she's really plugged in.

She gets this is a bigger picture. It's not just about you know, this one job. That there's a bigger picture here and we're a part of a much larger, larger organization. That's what I have to say about, you know, pros and cons of like taking the job. You got to sit with it and make sure you're moving into a company that's going to be a good fit for you. Will you have good mentorship, do good people work there,

you know, is there upward mobility all of that? And if this job doesn't work out, I don't think that you need to look at it, like I said, as a total loss because of everything I said before about the opportunities that you have to shine in this relatively chaotic environment at your current startup job. Okay, now about this whole two month thing, is it too early to leave a company after being there for two months? Listen? I could sit here and tell you that won't look good.

But I can also sit here and tell you that I have done it, and I have survived and lived to tell the tale. It's old Mandy money lore that my first big girl job after college, after I frolicked around South America and came back to United States with sixteen dollars to my name, that I took the first job that would have me at a newspaper in Gainesville, Georgia.

Shout out to the Gainesville Times. And I think my first week of work, I got an email from a magazine in New York that I had interned at asking me to interview, And within a couple of weeks I had a job offer. I had an interview. Within a couple of weeks, and then a couple of weeks later, I had an actual job offer and I turned in my two I don't even know if I gave them two weeks, but I quit that job a month after joining. Okay,

did I burn the bridges there? Yes, I don't think that mister Mitch I forget his last name at the Gainesville Times probably ever wanted to talk to me again, because you know, he hired me, thought he was done, and I was like bye e. So yeah, there are repercussions. You have to think about the people that will remember you as the person who quit when the ship was thinking.

At the same time, I do feel like it's a little bit easier to explain to a future employer during an interview why you might be wanting to leave just two months after joining a job by saying, well, there's been a lot of turmoil. There's lots of uncertainty, and I don't feel like I'm being able to, you know, use my skills in the best in the best way

right now. And I'm genuinely just wanting to be, you know, in a place where I feel like I can contribute and that my contributions are meaningful, and I can learn and grow, and I don't feel like I'm able to do that right where I am. That's kind of an easier story to tell. Then, Oh, you guys just have more money, So I thought I would just like come

and get it and forget everyone at my office. You want to know why, because I do think and you know, I have been a hiring manager for several for many years, and I have I haven't personally thought this, but I have been told by other folks on the hiring committee, like, well, if they're going to leave for an extra ten k, then they're just going to join us, and they'll be quitting in another year when the next competitor offers them

another ten k bump. Like they think that it shows that you're easily bought, and they don't have to know that. I think a lot of us are easily bought because money talks, darling, right. But if you can tell them a story to lead them at least and to think that maybe it's not all about the money, you've got a less of a chance that they'll like stigmatize you for,

you know, leaving after two months. So I talk a lot about in my negotiating, coaching and my masterclass about the story that we tell when we talk about ourselves as professionals, and how we tell stories about the choices we've made in our career. And I'm a storyteller by trade. I've been telling stories my whole life as a writer and journalist, and I think it's a really helpful skill

for everyone to be learning. What is the story arc of your career and how can you tell that in a way in an interview where the person is left understanding why you've made the choices that you've made and not judging you for them, just what you look like on paper. So, yeah, I've had a few jobs in one year, as I did the year that I quit

that job. I had three full time jobs that year because I quit for a company in New York that then let me go three months later, yay shout out to readers Digest, And then I had to find my third job of the year just a few months after that. So yeah, I had three full time jobs and one year on my resume on LinkedIn. But if I just explained the story, well, I took a newspaper job in Georgia and I got the opportunity of a lifetime to work in my chosen field magazine writing, and I really

found it hard to turn it down. I had such a great reputation with the team there that they really only considered me as the candidates. I took the job, and then okay, well then you had a new job just a few months later. Well, I had no control over it. They let me go. And at the same time, you know, I understand this industry and I'm always ready to pivot, and this is why you know, I've now

found this new opportunity with you guys. So it's about that story, right, So do they look at me and think, girl, she's been job hopp in the past, three jobs in one year, like unreliable af But then I tell them my story and it's like, oh no, I can I contract that. I see why she made those decisions and what happened. So what story are you going to tell? Get that nailed down. Think about pros and cons of

joining the company that you're joining. I think it's excellent for you to be taking interviews even though you have a full time job. I'm always a fan of that, and hey, you never know if you do both. If you become the MVP of your team and then you bring them a job offer from a competitor and you're like, hey, they're gonna give me thirty two k. What if they

just give you that extra money? It costs a lot more to recruit new talent sometimes and just to give someone a raise, and especially someone who's been excelling at their work. I'm not saying that they would easily give you thirty two k. It's a big ass raise for someone who's been there for a couple of months. But I'm just saying, like there's a chance that they would do something to keep you. So there's a lot of food for thought right there. I hope that that was helpful.

I would love an update to see what you ultimately decided. Okay, cash back Queen, and maybe you'll explain to me why you stole Tiffany's crown of the cash back Queen. Maybe I'll maybe I'll take it back just so I can give it to her when she gets back, just because I don't want her asking questions. I'm just gonna I'm just gonna take it back and you guys can do

it out when she's back. Okay, all right, Cashback Queen, thank you so so much for your question and to all of our beautiful BA fam, thank you for riding with me while I was solo today. I love hearing y'all's questions and hearing from y'all. Don't forget to hit us up on IG We are at Brand Ambission Podcast. You can also join our email our email list Atmandymoney dot com, noe at Brannambission podcast dot com and ask

us your questions via the website as well. We love to hear from y'all, sending much love 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 Imani Crosby and Dennis Stanplinsky is our in house tech guru. I am your co host Mandy Woodrif Santos, and we will see y'all next week. BA Fam.