It's time for the b a q a a to b a q a, which say the b a q a with Mandy, the b a q a with Ti b a q a a. I feel like I was somewhere and someone was like, oh, where was I, and they asked me about.
You the blanking the museum without me becausetory.
Maybe, I feel like maybe. And then she was like, this is a hug. I know you don't like hugs, but this is for Mandy.
I was like, thank you, continue doing that.
I man, it's gonna be me peel myself because you know, I got to repel the floor.
I told you about the things underwear. You gotta get on that. Oh my goodness.
Like yeah, so y'all love to do that. They're like, oh, I know how much you hate. That's for me and d I'm like, they go, hug Mandy. No, I don't mind kinda yeah anyway, So b a qa So if you have questions, we have some answers. Although we are not your mama, your daddy, your sister, your doctor, your lawyer, we're not anything except for two smart, cute, fabulous brown girls who can give you a little bit of advice from the smallest grain of the smallest piece of salt.
But ultimately we want you to lean into those people that you give money to to get your advice from. Okay, this is for education, not educational, this is for entertainment purposes. So lamente that means only if you spoke Spanish like me and Mandy. Yeah, so many you want to go first?
Who's our first? I will go first to got some juicy, juicy career questions, which are my favorite. All Right, the first question I almost had to do a double take because I'm like, is this the Mandy money Maker who I was just talking to, who went through something very similar? But I'm going to use an expression y'all may be familiar with. It's called the PIT, which is a performance improvement plan. So let's take our first question from someone
who wants to be called a worried entry level professional. Okay, she says, first and foremost, I love your podcast. You guys have taught me so much about all things career and finance. I was recently let go for my job due to failing to meet the requirements of a performance improvement or PIT plan. I was put on it for my last month of employment. I was working there for about a year, and the whole time I felt as though I wasn't properly onboarded to the projects I was on.
I always ask questions when I was confused, but overall it was a very fast paced environment and I was totally new to the industry. Because of this, I just felt like a fish out of water every day for about a year. But I always showed up to work with a great attitude and I thought I was doing a great job. Towards the end of my time and my position, my manager revealed to me that I was not performing to the standards that someone in my position should have. In place me on the PIP for thirty days.
When she told me this, I immediately took accountability and told her I would do better. Long story shirt short. My manager told me I did not improve after thirty days to their expectations, so I was being let go from my position. The moment that I was placed on the PIP, I started looking for new roles. But now it's been almost three months and I'm starting to get worried. So here's my question. I want to know. How should I answer the question, why did you leave your last position?
With all the layoffs happening. I've just been telling recruiters that I was laid off. But is this okay? Is my future employer going to know that I was placed on a PIP. I just don't want to tell future employers that I was on a PIP because I feel like I will never get hired again and I'm only at the beginning of my career. Thank you, and I appreciate all of your help. Oh, I just want to give you a bang hug.
So first of all, because this is new to me, So I'm going to ask questions as like, you know, like a round, you know, so, like I understand it, PIP means performance improvement plans, so maybe like what does that really mean?
Like what is that?
So?
I have actually given performance improvement plans a couple of times in my career as a manager. So the thing is, there's no standardization of pips. It's pretty much up to the company and even the manager themselves to come up with, like what should we say this person has to do to basically save their job. But if you're at the level of a PIP, it means that you have been
consistently not meeting expectations. Ideally, it's not going to be a surprise to you that you're on a PIP because you've been having regular one on ones and maybe even quarterly you know, MANI performance reviews with your manager, so
you know that you're not up to scratch. When a PIP happens, at least in my experience, this is when you get HR involved and you put out a document and you have to sign it as the employee and your manager will sign it in probably the HR REP and a PIP is going to say, so it can be like thirty days, forty five days, ninety days, it's up to whatever, but thirty days is you know, fine standard.
So it'll say typically like here's what here's exactly what you've been doing that has not met our expectations, and here's what you need to do. We need to be able to see this much X y Z over the next thirty days, and ideally it's very measurable. So it's we need you to show up on time every morning for the next thirty days. You'd be and you be at your desk by nine thirty am. We need you to meet your sales quota. I'm just using a really easy example eighty percent of the time or just have
you know, specific benchmarks for them to hit. And at this point I would highly suggest and I like that, you know the the a worried entry level professional as she wants to be called, says, as soon as I got a PIP, I started job searching, absolutely, because even if you survive the PIP, it's it's it's almost a tool to get you to get like get with it
and like get to step in. When I used a PIP, I did want the person to improve, but because I had seen, you know, what they were capable of for months and years, at some points it really was like a formal way of saying, it's time for you to probably think about moving on, and I want to be
I want to give you notice. Like it's almost like a You can look at it negatively, like, oh, it's just them trying to push you out, But for me, I was like, let me give you a bit of a wake up call so that you have some time to get your shit in order and find a job that is the right fit for you, because this is not working, and you know we're a business. I'm not gonna I can't keep someone on the team who is
in performing that's just not something that we can do. So, yeah, that's that's in a nutshell what a pip is like. And yes, so you'll be sat down and it's it's not fun to have those conversations. Yes, it's not fun.
Then what do you suggest for her? So to her point, she's like, all right, I'm probably not going to have this job. What do I tell people so I can be honest, but also so I don't brand myself as the pit girl.
Yeah, I would say, do not lead with I wouldn't I wouldn't lie because, like I think it comes across in a conversation when you're like, I was laid off. I wouldn't even tell someone who was laid off to just say I was laid off, because even that is going to open the recruiter's mind or the main hiring manager's mind to like, uh, why were you laid off? Were you not as good as everyone else? Like you
need to have a better story to tell. I'm always talking about how storytelling is one of the most undervalued skill sets as an employee as you move throughout your career, because it's really how you tell the story of the moves that you've made that can make or break someone's first impression of you and will they move you on to the next round. And so what I mean by that is, Okay, you had a performance improvement plan, you didn't meet the expectations, you got the boot. They don't
need to know that. You don't want to tell them that. So what you can say is, you know, I'm new to this field. I spent a year with this company and I showed up every day with an incredible with a great attitude positive. Unfortunately I wasn't. And you want to be careful here because you don't want to talk crap about your former manager, because in their mind the recruiter, they're going to be thinking about, oh, is she going
to talk crap about me someday. But what you want to say is, you know, we sort of came to a mutual decision that, given the expectations of the job and how different they were to my impression of the job when I started, that it was better for me
to look for a new opportunity. And I'm really excited about working here because I can see that you guys really invest in your workers, You train them, you give guidance, and I know that I you know, I'd be going into a workplace where I would have that kind of support.
That's one way to frame it, so that you're sort of telling a story of you know, you weren't exactly supported in your previous role, but then you're shifting it and spinning it around to kind of praise the company that you're interviewing for by pointing out the fact that you like that they have, you know, at this point, you know about maybe a training program, or they have regular performance reviews or communication, you know, with their managers.
You could and you can leave it at that. You could also just say I had a shift, and you know, I had a shift in what I wanted from my career, and I'm ready for a new challenge or a new direction in my career, and I think that your company and this position is perfect for me, and I'm very excited about it, and kind of, you know, you address it, but then you just kind of move on without giving
too much detail. I think omitting the specifics of the pit and all that is probably the best case scenario because no matter like my heart goes out to you have a lot of empathy for you for going through a pit, but as a hiring manager. If you got someone who's telling you they've struggled, and you've got candidates who you know, seem like they're going to come in and get it right away, Yeah, you're not going to go for the person who's kind of told you already
that they've had some issues in the past. Meaning expectations now on your part. Get it together in the sense that whatever it is. I know that you know you said you didn't get the guidance that you needed. But if this is the career path that you want, how can you start getting better, getting the help that you need and improving. So maybe you could offer to freelance or shadow sit down and speak with people who are
really familiar with the field that you're in. You know, you can go to a networking event and just say, hey, I just had this experience and it didn't work out, but I still want to do this. I don't know what kind of work you do. I want to be in this field, you know, can you help me figure out sort of what went wrong and and so I can do better in the next one. You need someone to like carry like hold your hand a little bit and help you get the skills that you were lacking.
That led you to not have this job, because I don't want you to go into your next job and I and I hope that you get one soon, but I don't want you to go in there having not changed anything, you know, from what happened last time.
That's really good advice now, because I mean, because you know, I'm not on the career side, I'll just say maybe on the potential hiring side.
You never given a pip to any of your unicorn squads because you don't have no girl.
I mean, that's why there's so many of them are going now and the amazing ones are here. Hey, girls, that's shade. I didn't know I was. I didn't know how to lead as well as I I let a lot of stuff slide, and so yes, you know, so here we are now where you know that's not the case now. Honestly, everybody's amazing and not the people were really nice. But I did not know how to to give constructive criticism, not criticism Cristucks, constructive critique of work.
So I just let saying things slide and then said I just took on that burgeon for myself until I wore myself out, which is not good. But I'll just say, as somebody who hires people that yes, I you know, obviously I'm wanting you to be honest. But to Mandy's point, not to the detriment of yourself. You know, you're here to sell yourself basically, you know, and if I know that, ultimately, I'm not expecting it. You know how to do everything, but I am expecting that you are willing to learn.
So if I hear that, like with Mandy, to Mandy's point, it's like, you know, you know, here's where you know, maybe I had some challenges, but I'm someone who I took this class, I learned this, I did this, And to Mandy's point, like one of my one of the things I love, like so much for about the people on my team is they're constantly taking courses and classes and learning and beyond what you know, like what I'm sharing, you know, like Logan, I mean there's always a class
Logan's taken a Eekeisa was just telling me, oh, yeah, I took a class on that. I'm like, that's why they're here and why they continue to excel, because the key is even beyond working with me, like the team, they when you do that, you get to gather skill sets that makes you marketable across the board.
Yeah, you know.
So it's like there's a win for you and making yourself better because even if the budgetessa doesn't exist, they can go on and be great other places. And so that's just a really good advice that made it gave you so hope.
You mean in you can't be in the passenger seat when it comes to your career. You need to get that steering wheel girl and drive it yourself and go into jobs. Yes, ready to perform and ready to like listen, but you can't expect your manager to teach you every single thing. You know, take some ownership, and take some ownership proactive yourself and raise in doing your own research.
And as you're falling behind in a skill like finding a way to get caught up without just being telling your boss like I don't get.
At Yeah, that is the worst. It's like, yeah, and I'm saying this that like doctor Green. My therapist share with me this a couple of weeks ago, which I was like, it was a great aha moment. She said that you are you cannot help when something happens to you, right, So something bad happens to you. That is not your fault, but at some point you have to take responsibility of
how you choose to live your life. Yeah, so like you know, so, okay, I have an unresponsive boss, got out such a fault, but you have to take responsibility, like knowing that I'm not going to get support here, what do I need to do? You do have a choice there, and so all of us have those choices that within this framework. If I can't do all the things, but I can't do this thing, are you at least doing that thing? So I want to take a quick
break so we can answer our next question. But real quick before we take a break, I know we probably have maybe like a I don't know, maybe a few copies left, a few hundred copies left. We'll see. But if you go to Maid Whole Workbook dot com, y'all know, I have a new workbook, the workbook version of Get Good with Money. It is signed and it comes to the green bracelet. I signed about five thousand of them last time I checked. You know, over half of them
where had already been sold. Hopefully there's still some left. While you're listening to this, if you like a copy of Maid Whole, because you're like, you know what. I want to reach financial wholeness and ten easy steps. I want to work along in a workbook with Tiffany guiding me step by step of what to do when it comes to budgeting, savings, debt, credit earning, investing, insurance, net worth,
your financial team, and estate planning. If you want all that, Maid Whole workbook dot com, get your signed copy, get your bracelet, get started. Okay, we'll be back and black and brown and we're back.
Okay.
Our second question today is from Sad Sad. She says, Hey, ladies, I love Brown ambition and listen every week. I had a relatively successful YouTube channel and I got really good at audio and video editing.
Love that for you.
A content production company hired me to do editing for them with an amazing salary. But after I got the job, my boss asked me to stop doing my own channel because a conflict of interest and my content was pretty controversial. Oh what you mean is that fair? I never signed a non compete, and if he told me this from the beginning, I'm not sure I would have taken it. I love my new job, but I feel sad about I feel sad without my own YouTube that I work
so hard on. Please give me some advice. Ooh, you are between a rock and a hard place. First of all, is it fair? Let's answer that question absolutely not, you know, like they well, here's the thing. Is it fair for them to spring this on you after already giving you that job? No, because they knew who he works? Is
you know, like that's yes? You know, so that they probably reached out to you because of your you know, your editing skills and like what they saw there which asking you to shift like beforehand, it's one thing that way you can make an educated decision based upon this is what's being offered to me. But asking you after having you locked in that is quite unfair and unprofessional of them. And so I here's the thing you're gonna
have to decide. I don't know what your money's looking like and how like by successful what do you mean financially successful your YouTube channel? And kind of like what's your desired outcome in the long run, like what you're wanting Like are you wanting to work for yourself? Are you wanting to to you know, eventually do maybe freelance
when it comes to video conduct production? You know, and if that is the case, you might decide I'm going to stay with them for a specific amount of time until I can save up another money so I can strike back out on my own. I don't want you to not have your own creative outlet. And just because you don't post them live doesn't mean you still can't create. And so consider if it was me, honestly, I probably
would continue to create. Maybe I would not make those things live because I want to just keep my skill set home, and I'd be hatching a plan to leave. That's probably what I would do. It's like, you know, it's up to you, obviously, but I'd be like, Okay, I'm gonna stay here for six months or a year or whatever it is until I can save up this amount of money. I'm gonna live below my means, save up a certain amount of money so I can strike out on my own, and maybe I can be my
own video production company for other people. Because now I know how to do this, I'm going to let them pay.
Me to learn.
You know, this business that they're in, because I we are. Life is sad enough, you know, And if you have this amazing outlet to lean into, I hate for you to see that to I would hate for that to go. But at the same time, we're adults. We have to pay bills and we have to you know, main like the financial parts of our lives. So I wouldn't just jump out the window when it came to this, I
would be planning of how do I have both? You know, like how do I have some financial security, but how do I be able to live it and do the thing I want to do?
Yeah? I have direct And that's the reason I kind of got a heavy, like a heavy sigh with this question because it brought up for me a feeling that I have when employed. You know what I'm talking about that I have been in the shoes of someone who was hired because they have this great platform and you know in social media and all that kind of stuff, and the person who hires you thinks it's great. But then you get into the company and there's other opinions.
There's people who didn't you know know, maybe they're like, oh, yeah, someone's so and so hired a new video person. That's great, but then they find out about maybe your YouTube channel and then it offends them or something that you said runs a rub someone the wrong way. And they are a senior executive and it gets up the chain and all of a sudden, it wasn't a problem when you were hired because your hurry manager had no problem with it.
But the huge mistake that they made was not getting the proper you know, approvals and having other people at the company way in are we okay with this? Et cetera. So I'm really sorry that that happened to you. But I think if you're going to try to do any full time work, you have to be aware that of that and be like, listen, I'm comfortable, but I will not be signing a non compete. I need assurance that my show content is fine. That's if you want to stay nine to five. And I get why you would.
I mean, it's like Tiffany said, the you know, you're learning the industry, You're getna get paid a reliable income. Hey, it's nice over there in W two land. I miss it sometimes, you know what I'm saying. But yeah, you're gonna have this problem, especially if you continue. If you're if your side hustle, your business overlaps with what you're doing nine to five. Conflict of interest is like always potentially going to be an issue that you're gonna run into.
So what I would say is right now, is is there an option other than like what I like what TIFs are actually about sticking it out, maybe pausing the
YouTube but still continuing to create the content. But then you know, looking for a way out saving up coins that you can branch out getting some clients of your own contract on a contract basis, and you know what, this company could potentially be your first contract client as a instead of working full time, because the key to you working with them but not being a full time employee could just be the fact that you are a freelancer,
you're not full time. So you could propose, you know, down the line, or maybe even now, if you feel like you're comfortable with it, propose a solution where you're like, listen, I'm not going to be stopping my YouTube channel if that's if that means that you know it's going to be an issue for me being a full time employee, can we talk about, you know, moving me to a contract basis and then you can come up with a you know, a contract fee, a sorry, a contract salary
instead of you know, like whatever you're making. And yeah, there's like pros and cons to that. But if you have your own IP, you want to protect that as much as you can and just be aware of it as you move through these corporate streets that they can and they will shut it down if there's any risk
that it's going to make them look bad. Because you join their company, you represent them, and that's what they're thinking when they put out these non competes and such conflict of interest I mean, sorry, conflict of interest clauses.
Yeah, and now you know you know what I mean, Like you know, like there are worse positions to be and it's like sometimes you just got to like, you know, a bit your time, Like, Okay, that was cute, you caught that. Let me just get myself together so I can go back to what I love to do. But I get to learn and get to make some money. I get to stack a little something. Yeah, and then you might decide. I mean, it's really up to you.
But what I I'm never gonna encourage anyone to give up a thing that they love if they don't have to.
Yeah, especially if you're making money off of it. Keep going man for woman.
Well, sad YouTuber, hopefully you're a little less sad. Maybe you're just grumpy, you know, maybe a little forlorn, you know, hopefully happier and joyfuler who want to be joyful. We encourage you to ask your questions over here down to the b A of the QA. Go to Brown Ambition Podcast dot com and click contact us or briand Ambition Podcasts at gmail dot com, email us there, or Brand Ambition Podcast on ig slide into the DMS it goes damning them, or you can always tweet us at the
BA podcast. Yeah, you know, and honestly, you guys can alwaysweet us too, like Mandy is m A n D I Mandy Money and I am the budget ASA on Twitter. So you know, we love your tweets there too. Love when you tag all three of us the pod cast as well as the three of us. I'm like, oh, look at me, I'm tagged Twitter X. This is the tweater wether. It's Twitter X. Until next week, we will see you, bye y'all