How To Negotiate A Job Offer (ft. Hannah Williams) | Episode 04

how much money do you make I love this question I you know I actually have to check with my accountant because I brought my salary down I was making 200k a year and then I brought it down to 125k a year to make room you know in the business and now we're in a good place so I think she brought me back up to 200k oh wow I have to double check yeah that's great I'm I'm happy today I joined by the one and only Hannah Williams thank you so much for having me Aon this is so fun I've really been looking forward to this and like let's get into it with 1.3 million followers on Tik Tok and over 830,000 on Instagram and features in Forbes CNBC Fortune The Washington Post Fast Company and many others Hannah Williams is nothing short of impressive after finding out she was being underpaid at her job as a senior data analyst Hannah became frustrated with the lack of salary transparency and took to the streets with nothing but a microphone and a camera to ask people the audacious question hey what do you do and how much do you make her content blew up and she founded salary transparent Street a media company that provides people with pay Equity resources including a database newsletters and of course those videos she's penned long-term deals with massive companies like indeed and capital 1 and in 2023 her company brought in over $1 million and she was named one of Forbes 30 under 30 I'm exhausted listening to like all that you've accomplished so obnoxious how do you feel you know I'm vibing it's life is good like when you don't prepare for these things and you don't like it's wild to even think about Forbes 30 under 30 like I it just hasn't sunk in yet I'm just here for a good time not a long time I hope you're here for a long time let's hope yeah fingers crossed I have more I want to accomplish how does that work so with Forbes 1030 did they just approach you and they were like hey you're on the left yeah so I actually was working with a publicist at the time and he was like have you thought about Forbes 30 under 30 and I was like dude I'm not you know I'm not even qualified for that and he's like no you're Che in like I'm going to apply for you so some people think that you have to buy it and I think some people do like honestly I do think some people do and I mean if you think that buying it is because you pay for a publicist who like handles it for you then I guess in that sense you do kind of buy it but I could have done the application myself you know it just it was nice to have somebody do it for me and like push that forward so before we get started I do have a preliminary question and if you answer wrong you do have to leave oh God okay I'm scared you have to go I have to leave okay are you ready let's hope I get it right okay okay it's um do you know what you're doing I might have to leave I have no clue what I'm doing like I'm ringing it you're qualified okay I can stay you passed passed awesome none of us know what we're doing none of us know what we're doing look at this girl she brought in a million dollars last year Forbes 3030 all these things no clue I'm winging it I really am like that's not an exaggeration I have no background as a journalist I have no background in media I have a management degree and the only reason reason I have that is cuz I would have had to stay an extra semester to get a marketing degree so like like I am I I used to be a consultant I used to be a data analyst what am I doing interviewing people on the street but it you know here I am I just love it you have the audacity and I'm just here for it the audacity yep really okay so we're going to do a little rapid fire round just so we can get to know you Hannah as an individual outside of your company so the first question is where did you grow up oh good question everywhere my parents were diplomats my mom is Belgian my dad is American they met in Israel at a wedding on a blind date blind date at a wedding that's like I don't know if their friends are good friends or not they worked out it worked out um they got married they had me and my sister and then I grew up traveling the world with them I was born in Belgium so I'm Belgian American but then I lived in erria Germany Croatia Kuwait Kazakhstan and now here so I've been in six countries yeah so when people are like where are you from I'm like I have no clue you're third culture kid I'm a third culture kid yeah you're from everywhere everywhere and so when you lived in all those different countries growing up did you go to English speaking schools yeah I went to international schools so it was actually really cool I went to a British school when I lived in Belgium so I had a British accent for the longest time and then when we moved to Kazakhstan right after people thought I was British cuz I still had the accent and I started watching like Hannah Montana and stuff and I was like trying to break the accent so sometimes I feel like I have like a southern twang but I'm not Southern like my dad's from Ohio I'm from everywhere but it's from Hannah cuz I was trying to break my accent shout out Miley Cyrus shout out Hannah Montana oh well that's that's amazing okay so um what did your parent you just said what your parents did for living yeah my mom was a diplomat and then she became she actually her background was in teaching so she got into like Embassy work but her background and most of her career she was a teacher and that's like a lot of my family actually are teachers like my grandparents a lot of my family so I definitely have that teacher influence you're passionate about education absolutely Ely it's incredibly important it was always stressed to me like you know I was a straight A student and there was no other option for me my parents were very strict about education my dad is a Air Force veteran he he has a phenomenal story couldn't afford College like they raised the price one year on his community college and he had like no other option so he joined the military was in the air force for four years got to travel and went to England with the military realized he loved travel got into the um Department of State becoming like a diplomat and he's done that his whole career he just recently retired he was working in DC as like an part of the inspector General's office so still traveling the embassies and stuff gosh she has a cool career but my mom quit her job fairly early on to take care of me and my sister full-time and be kind of like a stay-at-home mom she had jobs you know at the post office and stuff but she really gave it up to raise us big sacrifice yeah how do you feel about that or how does she feel about that you know we have our differences about it yeah part of me is grateful right cuz like I am who I am because of her and like she you know even though she gave up her career to be a stay-at-home mom she is the most feminist like hardcore feminist I know you can be both I mean you can be both yeah and it just it made sense for the family but in hindsight I'm like man her career could have possibly been bigger than his you know and it was a different time you know he wouldn't have quit his job to raise us is the default yeah I'm I'm glad things have changed I think a little bit I think we're still the default a lot of ways steps baby steps I would not be doing the same as her but you know I respect her okay did you go to college and if so what did you study yeah I did go to college I actually went to Community College I got my associates degree at Northern Virginia Community College in Business Administration my parents did not give me a choice to go to Community College like they were they were like you're not going up forear public school we cannot afford it like and you know I'll give some context there my parents saved $100,000 for both me and my sister which is a lot of money t of money is gracious it's a lot of money in a 529 or no in just like set up set up and they were like this is your money for college if you go over it that's on you if you go under it we give you that money cash when you graduate to like live your life it's kind of a cool deal I thought it was amazing then I started going to college and I was like college is freaking expensive I'm about to blast through this 100K no problem so they said if you go to Community College you'll save money I got a full honor scholarship to go to Nova so my first two years of college were completely free then I made a big mistake and I transferred to Georgetown University which is a private university and I blasted through that 100K in like a year it was wild the first minute yep they were just like give me all that money but yeah so I studied management at Georgetown graduated with my bachelors and I have not been back to college since nice I'm curious do you feel like you missed out on that freshman year experience yes and I think that anybody who says they didn't is lying because like it is completely different when you go to Community College you're in college with people like in your class there's people there that are like 40 years old 50 years old they're returning to the workforce you know so it's not like you know everyone is in the same boat just graduated you know let's go party and I didn't live on campus I still lived at home so I had to commute because there were no dorms at a community college so I definitely did feel like I missed out on like the party culture but not entirely because like some of my best friends are from Community College that I've still talked to to this day and we all kind of felt like in the same boat like we don't want to be here and I think that we just kind of joined forces and we like let's have our own fun you know so we went out we had our own little parties it was different but like I missed out but in hindsight like did I really miss out on a frat party in a basement was it worth $50,000 right exactly so I loved my experience at Community College more than I enjoyed my my actual college experience at Georgetown honestly wow yeah I commuted too for a year and a half of college you know save money cuz I I went to American in DC yeah Amic we probably lived like a couple miles away from each other we were right next to each other I didn't even know um but I commuted my parents live in Silver Springs so I would commute like 20 minutes back and forth and I honestly I loved coming home I was like my parents have a stocked fridge a fireplace I got my dogs like I'm kind of a home body so maybe I just liked it but then I also loved living on campus you know there's nothing like living on you know a college campus or near campus and so you ended up taking out loans at Georgetown to finish I did I did iend end up taking about 25,000 that's how much I went over I lived on campus the first year which is really what Aid into my the money my parents saved and then I got an apartment and lived off campus with my my now husband um my senior year yeah we love James and it was cheaper to live off campus with him than it was to live on campus it was ridiculous um but yeah I took out $225,000 in student loans and I paid them off within my first year after graduating yeah now I look back and I'm like I shouldn't have done that cuz like oh really we can get into it but let's get into it yeah so I wanted to pay off my debt because first of all I just like hated having debt my parents were always like debt is bad debt is terrible get rid of it kind of Dave Ramsey Dave Ramsey and generations yeah so my parents were like you have to get rid of this like you have to pay it off and I made it just like my ultimate goal to pay that off and I did because I like got sign on bonuses at jobs when I moved and I put that all on the loan but now I look back and I'm like you know not all debt is bad and I did not have like my parents didn't help me build up my credit score I didn't have a credit card because they were like you know debt is bad credit cards are bad I didn't even have a credit card so I had no credit really when I graduated and then I realized having debt helps you build credit and you know also it would have been nice to have that $225,000 at that point in my life you know like I was living paycheck to paycheck and I did that to myself cuz I was like I have to pay off this debt no debt yeah I'm like I didn't have to rush rush huh do you remember your interest rate de it was like 133% oh it was really high private Lo incredibly high so like it was a private loan yeah I didn't even qualify for public or anything cuz my parents made it too much which was frustrating cuz they were a one income household like my mom didn't make any money and my dad you know was well off but he was only making like 150k which in the DC area you know is not insane and so like we didn't even qualify for public loans or any type of financial aid it was wild I got a ton of I got a ton of scholarships though I will say was a Taco Bell live mouse scholar no way dude I had the Taco Bell scholarship no way yeah they gave me like $35,000 it was amazing yeah shout out Taco Bell shout out Taco Bell live Moss fun fact I've never had Taco Bell Aon ever in my life we're about to go to Taco Bell like literally can we go to The Cantina one where you get maros that is the best one cuz you got the alcohol oh my God I'm about to change your life I love Taco Bell so much uh what was your first job ever Pizza Hut I made like six bucks an hour in Colorado at Pizza Hut you and your Taco Bell Pizza Hut a fast food food I had a ton of jobs so many part-time jobs I liked working at Pizza Hut though but you smelled so bad after your shift it was terrible and then what what is your current job my current job I guess I'm a full-time content creator social activist influencer some might say um but really I'm just like the CEO of my media company salary transparent Street and do you like your current job I love my current job I love it I'm obsessed with it there's no other job that I would happily work 60 hours a week for is that how much you work 60 hours I would I would estimate yeah yeah I'm always like well if I'm dreaming and and dreaming about work does that count does that count I love that then I might be at like 65 yeah okay my last question I don't ask every every body this but I have to ask you how much money do you make I love this question I you know I actually have to check with my accountant because I brought my salary down I was making 200k a year and then I brought it down to 125k a year to make room you know in the business I you know I'm not the type that's like if I'm making 100K I'm happy you know so I'm not like worried about that and I wanted to make room in the business to like hire and just you know not be so stressed and now we're in a good place so I think she brought me back up to 200k but I have to double check yeah that's great I'm happy I love how you just say exact you're so transparent you're the most transparent person I know it's hard to tell it as it is and like you want to be the people pleaser you don't want to offend anybody but what I found is like direct transparency is respect you know and and there's that balance between being nice and a people pleaser and then showing people that you respect them and there's ways that you can deliver that information without you know making people feel offended but it is hard like I still struggle with that too I'm a people pleaser as well I with it too yeah I love bernee Brown she always say clear as kind hero I love her yeah I just I love her communication advice cuz I feel like it's catered towards women yes and a lot of the books I read are written by men and they have great advice but I just I feel like there's just you got to treat women differently anyway this is a typical tangent for me I need to get back to the we're like 30 minutes in I know I know I know I know know okay we're getting to it now okay so you told us about your college experience uh tell us about graduation and getting that first job that's a telemarketer God this was a dark point in my life Aaron so I went to Georgetown which you know depends on who you ask I would argue is a very good school very wellknown very prestigious didn't feel that prestigious on my way out because I chose to go to Georgetown because I felt like it was a guaranteed way to get a job you know like I was worried about when I graduate I you know I have a community college degree I need to make sure that I have that school that matters and my advice to anyone listening is f that because it didn't help me I was one of the few graduating seniors a month before graduation that had no job lined up and I went to the business school there and basically everybody that goes to Georgetown business and I didn't know this ahead of time which would have helped me before transferring if you go to business school at Georgetown you're going into Finance or you're going into management consulting okay I wanted to do neither of those things I wanted nothing to do with them not doing it nope stay far away from me so all the people that they on campus you know to find jobs all the recruiters and stuff were not catered to my interests so and I mean I'm not going to blame them there were a lot of things I could have done that I didn't but it was really stressful to be like the one what it felt like the one student who was like I don't have a job like what am I going to do graduations in a month so I just started applying to a ton of things that I didn't even want to do including a telemarketing job which was in Arlington right across the bridge from Georgetown I went in for an interview they made me an offer on the spot which probably should have been a red flag um $40,000 which in the Arlington area I was very much penny pinching you know paycheck to paycheck started I graduated on a Saturday I started on Monday which hurt even more because a lot of the kids I went to school with at Georgetown came from Rich families so they all went to Europe for the summer you know they all went you're not going TOA no girl I'm going to work how are you not going to a Visa it's like a re I had no break I immediately went to work and it sucked I hated it it was the worst I was fullon cold calling people trying to sell them Lexus Nexus legal software no it sucked and but you know what I look back on it and I'm like it taught me so much so much I feel like everybody needs to learn how to sell at one point in their life I would almost recommend that everybody have a sales job for like two months cuz that's how long I lasted I cried every day I was so desperate I would have done anything to get out several times I was like I'm going to quit with with no backup plan like I'm just going to be unemployed but I know how to sell I know how to cold call I know how to be put on the spot I know how to have a conversation with somebody you know over the phone about something I don't want to talk about it definitely for from someone who's like honestly introverted and shy a lot of people would not guess that but I am it taught me so much about people's skills and how to basically just get to the point yeah I love that so much uh so then you hopped over to a few data science roles data analyst kind of the same thing I don't know okay and uh and then you job hopped four jobs in four years five jobs in two and a half years oh my gosh I was so off five jobs in two and a half years two and a half years how did you do that so it basically was just sort of like so I I had the telemarketing job that was my first job I was there two months I got a really cool opportunity to work at a small Government Contracting firm who they didn't know what they needed but they basically were hiring a junior data analyst which ended up being I think my long title was a functional data management analyst like something really long and they B yeah they just needed somebody to organize their Excel files so they actually found me on georgetown's Career Network you know the Hoya so shout out Georgetown for that I guess and I qualified for a secret clearance because you know I had a great background my dad had a you know TS so you know I have no no skeletons in my closet yeah that was really the in for me when I got the secret clearance they sponsored it for me which I know a lot of people will ask well how do you do that I have no clue they were just like can you qualify and I was like yeah and they're like okay we'll sponsor it for you okay that's all I know um so I got that job and that was my break into Government Contracting and data analysis work then I was there for a couple months and I started getting a lot of Recruiters in my LinkedIn cuz in the area like at the time what was this like 2019 2020 data an was really starting to take off and it hadn't been too you know it wasn't too popular yet so there were people that were like willing to hire these data analyst for huge amounts of money and they were reaching out to me offering me like 70k 80k and I was I was happy with my job but like I knew I didn't want to stay there long term it just wasn't like the right fit for me and did you study this in school how'd you get the skill no um they basically were like cuz I had a management degree so they were like you know what kind of skills do you bring to the table and so I really stressed the class projects I did cuz in Georgetown I did an OP class which was like operation Information Management basically like strategy business strategy and we did a bunch of case projects that involved Excel work you know deep dive analysis and so I was just like I have a management degree but I have all this experience and I just in my interview that was all I talked about was those case projects and I guess that helped I'm a very good interviewer I will stress that and an interview an interview in a job interview I've just learned how to sell myself really well and I think that that is essential for a successful career you have to know how to sell yourself so it's a skill yeah and you can only get better at it by doing more interviews so the best advice I actually ever got about business and like careers was from my dad and he told me there's no such thing as a bad interview even if you think you flubbed it even if you're not inter interested in the job take the interview great advice because it's a muscle and every time you exercise I always tell people every interview gets easier like if when you're in your 40s and you're interviewing it's a piece of cake you know what you're doing the hardest interview you're going to have is like that one out of college you're going to be like I don't know who I am and I don't know what iing what are these questions I still don't know what I'm doing so you job hopped your way up to tell me about the last job that you had before yeah so I job hopped a couple times like five times two and a half years I went through these jobs they just kept offering me more money I would go to my boss and be like hey these companies are trying to coach me yeah and they would raise my salary but then eventually like I was was still getting more money so I would quit and I moved around and I just kept telling people you know I'm looking for opportunities that inspire me and that was 100% true like I just kept getting really cool opportunities and towards the end of my time in Consulting I found out I was underpaid like $25,000 at my third job fourth job total as a senior data analyst left that job making $25,000 more so I validated that I was underpaid at my most current job before doing this as another senior data analyst and I was supporting a government contract for veterans um it was really cool like I was basically reading exit surveys from veterans and you know talking about what they were you know worried about transitioning into civilian life and like I was just basically gleaning insights from these surveys and telling them about it and then I started my Tik Tok and then I quit the rest is history the rest is history so do you think that you were able to so successfully job hop because you had an in demand skill part of that yes but I think it was also that in our industry when you're interviewing people can be very like Bland like Government Contracting is a very boring career you know we work for the government and you're like a little like ray of sunshine walking in there Honestly though and I think that that attitude and that perspective especially being young I was like I want to change things I want have an impact I think that was refreshing to them and I really do think it helped me in my interviews you know just bringing that energy but definitely it was part of my skill set and I was constantly improving my skill set I would talk to other data analysts I'm like what are you working on what are you building on what course are you taking oh so you're just teaching you're taking courses and I would talk to my manager over there and I'd be like what do you need me to learn can I take this course will you pay for it very proactive very proactive I was on top of it I'm I'm very type a very obnoxious ly on top of it so you were not quiet quitting then no I was not opposite I was very loud quitting you were like loud quitting but you were also being a stellar employee yes and I think that's why I I felt I had the balls to loud quit because I was like I'm valuable when I found out I was underpaid I told them like this is exactly how much money I need to make to be fairly compensated I showed them the jobs I were hiring for that and then I also brought to the table this is the impact I've had on the contract what was wild to me was in Government Contracting you're a contractor but you work with actual feds and they are basically you cater to them so I was working directly with the federal you know lead on that was leading this contract she loved me like and I was brand new and she was like we need you you need to stay you're important like and she would tell me this all the time so I would tell them I'm valuable you cannot lose me they did not care and when I put in my two weeks do you know what they said said what name your price and I told them I already did and I left ooh I love that I love that the audacity when you found out that you were being underpaid tell me about that yeah where do I start Dark Times um I was kind of at a point in my career where I liked what I was doing but I wasn't really sure what the future was either so I think that that kind of helped me you know move forward and try to find a way out of the darkness but it was really stressful like it sucks to be underpaid it's basically the best way to feel disrespected um especially if you're bringing value to your work which I knew I was so it was really disheartening I was incredibly depressed I started writing an outline I was like I'm going to quit my job and I'm going to write a book and I'm going to call it my midlife crisis like my my quarter life crisis cuz I was 25 at the time and I was like I'm going through my quarter life crisis like what am I doing I was going to quit my job with no backup plan it was really hard and it took several months to get out of that situation so like I would tell to people if you are in that point in your career where you're like stuck or you don't know what to do next what goes down always comes back up that has been true in my entire life not just my career there's always a rainbow after the rain it's so ugh it's so cringy but it's true so true you'll not you you won't always be in that dark spot and I think that like knowing that there was something at the end of that gave me the courage to keep trying to find it um yeah and it was a months long process my husband James was incredibly supportive and I I think that having support in your life especially with your family and people that are close to you can take you so many places it's essential to happiness Absol absolutely I yeah I interviewed a friendship expert and we were talking about the science behind relationships and how important it is to surround yourself with people who support you quality of your friends like you say like your dad gave you this great career advice my dad gave me great career advice just having like a a mentor somebody to just give you give you those little pieces of advice um so if there's anybody out there who's like I kind of want to see if I'm underpaid what would you recommend they do yeah market research first and foremost if you have a colleague in your company who is in a similar role or a direct role you know someone that's doing something similar that's the first person you should talk to and approaching that conversation I would stress do it off compan time and off compan property we are still in the age where some companies do not like people talking about their pay even if it is your legal protected right under the National Labor Relations Act you're not sure if you are protected Google it um but yeah just do the market research talk to your colleagues that is the first place to find out whether or not you are being fairly compensated because if they're in a similar role they should be making the same as they AR try to figure out why those differences OCC sometimes people make different amounts in the same Ro because they bring something different to the table yeah and it's important to try to do the investigation work and figure out what that is and then the internet of course go six pages deep in Google that's what I did there's so many resources out there not just indeed not just glass door people have created actual databases for salary transparen salary transparen stre we have a salary database thank you so much for I'm just plugging away I swear so you can check our database there it is completely open it's an independent database as well so if you go to like indeed I actually built the database because I was frustrated by the major products that were out there because if you search in glass storm zip recruiter you know those those type of places what the salaries are for a data analyst for example it gives you back an average off their aggregated data thousands of rows of data in the whole country right in the whole country which in New York it's going to be different than Indian exactly and those are such important factors to be aware of your location your years of experience your education your direct and indirect years of experience there's so much that goes into that so our independent database is actually if you search a job title it shows you every single response per person including the context that's missing so you can see what job they work at like the company years of experience Education location all of that and that will help you actually compare yourself and figure out whether you're in that range of being fairly compensated and also you have contribute to these databases like don't just consume like before you get in like inut your stuff you know it's important please no that please submit your data because data I'm a data analyst and that's why I did it like I know data is powerful and the more data the better yeah so you're like damn it I'm going to go out with my microphone and I'm going to ask people the most taboo question you can imagine which is how much money do you make which people just you know so much align with their value and their worth and it's just such a personal question question who was the first person that you asked I think it was some young boy um not boy a young man a child um it was a young man and I'm pretty sure he was I remember like everybody in their job title and I'm pretty sure he was a cyber analyst or a data scientist something like that in DC in Georgetown actually um we went out on like a Saturday I brought my husband I was like please like I need know weend I need to avenge he was like what are you doing like what is the point of this and I was like no this is important like let's go see what happens I knew that it was important I didn't think it would have the impact they had I literally was like 100 people are going to see this and think it it's valuable and I won't have to do it again jokes on me yeah posted that first video went viral overnight but yeah I mean props to all the people that answered like I wouldn't have a Channel or platform without the people who also value transparency and are brave enough to come share it on our Channel like they're the heroes absolutely Ely um do you think that some people inflate their salaries when they tell you great question I actually don't I think that there's probably a good 5% that have you know inflated um and I I can almost always tell and they usually are the same job and I don't think that it's them inflating sales um It's usually the jobs where it's like they don't know how much they make you know can make like sales like commission like if if like yeah I make like 200k I'm like well what's your base salary and how much of that is commission I love it when you break that down because like their base salary can be 50,000 but you know their commission could be a 100 you know exactly like sales uh business owners like sometimes I'll be like how much do you make and I feel like they give me their business Revenue instead of how much they pay themselves which like I mean technically I guess that is your money but like did you pocket it like that's a lot of money in taxes I hope the IRS isn't watching um but yeah know I think that the majority of the time people are truthful or they try to be as truthful as possible um a lot of people nowadays recognize us so when we do the interviews like they've seen it they know that their colleagues are going to see it they know their family's going to see it it doesn't behoove them to lie like it's just going to cause problems I do know sometimes when I feel like people have lied they're the ones that ask me to take the video down and I'm like mhm that's why oh so you've had a few people ask you to take the video down that's been a struggle actually like a lot of people will be like them you know like this is our contact information you've signed this form you know release form like tell me within 24 hours if you don't want it up and then they'll be like a week later after it's been up for three days they'll be like um my friends and family have seen this can you take it down I'm like come on bro you knew what you were signing doing you tell them like we're very big every video goes viral at this point yeah do you block people hell yeah dude I block every day and I've gotten crap about that before where people are like this is freedom of speech you know you can't censor and it's like this is my channel I read all the comments I have to put up with this every day if you come at me in the wrong way I will block you and I won't feel sorry about it yeah it's funny I don't do a lot of blocking unless I feel like the person's creepy yeah or I'm like I feel like you've got good like the people that follow you it's pretty good vibes it's good vibes I my community brings sometimes different Vibes well also like you're talking about something that I think a lot of people are insecure about how much money do you make a lot of people feel underpaid or they have regrets about their career so it's it's touchy so it's taboo absolutely Taboo it's still taboo my videos are all very wholesome Good Vibes but I do every now and then just have somebody who comments like the weirdest I have this one guy who like monitors my roots in my hair e and he's like Aaron like it's time to dye your roots and I'm like okay you're getting blocked today like that is the last time we were talking about my roots that's the other thing is like you know I did this to bring transparency not to have my image demolished and that is what makes being on the internet difficult cuz I didn't sign up for that you know and like I've yeah we can go on a tangent about and I'm like put makeup on so that people don't tell me I look tired of my videos had several people DM me with botox recommendations dude so rude you don't need it I well no one needs it no one needs it if it makes you feel good go for it but like you're beautiful either way and I'm like I talking about 401ks I'm not even like a f a fashion influencer I'm not even a beauty influencer yeah no and if I was maybe but like I'm I'm not talking about that anyway another tangent okay so let's talk about monetizing so you went from making $115,000 a year to salari 9 to5 yeah to making a million dollars in your business I did not pocket it but my business made a million exactly your business made a million you paid yourself $200,000 in salary which is still a huge bump huge 27 27 insane thanks like literally it's crazy so let's talk about the breakdown of where how do you make your money mhm 97% of that is brand partners ships over a million so it's basically like 30,000 is the rest like almost entirely all of it was brand Partnerships and a lot of that comes from long-term brand Partnerships like our big players are indeed in Capital One they have really we're married to them is how I view it and that was always my goal I didn't want to be the person who has a different ad with a different company every week I am a consumer a voracious consumer of content I love content I love the internet I have my favorite you know influencers you were one of them and now we're PE and I think that's so cool um but I I you know I consume content and I hate when people I follow creators that I like are just working with because you can tell when they just did the partnership for the check and I'm not knocking it I get it we all have to pay our bills but I always wanted to approach it from these are the brands I want to work with because they directly align with my mission and my values and I want to work with them long term so that I don't have to work with these other one-offs so when I approached when I I came to the table with indeed in Capital One I was like it is in your best interest to be married to us you know long term and they agreed you know it was it was a match made in heaven um so those were really lucrative Partnerships I can't disclose like legally which is frustrating I did fight them on that I was like you know I talk about yeah and people are asking like how much you know did did indeed pay you and I wish I could say it what I can say is that our market rate for our content hovers around $15,000 per paid ad so if you want to do the math you know one or two of those a month including you know newsletter ads YouTube ads what have you um it adds up and it's quite lucrative yeah I want to talk about these salary transparency laws so I have now in the state of California Colorado Connecticut Maryland Nevada New York Rhode Island Washington and then select cities you know like New York City companies required to post the salary range in the job description this is a new thing when I graduated from college it was very much first of all taboo to talk about money and like the first interview and also you it was opaque you had no idea what the company so I remember in 2021 I posted a Tik Tok where I did like a skit back and forth and a person asked what's your salary expectations love that and I was like what's your budget and like that video went crazy viral because it's almost like it clicked and it was like wait they have a budget because as a freelancer when people post jobs for Freelancers they always post like we're looking for video editor weekly rate $4,000 like that is always what it is and when I was working in like more W2 roles I was like wait why don't they do that for full-time jobs it just seemed really weird to me so I just made a Tik Tok to like reflect that and you at the same time started creating content and there were other content creators who started making content kind of encouraging us to just it all happen sort of at the same time same time just politely ask you know oh well you know I'm flexible what's your budget cuz you know they have a budget you know they have a budget they always have a budget even me and you when we're hiring just I know how much I can afford so you can you can discuss salary your co-workers yeah if you are protected under the National Labor Relations Act which is like almost every single private employer unless you are a federal employee which you already have pay transparency they had it before all of us did so it's not a problem or you work on a railroad or a farm so Random so Random unless you are part of those three groups you are protected most likely under National Labor Relations Act which protects your right to talk about pay with anyone at any time that should not be and and I'll also stress because some people are like well my company had me sign an NDA BS that NDA is not yeah it's not enforcable in court it will not stand and if you get fired for talking about your pay great lawsuit also this is America there are so many employment lawyers chomping at the bit to like read and so many people think oh I I can't contact a lawyer because I can't afford them first of all just contact them and a lot of them if they see that there's a case they could even take it and not charge you unless they win yeah and a lot of them won't charge you for that 30 minute call they'll just hear if you have a case and if you have a case they'll tell you and you can decide from there but like if you feel like you were unfairly let go you know illegally let go you should check you should talk with a labor lawyer to make sure because lawsuits can be lucrative and they will settle with you and it'll be it yeah and as business owners you know there always that's why HR exists it's CU they trying to protect I mean HR exists for a lot of different reasons but one of the things is to legally protect companies from incoming lawsuits America really is the Wild Wild West yeah and this industry is too like the Creator economy it's it's wild we're all figuring it out as we go along no one knows what they're doing oh my gosh it's almost like the name of the show W it's almost the name of the show wow I'm so flattered um okay I want to get into some other Hot Topics so Forbes reported that a failure to negotiate your first offer can lead to a difference of $1 million in lifetime earnings yeah which is insane a lot of people message me and they're like oh you know I can't negotiate it's my first job no can you can you tell us about why you should negotiate your first job and how to go about it yeah you should always negotiate first job last job middle job I don't care any job negotiate and the best way to do that is to come prepared with market research know what you want to be paid before you go into the job interview and then ask for a little more and then and then add tax right I love that little you know add a little 10% at a little 20% because people are so scared that you know the job offer is going to be rescinded they're going to make an enemy no the worst thing that you're going to get is they're going to say we can't afford that but here's what we can afford and if you negotiate and you start at that high end of your range that you're expecting you can negotiate and still end up higher than what they offered you versus if you start at the the lower end or in the middle so always negotiate come prepared with that range that you're expecting there should be a range of if it's an annual salary start from a minimum to max range of like $20,000 if it's an hourly rate try to add you know5 to $10 extra to that hourly rate that they're giving you but make sure that you're also asking for something that's fair that's backed up by your market research that other people are asking for as well and being compensated just come prepared it'll help you confidently ask for what you know you you should be paid because everybody else is making it yeah and it'll also help you spot a really lowball offer which is a great red flag to run absolutely I know people are always like I did this and I got the offer rescinded and I was like first of all it's extremely rare extremely rare and it's never a you thing if the job offer is rescinded it's a them thing and it's not somewhere you'd want to work cuz if they're not even willing to negotiate do you want to work there you do not want to work there but with a first job offer I think a lot of people go in and they're like I feel like I don't have any reason to negotiate but what I say is you know they offered you the job yeah not this other guy yeah they see value in you they see value in you and they're expecting you to negotiate at least in the United States everyone is expecting you to counter yeah recruiters are always expecting you to negotiate if you don't honestly if you if you accept the first offer they give you you're leaving money on the table that is basically what they're saying we'll start here yeah that number is the starting point you should negotiate always and it's that Snowball Effect because your last job's going to go off you know that job and then it's just going to keep going up so absolutely negotiate your first job offer and I think something else that's really important is that people will message me and say I used your salary negotiation script and it didn't work and I'm like guys delivery is important delivery you can't walk in there all pompous and prideful you need to go in with some humility but confidence yeah and negotiation also isn't always about that salary or the you know hourly rate if they can't meet you at that what you're asking for there's other things you can negotiate if you're going into the office Comm cost parking anything gas whatever it costs you to get to the office is something that you should negotiate you can also negotiate your 401k match Healthcare PTO holidays there's pet insurance Child Care Severance Severance everything is negotiable yeah it's all made up especially in the private sector made honestly I know I I'll uh I was talking to somebody who's like you know an expert in HR and they were talking about you know all the math that goes into compensation yeah I was like I I get that you have all these softwares and stuff that tells you at the end of the day though companies can pay you whatever they want to yeah so it's really just up to some guy in finance at the end of the day yeah um and but I know it's a careful balance you know we don't want to see like wage inflation to the to the point where it's just crazy but but it should be fair it should be competitive exactly it should be fair I wanted to ask you about like kind of these phrases you know we you're hearing like quiet quitting Lazy Girl job like automate your job like your job isn't your life what do you think about that like do you think that people can have a dream job or they should like their job yeah I love the phrases like that every month there's a new one and like CNBC and they always lose their minds over they lose their minds they're like what is jeny doing um I love it I think it's nice to see them kind of scrambling honestly it's it's nice to feel like we have some power back like there really is more of a Power Balance happening um but I think at the end of the day people are just seeking joy and fulfillment and balance you know and and I don't think that everybody has a dream job I'm incredibly lucky and privileged to have found my dream job without even looking for it I did not apply to this job I created it out of thin air you can just make it up y'all I made up my job I asked people on the street what they do for a living and how much they make if you can find that on indeed send it to me because I want to make sure I'm competitively compensated um but yeah I mean a lot of times I feel like dream jobs if people say they have their dream job it is that situation where they made it themselves because they know what they were looking for if you are trying to find a dream job that fits the parameters of somebody else it's going to be hard to fit because circles don't fit in squares squares don't fit in circles you know it's it's always well actually Circle does fit in a square doesn't it well theoretically depending on the size theoretically depending on the side um but yeah I mean I think that we give her we put too much pressure on ourselves to have the perfect job or the dream job I spent the first two three years of my career in five jobs not a single one of them was my dream job but I was constantly seeking it like I didn't give up on myself I knew that I wanted to have something that brought me joy and fulfillment I had no idea what that was I think a lot of us don't and we put too much pressure on ourselves to know you won't know until you're there so just you know follow the breadcrumbs love that go in the directions that bring you Joy even if they don't feel like they're what was written for you even if they don't match your degree just have the courage to figure it out yeah and I think I was thinking about this last night just like hope and dream I think that our generation and jenes as well because of so many external factors have kind of been beaten down and don't dream anymore it's like guys you you can have a really fun job Hanah walks around on the street with a camera and gets paid her business brought on a million dollars like she's making six figures like MH you dream of a a beautiful job and you can find it um dream big but also like I think your 20s you're just not going to have your favorite job in your 20s no most of most of us won't and that's the reality of it you got to get messy and you got to make mistakes and put the what is it pound the pavement for a little bit and you know you'll figure it out but like if you're not in your dream job it's not the end of the world I would say probably 95% of people in the world are not in their dream job and that is is okay having your dream job is like one of those really hard things to accomplish you can still enjoy your job cuz it pays the bills and any job is going to have pros and cons like me and you have these ideal careers where we work for ourselves I have so many cons I could talk cons all day yeah but there's still you don't know yeah you don't even know until you get it like I my dream you know I work in the film industry my dream was to do this one thing and then I did it and I was like this kind of sucks it's not what I thought it was up at 4 a.m. I like don't have any control over my life um so sometimes your dream job you'll get it and you'll realize oh it's actually not yeah when I was in college I spent like the first three years of my college career interning exclusively with sports teams like really the Redskins now the commanders um gosh the gnats the Wizards you know I was I was dead set on working in the sports industry that was what I thought I wanted to do that was my dream job and I realized pretty quickly like it actually was not my dream job because I love sports but I also like being home on Friday nights and on the weekend I I learned very quickly that if you work in sports that is not the work life balance that you will have also the pay sucks sucks sucks so bad all my internships were unpaid and I got paid in Pizza like literally that's where my anti- pizza party like my anger comes from cuz I've had so much Papa John's that was my payment for working six seven hours so that's it's like that in the film industry and I realized with content creation I was like okay maybe I do want to make more money yeah making money is really fun the film industry obviously I'm very passionate about film making and I love documentary film making and journalism and I get to do content creation Now which you know is more lucrative Blends you know you can just you can do both exactly like you're still utilizing the same skill sets but in a different way in a job you created like that's where I think the beauty is if you love what you do but you don't love where you're at where can you do what you do somewhere else o I love that or for yourself I love that um wow yeah that's a that's a great Insight um yeah I mean we've both found ourselves in unexpected internet careers neither of us were trying to be influencers I just like to making little videos and you like making little videos and asking people how much money they make what is a piece of advice that you're glad you ignored yeah the number one piece of advice that I'm really glad I ignored was people telling me to stay at a job at least a year before I even considered quitting I left my first job out of college 2 months into the job and if I had stayed a year my life would be so different right now in I think a negative way I knew that job was not right for me I cried every day I hated it I knew it in my gut I knew it in my soul if I stayed another day I would have been doing myself a disservice and I think so many people get hung up on well it's going to look bad on my resume it's going to look bad on my resume you don't have to put it on your resume if you were only there a couple months you do not have to list that job on your resume and if you do and they ask you why you left hopefully you have a good reason yeah this does not make me passionate it's not relevant to my skill set I don't want to do it like it's you know I saying I'm intentional about my career decisions and it wasn't the right fit Bingo because then they're like oh [ __ ] this person means business yeah yeah exactly I would just whenever people would ask me like so your job history what's with this I would tell them I received better opportunities that really aligned with my mission and values elsewhere and I was honored to work on those projects they wrapped now I'm looking for the next thing makes sense to me yeah what is the smartest financial decision that you've made in your life ooh that's a really good question isn't that a good one either personal or professional personal or professional I have a few I'll I'll touch on them really quickly the first was learning that you can you can negotiate sign on bonuses and using sign on bonuses to pay down debt um that's how I paid off my student loan so that was kind of like a hack that I figured out that like if you started a new job and you ask for a sign on bonus like they give you like $5,000 cash right then and there and you just put it on debt that was helpful um but also like I think quitting my job and doing this full-time would be the smartest financial decision I've ever made and it wasn't like that to start like we weren't making I wasn't making this amount of money until like mid last year and I started April 2022 so we're almost 2 years old so it took a while to like actually make how much I make but now I make almost double my business made over a million dollars like I If I Had quit my job and took the risk and gone those months hustling and you know being scared of like what did I do I don't have any money like we were we were really at the at the beginning you're probably yeah pretty broke we were really broke like to the point where I was like we have like two more months to figure this out and then we can't pay the mortgage but that's what that's what people don't get is when you quit your job something ignites in you and you just figure it out like you get it done when you don't have a paycheck coming in it's so funny I always tell people if you hang out with me long long enough I'll convince you to quit your job and but I have I have some friends who are like cuz my D my dad like raised us he was like never work for someone else love that being you know he he is like the word entrepreneur but you he's like work for yourself um but I have a lot of friends who you know grew up in more traditional houses where they like don't understand like wait you don't have job security and I'm like no I have the ultimate job security I can't get laid off no one can fire me that's such a good way to put it yeah I'm I if I want more money I go out and I make more money and it's the most liberating thing that there's no cap either there's no cap if I was still working as a full freelance editor I would be making a quarter of what I'm making right now in even in new yor same hours oh yeah less less like I work less now I get work lass okay curious I I have two questions really quick so one when you interview people what have been like the salaries that are so high and you're like shocked you're like whoa I didn't know you could make that much in that um I mean I think I had an idea that Tech made a lot of money like account managers software Engineers that one didn't surprise me like whenever they tell me that they work in Tech I'm like oh this is going to be a good salary and if it's not like we might have to have a conversation off camera um but really like the people that do surprise me are the independent like small business owners they are the ones that are making competitive salaries to everybody else but when they're telling me like this is how much I took home I'm like well I know your business made more you know cuz I'm in the same boat that hot dog vendor you interviewed I love that guy blew my mind such a nice guy too and the water vendor outside the White House like he made like 7K a month or something selling Waters outside the White House and people were like it's BS he has to be selling like a water water every minute and I'm like have you been to the White House in Su sell water every minute he's selling four water bottles a minute like and another four more DC in the summer in DC and they're on every corner it's I'm so happy for them DC has one of the largest pay gaps actually the largest pay Gap in the country between different races yeah africanamerican citizens there are drastically underpaid iry they're not in these white collar jobs that are walking all around them on Capitol Hill and in the White House and you know anytime I can see them making money and uplift them I think that's a beautiful thing what is a lesson that you learned the hard way I think the number one would be not to to to have a healthy level of distrust um I'm very much a good vibes you know if I if I Feel Good Vibes then that's all that you know I need um people do want to take advantage if the opportunity presents itself and it's sad to tell people like you have to be scared of that but when you're on the other side of it and you are being taken advantage of it's like oh God I I should have done a better job you know asking questions learning who this person was feeling them out um so don't rush into important decisions trust but verify nothing important needs to be incredibly rushed what's meant to be will happen in due time take your time move slow don't rush yeah um and then I guess also on like a more logistical standpoint with agencies 25% is too much if they're asking for 20 to 25% they're asking for too much the healthy level of an agent is like 10 to 15% talk to people and that's the value of transparency if you're not sure reach out to the closest person you know that might be in a similar situation similar role and talk to them about it just tell them this is what I'm going through I don't know what to do do you have any advice cuz if you keep it to yourself that's where you make mistakes and you learn the hard way absolutely mentors are really important you know I have like six people that I'm always calling half of them are my siblings and I'm like what would you do in the situation um and and people like you I mean we were just a VidCon together and we all stayed up so late one night was like Syne we were just like like talking about like brand deals and it just felt it felt like we were like you know co-workers in a way literally um cuz entrepreneur you know being self-employed is such a lonely job sometimes especially being a Creator cuz like it is the wild west there we are in the Heyday of this economy and this industry and we're just learning as we go so the last part of the show is that I have viewers like you you can go to this link I'll put here somewhere um and you write in a conundrum or just an issue that you're having and then I co-author advice with whoever my guest is okay let's see so okay so it says Dear Aaron and Hannah I was promoted to an associate position at my workplace of eight years before going on my Matt leave 6 months ago however I was told that it would come into effect on my return to work and that the particulars would be decided then I love my workplace who I love my workplace who have been exceptionally supportive through a sabatical and two matern eternity leaves they are very familyfriendly and I get on well with my colleagues however the pay is on the lower end of the scale which is often the case for small private practices such as this one rather than the large multidisiplinary companies I am Keen to stay where I am but I want to see a bigger jump in my salary than I suspect they are willing to give mhm in my favor two Associates have just left finding good talent in my field oh two Associates have just left and finding good talent in my field is notoriously difficult so this may work in my favor yeah is it possible to stay where I am and negotiate my salary this person writes weird is it possible to stay where I am and negotiate a salary that I'm happy with or is the only way to boost my pay significantly oh my gosh sorry they write really weird or is the only way to boost my pay significantly by jumping between jobs but losing the security of a familyfriendly workplace help oh goodness tail is oldest time sing it but like that is a real conundrum to be in though and I understand where they're coming from feeling like comfortable where you work having that work life balance having especially support as a family supporting business is really hard to come by especially if they supported you through a sabatical and two maternity leaves you can feel like oh this is like the gold pod I don't want to leave yeah other companies exist like that and like like they said having that skill set especially if it's in high demand yeah you need to advocate for yourself and recognize your worth them giving you maternity leave is not an amazing thing it should be the expectation it should be it should be normal that a company supports you through maternity maternity leave through a sabatical that is not something that you should be like glorifying as this is the only company that does that other companies do it too and if they don't you have the skills that are in demand to negotiate that elsewhere like we said Pay is not the only that's negotiable you can negotiate that maternity leave you can negotiate the benefits that you currently feel like you have at other companies my advice and my experience is that you will get the highest pay Bump by jumping companies that is the best way to get like a 20,000 30,000 even 50,000 raise absolutely if you stay at your current company my experience like when I asked for the raise and I found out I was underpaid they literally told me you had to be at the company a year before I even qualified for a raise and that they didn't give out raises of more than 3 to 5% at any one time and that is the standard for a lot of companies if you're getting a raise you're probably going to get about 3 to 5% on an annual basis that is why job hopping outpaces the 3 to 5% because it's if you job hop you can drastically increase your salary overnight I would tell them figure out what your values are is compensation something that you're struggling with you know that like maybe is not supporting your family the way it is it used to be sounds like you just had a baby money is important money pays the bills money helps you grow and live a Wonderful Life um it's important and so my advice would be to start interviewing you don't have to take the job offer yet just see what the Market's demanding see what Market demanding take every interview because it'll help you get comfortable with negotiating as well and getting comfortable with asking for what you deserve so figure out how much other people are making start interviewing see what's out there and you know if they're not offering the the work environment that you really value try to see if there's something you can negotiate or maybe you know try to find the perfect balance but I would see what's out there I totally agree I completely agree and I think this is something that our generation is changing that older Generations maybe don't understand you know about the job hopping it's companies are less loyal now they they'll just lay you off and within an hour you to be gone yeah tech tech is going through and Mar uh advertising marketing other Industries are being affected because of the tech domino effect and they will lay off a perfectly wonderful employee same day you're out of here and it's insane to me that we even I I don't think it's right I totally agree just sprinkle your resume out there see what people want because I know that having this familyfriendly environment like that there's a dollar amount to that like going to work and feeling safe and so so great to find find that and that's truly a wonderful thing just in your daily life enjoying your your work environment um but that doesn't mean that's the only place where that exists exactly power van you might be able to have both you can get the pay and have the work environment that you love so I think a lot of people just have that scarcity mindset where it's like I don't want to lose what I have but you you need to be willing to explore in order to get something better it's like dating like you think you have the best boyfriend and then you break up and you're like I'll never recover and then a month later head over heels again it's out there you just have to find it okay yeah looking for a job is just like finding like a partner really honestly though cuz I mean it takes up enough of your day it better matter well that was excellent advice thank you so much where can people follow and support Hannah Williams anywhere you consume your content salary transparency is on Tik Tok Instagram YouTube Facebook LinkedIn Twitter um and I got all those platforms cuz my dad was like I'm not getting a Tik Tok I'm not getting an Instagram so I was like okay I have to be on all the platforms for you to watch our um so yeah we're on all channels um if you want to check out our salary database you can go to salary transparen street.com our job board should be up pretty soon so that might may or may not be up when I make this announcement um but yeah if you also support pay transparency legislation talk to your representatives call them tell them that this is something you support check what you know is actually happening in your state right now a lot of states have legislation in the works and they need to hear from you to hear that it's something you support as well in order to get it passed so use your voice advocate for yourself all right well thank you so much Hannah for being here today thank you Erin it was so fun

Channel: AdviceWithErin

Views: 12,216

Keywords: advice, wither, erin, aaron, julia, yorks, screenwriter, screenwriting, screen writer, film industry, film, podcast, advicewitherin, actor, actress

Id: 67et2wvPYak

Length: 62min 3sec (3723 seconds)

Published: Tue Mar 12 2024