Confidence to Ask

If you don’t ask for things, you won’t get them. Today I just want to share some wins that people have experienced because they asked. If you hear these things, you can realize there is more out there available to you than you thought.

I know someone who wrote a certain dollar amount on her application, and when the employer realized that they wanted nobody else, they had to find an additional $5000 beyond their established budget to be able to afford her.

I also know someone else who went to a company that was not even hiring and he told the hiring manager that they needed to update and step up their marketing. And the person didn’t even have any marketing experience, just A LOT of confidence to say HE had a perfect marketing plan. After the interview, he had to google How to Make a Marketing Plan.  Not only that, when a salary was presented, he asked for $10,000 more than they offered, and got it!

I personally have experienced so many little victories from asking. Just recently, our company made a large purchase of food for our students, and my boss told me to ask for a discount. They gave us 10% off and offered to deliver the food even though they don’t usually do that.

When I recently completed my dissertation, I ended up with 995 People who agreed to do my survey just because I found them and asked them on LinkedIn.  I once found the CEO of a company on LinkedIn and message him to ask for a time to talk about the job. I got that job!

Some people fear that they will look foolish. Foolish guy asked for $10,000 more. Crazy girl asked for 10% off discount on her food order. Foolish person expected me to hire him for a job that doesn’t even exist. Crazy lady thinks she can just message a CEO and get a job!

Mark Twain says he who asked is a fool for five minutes but he who does not ask is a fool forever. AND  when you have that extra $10,000, that day off, the 995 people for your survey, can’t you say to yourself the risk I took to be foolish for five minutes really paid off. The other thing too is that if someone’s going to think bad of you for asking for something, maybe they’re just upset that they didn’t get what you got!

You are just a dignified happily assertive honest good human being. You asked a question. If the answer is no, the answer is no. And all these cases the answer was yes WHICH IS AWESOME! You can also think about it this way  -the people who said yes also benefit. The employer who made that offer felt great about their decision to hire that marketing person. The company that gave me 10% discount got a large order. And so on.  It is a WIN – WIN!

I want you to see the benefit of finding your voice and asking so you can Shine Already.

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