Do you ever feel like you’re caught between making personal concessions and compromises in order to advance professionally?
I felt this way less than six months ago.
I was getting ready to transition from maternity leave back to work. Part of my transition plan was to initially work part-time so that I’d have time to rest and take care of my little one. Running my own business would give me the freedom and flexibility I needed to do this.
However, during my maternity leave, I became overly concerned with providing for my little one. As I transitioned back to work, I decided I need to think about taking on more clients.
A dear friend of mine had advised me to create a document with non-negotiables so that I wouldn’t be tempted to make concessions and compromises for things I needed from a client.
But I was concerned about how clients would perceive my non-negotiables.
In today’s episode of Build, I’m going to share how I went through this transition last year.
Once you’ve listened the episode, I’d like to know what was the last career transition that was spurred by a life event for you? How did you manage to pull through without compromising on what you needed? Feel free to tweet your response to @poornima.
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## Easy to Set Non-Negotiables But Hard To Stick To Them Transcript
Career transitions are tough. Especially when they are spurred by life events.
They can feel endless, overwhelming, and cause us to shortchange ourselves by making concessions and compromises on what we need.
In today’s Build episode I’m going to share a recent transition I went through and how I managed to get through.
So stay tuned!
Welcome to Build. The show that debunks a number of myths and misconceptions related to building products, companies and your career in tech.
I’m your host Poornima Vijayashanker.
I had previously mentioned that I’d be experimenting with the format of Build, so today’s show is a solo show with just me.
I’m curious to hear your take on it. As always, feel free to leave a comment below. I don’t always have time to respond but I’m always listening, reading, and learning from audience members like you ;)
Last year, in the midst of my maternity leave I started to worry, more so than I usually do, and specifically about money.
I had previously written some blog posts about how I had gone through a round of interviews at companies, and ultimately decided that running my own business was going to provide me the most flexibility and freedom.
Somehow all the logic had seeped out of my postpartum brain and been replaced with a need to provide for my newly born child.
Despite being a good saver, and being a part of a dual income household, staring at my medical bill for the delivery made me worry about all the unexpected expenses that would start creeping up.
I’m a strong believer that I tight budget isn’t enough. You also have to make money.
So I thought about all the things I could do. I could answer all the emails that were piling up from recruiters or I could start working on the course I wanted to offer in the fall.
But this was 6 weeks into my maternity leave, I was having a really hard time summoning the energy to do something new.
Not to mention having the time to do it.
I’d need time and energy to either prepare for interviews or market a new course. Plus I’d have to persuade others that I was credible.
I re-read my own advice, and realized I needed to find a way to cash in on credibility that I had already built up without compromising on my non-negotiables.
That meant instead of proving myself to someone new, I needed to go back to working with people who knew I was credible.
I called up a client that I had worked for back in 2014 and 2015 to see if they needed help. They did and they didn’t need it until I was done with my maternity leave. So the timing was on my side.
There were just two catches: I need to commute up to SF and they had reduced their contractor rates.
Both of these directly conflicted with 2 of my non-negotiables, which were working commuting only two days a week and my rate.
I decided I wasn’t going to budge on how I priced myself, and told my client to check if there was more budget.
I reminded my client that I was reliable, and they remembered the quality of work that I had done.
I was also fortunate to have others vouch for me.
I put the ball in my client’s court and waited patiently for their response.
My client came back and asked me if I would accept working 2 days at the rate that fit into their budget.
I happily agree to the terms because it was exactly what I needed as I transitioned back to work.
What I re-learned is that you can go back to a client or company, especially if you have built up credibility there, and it helps to have more than one person vouch for you.
Finally, I re-learned the importance of having set non-negotiables.
As I was negotiating on the phone call, I made sure to pull them up and have them stare right at me!
Now, if you’re willing to share, I’d like to know what was the last career transition that was spurred by a life event for you? How did you manage to pull through without compromising on what you needed? Please let me know in the comments below!
That’s it for this episode of Build. Feel free to share it with your teammates, your friends, and whomever you think might be going through a tough transition.
And subscribe to our YouTube channel to receive more episodes.
Ciao for now!
In the last episode of Build, Paul Jarvis who is the author of Company of One and I, challenged the commonly held myth that that you need to you need to keep growing and scaling your company, otherwise you’re not innovating and you’ll soon start to stagnate.
We also debunked myths related to it such as falling prey to a big competitor and needing to be a leader who cannot fail.
The big takeaway was to question growth for growth’s sake.
The episode might also have brought up a number of questions for you like, “What about me? I work in a BIG company! Does that mean I’m not innovative? Do I need to run a one-person business? Do I have to be ant-growth?”
Absolutely not!
The Company of One doesn’t mean to be prescriptive or claim that there is only one way of doing business. Rather it’s building awareness for what is changing, and how those changes could help you. For example, if you are looking for more flexibility and freedom, you could work remotely or you could build a lifestyle business.
And if you’re still wondering, “How Poornima and Paul? How do I do these things?” Well, tune into today’s episode. In it, we share some of Paul’s proven best practices.
As you tune in to this episode you’ll learn the following from Paul:
“A company of one isn’t just a one-person business. It’s not anti-growth or anti-revenue. It’s just a business that questions whether growth is right for founders, employees, and customers, and for the long term success of the business.”
— Paul Jarvis
Want to receive a copy of Paul’s upcoming book Company of One?
If you become a patron of Build on Patreon at the Silver or Gold tiers, I’ll make sure you receive an e-book copy of Paul’s book as well books from other authors I feature on the show. And if you’re one of those who loves a signed copy of a hardcover, then consider being a Platinum Patron. To become a patron visit Build’s Patreon page here.
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Build is brought to you by Femgineer (http://femgineer.com/).
--
Femgineer's Confident Communicator Course 2019 is coming up! To learn more visit:
https://femgineer.com/confident-communicator-course/
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Enjoyed this episode and want to support the show?
To become a patron of the show visit:
https://www.patreon.com/build
Happy new year! I hope your 2019 is off to a great start :)
If you’re curious what I’ve been up to and what I have in store for 2019, I’ll tell you right off the bat, I do not set goals or resolutions at the start of the year. Instead, I review my progress every quarter to see what I want to keep doing, what experiments I want to run, and what I am going to cut or put on the back burner!
Taking a broad approach has served me well in running my business, balancing it with the ever-growing demands on my time as a new mom, and most importantly, managing overwhelm. So I won’t be sharing my goals for 2019 or if I’ve resolved to exercise more or less. And I certainly won’t be telling you to do more ;)
But I get that there may be other people in your life who are going to be bombarding you with messages around setting resolutions and goals as it relates to your career and personal life.
Don’t get me wrong, resolutions and goals serve as great guardrails, but there’s no need to artificially set them at the start of the year.
So is it OK to not always be growing personally and in business?
Well, if you’ve been tuning into Build for a while, you know I love to bust myths and misconceptions on it, as they relate to building products, companies, and your career in tech. To kick things off for the show’s fifth year, I thought we’d start with one of the biggest myths around building a company: you need to keep growing and scaling, otherwise you’re not innovating and you’ll soon start to stagnate.
This is a BIG myth that permeates company culture in tech, but, as it turns out, you don’t always need to grow, and continual growth isn’t always desirable.
In today’s Build episode, we’re going to be debunking this myth, and to help us out, I’ve invited Paul Jarvis, writer, entrepreneur, podcaster, designer and online course teacher. Paul is the author of the new book Company of One: Why Staying Small Is The Next Big Thing For Business.
As you tune into today’s episode you’ll learn the following from Paul:
In next week’s episode, Paul will share some best practices around building a company of one.
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Build is brought to you by Femgineer (http://femgineer.com/).
--
Femgineer's Confident Communicator Course 2019 is coming up! To learn more visit:
https://femgineer.com/confident-communicator-course/
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Enjoyed this episode and want to support the show?
To become a patron of the show visit:
https://www.patreon.com/build