Advice from Babe to Babe

The Babes Who Hustle Advice Gurus are here to help with your 2019 professional goals. From getting organized, to landing new jobs, read on to learn from their wise words and keep hustlin’ in the new year!

• Create a vision board you can see everyday. Hang it in your home office, bedroom or wherever you will see it as a daily reminder of what you decided was important for you this year.

• Set S.M.A.R.T. Goals that align to your vision board. I gave up New Year's resolutions a couple years ago in favor of S.M.A.R.T. Goals, and I’ve been able to stay on track with more things than ever before.

• Get a journal to help you stay focused on your S.M.A.R.T. Goals. (I’ve used Passion Planners in the past and have had great success.) I see many similar products on Instagram, like Commit30 and Bullet Journals, that do the same things. Find one that works for you and challenge yourself to stick with it for the year. These kinds of journals break down organization into bite-sized pieces, so every day, week and month help you drive towards your larger goals.

• Find an online calendar for your more granular meetings, day-to-day reminders, etc. that you can connect to with all of your devices.

• Finally, once you’ve set everything up and thought through everything, schedule time to reflect on what you’ve accomplished each week or month (no less than once a month), and plan or adjust your focus for the future. That way you can wake up on Monday and hustle!

—HILLARY KIRTLAND, CONTRIBUTOR

Get real with yourself about what tools you’re going to use, test out your options and then stick with one that makes sense for your life. I spent years "forcing it" with a physical planner because I liked the idea of using it. This proved fruitless, ineffective and therefore damaging for me as I straddled between work, grad school and personal schedules, which all have a tendency to fluctuate. For example, if your job requires the use of the Google Suite, get on board with that one tool. This will prevent you from double-booking yourself across multiple platforms. Besides this, many calendar apps available on the marketplace offer features like calculating travel times (preventing you from scheduling two meetings across town without enough time to get from one to the other), automatic out-of-office invitation rejections, low-info sharing (so your colleagues can know you’re “busy” but not that you’re getting a root canal) and separate tabs or color coding for separate organizations or purposes.

—ALISSA MCSHANE, CONTRIBUTOR

For me, staying organized involves being tidy. I don’t set aside cleaning days, but I make sure I clean as I go at all times. This means at home, in the office and everywhere else. Use a “full hands in, full hands out” mentality when you’re doing your day-to-day. Heading downstairs to let the dog out? What can you grab that also needs to go downstairs? While the dog is outside, can you put away a few of the dishes on the counter? Always look for that one three- to five-minute chore you can complete as you go, rather than being way overwhelmed by a whole day of cleaning.

—SANDY RUSSO, CONTRIBUTOR

I've tried out tons of different methods and am finally settled on a few that work. Google Calendar is a savior; I love the app Todoist (which lets you divide your tasks by project and client, and also by due date), and also use a monthly planner for goals, grocery lists, etc. I use Erin Condren, which has snap-in "dashboards" for to-do list, meal planning, etc.

—OLIVIA WILSON, BABE #51

Two words: “self-reflection.” Knowing you want a new job is great, but let’s dive deeper into the “why.” Is it because you need a new company? New industry? Or new challenge? Each answer will lead you down a different path. Start figuring out your story, then start talking to people who are doing what you want to do. Informational conversations are a great way to get a feel for what it really means to be in the role you want, building a network of people in that role and learning what matters to that role so you can tailor your resumes and cover letters later. Sometimes these conversations turn into hiring scenarios, but they don’t need to in order to be valuable. Once you figure out your story, have informational conversations, build your network and tailor your resume and cover letter—then start leveraging that network for opportunities to find the role you’re looking for.

—HILLARY KIRTLAND, CONTRIBUTOR

Finding a job takes three steps, all before you even submit an application! First: Take a look back at yourself and your online presence. Update your Twitter, make sure your LinkedIn and personal website are up to date. Identify what you're trying to convey and give yourself a whole month to make sure you're telling that story. Second: Figure out what jobs are interesting to you and why. When I was on the hunt, I started an Excel sheet of all of the positions and companies that looked interesting to me and then started to connect the dots. Third: Get out there and network. Set up informational interviews and cold calls. Answer those LinkedIn messages you've been ignoring. Use the security of your current job to explore what your next steps could look like before you start sending out your resume.

—MANDY SHOLD, CONTRIBUTOR + BABE #154

Getting a raise is usually an accomplishment (or set of accomplishments) paired with an ask. (Both of which take a lot of hard work and preparation.) Accomplishments can be internal (making a big sale, growing your team or accepting a new role with more responsibility) or external (changing departments or companies). Regardless of the route you choose, you first need to know how much your current role is worth. You may be the best at what you do, but if the market doesn’t value your current role more than X amount, the market is never going to pay more than X amount for that role. Start with researching what your knowledge, skills and abilities are worth to the market. Use tools like Glassdoor to explore what other similar companies are paying for similar work.

Then, get to know the right people. If you know you want to stay with your company, get to know your leadership and what they value. What would make you indispensable to them, to make them want to pay more to keep you? Think through that while having actual conversations with them about what they value and how you can contribute to the business. Try to get on side projects or tasks that are important to them, so you can show them tangible results when you ask for your raise. Then, build a business case for yourself. Keep track of all of your research, compile your relevant accomplishments over time, benchmark yourself against what the company values (or bases your performance reviews on) and then ask for what your research and accomplishments are worth. If they value you, they’ll give you a raise.

—HILLARY KIRTLAND, CONTRIBUTOR

January is a great time to approach this topic with your manager. Kick off the New Year by reflecting on what you want to do differently and continue to improve on, and pull together a list of accomplishments from last year as well. Sitting down with your manager to chat through your growth will be a great entry point into a compensation conversation—and will be rooted in something other than just dollar signs.

—MANDY SHOLD, CONTRIBUTOR + BABE #154

Until Next Week,

—THE BWH ADVICE GURUS

About:

Asking for a Friend is Babes Who Hustle's weekly advice column that asks and answers the work-related questions on all of our minds. Looking for advice and guidance? Hit us with all of your questions below and stay tuned for next Wednesday's edition!