Jess Diamond (00:02.053)
Welcome back to another episode of How to 20 something where today brings on a guest to discuss your voice and within that your power. So you can show up confidently in the way you pitch yourself, converse and build connections. And most of all, make more money. Being in your twenties means that most of you are at the bottom of the corporate totem pole, and it can be really intimidating to speak up, whether it’s in meetings, when asking for a raise in interviews, or just when you’re out.

in the world connecting with other people. But your voice has so much power to it and it’s time to claim that power for yourself and use it to your advantage. Because statistics show that employees who regularly speak up in meetings are 2.5 times more likely to be seen as leadership material and 69 % of managers say they are more likely to promote someone who contributes in meetings. But speaking up…

doesn’t only have to be in relation to the workplace. It’s an invaluable skill that is relevant across all aspects of your life. So Karishma is going to help you use your voice and claim your power so you can make more money and live your life. Now, Karishma Warwami is a holistic career coach with 15 plus years of experience helping millennials break barriers, secure high paying roles and step into leadership positions at top companies like Microsoft, Amazon and T-Mobile.

Having navigated career transitions herself from moving to the US to earning four promotions in three years while balancing motherhood, she understands the challenges professionals face. Her coaching has helped 250 plus clients land jobs, negotiate better offers and build thriving careers. Hi, Karishma and welcome to How to 20 something.

Karishma Wadhwani (01:47.66)
Hi, Jess. Thank you so much for inviting me. I really appreciate this opportunity to converse with you and hopefully share some wisdom that we both have learned in our years on this planet. So really looking forward to this discussion.

Jess Diamond (02:06.503)
Yes.

I’m looking forward to it as well. And I want to start with a little background of you so that my audience gets to know you a little bit more. How did you get into this line of work with helping women in their careers?

Karishma Wadhwani (02:24.458)
Absolutely. So before I even talk about reaching this point, I’ll give you a little background about how, you know, like my whole trajectory that’ll I think help you and the listeners understand. So firstly, I am an engineer, first woman in my family. I’m an ex Deloitte consultant, first one to work at the big four again for my family. I’m an advanced yoga teacher.

and a successful entrepreneur, again, forced in the family from Mumbai, India. I moved to New York City in 2017 after an arranged marriage. essentially, once I moved, I constantly got advice about how I should just go pursue a master’s degree, either in engineering or business, so I can just easily land a high paying six figure job.

While that’s great advice, what appalled me was that nobody cared to even understand, A, what I bring to the table or my work experience, but just casually kept pointing me to just go and, you know, again, spend the next two years studying and then getting a job, which essentially I could have caught purely on my past experience. I did not.

see the point at that time investing that kind of time and money in something I already knew. And being an independent woman, it felt comfortable asking that kind of money from my newly married husband-in-law. So I just started looking for jobs that kind of aligned with my interests, skills, and experience. I actually got one in New York City, but

We had to move to Seattle, me and my husband, because he got a job with a large employee here, FunFat. It was my network that helped him get that. So everyone was like, OK, how does this work? You land in the country and in less than six to eight months, you are helping others get jobs. So at that time, nothing clicked. But I wanted to make sure I still find my footing in Seattle.

Karishma Wadhwani (04:48.568)
which ultimately I did and I got my first job, which was a six figure salary without any investment in a degree in this country. And I’m not, I wouldn’t say that I have any, you know, like I’m happy if people want to study further. You know, that that’s a great thing, but you need to be clear on why you’re doing that. Not just because, you know, everyone else is doing it.

Now, when I got my job, I realized that there are many others like myself who probably have been getting some advice that may not be sitting well with them, but they must not be able to necessarily navigate because they’ve not seen someone else with this success. So I started coaching professional legal immigrants who were at the time the refugees, asylees, or people like me who married and came in this country.

And that helped me kind of keep the spark alive. I did this pretty pro bono and through a nonprofit at the time, not even realizing I could make a career out of it down the road. This was more in the 2018, 2019 timeframe. And then I later on went on to working at the University of Washington. It’s like a top 10 global public school.

And there I was able to achieve four promotions in three years. So I went from individual contributor to being a director in just three years. And through that journey, I realized I must be doing something right. At the same time, I was also meeting other women because there was a lot of, this was a large project, fact, the biggest for the state at the time.

which I was leading and I had to interview a lot of people to get jobs within our department, so on and so forth. And I met so many women who were not speaking up in the interviews, asking for what they should be demanding, just purely based on their skillset. If they would definitely end up making the job.

Karishma Wadhwani (07:12.03)
I’d see them kind of in corners, not speaking up, even though when you work with people one-on-one, you know their caliber. So this kind of just somewhere would make me, I would just feel very unsettled. Like, why is this happening? Later on, I realized this was me many years ago and I had to do something about it. I could not let one me who was successful see other me’s who are not. So I just had to…

I just knew I have to do this. And then motherhood kind of was the final, I would say, cherry on cake that happened in my life, which means I’m a girl mom, which made me realize that I cannot let other women. And of course, I do have men clients suffer anymore and not use their true strengths and skill sets to speak about it and ultimately achieve what they need to.

So that’s how I founded the Holistic Career Coach. And that’s how I now officially coach people and make them move into leadership.

Jess Diamond (08:22.331)
love it. Why do you think women, I’m gonna generalize women, why do think women are more prone to staying quiet and not speaking up for their worth or asking for more money? Why is this so relevant to the work you do and the patterns you see amongst your clients?

Karishma Wadhwani (08:41.528)
So I think there’s a lot of conditioning society has done on women and men both differently. But since we’re talking about women, I think for the longest time, women were just associated to be the nurturer, right? Even if, whether in the family or even at work, they would be seen as just people who bring people together, host, be kind, be nice.

But, and there were times we were taught to dim your light, don’t let the man in the house feel otherwise, don’t raise your voice. And that’s one conditioning that we saw. The other is we did not see very many women in power. When you’re growing up, the one woman you normally see is your mother, your sister. And if…

Even if you were not directly told these things, you saw them in action, doing literally what I just said. So somewhere we just absorb that. And it’s like a muscle in your childhood. If you’re going to see this, you’re going to believe that’s true. Even 10 years, 20 years later, if the world may evolve like it has, it’s very hard to lose those patterns. It’s very hard to

let go of that value and belief system that has come to be true when you were little. Sometimes I also feel the fear of judgment because we are living in this world which is in a lot of ways too much out there and too much in your face yet lonely.

It’s so easy to just see a 90 second reel about somebody and believe that is the whole truth and nothing but the truth. So the fear of being of your life being put out there in a 60 to 90 second reel and failing and again failure is something which is so subjective. But again, those definitions of failures have also been built when we did not understand the word failure.

Karishma Wadhwani (11:03.776)
So I think it’s a combination of all these things that make us not truly show up the way we can. And then there’s a third layer, I think, which is us not even realizing what do we have to offer in the first place. We have just been moving jobs or we’ve just been…

Like if you’re kind of more in the starts of your career, you would have just finished your degree, maybe looking at some kind of certification or not. You’re just building up and you’ve just gone through the motion, completing your assignments, doing whatever is expected, not even taking a step back to think, why am I doing this? Is this because I like it? Does it bring joy? Am I good at it? Am I going to learn something from it? Is this going to

take me in a direction 10 years down the road to the dream job or company that I want to found, whatever it may be, we don’t take those step backs and we just keep going through the motion. And then suddenly there’s a bottleneck. Like what happened? Like who am I? We lose that and then we go into our shell. So I think all these three things play a major role.

in us not being able to speak up and do what we are technically very organically expected to do.

Jess Diamond (12:36.751)
Yeah, I love that you’re saying those things because I have a workshop coming up and by the time this episode comes out, the workshop will be long gone. But to the audience listening, you can always email me and I will send you the replay. But it’s on some of those things that you were just mentioning of where given so much information into other people’s lives and like the highlight reels that we feel worse about ourselves or like we go inwards and then we also do what’s expected of us and don’t take that time.

Karishma Wadhwani (12:38.21)
you

Jess Diamond (13:04.657)
to think what do I actually want? Again, coming off of the, we’re seeing what everyone else is doing and we think like this is what we should be doing. This is what we’re supposed to be doing versus taking a second and be like, what do I want to be doing with my life, with my career? I mean, this workshop is in relation to all aspects of life. So it’s your career, your relationships, if you wanna move, if you wanna pack up everything and move out of the country, if you just have no idea what you’re doing and don’t even know how to begin, like it’s.

It’s everything including what’s going on in the news on a day-to-day basis. Like how do you Tune out all of that nonsense. I mean my auntie’s been hearing me talk about that for a while now But i’m just glad that you’re bringing it up I always love when a guest says something that i’ve been preaching because i’m like guys It’s not just me. This is the other source of validation of you need to listen up But I want to ask you what is the first step someone can take to

Begin to find their voice begin to speak up for themselves in the workplace knowing that when you’re the youngest in the room Which is in your 20s. It’s really intimidating. So you need a lot of that self advocacy So how what is what is the first step you help your clients with to just start to? Break some of those beliefs down of the expectations that were molded into us from childhood

Karishma Wadhwani (14:28.814)
So I would say there are a couple things.

Should I just give you my mantra of what to, how to go about it? think. So this is what I tell my clients that there are three things that you should remember. I mean, I always believe never ask, never get. Like what is the worst that can happen? If you, I mean, if you last, the worst is the no, right? And that’s okay.

Jess Diamond (14:42.671)
Yeah, go for it.

Karishma Wadhwani (15:09.582)
But what if they told us? You don’t, you’re just sitting on a pot of gold, maybe. But before we even ask, I think what’s really important is to understand that go on other days that we can bank on fate and just pure talent, right? We live in a super competitive world. Everyone has a very short memory span, again, a span of literally 30 to 90 seconds. So.

You can literally make or break connection in less than a minute. And you are technically always interviewing, just like how an actor is always auditioning. I tell this to my clients. You are always interviewing. So being aware that you are actually a product that is up for grabs pretty much always, you need to know what is it in you that is going to make them buy.

Like it’s literally that. And to get there, you need to know that when you ask something, what are the three things that we need to always remember before asking? First is, so remember the three W’s. What exactly are you asking? Like what is it that you are asking for or you want? Who are you asking this to? And then why do you think

they should say yes. If you know the answer to these three questions, it’ll just make your job easier to ask. Of course, there is some amount of confidence coaching that is required. And I think you can reach out to whoever you feel comfortable with based on the resources you have. But a lot of people don’t even understand these three Ws and make maybe half-baked asks.

which can lead them to rejection sooner, which makes them go into the shell faster. So I always say that let’s get to things that you can for sure do yourself. And then maybe you can top it up with coaching, mentoring, or sometimes just looking into the mirror and speaking and seeing how you are looking when you are asking something. And would you yourself give that to you if you asked this way, right?

Jess Diamond (17:35.813)
tip I’ve even heard recording yourself. So that way you can see like what because if you’re just looking in the mirror, you’re not going to be catching maybe some of the awkward body language signals you’re sending that you don’t even realize you’re defaulting to if you’re constantly touching your face or like scratching your nose and you’re like what you won’t see that if you’re looking at yourself in the mirror. But if you record yourself and watch it back, yes, you’re gonna cringe. I cringe every time I watch myself back on a video that I record for this podcast.

But it’s very helpful to get ahead of your awkward tendencies. We all have them. You need to learn what yours are because that’s what the other person is going to be seeing. And you’re blinded to them right now because you’re not seeing yourself in the way that someone is seeing you when you go to ask for these things.

Jess Diamond (18:29.063)
Do anything you want to add.

Karishma Wadhwani (18:31.402)
I no, I like the fact about recording because I think to your point, it can be played back. So it’s like a good memory refresh. And also based on whatever I have seen in all the work I’m doing with my clients, especially the ones who are starting out, there is…

There is this willingness, I mean, sorry, there is this reluctance to not speak just because you feel you’re younger or just because you feel that there is too many experienced people. What am I going to add? So to them, I always say this, that self-advocacy of your knowledge, accomplishments, strengths, when combined with the willingness to learn,

and staying humble that you may not necessarily know everything. This is a dangerous combination because there are a lot of experienced individuals who think they’ve got it and they’re not willing to learn. There are a lot of people who sound super confident and they’re too arrogant to be humble to learn. But you, if you are bringing in that willingness to learn, stay humble.

and that fresh perspective, you are pure liquid gold. So literally start speaking up. There will be two things that happen. There may be some people in the room who are going to run away from you because they’ll be insecure. But you don’t need to chase those. There will be some who will just be wanting to come towards you and

make you feel that, this is great. Sometimes may have not the best intentions, kind of stealing ideas, that kind of stuff. A lot of that happens when you’re early in your career. Either ways, you needn’t necessarily join that chase. In fact, watch them do what they’re doing. You stay on your path of bringing the right things to the table and see how things can proceed for you.

Karishma Wadhwani (20:55.682)
Like not every race is meant to be joined. You can even sometimes just enjoy what’s happening when you say something and see what that does for you. You will start realizing who your true people are, who are your champions at work even, rather than just believing if someone is agreeing or disagreeing with your point of view.

Jess Diamond (21:22.875)
I think one of the scarier parts that comes with learning and staying humble and being younger is being afraid to get it wrong. And then what that would mean is they don’t know enough. They don’t belong in that room. What would you tell someone that has that fear of, don’t want to speak up because I don’t know if my answer is right and I’m afraid to look like a fool or look inadequate amongst my peers?

Karishma Wadhwani (21:52.258)
I think.

You have to understand.

Why are you feeling that just because you gave the wrong answer, you mean nothing? Right? I mean, we are not expected to know everything. Nobody is. So why are you feeling that you need to be correct all the time? You can always say, so go on other days of even fact checking, right? Like how much is even true?

How much is even correct in the world, let alone your workspace. Share what you have to share. And if someone has a suggestion or if someone does point out and say that, hey, this doesn’t seem correct, you can always respond saying that, thank you for catching that. Let me look into this further and get back to you. A conversation at workplace is a conversation. It’s not a full stop.

It’s not like the end. You can always come back from no matter how you may have done in your previous response or meeting with some new information that can actually add value. this pressure that we build on ourself of acing it every time we speak is a pressure we have built on ourselves. It’s not necessarily what is expected of us.

Karishma Wadhwani (23:27.712)
especially most workplaces understand when you are newer in your career, what you bring to the table, which is fresh perspective, willingness to learn. And if you can champion those and the strengths that you have, you have nothing to worry about. They’re not expecting you to solve C-suite level problems when you have just started the company. It’s totally cool.

lose the pressure that you have created or the society has created on you, whichever situation might be there for you.

Jess Diamond (24:05.467)
Yeah, I would say it’s probably mostly society because when you’re in your 20s, you just spent the better part of what 18 years in school and where you’re praised for getting it right and if it’s on a test, you’re faulted for getting it wrong. It’s a lot scarier of a feeling of I don’t want to get these answers wrong because then I’m going to fail. And if I fail, my parents will be mad at me. My teachers will be disappointed with me.

Karishma Wadhwani (24:13.102)
you

Mm-hmm.

Jess Diamond (24:33.635)
I’m going to be upset with me. I’ll get held back. Like there’s a lot more repercussions that happen. And that’s the same brain that’s going into the working world where we want to tell you like you’re not being graded on a test. It’s okay to get it wrong. as it Karishma was saying is that you’re not expected to solve the C-suite problems with an entry level 20 something year old brain. If your company is expecting that of you, then you should probably change companies.

extremely unrealistic when you think about it. So it is where we are taught to get the answer right. And now we have to unlearn that pattern of it’s okay to get it wrong. The world’s not gonna end if you say the wrong thing. As long as you handle it with composure, if you’re like, okay, tell me what is right, I want to learn why is that? Why was my answer wrong in this answer? Right? I want to know and

take it from that curiosity standpoint instead of just doing what you’re naturally going to want to do, which is shut down. You got it wrong. Hang your head low. Be really disappointed in yourself because we don’t want that for you. That’s not going to help you speak up for yourself in the future. That’s going to create the same pattern of stay quiet. And when you stay quiet,

you’re giving your power away. When you give your power away, you lose out on all these opportunities, which could include making money and moving up in your career if that’s what you want to do. So it’s being a little bit kinder to yourself and unlearning previous behaviors that were taught to you.

Karishma Wadhwani (26:06.926)
you

Karishma Wadhwani (26:15.85)
I agree totally and I think that is something if you can ace in your 20s like if you can ace

Karishma Wadhwani (26:28.078)
to be ready to constantly change and to constantly learn. I think you’ve done your 20s right. Like literally just that. Cause there are clients who are in their 30s and 40s who are still struggling to come out of this zone of like, no, this was taught to me when I was 10, this was taught to me when I was five, this was taught to me when I was 20. How can this not be true anymore?

Whatever you were taught was true then, and it’s great, but that doesn’t mean that’s the whole truth and the only truth. The truth and you are evolving, and that is totally fine.

Jess Diamond (27:11.815)
I agree. So what does it cost someone who doesn’t learn how to use their voice? And this could be in regards to anything, whether it’s a promotion or more money or a new job or just within networking, making connections. What is the cost of not learning these new behaviors?

Karishma Wadhwani (27:34.958)
I mean, firstly, the cost can be if you look at everything from a strict money lens, you are losing maybe hundreds to thousands of dollars in a salary negotiation. You are losing your time doing

a very hard job, extremely manually, instead of actually asking that, hey, why don’t we start using a tool instead of this? It will make not just mine, but the whole team’s job better and kind of rise up and do some more strategic work. It can mean not having that connection with a coworker, another department and another team.

in another, at another employer even. So if you are going to constantly be stuck in the loop of self-doubt and not willing to speak, you lose all these opportunities, which can mean so much more money, so much more time. But what is even worse is the cost of opportunity that you’re sitting on, you know, because

As I said, if you are not going to be willing to understand what you bring to the table, what is your brand worth as an individual in part of that team and part of that company, in part of the larger industry that you’re working in, you are going to lose new opportunities, new pathways, new jobs, higher salaries.

new connections which can be the gatekeeper to so much more success for you. And on top of that, it’s the whole cost of opportunity and not just in that little job of hundreds of thousands of whatever dollars that may be. A lot of times we are entrusted new responsibilities and yes, we must learn and expand our skill set.

Karishma Wadhwani (30:03.97)
But sometimes it can literally mean just asking that, I started six months ago. I have been doing so much more than what I was doing on day one. How can we discuss this? What have I brought to the company and how can I move into the direction of say a slightly higher position of, know, like, let’s just bake this as part of my job description. How can I make

whatever X hundred or thousand dollars so that you’re not just doing the work to build your skills, but you’re also being valuable to what you are bringing to the table and you get what you deserve, right? It’s a give and take. It’s a constant give and take. If you are giving time, they give you money. And if you are just giving and they’re not really reciprocating, then you have to start thinking if is this something truly

that you want to continue doing? And if yes, then why? Right? I mean, sometimes we decide to like, OK, let’s meet. Let me just learn a little bit more, brush my skills on the side and then apply. Fine. Then that means there is a thought behind it and there is a destination you want to go. And that is why you are doing this. So long as you know that, that’s great. But are you just doing it because you

are afraid to speak up, then that’s a box which is going to lead you into further smaller boxes, darker boxes, and you’re not going to be able to come out. So it’s really important for us to understand what is the cost of opportunity in the short and the long term. That is very crucial so that you can maximize whatever

you are able to think of it strictly from an investment time point, right? Like an ROI. If you’re investing your time, what is the return on that investment? If you’re investing so much money in a course, in a program, whatever that may be, what does it bring back to you? And if there is no clear answer on the short term and the longer term response, return, sorry, return on investment.

Karishma Wadhwani (32:29.162)
then you need to ask yourself why are doing what you are doing.

Jess Diamond (32:35.879)
I love it. I have so many friends that’ll be like, I got a promotion, but it didn’t come with any pay raise. And I was like, how is, I don’t, I don’t know, maybe I’ve just not been in the corporate world for a while, but how does a promotion and no pay increase make any sense in any world? So I feel like the promotion means you’re being assigned a higher role with more responsibilities. And to your point is like, that’s time, that’s energy, there should be money to compensate for it. And

you need to speak up for yourself and ask for it. Otherwise, what are you just after the fancy title, which is fine. I know I personally would be very disappointed with a nice title and very low pay compared to someone else in a similar industry at a different company with the same title and a lot more pay.

Karishma Wadhwani (33:23.246)
I agree. mean, so just to kind of talk to you a little bit about, know, there are a lot of companies that literally make you work easily a year or a year and a half before they promote you. But you are technically given that scope of work. So what they tell you is you need to prove to us that you can do this and then we promote. And I’m like,

But are you then giving me two promotions when I get promoted then? Like it just doesn’t make sense. But it’s like a carrot and stick, right? They entice you with a carrot and give you a stick at the same time. Like literally for, for, cause then you’re doing two jobs. One, the job that you were hired for and two, the promotion that they are trying to sell you.

So they are acing the offer and you are buying something which you’re getting not even paid for. it’s kind of like, it’s just, we need to take a step back as not just an individual, but also I think as an employee job force, right? Like we have a lot of power, all of us. And what are we doing that every person that decides to not.

get paid but work extra. You’re not just messing it for yourself, you’re messing it for everyone else who’s going to come after or isn’t the same board like you. So if you have like collective responsibility, I think it’s really important. What are you trying to achieve?

Jess Diamond (35:10.883)
leaving my corporate job, the last one that I had, I saw them post my job on Indeed. And I was like, I was curious. I was like, what are they saying? Expectations, experience, pay, all of that. And mind you, I was hired from this job with not like for with one year experience and a bachelor’s, there was there was nothing special about my resume. And I had industry standard pay. Then

when they after two years of being at that company, so now I have three years experience, and I go to see this job listing, they wanted for my exact role, five years of experience at least, and for $10,000 less annually than what they were paying me. And I was like, that’s insane. I wasn’t being overpaid. They were under shooting, whoever was coming next. And that woman didn’t fight for herself didn’t say like, No, I should be getting more and she was

15 years older than me. I don’t know when she started in the industry, but I know she had more than five years of experience and she was accepting a $35,000 job and it was it was just wild to me. It was like, wow, okay. I didn’t even accept a $35,000 job out of school. What are you doing?

Karishma Wadhwani (36:30.028)
Yeah, I think somewhere along the way

we start associating ourself with the money we make, right? And in, I think most people’s careers, there will be a couple of peaks that we see based on where you’re at. And when you hit those peaks, you’re so happy because when you were young, a young girl in school or something, maybe that was your mountain.

and you’ve climbed that mountain purely from that maybe amount that you made. But the world has evolved and inflation is so high, cost of living is so high. We forget to do those calculations and we still are just happy. I’m still making that, but that actually means so much less than when you were a kid, right?

Like I think the other day I was reading somewhere that there was a time everyone wanted to be a millionaire and they’d be happy. Like if you hit the one million mark, yay. That is not true anymore. I mean, just look around what’s happening. these incidents remind us that are we associating ourselves with strictly the money we make? Are we associating ourselves with

just the job title? Are we associating success just working at a big company? Right? Like I know so many individuals. They’re just proud working for a large employer, which is great. I’m very happy for them. But where is that coming from is very crucial to understand. Is it you have miscontrued your identity with

Karishma Wadhwani (38:28.716)
that large employer or that title or the money. Because you are way more than any of these, my friend. You’re way more.

Jess Diamond (38:39.739)
I On the topic of money, do you have any tactics that you give your clients that you can share with my audience when it comes to negotiating for more money, whether it’s at their current job for a higher position or just their annual is coming up or when they go to accept a new job and maybe their job offer went a little lower than what they were hoping for and they want to negotiate for more.

Karishma Wadhwani (39:08.846)
So I think, yes, I’m more than happy to share this. I would say there are five to six pointers that I would like to give. First things first, always, always let them initiate the salary discussion. Like don’t open your mouth talking about money first ever. I’ll tell you why. Because this gives you the upper hand to respond.

Right? It’s simple. Versus don’t let them take that power from you. So always let them initiate. Second, don’t be reactive and say yes or no, whatever it may be. And a lot of times this is this goes back to when we were talking like when you when you hear that number that you may have heard or

that you may have wanted when you were 10 years old, you are jumping. You’re like, my God, can this even be true? And you just want to say yes. Please do not react. Always ask for the total compensation with PTO, benefits, stock options, flexible work hours, and bonus if applicable. All of that in writing to review. Like literally you can tell them that

Thank you for sharing that. Can you please share the compensation, the total compensation details with time off, benefits, stocks, flexible hours, bonus, what have you in writing to review? The next thing is your best option actually is if you have several job offers. If you have more than one offer, it just makes it so much easier to like see.

which one is better for you based on where you’re at and also sometimes negotiating depending on what your circumstances are because if you have a competing job offer, it’s so much easier. The next thing is if you are asking for a promotion or like I mentioned earlier, you’ve been given extra job duties and so on and so forth, ask for a clear understanding of what scope will be added and what does that

Karishma Wadhwani (41:28.916)
amount mean from a dollar standpoint. So new jobs typically have a job description at hand, but if you’re getting promoted, make sure you bake that into your existing job description. Most employers today have some kind of tool or framework that they’re using and make sure it’s kind of adding up. And then it makes it very clear to you that, I started with here. These four responsibilities were added.

were added to me and that’s why I’m being paid that additional five or ten thousand dollars or whatever that may be.

Another thing that I tell my clients is do your market research before negotiating. Yes, I will do some of it for you, but at the end of the day, you are in your position going to negotiate. You need to start doing your research. Be willing to negotiate on all or several aspects of the compensation. Don’t just be fixated on a…

monthly salary. Sometimes you can actually negotiate better on other aspects of your total compensation. So be willing to do that. And the most important, know your absolute bare minimum and be willing to say no if that happens. literally anything lower. Say for example, your bare minimum is $100,000, whatever, right? Even if it’s $99,000, be willing to work.

You need to know that because if you’re going to just accept anything that is desperate energy and that shows very easily, not just in your salary negotiation, it will start showing up in your resume. It will start showing up in your interviews. It’ll start showing up in the meetings that you will attend once you say yes to that job offer. And that’s, that’s something we want to stay away from. So I think, yeah.

Karishma Wadhwani (43:31.31)
That’s what I would tell people who are looking to negotiate more for money at their current job or in the times of our plan to accept a new job offer.

Jess Diamond (43:44.739)
I love it, especially the last one because I am a huge fan of helping my clients determine their non-negotiables before they even start the job search for a new job. Usually it’s if they want a new job, not people don’t come to me for help with getting promotions or asking for more money. It’s more of the, what is my next path? And how do I, how do I get there? How do I get going? Or I don’t have a job and I need help. Like it’s usually

changing career paths or just changing from one company to another. And I have them determine what their minimum pay is, if they want to be hybrid, fully remote, fully in office, like if that matters to them, some people it doesn’t matter. They’re like, I’ll take any of that. don’t it does not affect me. And then I have other clients that will be like, if I am fully remote for another position, I will lose my mind. I cannot be fully remote. And then there’s other people that are like, I don’t want to be fully in office. I think that the hybrid opportunity has really

Karishma Wadhwani (44:31.8)
Thank

Jess Diamond (44:42.759)
That is the sweet spot in my opinion. But people have their preferences and you need to know what yours are and not back down on them. I did an episode not too long ago on non negotiables. And it talks about that it’s like, it’s what you’re unwilling to waiver on. That’s what a non negotiable is. So even to your point of even if it’s $1,000 less than what you wanted, or say like $10,000 less than what your non negotiable is your bare minimum, you have to

have the guts within yourself and know your own worth to walk away, to know like, okay, then this isn’t a good fit. You can always negotiate, you can try and if they’re not willing to budge, then you know that you tried your best. You did what was within your control. You spoke up for yourself, which is the theme of this episode and it didn’t pan out and that’s okay. There’s going to be another probably better opportunity in the future waiting for you.

You just have to be willing to accept that and hold out for what does meet your needs.

Jess Diamond (45:47.271)
All right, so we’ve been talking a lot about money and you’ve mentioned some connections within there. Where does all of this come into play with intentional networking? I think networking is kind of getting more of a yucky, in genuine forced stigma to it, just that word alone. And I was reading a book recently where it said,

Our brains don’t really understand what networking is. understands family relationships, but it doesn’t understand networking. It’s foreign and it’s not, it feels more, like I said, in genuine. So how can someone be more intentional and remain authentic when it comes to making new connections and why those connections are important?

Karishma Wadhwani (46:36.566)
Absolutely. So to any of the consultants who recently started working at a consulting, you would know that networking is like the moment you join a big consulting company, networking, networking, networking is literally ingrained in you. And then on the flip side, like when we were one of the first companies that I started was a consulting company, I was fresh out of college.

And there was an acronym, someone said that networking equals not working. So I’m not gonna do it. And it’s just funny how, you know, when you are that young, you start thinking that, actually it’s not really work that I’m doing. And we just associate work with the sheets that we work on or the documents that we write or the code that we’re building or the coffees that we’re handing out, whatever like.

unless you actually physically visually see something, you think you’re not working. I genuinely believe that my mantra when it comes to networking is givers gain, literally. And that leads me to not necessarily always ask, but be willing to give first, right? Like if you want to build a connection like

Networking is so abused these days in the name of just pure take, take, take. But actually a true connection and an authentic one can be built purely if you are willing to first give. Whether it is the offer of can I connect you with someone?

in my company or on my team or if a lot of young professionals struggle, they’re like, I am new, what can I even give? Sometimes just a genuine compliment about the work somebody has done and how that has moved you is enough. Like you literally have to see the body of work that whoever you’re networking with

Karishma Wadhwani (49:02.06)
has performed. See if something is really enticing and you really like something. It kind of just hit a very warm chord in your heart. And you can literally just compliment that. I love this project that you have worked on and it means so much more. you know, I would love if you could share your journey or your story about why you did that.

I think people like to talk about themselves and what they have achieved. So if you give them that chance, you technically are giving them something. And it will lead to you connecting on a way deeper level than just saying that, hey, I saw you work at an ex-employer. Would you be willing to refer me? I am not going to respond to those.

responses like gone other days, I’m not just going to do that anymore because you did not even bother to ask me how my day was, what I do, what I bring to the table, how can I help you? But you just clearly went around and asked. It just told me that you don’t want to build a connection. You just want to use my connection. There is a difference. When you are willing to give something to someone.

you operate from a space of abundance and humility. And that is what people want. And that is how you build authentic connections rather than just a network. actually, offer, I mean, we work on a lot of clients and how they can work better on their LinkedIn profiles, how to start reaching out, making connections.

And this is one of the core thing that we work on is identifying are those number of connections just connections? Are they passive? Are they active? Are these people who are these the people you will help? Are these people willing to help you? Are they truly a connection like a genuine connection or are they just sitting in your

Karishma Wadhwani (51:23.234)
fancy profile just because you know them. So it’s really important to start understanding how to build up those authentic relations with someone who you may have just met even at a cafe or grocery store or at a team event or at a job fair that you’re going to.

So just remember givers gain and I think that’ll kind of build that seed of, you know, like building up an authentic connection.

Jess Diamond (52:02.895)
I love that you said giving a compliment is giving. I, because I’m, I sometimes get in my own head of, all these people will send me referrals or help me out. And I feel like I can’t give them anything in return. So it’s, it’s so nice to hear it’s like, no, I can give a compliment. I can ask about them. I can give them a chance to talk about themselves and brag about themselves. And that.

works in that way of I’m giving them something. So love that. I also do help my clients with who they connect with on LinkedIn and not just sending a, hey, I just applied to this job. Like I’m excited or are you hiring? Like none of that awful messaging. It’s asking about that other person or it’s like, oh, I see that you’re an editor. I’m looking to get into the field. How did you do it? Like what’s your story? And just getting them to talk. You’re not

Asking them for a favor, you’re not asking them for help, you’re asking them about them and giving that other person the opportunity to talk about themselves, which again, as you said, we all love to do. But I do want to wrap up this episode with asking you one final question and it’s, are there any words of wisdom that you want to give my audience when it comes to using their voice as a way to claim their power and make more money?

Karishma Wadhwani (53:28.302)
Hmm.

Karishma Wadhwani (53:33.538)
I think the final wisdom would be, remember that child who was five and do you remember how you felt when you got an ice cream without asking, right? Like sometimes you were just lucky to get that ice cream. Sometimes you got it after a hard work, you know, like it’s a…

crazy summer day, you asked for ice cream and you got it. That felt very well deserving, right? And then sometimes you did not ask because probably you got poor grades and you thought I should not ask because I didn’t do well, maybe I don’t deserve it. Remember those themes in yourself.

and start disassociating yourself with those themes. And always remember that if you will not ask for ice cream, you’re not going to get it. That is the one thing that I want people to remember. Never ask, never get. Stop associating random memories and luck because that’s, if you’re lucky, you’re going to get maybe two, right?

But if you’re not gonna ask, you’re gonna get zero. So that’s it.

Jess Diamond (55:00.837)
Yeah, I say if you don’t ask the answer is no. So similar of never ask never get. Well, thank you, Krishna for coming on How to 20 something. Where can people find you if they want to get in touch or follow your content or work with you?

Karishma Wadhwani (55:04.108)
Yes.

Karishma Wadhwani (55:15.572)
Absolutely. So I am available on Instagram as the holistic career coach. I’m also available on LinkedIn. I’ve shared my LinkedIn profile with you. Again, it’s Karishma Vatvani, holistic career coach. I have a website, karishmavatvani.com, fairly easy to reach at. And I’m also on Facebook, not sure if

very many people are on here. yeah, that’s Karishma. What’s happening to

Jess Diamond (55:48.071)
Hi, great. And all of her information will be listed in the show notes for you guys to access. Otherwise, this does conclude another episode of How to 20-something. If you liked what you heard, felt inspired, learned something new, are about to go ask for a raise, or know someone who needs to listen to this episode, then please pass it along. Send it to a friend, post on social media. Just do something to help me help all of the 20-somethings out there. And as always,

I can’t wait to be in your headphones again next week with another brand new episode.