276. Get Your Dream Job (And More Money) in 2026 with Claire Wasserman

17:00Financial Feminist:Yeah. I mean, this is one thing that is going to sound maybe a little spicy or controversial, but like as someone who is now the person who is hiring and the person who is fielding requests like this sometimes, I think it's really important to understand that if you want something beyond a cost of living adjustment, you need to be doing more than what is in your job description. Like I am already paying you for the work you are doing and compensating you well with hopefully benefits and all the rest of that. So if you are going above and beyond those requirements and you can prove that you are, okay, then we can have a conversation about a merit adjustment, a merit increase.

17:40Financial Feminist:But if you're like, I want to make more money, but you're just doing what we're already compensating you for, that's a hard sell, especially for a company that is not a behemoth. It's not a multi-multi-billion dollar company.

17:53Claire Wasserman:Right, totally. And that was actually something, just to bring up my mom again, who always worked in nonprofit and in the arts. She said the people who would get the raises are the ones who literally just had ideas for how they could fundraise better. So it's not even that you necessarily have to add more to your plate because for those listening going, oh my gosh, I'm already stretched so thin. I can't like take on anymore. It's about being strategic with what you are offering. And again, go back to maybe it's saving time and money. Is there a better way to do things or you have a really good idea that you want to test out, I mean, this is a really great way of crafting the job that you actually want.

18:30Claire Wasserman:So use your job as, I call it like an MBA. You are going to school, but instead of paying, you were being paid. And on top of it, now we get to experiment and see how can we grow more in a direction that we want and also is aligned with the company's goals. Oh yeah, let's look at the market data. We might get a raise too. So instead of feeling super down and it's all shit, there might be a lot of wins, but you got to start talking. You got to start thinking. And I'm telling everyone here right now, even if you don't think you're a good negotiator, if you consider yourself a problem solver, you can be a great negotiator.

19:09Yep.

19:09Financial Feminist:Because you and your boss or your potential boss are not on opposing teams. You are on the same team and it's trying to solve the problem of you not being compensated fairly. And you're great at solving problems and it's why you're asking for a raise.

19:20Claire Wasserman:And by the way, you possibly know more as the employee than your boss because you are boots on the ground talking to, I mean, if it's customers or I always say this to people who are more on the junior level who are trying to get sponsors or mentors, people of influence. They think, well, what do I have to bring to the table? I actually think you have a lot because you have conversations that those higher up people are not privy to. Chances are they're like stuck in meetings all day. You really do understand what is working and not working at the company and or with customers. So you actually bring a ton of insight and you may be able to see ways to solve problems that no one else can think of.

19:58Claire Wasserman:Solve those problems and then you get compensated for them. Or at least you make the case and you'd be proud of yourself for that. Yeah.

20:05Financial Feminist:And you were talking about company goals. And this is my last question around specifically negotiation. But, you know, again, as someone who is, you know, hiring and who has a team, like, I think if you come to me and ask for a compensation increase, and there's a misalignment on what you're doing to contribute to those goals, it's going to be a lot harder to give you a yes. because I know where we're at. I think your boss should be communicating where the company is at or where you're at and how you fit into that. And to your point, if you don't know, you need to figure it out. And if you're coming to the table asking for a raise or asking for a compensation increase, but you don't have a plan and you also don't have a proven track record of contributing directly to those company goals and you can cite them, it's going to be a lot harder.

20:57Claire Wasserman:Yep, it is. but this is where AI can help. Go put all your context into like Claude. And, you know, I don't mean to outsource myself here. I mean, please hire me as a coach. Sure. But you really, at this point, I mean, when you and I were first starting, when I wrote my first book, I mean, AI was not part of the conversation and it is a wonderful tool to massage communication.

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22:58Financial Feminist:So speaking of coaching, you coach women who are ambitious but exhausted and hello, girl same. How do you help them redefine success in the midst of hustle culture, but in a way where we still feel financially secure?

23:12Claire Wasserman:Yeah, I start with feelings. I start with having everybody identify at least one to three adjectives that they would like to describe about themselves in one year from now. Oftentimes those three adjectives, they often are really just one or maybe two. So for me, it's how I began my own exercises of reconfiguring my own life was I want to feel creatively inspired and grounded. And then I did an inventory of my days because our lives are made up of our moments. And I started to use an app called Clockify and I tracked where is my life going? So every time I take an action, I am putting it into the app and analyzing at the end of every day and every week, where am I spending my time and how does this ladder up or not to these adjectives that I want?

24:02Claire Wasserman:What do I need to reduce? What do I need to add? What can I reconfigure? And actually a lot of this was about control. What do I have control over? What do I have impact over? And what do I have absolutely nothing to say over? And how do I learn to let it go? And coming up with like little exercises for myself every day to work towards that. But it was looking at the adjectives. How do I want to describe how I feel in my life was so much more powerful than what's the number I want in my bank account or the book proposal I'd like to get Meg Thompson, my agent, to say yes to next. Of course, those things are all important, but I needed to hold it up against a filter to confirm that I was not pursuing things out of ambition and hustle as I always had, but more about the life, the feelings I want to have in the life that I am working so hard to create.

25:00Financial Feminist:What are one or two questions anybody listening can ask themselves to check if they're actually pursuing achievement versus genuine enlightenment or like alignment?

25:12Claire Wasserman:Well, I guess first let's define what does alignment feel like? What does it look like? Even just starting with your body. Now people talk about somatic experiences, but when I started coaching, that was certainly not part of the conversation. It was all a very intellectual debate. But what in your sort of bones does alignment actually feel like? And to maybe start with memories, when have you ever felt that way? And it's okay if it was a really long time ago. And also, it's okay if you haven't ever felt that way. We can start experimenting. We can start playing with it now. Little micro steps to take that just remind you that you are at least capable of it.

25:50Claire Wasserman:That expression, you can't be what you can't see. It's really hard to visualize something if you've never felt it in your body. So just know that you don't need to recreate everything and throw everything out and start fresh. You actually recommend don't do that. But just small things. When I do this, it makes my body feel open or closed, warm, cold, whatever it is. So start getting in tune with that. And then get into the habit of pausing before you take any choice, whether it's writing an email to somebody, getting on a phone call. Before you go to sleep at night, we are just rushing, rushing, rushing all the time.

26:26Claire Wasserman:And by the way, silence can feel really uncomfortable. It's actually quite powerful. And I'm, of course, saying this as I need to learn it too. I teach what I must learn. So I want to be very clear on that. But the more you slow down and just check in with your body and say, where am I feeling this? Which by the way, isn't about feeling great all the time. No, we want to feel some discomfort. But is it a discomfort that's more discomfort with curiosity or discomfort shut down? There's going to be shades, nuances. you cannot know what those are for yourself if you don't even know what to listen to.

27:05Claire Wasserman:And they're often very quiet, subtle signs. So I have found in my practice a whole new vocabulary. I at least needed to learn after my massive burnout during the pandemic. I was girlbossing too close to the sun. I'm in a recovery girlboss. I was like, wow, I don't even know the language or the questions to ask myself in my body as I take next steps. So I would say that's a good place to begin. I think that's so important.

27:33Financial Feminist:And you're right. Even, you know, five years ago, we were not talking about somatics in the same way that we're talking about them now. And it's really important. I also will add to that, asking yourself what you truly want. And I know that sounds obvious, but most women can tell you what they don't want. They can't tell you what they want. If I ask or Claire asks, what do you want? You can't say, well, I don't want this. figure out what it is you truly want not what does somebody else want for you or not what a society want for you but like what do you want most of us don't own or know our own wanting i i with i

28:09Claire Wasserman:actually i do start with what do i not want because that is so i'm so much closer to that than the listen sure it'll get you there absolutely because it's intimidating i think that

28:20Financial Feminist:yeah most of us we are so gaslit to want things that we might not even actually care about i married a man.

28:26Claire Wasserman:I married a man. I married a man. I didn't come out till I was 30. Like I, because I didn't know what I didn't know. I am, I am such a believer that without exposure, you are only operating within the paradigm you're familiar with. And then you start to get a peek of what could be. And for some people they completely shut down or they start going towards it. But it is such a transitional experience of if you've always thought and operated in one way and to now expect you're going to be operating in a fully other way. Like I really want everybody to give themselves space and grace, but please keep moving forward.

29:06Claire Wasserman:Tiny steps is like, that's how we get there.

29:10Financial Feminist:Well, and one of the things you teach women about is commanding respect at work. So what are the few specific language shifts or mindset tools that can help listeners be taken seriously.

29:21Claire Wasserman:Yeah. Well, it all comes down to relationships. I think that's life in general, but it's like who knows you and you know them. And the best part about this is you don't have to be really impressive. You actually just have to ask good questions and maybe listen, active listening, remember things about people. All anybody wants in life, I think, is to just be seen. If it comes down to it, we just want to be recognized. And that is in our human nature to connect in that way. And then noise gets in the way. But if you can, in small ways, just make people feel listened to, ask how you can help, hey, what are your goals?

29:59Claire Wasserman:What are your dreams? I mean, you'll ask it in a way that makes sense for you. Boy, that is going to go so far. I mean, men, white men have the advantage of already looking like the people in power. So there is this inherent bestowing of trust. Ah, I see myself in you, therefore I trust you. So we may have to work, I don't want to say harder because not to make a massive generalization here, but a lot of women are relationship people. We like to connect with each other. And by the way, you can do this on Zoom. You can do this by Slack. You know, nothing will be an in-person experience, but you can quickly message somebody and say, hey, I loved what you said in the meeting.

30:41Claire Wasserman:Or even better, during the meeting, hey, Tori had a great idea, I just wanna give her a shout out. That makes you look like a leader. This is how you build respect. It starts from the relationships.

30:51Financial Feminist:The job market feels really tough right now. Yeah. What is your advice for women who are getting ghosted or rejected repeatedly?

31:03Claire Wasserman:Goodness. Well, first of all, we are all too close to ourselves. So we do need perspective. So I highly recommend you take advantage of all the free resources that you can. And if you're able to invest a little bit of money, please do so. I have a whole program called the LLC of Me, where I show people how to position themselves as basically businesses instead of employees. I would actually recommend that as a way of rethinking just the jobs you're applying for. Consider fractional. I think that's the way of the future. My wife is no longer the CEO of Ladies Get Pays. She now has her own company where she does marketing for personal finance companies.

31:41Claire Wasserman:What does fractional mean?

31:43Financial Feminist:For the uninitiated, what does that look like?

31:45Claire Wasserman:Yeah, fractional. It's another word for consultant, right? We normally think of consultant like, I don't know, you got to be wearing a suit and it's McKinsey. But it's really just doing the job that used to be full-time. But instead of the full-time hours and the full-time pay, you're working maybe 20 hours a week or 15 hours a week. or maybe it's a three-month contract. By the way, never charge hourly. I mean, maybe I should never say never, but don't charge hourly because if you are very skilled at what you do, then I hope you're doing it quickly. You should not be monetarily penalized for that.

32:19Claire Wasserman:So it's always about how does what I do impact the business bottom line? So instead of having one company you work for who's your end-all be-all, maybe you have three companies you work for getting paid smaller amounts by each, but it's less hours. Yes, that does mean you're going to be responsible for your own overhead, like healthcare, etc. But you may feel a stronger sense of security by not relying on one company for your paycheck. Plus, it might be sort of like a trial, right? You work 20 hours a week for three months for them and up a full-time opportunity comes your way at that company and now you're in.

32:51Claire Wasserman:Speaking of companies, I highly recommend that instead of looking for open jobs, you look for companies that you'd like to work for and just start by networking your way in. We can go into more detail if that's interesting to you. But don't limit yourself to what is being listed on the job market because so many of those jobs are already in the process of being filled. So you're already setting yourself up for potential failure. You'll increase your options if you're increasing your targets. So just make a list of all the companies that you like, find all of their competitors, and start connecting with people in the departments that you'd be interested to work with.

33:28Financial Feminist:Tell me like I'm five. How do I reach out to somebody am I going, hello, can I have a job, please? How am I reaching out to the person I want to work with at Nike or whatever company?

33:39Claire Wasserman:Yeah, you could try that and it's not going to probably work. But what I would recommend... As someone who gets those messages every week, it does not work. It's funny. Somebody the other day said, oh, Claire, you must get those I want to pick your brain messages all the time. And I said, no, because I've talked so much on podcasts about how I hate it that nobody dares emails me that. And instead, they message me very thoughtful things where they, and this is my recommendation, do your research where you say, hey, I heard you on this podcast or I saw in this press release or I noticed on the website that X, Y, and Z, and that applies to me.

34:13Claire Wasserman:Here's how. I did something similar and I found X. I'm curious if you, and maybe it's a super quick question that they can very easily email. The whole point is you want to just wave your hand. You're making that first step towards a relationship. You're not getting married tomorrow, right? You're not even necessarily getting on a phone call, but you're letting them know, hey, I'm in your space. I have relevant expertise. And I just wanted to let you know I admire what you do or I think the company's policy that they just announced is really great, whatever it is. You can also start engaging with their posts on LinkedIn.

34:50Claire Wasserman:This is a really wonderful, easy, easy way. I mean, you just need to remind yourself to do it. So put a little calendar note on your calendar, maybe every morning when you're making your coffee. Go on, follow and engage with the people you find interesting. Because remember, if we're building relationships, this is just the first step. So no need to massively rush into it, even if you're feeling a little desperate right now. That's why you should be doing many things, joining communities, working with coaches, asking your friends to connect you, Give them boilerplates for that connection. Make it easy.

35:20Claire Wasserman:Again, you're not putting all your eggs into one relationship basket. So as long as you're diversifying and doing a little bit every day, you're going to be okay.

35:28Financial Feminist:I think that's great advice. How do we manage doing that when it feels like a full-time job while also working a full-time job? Yeah, it's true.

35:37Claire Wasserman:I'm going to have to plug myself again here. Just hire me and I actually create your entire job search strategy, your resume, your cover letter, your LinkedIn. And I teach you how to replicate it. using AI for any job you want to apply to. And I'm like, just pay for speed. So there's that. I would say batch tasks. So know what parts of your brain are being activated when it's creative writing time versus something super tedious research versus doing copy and paste outreach versus doing whatever. And just look at your schedule and say, what's like a 20-minute block? start there, start small. And on Mondays, that's the creative work and it's in the morning because that's when your brain fires up.

36:19Claire Wasserman:Tuesday is tedious. That's maybe right before you go to bed or whatever. Just know that this is an experiment. So I would recommend committing to a plan for about 14 days, maybe 10 to 14 days, and then reflect how much of an energy drain was this and then change it up. But here's the other thing that's so critical. Please, please, please schedule in activities that have nothing to do with the job search, but that are going to keep you inspired. Because the worst thing you can do here is give off energy that is exhausted. No one wants to be around that. So just remember why you love your life. I know that's hard.

36:56Claire Wasserman:I know that's hard if you are in a situation that is totally far away from how you want to love your life. Get those joy activities. And to be honest, projects... This is for somebody, by the way, who maybe either isn't employed or not doing the job that is the best use of their skills, your muscles will get rusty. Like you got to go work them out. So either coming up with your own project, offering, you know, whether it's volunteer or otherwise to someone else's project, like stay in the game somehow. And even if it feels like it's taking you away from the job, like job search, if it's giving you energy, trust me, it is not taking you out of the job search.

37:35Claire Wasserman:It's investing in it, in the sustainability of it long-term.

37:39Financial Feminist:Yeah. And I think it's setting reasonable goals with yourself, but also keeping yourself accountable for those. And I love check-in after the first two weeks. It might just be, okay, I am applying to five jobs, and I'm reaching out to three people, and I'm meeting up with one person, and that is my weekly tasks. And if I do more than that, great, but that is like the bare minimum. And then you feel how that works, especially if you're working full-time, and you can optimize from there. Yes.

38:05Claire Wasserman:I also say when things are difficult in your life, it usually means, and I'll be a little woo-woo for a second, it's the universe's curriculum to you of what you need to work on. So if you are feeling really scarcity mode, desperate, impatient, or burnt the F out, well, that means we need to be learning how to have better energy management. And like, what, are you going to learn that on your new job? No, you're probably going to be working really freaking hard. This is the exact time to say, hey, I'm really struggling with accountability or self-organization. What are some books I can read? Yeah, like how can I self-educate?

38:40Claire Wasserman:How can I start experimenting? Focusmate.com or I have honestly, every morning, I have an accountability group from 5am to 7am because I primary care take my kids. I don't have writing time. But 5am to 7am, you think I get up on my own? No, it's only because I have people on Google Hangout waiting for me. So it's not lack of willpower if anyone here is wondering, oh gosh, I just can't force myself to do this. You shouldn't have to force yourself to do that. That means you'll burn out. No, set up an environment that will make the follow-through that much more easeful.

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41:44Financial Feminist:You just did a great episode around how to find a job if you're neurodivergent. Can we talk to those neurodivergent job seekers? Can you share a little bit of what you shared in that episode? And we'll link it down below as well.

41:58Claire Wasserman:Gosh, I mean, this was so just so everyone knows, I have a podcast called Ladies Get Paid. And I coach people who are very brave who are willing to put themselves out there publicly. We don't show their face. And I also have a substat called Work in Progress where I give you key insights based on those coaching sessions. And so this client, Angela, she was feeling like she had to hide her neurodivergency. So it was a liability for her. She had been fired from previous jobs. And I should mention it was some stuff that was undiagnosed that then later became diagnosed. And she felt like there was a lot of masking she had to do, a lot of pretzeling herself to become another person in this job search and this interviewing.

42:40And I asked her if, and this was an honest question,

42:44Claire Wasserman:did she feel like any of those liabilities also really helped her? Like in what ways being neurodivergent could be a benefit to her in her life or in her career? And she did not have a hard time answering that question. She was like, oh, here's how my ADHD has really helped me or I can read rooms so well. And then I said, okay, now tie it to the business bottom line. And guess what? That wasn't hard for her to come up with either. She was like, oh, I'm great at customer service, whatever. She just went down that path. And I said, I'm not here to give you a false confidence. Just fake it till you make it or ignore it or whatever.

43:23Claire Wasserman:No, no, no. That's going to waste a lot of energy trying to suppress who you are. The goal is to integrate all aspects of who you are, then filter it strategically based off of what does this job interviewer need to hear from you. Okay. So there's always a next level of like, let's be strategic here. But the first step was how do all these parts of me serve me? And once she saw that it was like a burden had been lifted, no more hiding. And then she had all this like amazing energy to bring into the interview. And she's been having a lot more success.

43:57Financial Feminist:Yeah. I think about that in a different way for folks who are switching industries or switching careers. I call them like bridge skills. Like how can you identify, you might not have the resume that shows you did this exact job, but you have the skills you need to apply for this role. So I've cited this before, but I had a friend at my first job. Her name was Haley. She worked as a maitre d' at PF Chang's and then was like, I want to go be a recruiter. And it was like on paper, she had no recruiting experience, right? She didn't have a, oh, I've worked at this recruiting firm. But all of the things or all of the skills needed to be a recruiter of someone who's able to manage their time, someone who's personable, someone who is efficient and organized.

44:37Financial Feminist:She handled that whole restaurant. She handled people who would come in and be really rude asking for a table and being pissed off when they'd have to wait 45 minutes. She had all of the skills. So in interviews, she would say, basically go line by line through the job description and have distinct stories where she was like, yep, I've done that. in this way. It might look a little different, but I have the skills you're looking for.

45:01Claire Wasserman:Yes. And I actually think it may make you stand out. I mean, inherently you will stand out because you already have a bit of a different resume. This is a good story. You'll particularly appreciate. I had a client who is a graphic designer and she was applying to a finance company and it was down between her and another candidate. And she said, Claire, he has the traditional background. I don't know how to compete with that. I said, well, if you're trying to compete on background, no, You lost. We have to compete on story. And the reason she even wanted to apply to a finance firm to begin with was because she had been in debt, had a narrative about creative people aren't good with money, and then self-educated and completely transformed herself and fell in love with finance.

45:40Claire Wasserman:She got the job. So see where you need to kind of lean in, maybe obscure a little bit, or also you have an outside perspective. That's a value add. So before you look at these deficits as deficits, I do wonder if any of them could be spun in, hmm, how does this deficit actually help me be better at this job? As long as you don't feel like you're totally bullshitting here.

46:02Financial Feminist:Yeah. I see this, again, a lot for college grads or who are early in their career. They're like, why can I ask for more money or they're not going to want me? And I'm like, I get a clean slate. like somebody else has their own prerogative about which things should be done and might be a little stubborn about that i'm like no it's a clean slate i get to teach you from the ground up and also you have something to prove you're gonna hustle you're gonna show up you're gonna do good work because you don't have a chip on your shoulder you have something to prove so i tend to

46:33Claire Wasserman:love that and i think other employers do too let's never make assumptions yeah i mean leaning into like, I'm super coachable. And here's how. That's the other thing is a pet peeve of mine. So y 'all, don't ask to pick my brain. Other pet peeve. If you send me a resume or language about you that just says, here's all the things I can do with zero evidence of how you've done it, anyone can say that. So just keep in mind, instead of like, I'm coachable. Well, here's an example of how I was coachable. So just always got to get my pet peeves out.

47:04Financial Feminist:of the way I managed my time at P.F. Chang's. Yeah, exactly. So you created this new practice, the practice deck to help people turn self-doubt into self-trust. What is one card or exercise that someone could try today to quiet perfectionism and overthinking? Can we pick one together? Oh my goodness. Can we actually do this?

47:22Claire Wasserman:Oh yeah, we could. We're going to pick one right now. Okay. Okay. Okay. So I'm not prepared for this, but I just picked the one that's on the top because I believe in it. So I should mention, So these are 30 cards that are meant to be used for 10 minutes every day because that is the minimum amount of time it takes to create new neural pathways in the brain. So, and the whole goal is let's change the way we speak to ourselves. Because I realized that was the common problem amongst all my clients. Didn't matter what was going on externally in their life. It always came down to how were they self-dialoging.

47:53Claire Wasserman:And how do you change that? Well, you change it by doing a somatic meditation. So each card has five minutes, something to get into your body, then something to get into your mind. So a journal prompt. And then how do you integrate it into your day? So what is a doable action step that allows you to practice what you did that morning? You can also use these cards whenever you want. They're color-coded based off of blockers. So if you're feeling overwhelmed, go for the purple card. Or perfectionist, go for the teal card, right? So if you don't have the 10 minutes a day, that's okay too. All right.

48:28Claire Wasserman:So here is the day three and each day builds on themselves and it's turn off the soundtrack and it's noticing your mental commentary anytime that you're could have, should have, and imagining your voice like a radio dial, an old fashioned radio. And instead of trying to turn off the soundtrack, because guess what? That's never going to happen. Your body and mind is not designed to turn it off. We just want you to turn it down. So start playing with what does a dial from 10 or 8, what might it look like at a 6? And then when you journal, what tends to be on repeat? What's spiraling? Maybe just starting with today.

49:08Claire Wasserman:What's the big thing in your mind or in general? And then the practice for the day is every time that you feel yourself adding a story. It's just pausing and noticing it. And that is it. That is it. So just getting space between the soundtrack and your embodiment. And all of these cards, I have practiced on myself. I developed them on just suffering through life. Suffering through life. and then I used them with my clients and then I was seeing unbelievable results after one card. Because sometimes just like, you know when a person says something and it just clicks for you? Like it's really wild how as much as I want everyone to do 10 minutes a day for 30 days, sometimes it's just one card for this one client.

50:00Claire Wasserman:She was like, man, I was really procrastinating on posting some shit on YouTube and this card just unlocked that fear for me. And someone else had, She's like, I had this mental gymnastics about a decision I needed to make. And even just like this trust the process card, starting to notice how often you're forward leaning. Or even in your diary, I'm looking at my journal over there because I just got back from retreat. Before the retreat, all my handwriting was tiny and forward and like slanted. And then after the retreat, it's like taking up more space. Like just start noticing it's not all in your head.

50:38Claire Wasserman:like your body, like you are in a very experimental way showing the world what you feel you deserve and how you want to be. And again, that may feel scary and overwhelming that, oh my gosh, I have so much work to do. No, that means you have so many opportunities to watch yourself make progress. It's really exciting. Thank you for letting me talk about this.

51:00Financial Feminist:Of course. I'm so excited to try it because I love a good card deck. You have worked with major organizations from NASA to Nike. What is one thing successful women know that others don't?

51:13Claire Wasserman:Yes. Yes. I'm so honored that I've been able to speak at all of these places. I have to tell you all the successful people, and I'll say people because it's men and women, they are really good at, I'm going to say responding, but I don't want everyone to feel pressure. They have to respond to emails all the time. That's not the point. It's about investing in the relationship. So I will get an email from somebody who I consider to not have time for me. Like this person should not be messaging. Thinking of you, how are you doing? Or sending me a Christmas card. Or this goes back to what I said earlier about how do you gain respect in an organization?

51:53Claire Wasserman:It's building relationships. And I just, it's, yeah, I would say that's big. And I not feeling like you're burdening somebody by asking for help. So do work backwards from what is my ask and how much time could it potentially be for the other person. And chances are the best kind of ask is for maybe an intro that you make really easy for them to make for you or throwing out a suggestion of like, hey, I'm looking for speakers. This is the kind of person. Let them be a connector for you. So staying in touch, responding to emails, recognizing people and being a connector that is 100 the through line amongst the most successful people I know and honestly my own success it all come down to relationships and being that person who makes introductions for for other people yeah what is the smallest action someone

52:54Financial Feminist:can take to find a job they love and make more money in 2026 I would say the smallest action

53:01Claire Wasserman:you can take is to come up with an idea that you can work on steadily a little bit every day that allows you to build the skills, experience, and expertise and confidence. Because if you're waiting to get the job to feel good, you might be waiting a long time. So really asking yourself, what can I do today to get into the motion of witnessing myself literally becoming the person with the job I want. All the jobs I ever got, by the way, when I first started my career, it was all through self-directed projects, all of them. So I'm a big believer in that. Don't wait for the opportunity to get started.

53:43Financial Feminist:No, and it's forward momentum too when you think about, okay, the control of the things I can control. I can control my own output. I can control my own growth. The environment, the job market might be a little spicy, but I can do this concrete thing that shows up in my life and in my career that benefits me and benefits my mental health and also is going to help me find a job. Yes.

54:07Claire Wasserman:And don't do it alone. Literally everybody that you meet. So by the way, that small one action you can take right now, it's most likely joining a community or showing up to a webinar, being engaged in the chat. I've had people come to Ladies Get Paid events who now are like co-founders or roommates. I mean, I married somebody in my own community and they met in the chat, in the chat room. So it's a very small step that can go a long way. And when you're connecting with people, ask, what are you looking for? How can I help you? And start thinking to yourself, A, does this person make sense to collaborate with?

54:38Claire Wasserman:And or B, who can I introduce them to? Then you're continuing the momentum from the conversation. and again I swear I have built an entire career off of this I know that anyone can do it

54:51Financial Feminist:Claire thank you so much you are one of my favorite people to talk to every time I'm like I want you to do like a calm sleep story by the way your voice is so soothing I'm like I need you to tell me everything's going to be okay in the world and I will believe you

55:05Claire Wasserman:you know what that's that's because you know my son has had multiple open heart surgeries like Like I have literally said, I just, I'm so liberated from having experienced, whether or not you put this in the podcast, you can totally do that. Just for anybody who's gone through really intense shit and thinks, oh no, it's a distraction or diversion. Like I can't get back to my life because of this extreme shit. True, true. My business was derailed. However, I can send emails with spelling errors and not spiral about them now because I have the perspective of I know what really hardship looks like.

55:45Claire Wasserman:And I'm so sort of grateful for it. So for anybody who's going through a really hard time, it's like, how can you use this to your benefit? And not in a toxic positivity kind of way, but truly what are the life lessons this is teaching me that are painful as fuck to learn, but I can leverage now. And I have literally found so much wisdom and liberation in the hardships. So I appreciate all of you saying kind things.

56:13Financial Feminist:I have been a long admirer of your work. You know that. And I want you to plug away. Where can people find out more about you?

56:19Claire Wasserman:Yes. So coachmeclair.com. Claire gets paid. Ladies get paid. I've got two free newsletters every week. And if you'd like to upgrade and become a paid subscriber, I listen to the podcast, Ladies Get Paid. I have a couple of spots open for coaching. And of course, the Ladies Get Paid book. And whatever my next book will be, Meg Thompson, my agent, I will be emailing you shortly. So I appreciate you. Amazing. Thank you.

56:46Financial Feminist:Thank you for listening to Financial Feminist, produced by Her First 100K. If you love the show and want to keep supporting feminist media, please subscribe or follow us on your preferred podcasting platform or on YouTube. Your support helps us continue to bring this content to you for free. If you're looking for resources, tools, and education, including all of the resources mentioned in this episode, head to herfirst100k.com slash sspod.