💸 Now’s the Time for Relationship Building 💸

✨ This Month’s Themes ✨

Our money themes help ground us each month and remind us where to focus on our intentions throughout the year.

🔍 Clarity

Get clear on what you want to accomplish this year and how you want the year to feel for you.

🧘🏾‍♀️Refresh and Reset

Rest! Everything doesn’t have to be accomplished all at once. Give yourself a moment to rest, reset, and refresh.

✅ Vision and Goaling

Allow yourself to daydream, then start drafting out what would be needed to make those dreams a reality. Remember, an elephant is eaten one bite at a time.

🔍 In this Issue

• I Need Your Input

• This Week's Money News

• Building the relationships that helped me 5x my salary

• My Final Two Cents

• Introducing Something New

Need to catch up? Read our latest issues here.

New Products Announcement

🚀 I’m Launching a Guided Workbook!

Many of you found me via my Business Insider interview, which was originally posted on LinkedIn. Since that interview went live, so many of you have had questions not just about how I manage my money, but also how I’ve managed my career. In response, I’ve decided to launch a guided workbook! This workbook will dive deeper into how I went from $40,000 to $200,000+ in total comp. It’ll also be packed with resources to help you along your career and money journey. To ensure I can make this resource as accessible to as many of you as possible, I need your input. Please complete this 1-question survey and stick around the Ed. Opal newsletter for progress and launch updates.

This Week’s Money News

👛 Wallet Watch

• 🟤 I was recently covered in Shoutout Atlanta! Read here to check out my best ATL recommendations.

• 🟤 Economic news is full of really scary reports right now. Whatever you do, do NOT panic sell! Make sure you have a plan for your money that's based in clarity. Read here for more advice on how to avoid fight or flight mode with your money.

• 🟤 While everything seems to be going up, here are six common bills you can negotiate down.

Fiscal Focus

💸 Now’s the Time for Relationship Building

Ed. Opal is about helping women develop healthier relationships with our money. It’s almost impossible to discuss money without talking about career. People tend to ask me more about my career than they do about my money because they’re always so blown away that I’ve been able to increase my salary 5x since I’ve been working. I wouldn’t have been able to do that without curiosity and relationship-building. Here’s how I built the relationships that helped me shape my career and increase my income.

1️⃣ I got curious.
Curiosity is difficult to practice when you’re in desperation mode. When you’re living paycheck-to-paycheck, your focus is on the next moment. Even still, practicing curiosity is critical to getting from a position of lack to a position of abundance. Why? Because you have to be curious enough to explore a reality outside of the one you’re living. When I was beginning my career and personal finance journey, I made it a point to be curious. I started with questions like,

-“What would it look like if my take-home pay exceeded my expenses?”

-“What roles pay that much money?”

-“What would it look like to work in those industries and in those roles?”

-“Who can help me better understand the day in and day out of those roles?”

-“What would I need to do to pivot into those industries and roles?”

Once I started exploring those questions, I quickly learned that I needed relationships to make those moves. That’s what led me to number two. 

2️⃣ I started exploring my curiosity.
This is really easy to do at the beginning of your career because everyone loves teaching a newbie. Even if you’re late in your career, people tend to enjoy sharing their experiences. Once I had targeted some roles and industries, I started reaching out to people in those roles and industries. I started with my Spelman network. I reached out to our alumnae chapter to see if I could find Spelman sisters doing work I was interested in. From there, I did some blind outreach and found folks through other professional networks who may be willing to have 30-minute coffee chat with me. I asked these folks questions to help me affirm or deny my understanding of the industry. My questions went something like this.

-“How did you get to where you are?”

-“What education or work experience has allowed you to be successful in this industry?”

-“I’ve read this role has X earning potential. Is that true? If so, are there particular experiences or education one needs to achieve that earning potential?”

I wanted to know exactly what I was getting myself into because I didn’t want to leave one bad experience or low-paying job just to end up in another. All of my conversations didn’t go well, but most of them did and the majority of people were always extremely helpful.

When I share this, folks sometimes ask me if I attended networking events. I quickly learned networking events were not a space for me. I’m an introvert. I dislike crowds. I can get easily overstimulated by lighting and sound. I’ve always preferred a 1:1 conversation to the hustle and bustle of fighting through several other people to get to that person who likely won’t remember me after the event anyway. That being the case, networking events were not a good use of my time. I focused solely on small group or one-on-one opportunities that I created myself via blind intro or by asking my network to introduce me to folks who may be good to talk to based on the job roles and industries I was exploring at the time. This is not to say that networking events are bad. Some of you shine at those! I’m not one of those people, though, and I prefer to play to my strengths.

3️⃣ I built my team.
The good thing about 1:1 connections is that they make it a lot easier to sift through folks quicker. This is important, because as you build your team, you need to know people are on your side. After having coffee chats, I had pinpointed folks that I naturally aligned with. I wanted to keep in touch with them and they wanted to keep in touch with me. I made it a point remain connected with them on a regular (usually monthly or quarterly) basis. When I was younger, I wasn’t as thoughtful about who should be on my team. As I matured, this is how I built my dream squad.

Someone who’s been there and done that: The Coach. This person can be thought of as your mentor/sponsor. They’re someone who knows the industry and role you’re interested in, and may have even spent time in that exact position. They can help you better understand not just how to get into the role, but how to succeed in it. They can give you behind-the-scenes insights into the interview processes, the career trajectories, and all things in between. This person should be willing to speak your name positively in rooms that you’re not in. If you’re not sure that they are, ask them. If they’re not, ask them if there’s anything they need to see from you that would change their mind. If they struggle with that question or can’t answer it clearly, you need to move on. This person will just waste your time. -This relationship is usually more of a giving relationship for the coach and an educational relationship for you. You may bring something to the table here, but you’re really here to learn.

Someone who’s the door opener: The Recruiter. More of us should have recruiters in our immediate circles. They are usually the folks most knowledgeable about what makes a good candidate for the roles we’re looking for. Not only that, they tend to know earlier than anyone with an industry or role starts to shift or decline. This person can not only help you find the right roles, but they can also help you with your resume and give interview pointers. -This relationship is likely less high-touch than the relationship you have with your coach. You may reach out to your recruiter quarterly as opposed to monthly.

Someone in the same boat: The Peer: When people talk about networking and relationship building, they often position it as building relationships with folks above you. It’s a grave oversight, however, to forget about your peers. The people in the same boat as you now may be your superiors later or may be connected to people you’ll need to know now or in the future. Be sure to connect horizontally as much as you connect vertically so that you can remain up-to-date on what’s happening in your industry at your level, and have a solid support system as your career grows. Aside from the above, it’s also a huge benefit to have people who are experiencing similar challenges to you so that you can share best practices and learn from one another as you navigate your role and industry. The Never Search Alone has a whole book and community related to this. My entire career has been supported by my network. I wouldn’t be where I am today without mentors, door openers, and my amazing peers (who often became door openers).

Community and relationships will be crucial during these challenging times. I’m covering this and so much more in my upcoming guided workbook. I’ll also include templates, tools, and scripts to help you get started in your team-building. If you’d be interested in this, answer this one-question survey so that I know how to ensure this guide is as accessible to as many of you as possible.

Vocab, Mindfulness, and Quick Facts

💰 My Final Two Cents

💬 Money Vocabulary:
Bear Market: A bear market is a financial market experiencing prolonged price declines, generally of 20% or more. A bear market usually occurs along with widespread investor pessimism, large-scale liquidation of securities and other assets, and a weakening economy. Read more here.

🧘🏾‍♀️ Mindful Money Prompt:
Regardless of what the news says, don’t panic sell. Define your ‘calm down’ routine. What are the actions you can take when you’re most stressed from the news to help ground yourself and remind yourself of your long-term goals.

📠 Money Quick Fact:
Markets are falling, but our last official bear market wasn’t too long ago (2022). Read more here on the history of bear markets, how long they last, and how they ususally resolve themselves.

Celebration Syndicate

🎉 Introducing a New Way to Celebrate You

Did you get a higher-paying job, pay off a credit card, or meet a savings goal? No matter what your money accomplishment is, we want to celebrate you! Share your money wins here for a chance to have them featured in future newsletters and on Ed. Opal socials!