Hello everyone. Welcome to another episode of Maximize Your Career. I'm your host, Stacy Mayer, and super excited, as always, to be here with you this week. So I am coming out of what turned into being almost a three week vacation. It wasn't supposed to be three weeks, but basically I took two weeks off work to go visit my family down in Southern California and then some time to be home after we returned. And then right when my five year old was supposed to go back to summer camp, he felt sick. Thankfully, it wasn't COVID, but nonetheless he wasn't able to go to summer camp, so I ended up having to take even more days for myself. But the reason that I'm sharing this with you is because I had an interesting experiment that I did while I was on vacation, and that has led to today's conversation now that I am officially back at my desk recording podcast episodes for you. And it was really the question that I asked myself because I see over and over again inside of executive ahead of time, we are getting at least one woman promoted every single week. Sometimes it's two women. And just so that you get an idea of what that means, we have 75 active members inside of Executive Ahead of Time. 75. So I don't know if you've been listening to this podcast and you think I have thousands of people in Executive Ahead of Time, that'd be awesome if you thought that or maybe you think I have five people inside of Executive Ahead of Time, but 75 women are active members inside of executive ahead of time.

And we are getting 1 to 2 promotions per week. What is that percentage? I mean, that's frickin huge. Whatever. Do the math. It is a really, really big deal and not everybody in Executive Ahead of Time even has the goal to get promoted. Right. They want to be more effective executive leaders. They want to be better at their job. They want to learn how to manage their emotions. They want to lead their team better, whatever that might be. They're not necessarily even thinking that they'll get promoted in the next couple of weeks. Right. So that percentage is just like through the roof. And this is my world. This is what we're creating inside of Executive Ahead of Time. But you guys don't know about this. If you're not in the program, which you should be, if you're at all interested, just get in there, go to ExecutiveAheadofTime.com And join us. But if you're not, you may think I don't know what you think we're doing in there, but but I really want to embark on you Why it is why the work that we're doing in Executive Ahead of Time is so effective. So while I was on vacation and spending time with my family, I was still checking my DMS or my emails every now and then, and mostly not from a work perspective, but looking literally for wins, right? Because I get emails from people saying, Hey, guess what? I just wanted to let you know I got my promotion or Oh my God, you're not going to believe what happened to me.

And I just I can't get enough of those types of communications so I can check them on vacation. I feel okay about that. It's like the good side of working. So I was committed to still looking at my emails and DMS from that perspective. Like I'm only going to look at the conversations that people have about wins. And and I was getting several of them and I, I got a couple of emails titled, You're not going to believe what happened. And whenever I hear you're not going to believe what happened, the answer really is, of course, I believe like I know, because what the work that we're doing and inside Executive Ahead of Time sets you up for your next promotion. So I'm walking down the beach with my family and I had this idea in my head that, you know, for a lot of people it can feel like magic. And if you're somebody who either believes in magic or doesn't believe in magic, either way it can feel far removed from you. Like it can feel like something that just happens and not something that you actively create, right? Magic.

Often, whether you believe in it or don't believe in it, it feels outside of you. And it's not something that you personally set into motion. And I'm walking down the beach and I'm like, No. I. We are creating our own magic. That is actually what we're doing inside of Executive Ahead of Time. We're doing the work. We're taking these steps to create magical out of the blue. You're not going to believe what happened situations in our life. And it's the same magic that is been taught for, I don't know, thousands of years from the Buddha saying when we finally let go, that is when things come to us, right? When we are willing to do the work, but then let go of the outcome, exactly how it's going to look, how it's going to manifest, how it's going to play out in our career. But we're willing to just put in the time to do the work. That is when the magic happens. That's when you're going to be sending me an email saying, Oh my God, Stacy, you're not going to believe what happens.

And so today's episode, I'm going to be talking to you about what the magic is, what is the magic that we're doing on a weekly basis inside of Executive Ahead of Time that makes it so that magical opportunities come to you.

So first of all, I want to talk for a minute about what a spell is right when you're doing a spell.

And I've never done spells like like actual spells. Right. You know, I've never taken out a book and, you know, had a cauldron and put some potions in there and stirred it around. So I'm just giving this to you as an analogy of what that would be. But basically when you think about the creation of magic, it's a series of ingredients that you put into a pot and you stir it around to create a potion that creates a result for you, right. We don't just do I guess if you did a magical potion, you don't just do it for for fun, right? You do it to create a result for you to create, to bring something into your life. And so when I talk about how this is a magical experience, how women are getting magically promoted, it's because we're putting the right ingredients into the giant pot, stirring it around, and then poof, we're getting the result magically right it often comes from an unexpected source. Our promotion, our inclusion, whatever that might be, whatever our goal is, more money, more opportunities, whatever that happiness, who knows? It's going to come somewhat out of the blue, out of the magical ether, but it's because we put the right ingredients into the cauldron. So today I'm going to talk to you about those, quote unquote right ingredients as we're celebrating.

So then I turn this into a thing inside of Executive Ahead of Time, because I was just like. Dying over the number of emails that I was getting. And like I said, I get these emails all year round, but I really want you to know that you can get promoted this summer even while you're not at work. So, so many of you are taking vacation right now, so you sort of chuck your career goals out the window. Or when you are working, if you're not taking vacation, you're just focused on work because you have other things happening at home, you know, like family or whatever, you know, just want to enjoy your summer. So you're not thinking about career goals necessarily. And what I want to show you is that when you put these magical ingredients into your cauldron, you don't have to think about your career goals anymore. You don't have to wonder if it's going to happen. You don't have to make it happen. It just happens. And so my goal was to get ten women promoted by the end of the summer. And I'm happy to announce at the recording of this episode, which is not even halfway through the month of July when I'm recording this. We already have five women in just the last two weeks that have emailed me that they are getting promoted to vice president positions. Five while they were on vacation.

I swear, every single one of these women wrote in their email to me that they were either on a vacation currently and got promoted. We're getting ready to go on a vacation and got the notice that they would be promoted or are taking a vacation and are getting promoted when they come back. They're all going on vacation because they put in the work and now the magic is coming to you. So it's called the Summer of Magic. I'm getting ten women promoted by the end of August. It sounds like it might actually happen by the end of July. So I'm going to have to double my number for August, but I want one of those women to be you. So join us inside of Executive Ahead of Time. And let's get you set up. Let's get you set up with the right ingredients for your next promotion.

Now on today's episode, I want to show you one way that you can actually get promoted by the end of the summer. So this is like one separate thing. And you've seen this happen for a lot of women, maybe somebody around you where they literally asked and for the first time in their life from asking, they got the promotion right. So that can happen, poof, overnight. And the reason that that happens so easily and so well is because you have been putting in the work. Right. And then the one thing you didn't do is ask for the promotion.

That happens all the time, right? We're very busy. We especially at like the director level, you know, you can just get head down, not paying attention. And then you make your ambitions known to your boss. And your boss is like, actually, I was kind of thinking about that. Let me push that through. So that happens all the time where you literally just raise your hand or an opportunity comes up on a different team. But because you've been listening to my podcast, you're like, You know what? I think I'm ready for that. And you say, yes. So that's one way that you can get promoted is literally just to ask. So that happened, actually, that happened for one woman out of the five who was given a promotion because she just raised her hand. And this actual interview process at her current organization was for two or three levels up from her current role. And she just said, Yeah, I'll apply. And then she did the work to figure out how she was going to actually be qualified and get the role and and make sure that she's successful in the role once she gets there. And she just announced that she was given an offer and she's working out the details of that offer. But literally that just happened because she said yes, she just raised her hand. She said, yes, I'll go for it. And then she will be promoted by the end of the summer.

Done. Ding, ding, ding, ding, ding. Okay, so that's one way. And you can sort of see how the magic works there. It's like, oh, okay. You know, it's just like right time, right place, raise their hand, said yes. The the emphasis that I want to put on today's episode is really more so on the magical ingredients. The other way that you will know beyond a shadow of a doubt that your next promotion is literally right around the corner is when you start to put these magical ingredients into your cauldron and you do it all at once. So these ingredients and this is exactly the process that I teach, very detailed inside of Executive, Ahead of Time, inside of my book, 'Promotions Made Easy' and then I give you weekly coaching on it every single week. So we make sure that you're actually applying these tools to your particular situation. But there are five ingredients, just five, five ingredients, and you'll notice none of these ingredients have anything to do with getting your MBA, getting another certification. They have nothing to do with leading a team. They have nothing to do with executive presence. They have nothing to do with overcoming imposter syndrome. Well, okay, I'll I'll talk about that in a minute. But they are simple things that you can do. At the same time immediately. Right. And so if you are listening to this episode and you are on vacation and it's the summertime, just start to let this percolate.

Right. You don't I don't expect you to get right to work in the middle of the summer, scheduling 15 minute ally meetings with other people who are already on vacation. But what's going to happen is you start to do this work when you're ready, you start to put the ingredients into your own little pot of magic. You're going to see that by September. By October, you're going to start to get opportunities coming your way magically, right, seemingly out of the blue, you are going to get more and more opportunities coming your way. So what are those ingredients?

The first ingredient for your magical promotion spell is to stop doing what you are good at. Now I have whole podcast episodes on each one of these ingredients that are going to explain it a little better. And so what I want to give you today in today's episode is how they all work together to create that magical stew. So I'm not going to go into a ton of details about what that means, but I'll just give you a really high level definition. So your first ingredient is to stop doing what you're good at, right? It's basically the concept of what got you here won't get you there if you're still in the weeds. You can't scale. You can't make it to that next level of executive leadership.

If you need to have attention to every single detail because you won't be able to manage a 200, 300, 500 person team, right? You won't be able to zoom out enough to be high exposure enough. And many of you are still in a role where that level of detail is required of you. And so in terms of the ingredients in this magical stew. You're just going to slowly start to pull back and break down your subject matter expertise and I mean, in the way that you see yourself, your identity. Am I valuable to my organization because of my subject matter expertise or because of my leadership? And you're going to start to shift that and starting to see yourself as an executive leader, instead as that executive who's already to step into an executive leadership position. The second ingredient for our magical stew is going to be 3X'ing your vision. Now, a lot of people blow off this one because they're like, well, you know, yeah, I know where I want to be. I want to be a CFO someday, right? And they just sort of leave it at that. And, and quite honestly, that is good enough, right, to even have the ambition because there's like a large percentage of you that don't even have that ambition yet or aren't able to articulate that ambition because you have no way of knowing how in the world you're going to get there.

So for now, it's just about understanding what your 3X vision is. And then the next piece is making decisions based on where you want to be versus where you are now. So many of you are going for a promotion because it's the next step in line. Like you, you're a director and you want to be a senior director. But I want to say, what are the decisions? How would you be interviewing-pretend-if that was a vice president position, right? How would you be showing up? How would you be engaging with other leaders at your organization? What meetings would you be attending if you were a vice president versus a director? Right. So you're going to start to use your 3X vision to guide you into becoming that Executive Ahead of Time. So ingredient number one, stop doing what you're good at 3X to your vision. And the third ingredient is to stop failing ahead of time. So many of you have a challenge which is lowering your expectations because you are trying to not be hurt if you don't get it. And I understand that. I do that all the time, even subconsciously, right? I used words like, we'll see what happens. Or, you know, you never know. I'll just throw my hat in the ring, right? I'll just raise my hand. And the example that I gave of the woman who interviewed for two or three levels up from her current role, she didn't just throw her hat in the ring.

She wanted it. She went for the role. She didn't expect to fail ahead of time. Right. She actually interviewed at that vice president level. She did the quote unquote work. And by work, I mean it doesn't mean more hours in the day, but it's the energetic work of am I ready? How do I know I'm ready? What do I bring to the table? How is my leadership speaking to her leadership, not her subject matter expertise, really changing the way she shows up in the interview process? That's what I mean by stopping failing ahead of time. Sometimes people would call this overcoming imposter syndrome. And the difference that I see it as is that you already are a qualified executive. But what I want to do by stopping, failing ahead of time is more so light that fire under your butt that you could actually get the job because and quite frankly, imagine if you didn't get the job, you are going to be disappointed either way. You're going to be disappointed if you don't get the role, if you don't get the promotion, if you're told no. Either way, you're going to be disappointed. So why not go for it? Right. And there's a difference. And when I say go for it, that's what I'm coaching you on. On the weekly coaching calls right inside of Executive Ahead of Time.

But we have to learn how to go for it. So we're going to stop doing what we're good at. We're going to 3X our vision and make decisions from that place. We're going to stop failing ahead of time. The fourth ingredient is you're going to schedule 15 minute ally meetings. This is my process of building trust with the entire executive team because your boss cannot be the only person who advocates for your career. And if you have a boss who refuses to advocate for your career, then most definitely you better put yourself out there and start building relationships with other executives all across the board. Right. This is a requirement. So 15 minute ally meetings, you're going to schedule the meetings to build trust with leaders all across your organization. And these meetings, aren't you spitting off your bio. These meetings are learning about them, what they care about in their own leadership, how they got where they are. Right. Understanding what keeps them up at night, what they think about throughout the day. And I have a whole list of questions that you can ask in these 15 minute ally meetings. If you go to StacyMayer.com/Questions, you can download this list. But basically what you're doing is you're building trust with executive leaders all across your organization. So for first four ingredients, stop doing what you're good at. 3X your vision. Start making decisions from that place.

Stop failing ahead of time. Really go for your dreams, your ambitions, understanding the value that you bring to the leadership table, knowing that you are so such a corporate badass. I know you are. I know you have it in you because you wouldn't be listening to this podcast. And number four, you're going to build relationships with the entire executive team using 15 minute ally meetings. And the fifth ingredient to this magical stew that's going to set you up for your next promotion, your next promotion. Your next promotion is to always be interviewing. Always be interviewing. Always be interviewing externally, internally, whatever that might be for you. How many times have you been fed up? Quit your job or even got to the point where you were so sick of it and you were like, I'm out of here, and now I'm going to start looking for another role. That is a terrible place to interview from. I want you to interview for roles when you don't need the job so that you can start to feel what it feels like to to show up powerfully. To show up without apology. To really own your leadership, because there's this thing that happens when we need something that we downplay our expertise. We don't speak to the corporate badass ness in us. When we really you know, this is different than like wanting the role, not failing ahead of time, but like when we need it.

It's not like a want or a desire, but we need it, right? We feel like we have to prove ourselves and so always be interviewing. We're writing recruiters back on LinkedIn. We're answering their questions. We're interviewing, knowing that we have no intention to leave our company. How amazing is that? I want you to look at interviews as just part of the deal. It's not this like heavy, hard, ugly thing that we do once or twice a year or once or twice every ten years because that's what actually happens. All right. You got it. You got the ingredients for your magical concoction. You're going to stop doing what you're good at. You are going to 3X to your vision. You're going to stop failing ahead of time. You are going to build allies at your organization using 15 minute ally meetings. And you are going to always be interviewing when you start to put these ingredients in to your magical cauldron all at once. Right? Because you can't always be interviewing if you're in the weeds. Right? They all go in there at once. When you start stirring that around, that is when the magic happens. That's when opportunities come seemingly out of nowhere. So I want to give you an example of a woman who I've been working with since 2020, who is one of the five who also got promoted to a vice president position this month.

And we have been stirring this pot since 2020. Right. So in this example, this magical concoction is something that we have been working on for a very long time. That doesn't mean that it takes time. Right. Like I said, you can make one ask and get promoted tomorrow. But sometimes it takes time. And the only way that you're going to know if you're on the right path is to look at the ingredients, to say, Am I still doing these five things? If the answer is yes, then you're only job is to trust the process to keep stirring. Even if it takes a year. Because I really want you to know. Looking back at your career, how many times did you stay in the wrong role? For too many years. How many years have you been at the director level when you've been ready to be a senior director? The only reason why you are afraid that it's taking too long is because you waited too long to get started. But when you get started today, when you start before you're ready and you start putting those ingredients in now, even when you have no intention of getting a promotion, like I recommend your 30 day plan. Like let's say you get a new role in your 30, 60, 90 day plan. Your 30 day plan is to figure out what your next role is going to be. I don't care if you have every intention to stay at that company in that role for five years.

In your first 30 days, you are having conversations about what's next. Right. That is part of this magical concoction, right? That is one of the ingredients is that we are actively managing our career. We are proactively building relationships to create success for the longevity of the next 20 years before retirement. So all of this is happening at once. So this woman that I was speaking about who just received this offer for a vice president position, it took some breaking down. And that's part of the magic as well, is that we're not going to know how it's going to look. We don't know. And so in 2020, it looked like getting a promotion at her current organization. Right? It looked like getting her current boss to like her more to build that relationship with her boss. But as we started to do that, as we started to work on those ingredients, it became incredibly clear, that her boss was not going to support her, that the organization as a whole was not going to support her to transition to vice president. Did this mean that she couldn't be a vice president someplace else? Heck, no. Did this mean she wasn't a corporate badass? No frickin way. All it meant is that she wasn't in the right environment. So we had to break that down and that took time. It took a year of understanding, like, why isn't this working and is it because of me or is it because of them? Right.

And then eventually she was able to really, really trust in the magical concoction and to let things go. And it was almost immediately, as soon as she stopped trying so hard to make it work and her current organization opportunities came up outside. Like, literally, like she didn't even I think she did one or two interviews for this new role at another company and they were like, You know what? We want you for this role. We're not going to continue. We want you to be vice president. And here's more. And I had her I coached her to negotiate for a higher salary. And they said she's like she came to our coaching conversation this last week and was like they said yes to everything. I can't even believe it. And I can, but that's part of that magic. All right, my friends, I hope that you are enjoying your own summer of magic. And please, I really encourage you. Join us inside of Executive Ahead of Time this week. Don't wait. Even if you're not actively pursuing your next promotion, or especially if you are actively pursuing your next promotion, go to ExecutiveAheadofTime.com, get into the Summer of Magic so that you can start setting yourself up for unexpected and magical opportunities down the road. All right. Take care and I'll see you next week. Bye.