What a £22000 pay increase meant for my client

Yes, you read that number right!

A client who started working with me last November has managed to increase her salary by £22000, almost doubling her earnings in less than two years.

Is that amazing, or is that amazing?

When she first hired me she wanted support to ask for £2000 pay rise.

But during our session she recognised that what she brought to the table was worth more, and she learned how to communicate her value and negotiate a higher salary straight away.

And she didn’t stop there - she steadfastly continued to apply what she learned from coaching to get to her latest milestone.

What I am most proud of through all her achievements is that she now recognises that she is finally being paid for what she is worth. Because being paid bigger salary is amazing, but getting to a place where you can own your value is priceless.

And I feel nothing but privilege to be continuing to support her and all my clients - because it is the mental blocks that are almost always bigger than the systemic and structural barriers that we encounter as women.

I now want to contrast this client’s story with that of another woman who approached me for coaching around the same time.

She vacillated on her decision to work with me, then approached another coach but ended up doing nothing.

Instead, she put all her energy and focus into a project that was solely aimed at getting her validation from her manager - which I raised as a red flag to her when we spoke back in November 2024.

When I met her again a few weeks ago, she expressed deep unhappiness over how things had turned out in her job.

I simply wish she had sought someone's support so she wouldn't have spent the past year chasing a negative vision which left her with a reduced sense of her own value - because that kind of experience takes a lot of inner work to get over.

So there you have it: two women who chose very different routes to recognising, claiming and owning their value, with two very different outcomes.

If you have attended my talks or workshops then you have heard my warning about how insidious the Fear Zone can get, sometimes convincing you to adopt negative coping mechanisms that do you more harm than good.

But often you don't see it until it is too late. So my sincere advice is to get a sense-check from someone: a coach, mentor, well-meaning friend who will warn you before you dedicate your precious time and energy to something like seeking validation, which ultimately doesn't ever serve you.

The truth is that when you know your value on the inside, others cannot help but see it too!