Kelly Kaplon

I have just finished reading Barbara Stanny’s inspiring book, “Secrets of Six Figure Women - Surprising Strategies to up your earnings and change your life.”  I have to say I was a little hesitant when I purchased the book due to the title and the look of the book being fairly cheesy!  As such I also suspected the advice and stories in the book might be lightweight however as I am researching the subject and found that there is not a lot out there, I would take the risk.

The Powers of Other Women’s Stories
Barbara tells her life story which is semi-interesting, however the stories that she gathers from high salary earners and low salary earners are inspiring. What I also found valuable was the themes that Barbara discovered that occurred amongst these two groups of women and how we can identify them in ourselves. There is even some career coaching exercises which are great for those women looking to make a career transition in order to up their salary or gain more satisfaction from work.

Note: If you are looking to make a career change, free resources can be accessed via Six Figures Career Resources and numerous other career sites or you may wish to see a career coach.

Women are still chronically underpaid across the globe however one would hope, in the western world at least, with women surpassing men in education pay inequality would be a thing of the past. Not so. Discrimination is clearly rife and there is a glass ceiling, though it is great to see women are forging amazing careers and earning fantastic salaries irrespective of this.

Take Responsibility
What the book really confirms is that it is up to us as women to assume responsibility for our careers and our earnings. Yes, it will be tough and it will be uncomfortable.  Facing your fears and trusting in yourself and the future is hard. It will be rewarding though both personally and financially as these women’s stories prove.
Barbara has a great list of the 9 traits of chronic Under-earners -
1.    Have a high tolerance for low pay
2.    Underestimate their worth
3.    Are willing to work for free
4.    Are lousy negotiators
5.    Practice reverse snobbery
6.    Believe in the nobility of poverty
7.    Are subtle self – saboteurs
8.    Are unequivocally codependent
9.    Live in financial chaos

If you find that you fall into any of these areas, you may want to reflect and look at how you can change this.
Most of us will have to overcome our fears and re-work our thinking about ourselves, which is a good thing as it helps us be the best we can.  I would recommend this book to anyone (male or female) who believes they are not working to their full potential and who wants to earn more.

Salary Negotiation

The book does not explore salary negotiation, which is also a part of this process and an area where women are notoriously unskilled and / or lacking in confidence. The great news, like all of what Barbara covers is that you can change your career and your earning capacity. It is up to us.

To access a free salary negotiation guide and quiz to assess your salary negotiation skills visit Six Figures

Investment in the Book & Yourself

Even as someone who considers herself fairly knowledgeable and confident in the areas of careers and salary negotiation, I got a lot out of Barbara Stanny’s book “Secrets of Six Figure Women – Surprising Strategies to up your earnings and change your life.”  I recommend making a $28 investment in this book and look forward to meeting and reading about more amazing six figure women.

If you have read the book , I would welcome your thoughts and opinions.