We were lucky to catch up with Lisa Gillette recently and have shared our conversation below.
Hi Lisa , thanks for joining us today. We’d love to hear about a time you helped a customer really get an amazing result through their work with you.
Before I share a few success stories, I’d like to describe the problem I solve, the people I help, and the results I deliver. Gender Bias is not a myth. The Pay Gap is real! Women earn anywhere from 10 to 50 cents less on the dollar compared to men in the same roles, with the same level of experience and expertise (World Economic Forum 2023). Even worse, the pay gap usually increases for women as they advance up the ranks of management.
As a certified Leadership Coach, my goal is to support, inspire, and empower more women to advance in their careers all the way up into the C suite. I help women create the career of their dreams with the title and salary they deserve. I teach the negotiation strategies I honed over my twenty-five-year career in corporate, the last ten years as an executive in sports television. I named my company BIGSKY Coaching & Consulting because when you see the big picture, you will find the opportunities.
Here are some real-life success stories from the clients I’ve supported.
K. is a brilliant marketer, experienced, strategic, and incredibly creative. Her intuitive ability to identify and answer consumer demands earned her a wall full of marketing awards. After a series of broken promises by her company’s CEO, including one about a hefty pay increase, she was beginning to doubt her professional worth. I kept repeating the phrase to her: “You deserve no LESS than anyone else!” She started looking for another job and used my playbook in all her negotiations.
In K.’s words: “Lisa! Damn, you’re a badass! You helped me increase my salary by $45k in ONE meeting. I was able to land my dream position with an amazing organization and FINALLY get paid what I’m worth! Thank you!”
C. works in TECH as a team leader for a group of product managers. She had been in her role for a few years when a competitor scouted her. C. wanted hands-on support; she felt uncomfortable negotiating her last job offer and was determined to avoid repeating the same mistakes.
In C.’s words: “Thank you, Lisa! You have no idea how much I appreciate your advice! If it weren’t for you, I would have asked for $10k less off the bat. It still feels surreal that I was able to get to $30k more a year in one afternoon! THANK YOU SO MUCH!
N. is a creative executive running her own design firm. She was offered a full-time role by one of her clients. She was comfortable negotiating contracts for her agency but had never negotiated compensation for herself. She knew the negotiating strategies she used previously wouldn’t be effective and reached out for support.
In N.’s words: “Before working with Lisa, I had never had the opportunity to talk with an experienced professional openly about money, negotiation tactics, and the value of my skills/experience in my industry. She showed me how to remove judgment and emotion by talking about compensation more objectively and advocating for myself.”
I’ve included all my strategies in my new playbook, “Negotiate Like A Leader.” Hundreds of women and about fifty men have taken my training. They’ve successfully negotiated offers with higher salaries, more robust packages, greater PTO, and bigger bonuses, as well as internal offers, raises, and promotions.
Many people feel uncomfortable talking about money, let alone negotiating. My playbook includes simple but effective mindset resets, customizable scripts, step-by-step strategies, and the FAQ to format your deal memo using research, data, and analysis that bulletproofs your request. I also share how you can strategically respond instead of emotionally react if you’re told no.
If you’re unsure when to ask, how to ask, or what to ask for, I want to show you. I want to see you succeed. Let me help you craft your request and get “yes!”
Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.
SUCCESS IS NOT AN ACCIDENT. IT REQUIRES INSPIRED ACTION. I spent 25 years in the corporate arena, moving up the ranks of management. During the final 10 years of my corporate career, I worked as an executive in sports television, a fast-paced, intoxicating, and highly toxic work environment. I became intimately familiar with the unique challenges all women face in the workspace, particularly those in leadership roles. My intention is to champion, advocate, and encourage greater diversity in Senior Management.
MY COMPANY BIGSKY COACHING & CONSULTING
is a natural progression of my mission to ensure more women, of all colors, move up the ranks of leadership into the “C” suite. My signature coaching program is “Corporate Success Without Selling Out.” I teach women how to navigate gender bias and negotiate fair market compensation so they can achieve their true professional potential.
I UNDERSTAND THE CHALLENGES ALL WOMEN FACE WORKING IN CORPORATE
I faced the same challenges during my time in cable and broadcast television. As my career accelerated, I noticed I was often the only woman at the table. That’s when I began actively advocating, mentoring, sponsoring, and networking to support women’s career advancement and professional development.
I STOOD ON THE SHOULDERS OF THE WOMEN WHO CAME BEFORE ME.
The Pay Gap is still an ENORMOUS issue. And that’s not all. Women are promoted for their past accomplishments, and men for their potential. There’s still much work left to do. Remember, every time a woman negotiates her fair market value, she normalizes Pay Parity for every woman coming after her.
NOW, I SUPPORT THE WOMEN WHO WILL GO FORWARD.
I help my clients see the “Big Picture,” connect the dots from the micro to the macro, discover the opportunities, and overcome the challenges imposed by the constraints of gender bias on female leadership.
We often hear about learning lessons – but just as important is unlearning lessons. Have you ever had to unlearn a lesson?
After transitioning from my corporate gig to executive coaching, I realized I was too good at telling people what to do! Seriously! Because I got my manager’s title two years after I began working in television, I spent most of my corporate career in management. As a Senior Vice President during the last 10 years of my corporate career, I created strategies, determined workflow, negotiated budgets, and created ‘buy-in’ for my projects. I directed the implementation of those projects. I was the executive producer, ultimately responsible, and oversaw all aspects of production, but I wasn’t hands-on. I didn’t execute the day-to-day. My team did that.
When I mentored my staff, colleagues, and even some of my bosses in their career development, I thought I was coaching! I wasn’t! I was giving them a road map to follow. I was telling them “what to do and how to do it.”
The International Coaching Federation defines the coach-client relationship as one in which the coach never tells the client what to do. Instead, the coach asks empowering questions that help the client understand their deeper motivations and see a new perspective. Because the client actively creates their solution, they feel empowered. They’re able to take intentional action because they have a step-by-by strategey.
Today, I use both coaching and consulting in my business. Yes, I occasionally mentor, but I always communicate that to my clients. “I’m taking my coaching hat off right now. I’m going to mentor you. I’m going to tell you what I think you should do.”
Can you share a story from your journey that illustrates your resilience?
I did not negotiate my first job offer! I was so thrilled to be offered a job with health insurance and a regular paycheck that I immediately said yes! I’d been in NYC for eight years, teaching dance and performing with several small contemporary dance companies. I’d sprained my hip doing a music video. I couldn’t teach. I couldn’t rehearse. I couldn’t perform. I was at a crossroads. My life as a performing artist was ending. Taking a job working in television as a production coordinator didn’t require my physical prowess. It also answered my urgent question, “What would I do next? How was I going to pay my bills?”
I didn’t ask if there was any upward movement in the salary number. I didn’t ask if the company would pay for continuing education. I didn’t ask if it was a new position (actually, I knew it was) or whether the role had a clear path for career advancement (although it did!). And, as I tell my clients, “When you don’t ask, the answer is always no.”
One year later, during my first annual review, I did ask! I’d been working as a coordinator and wanted that next title: associate writer-producer. I’d been doing the work, so I asked for the title and the pay increase. I used a very elementary form of one of the strategies I now teach: naming my contributions to justify my request. I listed all the ways I had saved time, reduced errors, and created greater efficiencies in my role. I wrote it all down and bulletproofed the data, showing exactly how many hours I’d saved. Remember, time is money! And yes, I got that next title and a 12% raise.
Two years later, I went to work for a competitor as the Manager of On-Air Promo. I did not accept their first offer. I asked, using what is now my favorite phrase, “I am so excited about this opportunity, but I have one question. Is there any upward movement in the salary number?” And, of course, there was, and I negotiated an 8% increase over the initial offer. I was thrilled when I saw how that simple question, asked in a very conversational tone with a big smile, made all the difference. That was when I started reading every book I could find on communication skills, salary negotiations, and leadership.
- Website: www.bigsky.coach
- Instagram: @bigskycoach_lisa_gillette
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/BIGSKYCoach.lisagillette/
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lisa-gillette/
- Other: https://scheduletimewithlisa.as.me/
Image Credits
Lisa Gillette Innis Casey Atalya Boyter