Ladies Get Paid

Certified financial planner AJ Ayers explains stock options and RSUs, how to negotiate equity in a job offer, the 90-day window after a layoff, why she skips budgets and saves first, and how to think about credit card debt, renting vs. buying, and getting started with investing. AJ’s book, Creative Money: New Financial Rules for Artists, Innovators, and Misfits, is out November 10. Pre-order at ajayers.com. Companion Substack post with key insights and action steps: More at ladiesgetpaid.com

Jamia Wilson has been asked if she’s the intern in rooms where she was running the place. She was the youngest director in the history of the Feminist Press and the first woman of color to lead it. She’s now a VP and executive editor at Random House. Gloria Steinem was her mentor, and then she became Gloria’s editor. In this episode we talk about where feminism stands right now, what she learned about money from her mother and grandmothers, and how she decided what she was worth when her employers kept deciding for her. She never got resentful about any of it. She kept track, and then she left. Companion post with her key insights: https://ladiesgetpaid.substack.com/p/they-thought-she-was-the-intern

At 14, Ella Rivkin immigrated from Moscow to New York with about $100 and became her family’s money manager. In 2009 she walked out of her accounting partnership with $12,000 in the bank, two small kids, and an underwater mortgage, and built her own firm. Years later, Tony Robbins told her she still wasn’t financially free. Claire Wasserman and Ella talk about betting on yourself, leaving a job without a safety net, the self-doubt that keeps women in situations they’ve outgrown, and why a high income isn’t the same as freedom. Read the key insights and action steps at ladiesgetpaid.substack.com/p/what-it-takes-to-risk-it-all Connect with Ella at ellarivkin.com/

Erin Lowry wrote four books about money. Her business bank account is the lowest it's ever been. She built a career as Broke Millennial — Penguin, CBS Sunday Morning, the person a generation of us learned to open a Roth IRA from. She isn't broke the way she was at 23 on $23,000 a year in New York. She's broke the way self-employed people are broke: the money arrives in waves, and sometimes the wave is late. We go back to the yard sale that taught her net profit at seven, the scarcity her father handed down without meaning to, the job she turned down to protect a blog that was making her nothing, and the identity crisis that showed up at the same time as her daughter. Plus the hardest money conversation most of us are avoiding — the one with our parents — and the exact words to use when they won't engage. Full write-up at ladiesgetpaid.substack.com. Find Erin at the brokemillennial.substack.com.

Rita Boccuzzi was sued for gender discrimination for hosting money events for women, by the same two men who sued me. Instead of settling, she fought for three and a half years. We talk about the lawsuit, the 38 lawyers she called, turning her camera on in her deposition, and how it finally ended. Rita also shares how cancer drained her savings, why medical debt and caregiving costs wipe out so many families, and what helped her get through years she couldn't control. Find Rita at achievefinancialaspirations.com, and learn more about my work at ladiesgetpaid.com. If this episode resonated, share it with someone who needs to hear it and subscribe for upcoming episodes.

Habit change expert Connie Kwan explains why willpower isn't the problem; the story you're telling yourself is. She shares her STORY method, the two numbers that predict whether a habit change will stick, and how a client quit a ten-year french fry habit in two weeks. Then she coaches me live on my doom scrolling, and we end up somewhere I didn't expect: why I can't lie down for ten minutes without almost having a panic attack. Connie is the author of Story Habits, out in November. Find her at conniekwan.com. Read the companion post for key insights and action steps: https://ladiesgetpaid.substack.com/p/change-your-bad-habits-for-good

Cathy's husband was fired without warning in 2018. She'd left her six-figure job two years before to stay home with their kids. What was left: a $1.32 million mortgage, over $100,000 in credit card debt across eleven maxed cards, another $100,000 borrowed from friends, and no income. Eight years on, every card is at zero and her credit score is 815. She walks me through exactly how — the jobs, the calls to card companies that went nowhere, the decision about their house, and the parts that still haven't resolved. Including the bank account that got frozen last October. Full write-up on ladiesgetpaid.substack.com. If you have a money story to share, email claire@ladiesgetpaid.com .

Five years at a tech startup. Four rounds of layoffs. Seven managers. And a side business as a death doula that she loves but isn't sure can pay her. Natasha came in asking when to make the leap. A few minutes in, she mentioned her health insurance and called her attachment to it silly — and the conversation turned into something else entirely. We get into why binary thinking keeps you stuck, how to sort your fears into the ones that need a spreadsheet and the ones that need a conversation with yourself, what it costs to be the person everyone relies on, and why leaving a job you've outgrown can feel like a death you have to grieve. Free companion post with all the key takeaways and action steps: https://ladiesgetpaid.substack.com/p/when-should-i-quit-my-job?Want to be coached for free on the podcast? Email claire@ladiesgetpaid.comPrefer to keep things private? Book a free fit call: https://calendly.com/claire-wasserman/coaching-fit-call🚨 Subscribe so you don't miss the next episode.

You know what you should charge. You still quoted less. You know you should negotiate. You still froze. This isn't a confidence problem. It's a fear problem — and in this episode I'm naming all four fears that have been quietly keeping women underpaid, often for years. I'll walk you through what each one looks like, why it makes complete sense that you have it, and give you a question for each one that starts to shift it. 🗓️ On September 10th, join my free live training on how to earn with ease. Replay available for all who register: https://ladiesgetpaid.kit.com/earnwithease 📖 Read the companion post: https://ladiesgetpaid.substack.com/p/the-4-fears-keeping-you-underpaid

Two-time NYT bestselling author Dr. Anna Malaika Tubbs (The Three Mothers, Erased) uncovered the women history deliberately wrote out — then had to fight to keep her own work from disappearing. We talk about the mothers behind MLK Jr., Malcolm X, and James Baldwin, the "trophy wife" comments she got on the campaign trail, the meeting where she told her publisher to print enough books because "I am going to get on that list," why nobody is self-made, and the writing routine that holds five projects and three kids together. Full takeaways + action steps on Substack: https://ladiesgetpaid.substack.com/p/demand-what-your-work-deserves?r=1b87me&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web&showWelcomeOnShare=true Find Anna on Instagram @annamalaikatubbs

Jodi Wellman knows exactly how many Mondays she has left to live, and she checks the number every week. Morbid? A little. Effective? Completely. The average life holds about 4,000 Mondays — and most of us spend them saying "later." Jodi is a speaker, founder of Four Thousand Mondays, and author of You Only Die Once: How to Make It to the End with No Regrets. In this episode: the mortality math that snaps her out of autopilot, why fear (not busyness) is what's really delaying your dreams, the "pregrets" exercise, the stapler story every corporate woman will recognize, what she found cleaning out her late mother's apartment, and how to find your passion by sampling the buffet.

She spent twelve years as a police officer. She made detective - the goal she'd worked toward her entire career - and walked away from it almost immediately after. What followed wasn't a clean pivot. It was a smoothie shop, five months of unemployment, and two jobs she found through relationships rather than resumes.If you're in the middle of a career change, feeling stuck, or wondering if you've waited too long to start over, this one's for you. 📖 Read the companion piece: https://ladiesgetpaid.substack.com/p/she-left-the-only-career-shed-ever

She told her boss she was pregnant on a Monday. She was fired by Friday. Kelly Ehlers sued the $300 million company — and while the case dragged on for six years, she built a 5x Inc. 5000 agency, launched a media company out of spite, and wrote Nice Girls Win. We talk about what she said to the men hiding in the conference room the day she was fired, where niceness ends and self-abandonment begins, the blank-page "deserve" exercise that changed everything at 47, and her case against the Let Them theory. Key insights and action steps from this episode are in my companion Substack post: Kelly's book: nicegirlswin.com

"D" the sole income earner for a family of five. Her husband has been a stay-at-home dad for nine years. Her net worth is $4 million — and she's never made over $200,000 a year or worked a sixty-hour week. In this episode, a woman from the Ladies Get Paid community tells her story in her own words: seventeen years at one company, the job rubric that showed her what she actually needed, the 60 informational interviews that led to her dream role, the difference between mentors and sponsors, the salary negotiation approach that earned her a 25% increase in one year, and the simple financial independence math behind the $4 million. And then the part nobody talks about: what happens when you finally get the title you worked your whole career for — and it doesn't feel like anything at all. For key takeaways: https://ladiesgetpaid.substack.com/p/sole-earner-family-of-5-net-worth Want to be featured on the podcast? Submit your story: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLScuAW24y_g-pqXCw6xVUD-pVa0smP6NHKw0_t-HKCX9Ua01gw/viewform?usp=dialog

Most meditations ask you to sit still and clear your mind. This one won't. It's made for a ten minute walk outside, meant to transform the negative thoughts that won't stop, the behaviors you can't seem to break, and the noise that's drowning out what you actually want. It's part of The Practice, a new app I hope to build that helps you reconnect with who you are and what you want. Learn more at https://the-practice-founder.netlify.app/

For my whole professional life, I've worked in a constant state of urgency — and assumed anxiety was just the price of caring about my work. Then I ran an accidental experiment: a two-week production sprint so big that even AI was skeptical. I finished two days early. I wasn't exhausted. And I finally learned what my anxiety was actually doing all along (spoiler: not what I thought).In this episode: the counterintuitive first move that made everything possible, the mistake I made in front of 40,000 people, and the question I asked myself every day that changed how I work.For more insights - and action steps! - check out the companion post: https://ladiesgetpaid.substack.com/p/learning-to-work-without-anxiety

What does your relationship with money say about you? Lindsay Stanberry spent a decade watching women talk about money. She created Money Diaries at Refinery29, wrote the bestselling book, and went on to become an executive editor at CNBC and Fortune. Now she runs The Purse, a media platform helping women build financial confidence. In this episode, we talk about what Money Diaries revealed about women and spending, why personal finance is personal, the cost of undervaluing your work, and what it takes to stop playing small. For key insights and action steps, check out the companion post: https://ladiesgetpaid.substack.com/p/the-truth-about-women-and-money

When you're facing a hard decision, the problem usually isn't that you don't have enough information — it's that you have too many parts of yourself all trying to drive at the same time. In this episode I share a six-step framework for making hard decisions with clarity and self-compassion, even when every option has a real cost. Including why arguing both sides like a passionate lawyer unlocks something a rational list never will, how to let your body cast its vote, and why there's no clean exit and why accepting that is liberating.

Jessamyn Stanley — yoga teacher, author of Every Body Yoga and Yoke , and founder of The Underbelly — has one of the most honest money origin stories you'll hear. We go deep on growing up with financial scarcity, building a wellness business as a fat, Black, queer woman in an industry that wasn't built for her, and the tension between wanting to make money and believing the thing you're selling should be free. Find Jessamyn at jessamynstanley.com and The Underbelly at theunderbelly.com Get the key insights and action steps on Substack: https://open.substack.com/pub/ladiesgetpaid/p/she-couldnt-afford-a-yoga-class-then?r=1b87me&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web&showWelcomeOnShare=true

I used to be the queen of procrastination — everything got done, but always at the last minute with late nights and anxiety. What changed wasn't willpower. It was understanding why I was procrastinating and building a system that worked with my brain instead of against it. In this episode I share my top tips, from figuring out the fear underneath your avoidance, to the 20-minute method, the sandwich action, and why accountability with strangers didn't work for me and what I did instead. Get my process, step-by-step: https://open.substack.com/pub/ladiesgetpaid/p/my-top-anti-procrastination-tips?r=1b87me&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web&showWelcomeOnShare=true