Jacob Warwick: recommendation

Transcript context

…This is so interesting. What's the most common biggest mistake that people make when they're negotiating their comp? They don't understand when it starts. It starts much sooner than you think. I've got myself on hot water with this before too because a... A LinkedIn profile in your resume is a snapshot of what you've been in the past, but it doesn't help you negotiate in the forward. So if somebody can say, "Oh, I'm looking at Lenny, and I'm looking at product manager." If that's all they saw, they're not going to know all this work that you're doing in the future moving forward and what your visions are and things like that, so they stamp you as Product Manager Lenny. Now, you're media mogul icon, whatever, but there's a gap that you have to fill. The things you say on LinkedIn serve as a perception. The headshot that you have serves as a perception. I used to joke that I could scan profiles. I would know how much money someone made by the quality of their headshot. You can see... It was wildly consistent. It was almost frustrating. But anyway, what you're putting out into the world, the narrative you share publicly, starts to become how you're known, your reputation. If you are positioned as a commodity, you will be treated like a commodity. Oftentimes, the less you share is better because when you're on the phone with somebody, you can correct the narrative and steer the conversation where you want it to go versus have to live by the sins of what you did 10 years ago, as an example. So the things you share with recruiters, they take notes. When a recruiter calls you and says, "Hey, Lenny, how much money do you expect to make?" and you say, "Oh, 225, that sounds fair." Five years later, they call you and they expect you to make 225 again, not recognizing that you've grown exponentially since then. So everything you communicate starts to serve as that value chain across the board. Another mistake that people make, and you mentioned this a little earlier, it feels uncomfortable to get, quote, unquote, "confrontational" or to feel like you're asking for too much, so often we'll hide behind the easiest communication channel as possible. I might email you my demands or my negotiation, and the problem with that is I can't control tone. I can't control... especially when you're negotiating at high levels. If I push back and the CEO that reads it is in the airport security line and pissed off and they read it, they might be like, "That bastard wants more money." That's all they take away. Even if you perfectly worded it, you got it all as clean as it can be, if you catch them at the wrong time, you have no control over how it's received. So it's always better to have at least a video call, if not in person, so you can share tone, you can read body language, you can correct every step of the way. Oftentimes, we also try to negotiate through recruiters. You could do that... I did the thing, Jacob. I talked to a recruiter. I spent a half an hour explaining it. The problem with that is you're playing a game of telephone, so the same thing happens. ers. You could do that... I did the thing, Jacob. I talked to a recruiter. I spent a half an hour explaining it. The problem with that is you're playing a game of telephone, so the same thing happens. I explain it to the recruiter. I get the tone right. The recruiter goes to the CEO and says, "That bastard wants more money," and that's all they communicate. People negotiate with the wrong folks. You have to go to the one who has skin in the game. Who controls the P&L? Who controls EBITDA? What's their motivation? That's who you want to talk to. Some people might also have a concern with, "Well, how do I go around the recruiter? I don't want them to look bad." We have to do that respectfully and now we need to plan what that communication looks like. The important thing here is just because it's uncomfortable doesn't mean you don't need to do it. It just means you don't know how to do it. So when something's uncomfortable, you have to run towards that because that's where the growth happens.…

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