You are a smart, independent woman with a lot to offer this company. You’re driven, hardworking, underpaid, and overworked. You deserve to have your voice heard. It’s time for you to stand up to the mansplainers in your office and pitch your idea!
Review your pitch.
Make sure your pitch is air-tight. You should know it front and back, in and out. Know it like your career depends on it because it kind of does. If you don’t land this, your boss will know you’re just one bad idea away from retreating into the confines of an online Etsy retailer. It’s not a big deal, even though it kind of is. No problem if not.
Right Place Right Time
Make sure you’re going to be meeting your boss at a good time. Don’t catch them in the middle of a meeting or in the bathroom. Steer clear of the elevator so they don’t feel pressured. Avoid scheduling through the assistant too, they’re pretty busy. Maybe just slide over an email? Or even a slack message? The best time is 5 PM on Friday when they’ll check before heading out for the weekend. If it’s a good idea, they’ll surely remember it on Monday. Check their G-Cal!
Practice Talking Points
Your talking points should be clear and concise, but not too concise. You want them to know you’ve thought it all out, so put a lot of detail in it, but not too much that you bore them. Enough detail to WOW but not WHEW. And you can’t stumble or stutter. Even though studies have shown that women use fillers to prevent interruption, you have to train that out of yourself by the time you get to chatting. Flashcards help!
Prove You Can Handle It
Make sure your boss knows how much you’re a girl boss yourself by proving to them that you can handle it! After all, you've been working here for a while, had a hand in some of the biggest clients, and even saw the Q4 projections skyrocket under your watch. That’s pretty impressive, but the new guy Kyle plays golf with him, so who knows maybe he would be better suited for this kind of thing…
Present Your Ideas
This is it, the big moment! Make sure you speak loudly, but not like, bitch-loudly. And not too quiet, otherwise someone will talk over you. Which is fine! All ideas should have a moment to shine but this is like… yours? If that makes sense? Don’t let the room walk all over you… unless it’s a power walk! You go, girl!
Follow Up
Make sure you follow up with notes after you present your pitch. Here’s a script you can follow:
“Hey! Just wanted to circle back and see how you felt about that thing I said yesterday about the reports? I can do that soon, or Kyle can jump on it, or we can throw my laptop into a river! Whichever works best on your end sounds good! Tysm!”
No matter what you end up pitching, the world is at your fingertips! So take your manicure to the keyboard girl, and rewrite that email again! You got this.