Alex Carter
speaker
110 appearances
1 recordings
1 series
first heard Apr 2025
last heard Apr 2025
Alex Carter’s voice in public audio — every appearance, attributed to the second.
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Appearances
And it's a way that I don't see represented in movies or TV, and I don't even see represented in the books that are out there. So I had to take my own leap at a time when I thought, can I really write a book? The other people in this field who are writing books are all much older than I am. Many of them are men with law enforcement experience.
And I decided to take that leap because I thought, if I don't see this approach out there, if I believe there's a hole in the market, there have to be people waiting for this book that I have inside of me. So I decided to take that 20 years of experience and knowledge and research and put it into a framework that I knew people could use to make their lives better.
That is correct. So you hear those studies about how some folks, especially women, but it could be other people, don't apply to a job unless they feel they meet 100% of the job description. And so even though I had been invited to apply and encouraged to apply, I looked at the application and all I saw was what I didn't have. initially.
And I have to say, it took a couple of people close to me to say, sit down, you can do this. And so when I wrote that application, I focused on what I did have. I knew I was going to be one of the youngest and least experienced people in the pool. I applied for a full-time law teaching job when I had no law teaching experience.
But what I did have was substantial experience teaching in other contexts. What I did have was that I had been through the program as a student, and so I felt I was closer to what the students needed and would be looking for, and I would know how to craft a curriculum for them. And I flat out told people when they interviewed,
If you're looking for the most experienced person in the pool who's going to lead your program for the next 10 to 15 years before they retire, I'm not that person. If you are looking for somebody with vision and energy and a lot of ideas who could take your program to the next level for 30 years and beyond, I'm who you want. And the committee decided that's what they wanted.
So truly, I always tell people, bet on yourself, start with what you have. And now since then, I've taken a number of leaps where people called me and said, can you do this? And I had never done it before. And I thought to myself, yes, I can. And so I went ahead and did it.
No, it's not realistic for anyone. And I'll tell you now, as somebody who hires people, I interview potential professors for positions. One of the things I'm looking for is somebody who's clear on what they have left to learn. How do they want to grow? what are the skill sets and the competencies they want to develop.
Far from showing a lack of confidence, to me, that is the most confident person in the pool because they're coming in clearly understanding their expertise and also with the comfort and the command to be able to say, and here's where I want to grow. Because as you said, top performers are always looking to grow.
The most dangerous person for me in a pool of applicants is the person who says, I know it all. No, you don't.
Yes. I, early on in my career, was in a bunch of roles where things were mostly lockstep. So working for really large investment banks or law firms or places where your compensation is pretty much determined by your seniority and that's it. And I remember the moment that I then had to really advocate for myself. And I found myself being unexpectedly nervous, even more so when I went in.
And I got an offer that was a little bit above what I was expecting. And now I know I just got bad information. But back then, I had this internal crisis, right? You know, right, that if they come in above, there's a reason for that. I get this offer and internally, I feel myself at war with myself saying, maybe I should just accept this. This is a good offer. It's more than I thought.
Am I going to look not collaborative? Am I going to turn them off? But I had just enough sense to say, thank you. I'm going to run my numbers. I'll come back to you. And that's when I called a senior woman in my field. And I said, what advice do you have for me? Candidly, this is the offer. She said, I'm going to tell you what to do, Alex.
You're going to get back in there and you're going to ask for more. And here's why. When you teach someone how to value you, You're teaching them how to value all of us. You are normalizing negotiation. And so if you're not going to do it for yourself, I want you to do it for the person who's coming after you.
And that was the moment, Ilana, that I thought, oh, no, now I have to negotiate all the time because... I think of myself as a collaboration-oriented person. I want to create more for other people in the course of creating more for myself. And up until that moment, I thought, if I ask for more, somebody else gets less. But it is not true. I realized that when I put myself in rooms
I am then in a position to help the next person and to normalize what it's like. These days, occasionally I hear about somebody who's in my field, my line of work, as an author and a speaker who is underselling themselves. And I will sometimes, if I know that person, reach out and say, please.
Value yourself and raise your prices to the level of your value and know that when you are doing it, you are helping everybody in our industry elevate. Ilana, this is an issue in some sectors more than others, but truly, when you ask for more, not only do you help other entrepreneurs or other people who are job seekers, but you If you're an entrepreneur, you help your client. Hear me out.
Everybody on this podcast, perhaps listening now, has had the experience of underselling themselves. You undercharged. You maybe didn't define clear boundaries. You ended up overgiving. And how did you feel? You felt burnt out? You felt resentful? Was your client getting the best of you? No, they were not. And I always say to people, if you undersold, there's no need to harsh on ourselves.
You conducted an experiment. You experimented in what it was like to sell yourself at that level. And now we know the results of that experiment are you're overbooked and you're overwhelmed and resentful. When you fully value yourself, your client gets the best version of you and that's what they deserve.
Yes. And then when you get to that place where you are so rock solid confident in your worth that you're able to say, here's the investment to work with me either as an entrepreneur or here's what the investment is to bring me onto your team in corporate. And if that doesn't work for you, I understand. And you believe it. People smell that on you.
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