I personally witnessed Uber hand over their business to Lyft with their surge pricing strategy. They were priced $77 higher than Lyft for the same distance!

Last Saturday night we met a group of friends for a birthday celebration at their local tavern. We had a great time, a few drinks, and closed down the bar.

As the night was winding down, my friends did the responsible thing and began the process of requesting an Uber. They were already irritated that their 15-minute Uber ride to the Tavern had seemed extremely high, at $58, but the way home was quoted even higher at $77

Now this is the first time I’d heard of Uber’s “surge pricing,” which means you pay more at busier times. So when many people are doing the responsible thing at the end of the night, you are going to pay significantly more than you would at times when the drivers are less busy. Their business strategy seems to be to make the person who REALLY wants a ride pay more than the person who can wait or go elsewhere (according to their own site – Read it here!).

I don’t know when businesses are going to finally understand that they are operating in an era of total transparency when it comes to pricing. I mean seriously people, you can stand in a store and quote prices on the Internet!

Businesses really need to understand that prices that feel exploitative will have a short-term financial gain, but long-term consequences to their bottom line and their brand quality. I predict Uber will learn this lesson very soon.

Here is what I wish businesses who implement these strategies would understand:

Stupid business decisions will haunt you eventually, especially if it seems shady to the consumer.

I’m talking about the business decisions that make no sense. The beauty of Uber was that they were less expensive than cabs and you didn’t have to tip. When you remove those differentiators (now they have tipping), there is no reason to use Uber, in my opinion. Especially now that some cab companies have added apps to pay and track the cab.

My friends sitting there with the absurd price quote from Uber had 12 people with them who have cell phones and have used other options telling them “$77 is insane!!!”

As we finished up our conversations, our friends were considering whether or not they should call a good old fashioned cab or take a minute to set up Lyft.
Let me know in the comments what you would’ve done. Good old fashioned cab or set up Lyft?

They set up Lyft. It was uber easy (pun intended).

It cost $22 to get home. That’s $55 less that Uber quoted!

It’s also $36 less than the $58 Uber charged to bring them there.

In my friend’s words “I am a convert to Lyft.”

If the price had been $5 more than Lyft, Uber probably would’ve kept our friends’ business because of the convenience (the app already on their phone), and brand loyalty (Uber is a “known” for them).

But for $55 I’m pretty sure everyone reading this would take a minute to set up Lyft!

Uberx I guess is going to stand for “xtra expensive!” (I could keep going with these uber jokes but I won’t, lol).

I’ll say it again – Stupid business decisions will haunt you.

Not only did our friend make a change to Lyft, I haven’t felt like setting up a new account with Lyft until I witnessed this. So in addition to them discovering Lyft was more affordable (and just as good an experience), so did 12 of their friends, who will in turn tell all of their friends.

I mean a $55 difference in price, with no differentiator in quality, is not going to fly!

On a socially conscious level this bothered me about the Uber surge pricing because my bigger thought was seeing a price like $77 could lead to an intoxicated person to make the choice to drive home if they aren’t in a financial position to pay it. Basically, to take an Uber they would either need to pay A LOT, wait to see if prices drop as the night goes on, walk, or drive themselves. Let’s hope they just request a Lyft!

I’d love to hear your thoughts on Uber’s surge pricing and how you think it will affect their business in the long-term? Have you been a victim of Uber’s price gouging surging? I’d love to hear about it in the comments.

XOXO,

P.S. I’m not an affiliate for Lyft. Just a shocked consumer who wanted to share this story!

It’s time to stop the social backlash for women negotiating their salaries, don’t you think? Here’s a real life example of how it happens and one reason I think it occurs.

Men! I want to hear from you in the comments if you’ve ever experienced backlash or if it’s truly a female issue. Women let me know your stories too!

My friend works for a large corporation and a few years ago she hired a woman for one of her open positions. This person came in very qualified, crushed it in the interview and was offered the job.

The candidate refused the first offer and negotiated a much higher salary. Well, this really angered the female Human Resources (HR) person at her company.

According to my friend, the candidate deserved the higher salary and the first offer was admittedly a “low ball offer.” The employee has been outstanding for several years now, worth every penny, but the HR person still resents her!

Even years later she holds a grudge against this employee for essentially knowing her worth and asking for it.

Why does this happen?

Well in my opinion it happens because the HR employee herself is being underpaid and she knows it. She is holding a grudge because somewhere deep down she knows she should’ve asked for more or should be paid more, she resents another woman for going after what she deserves!

I know that most employees in HR have access to payroll data so they can see what every single person is making. I also know that if you don’t take time to ensure that you are making the salary you deserve, looking at the pay rates of others can make you crazy!

When you are happy with your pay rate, looking at those numbers is just that, numbers. Like looking at your household budget or your banking account. It’s just data.

This is why you need to make sure you are in the position you want with the pay you deserve. We want to be high-fiving the woman who comes in and gets the salary she can command based on her skills, not criticize her and make her life hard every day after, right?

Plus, the HR person is not doing her job effectively because she’s holding onto that resentment and according to my friend is not really helping the employee when she needs HR support. Which is sad, isn’t it?

There are many articles on this social backlash and how to approach it. I’m going to stand firm by saying if you own it, don’t get emotional about your negotiations, you won’t have these repercussions. It’s this feeling that we are doing something wrong, apologizing or making it seem “nice” that ultimately gives off the energy that we can be treated poorly.

We can’t.

Negotiate. Get the money you want and if someone has an issue with it, it’s THEIR problem. You really don’t want to work for employers that treat you unfairly anyway, right?

Let’s stop the social backlash for women negotiating their salaries, both by not participating in it and also not accepting it!”

There’s no shame in exploring those feelings that make us uncomfortable (like negotiating) and turning them into gold. If you haven’t read this post on how to know your worth and align your energy to it, it’s a must!

I’d love to hear from you in the comments if you’ve experienced this social backlash and what others reasons there are that you think this happens.

XOXO,

This may be a controversial topic but I’m going to say it anyway.

What if the term “glass ceiling” is a limiting belief?

In the 1980’s “the glass ceiling” was a phrase that gained popularity as a way to represent the idea that women were hitting a limit of how far they could rise in a company and in compensation. It’s glass because it’s not quite as overt as a solid ceiling that is right out in the open. Instead, it’s a barely visible, unacknowledged barrier between the success of the female and equality with her male counterparts.

It was an important concept because we do need to acknowledge the darkness in order to clear it – But, it’s a new day people.

I challenge you to take a minute and wonder if the term “glass ceiling” is in and of itself now acting as a limiting belief?

I know many of you will not want to hear this but I’m going to tell you that in my career in Human Resources and specifically my experience with recruiting, women often asked for less money and accepted more of a work load than their male counterparts. Very often.

So as we are saying that men in the work place are taken more seriously, get paid more, work less hard to be promoted, are we accepting that as a truth instead of expecting the same for ourselves?

AND if we are accepting that as truth, can we stop doing that please????

When you take a new job or take on new responsibility, I want you to stop and really take a minute to do your homework and know what the job is worth and what it can ultimately pay (see Salary Negotiation Tips to Know Your Worth and Align Your Energy To It). Then, go for the top dollar amount. Know your worth!

Don’t sell yourself short.

We as women tend to be harder on ourselves (and each other!) than our male counterparts. We feel we need more education, more experience, more years in the job before we feel comfortable asking for more money.

We do need experience, we do need to know what we are talking about and be good at what we do, BUT we need to accept the positive feedback when it comes and really embrace the fact that we are already good at it when we are being promoted or going for the new job.

I have a client who is a perfect example of this. She is a teacher for Special Day classes and I’ve never seen someone more committed to making a difference in those children’s lives. Yet, she would always tell me that she didn’t think she was good at her job and felt like she was “winging it.” I would remind her about the many parents she told me would burst into tears of gratitude during the parent teacher conferences because they were so relieved and overjoyed at the progress their child was making, how she was teacher of the year, and how her principal often used her class for tours to show the district how well the school was running. Let the positive feedback in! With feedback like that she should not feel that she’s not good at her job or that she’s just “getting by.”

Men seem to have this issue less. I’ll use my husband as an example and hope he won’t kill me for it. Every night he will take off his boxers and he will kick them up into the air and catch them in his hand. Then he says proudly, “Did you see that?” He is super proud of this ability to kick and catch his own underwear and never ceases to be amused by it. Night after night. He doesn’t need an award and I believe he does this even if I’m not there to witness it, lol. It’s simple, I know, but seeing him find such pride in something so ridiculous reminds me how much we as women tend to beat ourselves up and how little we celebrate our victories. Even the small ones.

I tell this story tongue in cheek, but I really have observed that men tend to be proud of their accomplishments, no matter how small, and make sure they are recognized for them much more openly and frequently than women.

Women, please hear me. We do not need to be so hard on ourselves. We can be proud of the small things and see our value. We can pat ourselves on the back for balancing our work life with parenting. With keeping up with healthy meals in the face of stress. For committing to an exercise routine that allows us to be clear-minded at work.

AND we can be proud of our work! We can let in the compliments. We can believe them. We can ask for the money we should be making.

We can be heard in a room full of men or we can find another room to speak where we are heard.

We can trust that we know how to run companies just as successfully as our male counterparts and most of all we can embrace that we represent both the sacred masculine and sacred feminine and we don’t need to be one or the other (see Why You Should Cry At Work).

We can release this idea of a glass ceiling and decide there is no limit for us.

No limit.

No ceiling.

No barrier.

Just our unlimited potential to be what we want to be and get there in a way that feels TRUE to our inner beings.

Not how we think we should have to be.

If you don’t believe me look at Oprah Winfrey. Her upbringing could have completely limited her ability to succeed. Her rocky start could have kept her from using her voice in the world and what a shame it would’ve been.

But it didn’t. She kept following her passion and became such a leader in self-help topics that are still just as powerful, if not more powerful, than when she started her career.

Find your voice.

Find your passion.

Don’t worry about your male counterparts.

Forge your own way.

You can do it.

We did not come here to play it safe or to play quietly in the shadows.

Did we?

XOXO,