"So You're Telling Me, There's a Chance" - Three Tips to Get What You Want Even When the Chance is One in a Million

One of my favorite movie lines of all time is from the Jim Carey movie, Dumb & Dumber.  After asking out a pretty lady and her saying his chances of dating her were one in a million, Jim's character's response was "So you're telling me there's a chance!".  I love this because it rings true for me. Maybe not in the dating scene anymore these days( happily married mom of three here!), but definitely in my work life.

At the office there are some co-workers who love to reference Nicole's world.  Things happen in Nicole's world that do not happen in "real life".    At first this hurt my feelings a little bit.

When planning a massive convention a few years back, I insisted that we would not pick from the predetermined hotel menu, but rather, the chef would design a menu FOR us.  Someone made an off-hand comment like, "well you know in "Nicole's world" people do that".  It wasn't until I called the chef myself and explained our budget constraints and that I knew that at other hotels this was common practice that the chef gave in and gave me what I wanted- a pizza bar.( You are welcome attendees- it was delish)

Suddenly, Nicole's world went from a derogatory place where Nicole was the crazy pants, to wow- Nicole can make things happen.  Here are a few tips to becoming the gal that makes things happen.

1.  Do not take no for an answer.  No really, don't.  Keep on asking for what you want.  The key to this is asking in different ways.

2.  Make sure you are speaking to the person with the power to change the outcome.  As women, we tend to not want to make people uncomfy, so asking for the supervisor is not a move we make early on.  Don't waste your time.  If the chef is the decision-maker that orders the food, ask to speak to him out of the box.

3.  You must believe that what you are asking can be done.  This is critical mindset guru type stuff.  YOU  must believe in your heart that what you are asking can happen.  If you do not, you will phrase your questions in a way that let's the listener know that you can be dismissed.  "Can we have pizza buffet? I know that it is not on the menu, but I know that our people love pizza and it would make us super happy." NOOOO.  Try this "At our price point, we would like to work with the chef(decision maker) to create our own menus. We will call him at his convenience to make this happen."

Super-charge your girl power and ask for what you really want.  I know you can do it- no matter what others may say.  Pretty soon, you will have your own world and believe me, it is nice to be the queen of Nicole's World!