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Owning Your Story
Happy Birthday to Me! 🎂
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A Note from Gitanjali
February is my birthday month, and I have always liked birthdays more than New Year's resolutions. Birthdays invite a different kind of reflection. They create a pause that is personal rather than performative. A moment to look at your life, your work, and your choices and ask whether the story you are living still feels like your own.
This month, I want to focus on owning your story. Not your personal brand. Not the polished narrative you feel pressured to present on LinkedIn. I mean the real story. The essence of who you are, what matters to you, and how you choose to show up when it counts.
Owning your story is a life skill. Not a negotiation skill. And that is my little gift to us for this month.
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Define your story in one paragraph and use it deliberately.
Before your next important work conversation, write a short paragraph that answers three questions:
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• What you do well
• What you care about
• What you are moving toward next
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Not for LinkedIn. Not for anyone else, just for you. Then use that framing consciously. Refer to it when you introduce yourself. Let it guide how you position your work, how you explain your priorities, and how you respond when someone makes an assumption about you.
This is not about self promotion. It is about reducing ambiguity. When your story is clear to you, it becomes easier for others to understand where you add value and why you make the choices you do.
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Over Explaining Your Choices
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Reflection often pushes people to justify decisions or narrate their reasoning in detail, especially in front of someone senior or opinionated. Over explanation invites debate where none is needed and weakens your authority. Your job is not to defend your story. Your job is to own it and move forward.
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"I've thought this through, and this is the direction I'm taking."
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It is calm, self authored, and leaves little room for debate.
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Podcast Episode: Owning Your Story
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In the last episode of this season, Apa and I had a genuine moment of delight while recording. It felt like many of the ideas we have explored over the past months suddenly came together and found a shape. A clear start, a messy middle, and a point where something shifts.
We talk about Chimamanda and the danger of a single story and we chat about a Disney movie because those films understand human behaviour better than most boardrooms. This episode is our small gift to you. A more playful, creative way to look at the story you are currently living inside and to ask, with curiosity and a bit of humour, whether it still fits who you are today.
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I was just going through your monthly newsletter, love the topic and it was fantastic to hear more about how to handle high conflict people.
Renu S.
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Online Course for 9 CHF
Because it is my birthday month, through the entire month of February, the NegotiateHer online course is available for 9 CHF/USD/EUR.
This course is not about tactics or tricks. It is about clarity. About understanding yourself before stepping into important conversations. About owning your story so that you are not negotiating from habit, pressure, or self doubt.
Consider it a small but meaningful gift to yourself this month.
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💭 YOUR FEBRUARY REFLECTION
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A Question to Carry With You
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Where in your work life are you still living inside a story that someone else wrote for you, and what would change if you reclaimed authorship?
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No need to rush to an answer. Just noticing is a powerful start.
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From Me to You
Thank you for being here. For reading, reflecting, and staying engaged with this work. Birthdays are a reminder that growth is ongoing, layered, and often quieter than we expect.
Here is to another year older, a little wiser, and more at home in our own stories.
With warmth,
Gitanjali
Chief NegotiateHer
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Connect with us
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If you ever need us, we'll be here. No need to negotiate that. 🤍
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