We have the Three Phone Call Rule within Women of Agency, to ensure total freedom when it comes to your career. It’s very simple.
You want to always be in a place where it will take you a maximum of three phone calls to ensure you have your next position sorted.
You want to have the relationships, connections, and visibility so that when (for whatever reason) the proverbial shit hits the proverbial fan, it will be easy to transition to something new and exciting. You always want to have plenty of pots on the stove (as we say in Dutch) so you don’t have to worry about a re-org, your boss turning toxic, your development stalling, or whatever it may be that might keep you stuck and unhappy in a certain role and company.
Knowing there’s a way out. Knowing there’s better out there. Knowing that if you made a few phone calls or had a few lunches (my preferable option!), you’d be fine.
That’s freedom. That’s goddamn peace of mind.
Why Executive Career Coaching for Women Focuses on Strategic Relationships
And yes, that takes time and effort. Shoot me. Of course it takes work! Not a huge amount, actually, but consistency is key. This is what we work on inside my women’s career coaching program.
This approach to strategic career negotiation isn’t about being disloyal or always looking over your shoulder. It’s about building the kind of professional network that gives you agency. Real agency. The kind that lets you negotiate your worth from a position of genuine power.
Which meant that when my client had a fantastic role, a great team, and was in a wonderful organisation, but the company was purchased by a party she didn’t trust, she could resign on the spot.
And it meant that three months later, on the first day of her official unemployment, she had EIGHT concrete offers on the table.
How Professional Women Create Career Negotiation Power
How did she manage that? Not by scrambling for meetings and interviewing during those three months of her notice period, let me tell you that.
She just built on the relationships she had created and cultivated over the years when she was happily employed. It only took a few phone calls to get to those eight invites.
This is what women in leadership understand: your network isn’t just a nice-to-have. It’s your negotiating leverage. It’s your exit strategy. It’s your insurance policy against toxic work environments and stalled progression.
As a women’s negotiation coach, I’ve seen too many brilliant women stay in soul-destroying roles because they felt trapped. No options. No connections. No way out that didn’t involve months of desperate job hunting.
That’s not freedom. That’s a gilded cage.
What Our Women’s Career Coaching Program Actually Does
Like I said, that’s what we work on inside the program. I want all of my WOA clients to feel this freedom.
So once you have negotiated a role that makes you happy and you have the salary to go with it, we turn down the intensity of the program and you just spend a few hours every week building and maintaining these relationships.
This isn’t networking for networking’s sake. This is strategic relationship-building that serves your long-term career advancement coaching goals. We’re talking about:
Identifying the right people in your industry who can open doors. Maintaining genuine connections with former colleagues and mentors. Building visibility in your field so opportunities come to you. Creating a reputation that makes you the obvious choice when roles open up.
Mid-to-senior level women often tell me they don’t have time for this. My darling, you don’t have time NOT to do this. Because when you need it (and eventually, you will), scrambling to build a network from scratch is exponentially harder than maintaining one you’ve already built.
The Freedom That Comes From Career Negotiation Strategy
The freedom you get in return is everything. EVERYTHING.
It’s the freedom to walk away from a toxic boss without panic. It’s the freedom to negotiate your worth knowing you have alternatives. It’s the freedom to take strategic risks in your career because you’ve built a safety net.
Executive women who negotiate their worth successfully understand this. They’re not just negotiating their current role. They’re negotiating from a position of abundance, not scarcity. That’s what the Three Phone Call Rule creates: abundance mentality backed by real options.
This is role co-creation at its finest. You’re not waiting for your career to happen to you. You’re actively shaping it, maintaining it, and ensuring that you always have agency over your next move.
Ready to build your Three Phone Call Rule network? That’s what Women of Agency teaches. Real negotiation strategies for women who refuse to feel trapped in their careers.
