117: Why You’re Underpaid: The Supply & Demand Problem Black Women Don’t Know They Have

Promotions aren’t just about performance; they’re about positioning. We explore how the simple logic of supply and demand explains why so many high-performing Black introverted women feel overlooked, underpaid, and stuck in middle management. When your time and talent are always available, you look abundant—and abundance lowers perceived value..

You want to position yourself as the opposite , high demand/low supply - to command the senior leader role and compensation you desire.

This episode includes five practical shifts to help you become the person your company can’t afford to lose.

If you want help repositioning yourself and landing your executive promotion before summertime, join us for From Invisible To In-Demand: How Black Introvert Women Get Executive Promotions in 5 Months. 

Transcript

Welcome & Mission For Introverted Leaders

SPEAKER_00 0:00

Hi, Lady Leader, and welcome to this week's episode of Leading Her Introvert Way. My name is Dr. Nicole Bryan, and I am so excited about today's episode. But before we jump in, let me introduce myself, particularly if you are new here. I help Black introverted women solve three different problems. One is I help them get promoted to the executive level. So whether they are blocking themselves or others are blocking them, I help them overcome those blockages and get their executive seat. The second thing that I help black introverted women do is I help black introverted women. The second thing I help black introverted women do is I help them close whatever skill gap they may have between being a middle manager and becoming a senior leader or an executive. And then the third thing I help them do is once they land that senior leader role, I help them make the best. And the third thing that I help see and the third thing that I help black introverted women do is once they land their executive role, I help them in the first 90 days to take control of the new department and new team and make a significant impact. Now, today's episode is being sponsored by my January 14th webinar. Now, if you're listening to this in real time, it's happening this evening. And so if you haven't already signed up, make sure you go to the show notes, click the link, and get your seat. The webinar is called From Invisible to In Demand. And it is for Black introverted women who are ready to claim their executive seat in five months or less. So if you are someone who said, hey, 2026 is going to be the year that I finally land my senior leadership role, then you don't want to miss today's episode. Then you don't want to miss this evening's webinar. Okay, so let's talk about today's topic. Now, I don't know if you are a fan of economics or not. And I gotta be honest, I'm not so into economics, but when I was in undergrad, I loved, loved my microeconomics course. I don't know what it was about it, but I really enjoyed learning the concepts. Now, it wasn't the same for macroeconomics, but microeconomics really, I found it so, so interesting. And what I've been thinking about lately is how microeconomics plays and relates to us as professional women in the job market, and us as professional women in our roles and our companies. And I know you might be like, what? That doesn't really make a lot of sense. So bear with me because I want to explain it. And when I explain it, I think there's gonna be some light bulbs going off, both for you and for me, frankly. So I'm gonna tell you why today that so if you are someone who is consistently delivering results but getting passed over for promotions, if you're someone who has been underpaid compared to your peers who have similar performance, or frankly, who even perform less than you do, if you feel invisible despite knowing how excellent you are in your role, I'm gonna tell you today why. That is what our episode is going to be about. And I'll just say up front, it's not that you're not good enough, it's that you've positioned yourself as a person in high supply. And based on our microeconomic lessons that we learned as undergrads, high supply is often correlated with low value. All right, so let's start with the basic microeconomic lesson. Okay, so microeconomics is all about supply and demand, right? And it usually is used to analyze how consumers and companies interact in the marketplace to determine price and determine quantity. Now, while the basic idea about supply and demand is that when supply is high and demand is low, value drops. And when supply is low, but demand is high, value skyrockets. So you can just think about something that you you like or something that you use on a day-to-day basis, right? Like, so for example, water. At least in the Western hemisphere, the western world, westernized countries, water is readily available, whether that's water in the tap or water, bottled water. And so, and many, many companies make bottled water, right? So it's not something that's elusive, it is very much in high supply. So when it's in high supply, then the demand is low, right? Because everybody who wants it can get access to it. Not only can they get access to it, they can get more at access to it in a variety of different ways, a variety of different brands. They can go to any store, pick it up, and and drink it. So that means that the value drops. So there's not, although there are what they call quote unquote premium brands of water, there's but so much a company can actually charge for a bottle of water and in the Western world, because there's so many, the competitors, there's so many people available. There's so water is actually so readily available, right? So the value drops. Whereas when you think about, you know, I think about so many of my female uh friends, female companions, female uh colleagues, love designer bags. Personally, I'm not really into it, but they love designer bags, right? Many of us love designer bags, and even if we don't personally buy it ourselves, we know what the brand is. We know that there are many brands that are so elusive. Um, Marc Jacob, um I don't know, uh I don't even know brands very well. Um, but but Marc Jacob, um Louis Vuitton, um, you know, all those different high-end brands. They are not in every store, they're not in the average store that you might go into, right? You need to be earning a certain amount of income to be able to buy the high high-end designer bags, and so those are high-end designer bags, they are not in high supply, they're actually lower in supply. You're either going to that specific brand stores, brand store to purchase it, or if they are carried for some reason in a department store, they're still caught, there's still a high cost to it. So it's not in high supply. When something is not in high supply, that means it's low supply, but lots of people want it, the value goes up, right? Because that means more people want it than it is available, and that means that the company can charge more for it. So the value goes up. This same supply and demand concept works the same way or in a similar way in the job market. Think about generalists versus specialists, right? Generalists are people who can do lots of different things, and they are uh they have skill sets that many other people have as well. So generalists are in high supply. When generalists are in high supply, that usually means that their wages will be lower because companies can source that same type of talent in a variety of different places, right? Whereas if you are a specialist, if you're someone who has a special training, a special trade, um, you know, you've had to have a lot of either education, a lot of training to learn to do the thing that you are doing, that usually means that many other people in the marketplace don't have that same background, those same credentials. And as a result of that, specialists are lower in supply, and companies are willing to pay more for that skill set or your experience or your knowledge. That's how that supply and demand works when it comes to the job market. Now, think about, I think about so many of us as black women, we are amongst the highest educated, right? The highest credentialed in the marketplace. And what drives us to do that is that two reasons, well, many different reasons. One is we just have a need to, we just love educating ourselves. That's that's generally a um criteria, not criteria, a that's generally a quality or a characteristic of black women. That's number one. But number two is we have convinced ourselves that we can increase our value that we bring to an organization and that more organizations will want us if we have more credentials, if we have more education, if we have more background, you know, specialty, specialty knowledge. Whether that's true or not, we can debate that, but that's another reason that we go after more credentials all of the time. A third reason, frankly, is because we have we have convinced ourselves that we can command more money with the more credentials and that we need more credentials to be able to compete with other people in the marketplace, right? All of that. Now, the truth of the matter is it really doesn't matter how much credentials you have, um, particularly the more senior you go, right, as a executive leader, senior leader. Now, when you are a manager, supervisor, one way to distinguish yourself might be to get more credentials, might be to get more certifications, might be to get another degree. And that will help you stand a little bit more apart in that supervisor, manager, even individual contributor talent pool. However, when you're moving into executive levels, when you are trying to become a senior leader, vice president, senior vice president, executive vice president, it's less about the credentials that you have and more so about the experience, right? Many of us don't recognize the difference, but that is in fact a key thing about becoming an executive. Now, when it comes to the supply and demand in terms of the, you know, how you're showing up in terms of the marketplace, in terms of the job market, when you're of the mindset and you're saying, I can do anything, I can do anything is a high supply, low value thought. It's a high supply, low value action. And as a result, when you are thinking and you are taking action off of the idea that you can do anything with high supply, low value, you tend to remain underpaid. However, if you have the mindset, I can solve this specific problem because I have these unique talents, that is more a low supply and high value way of thinking and approaching the work world. And it puts you in a position to demand premium compensation, puts you in a position to demand higher pay for what you bring to the table. So I want you to think about that. I want you to let that idea sit with you for a second and start asking yourself, okay, where do I fall? Am I right now acting more of a as a generalist, or am I acting more as a specialist? Am I, you know, offering something that's high supply? Other people out there do the same thing that I do, approach work the same way that I approach it, or am I, have I been able to do and position myself uniquely and such that I solve this specific problem for any organization that I work for? Think about that. Because I want to move from the economic piece of it and start talking about us as introvert, right? And the the issue or the challenge that many of us face when we are in our work settings. Because as introverted women, particularly black introverted women, we have the socialization that happens outside of work. We've brought it into our work environments. And in some cases, it is not serving us well. So, what I mean by this is we have as black women have been socialized to be extra helpful. We are the people who want to support everybody and anybody in doing everything and anything. So we are always asking ourselves, how can I support? We are always offering ourselves up in our work environments for our team members, for our colleagues, for our people who don't even are not even a part of our team. How can I help? How can I support? Right? That's what we're often finding ourselves saying. We also have been socialized as black women to be flexible, right? And it's always been a, you know, something very positive, seen as very possible. Oh, I can adapt, put me in any situation and I can make that work. Well, that might be really good outside of the, you know, outside of the office and maybe in some social situations, but that's not always the way to be inside your organization. Because as you can see, as you might imagine, being flexible often can lead to people taking advantage of us. Being flexible can often lead to us stretching ourselves to the point of burnout and breaking instead of being able to really lean in and add the most value that we can. Another way we've been socialized as black introverted women is that we have been deemed very accommodating, right? We are of the mind side, whatever the team needs, I'm I can do it. Like whatever this organization needs, just let me know and I will lean in. Again, you can see how in some cases that might be deemed positive, but in other cases that can be very detrimental, right? And then the final thing I wanted you to think about is we've been socialized to be very humble. We will get complimented, people will give us good feedback, and instead of us owning it and taking control of it and wearing it as a badge of honor, we will dismiss it, dismiss it for ourselves and dismiss it so that others can hear as well. So we'll say things of, oh, you know, I was just doing my job, or, oh, that was nothing. Meanwhile, it took it was a Herculean effort for us to actually get it done, right? So these characteristics that we hold as Black introverted women, the way we have been socialized in our families, in you know, outside of work, in with our friends, we take these and carry these into the work setting, and they don't always do for us or help us in a positive way. This is what I call part of the introvert problem or introvert challenge. Because in middle management or when you're a junior team member, some of these things can work for you, right? Because it puts you in a position of being liked, it puts you in a position of being known as being reliable, and it puts you in a position where people are confident that they can depend on you. But when you're trying to transition from a manage, a manager or director to a vice president, a senior vice president, executive vice president, that type of positioning kills you. Being quote unquote liked, being known as reliable, being known as dependable, that kills your value when you're trying to move into the executive level. Because executives and senior leaders, yes, people want to know that you are reliable, but you not reliable in a way that they can dump all of the work on you. Not dependable in a way that you're always there and available for everybody on everything, right? Because executives aren't hired to help out. Executives are hired to solve specific high-stakes problems. And if you are high in supply, you're literally telling them that you are still operating at a junior level. You're literally telling your organization, your colleagues, your team members that you are a generalist and not a specialist. And like we already said, generalists are generalists are in high supply and they are replaceable. Whereas Specialists are not. Okay. So now that we've talked about the micro and microeconomic supply and demand, and we've talked about us as black introverted women and some of the characteristics that many of us carry. Now I want to talk about positioning, right? So there is a difference, and there's different examples of high supply versus low supply positioning. Now, high supply positioning sounds a little like this. I'm great at operations and I can handle anything. Or you might say, say, or you might be thinking, I'm a strong people leader. Or you might be thinking and saying, I'm adaptable and I can work on any project. Put me, put it anything in front of me and I'm gonna get it done. Or you might be thinking and saying, I'm a team player who supports wherever I'm needed. All of those things sound good on the surface, but they are all generalist standpoints, and they are all high supply standpoints, right? And again, go let's go back to what we talked about in terms of high supply, usually are not in a position to move into senior leader and executive roles, nor are you in a position to command senior leader and executive compensation. That's high supply positioning. Now let's give me, let me give you some examples of what low supply positioning sounds like. When you think of low supply, right? Think about, I want you to think about the executives or senior leaders you know in your organization, right? These executives you don't have 24-hour access to, right? When you are reaching out to an executive or when you're reaching out to a senior leader, they have their own responsibilities, obviously, but you can't usually just walk up to their office and find them sitting behind the desk and be able to have a conversation with them. Why? That's because they have a large remit. Their responsibilities are very broad. They may not be deep, but they're very broad. And when it's very broad, that means that they have various different groups, teams, people who are demanding time from them. When that happens, that means that they are in fact in low supply. And they're in low supply because they are the only person who can make the decision that needs to be made for the breadth of responsibilities that they have. So when you think about low supply, it will often sound like this. If you're thinking about it and living out what low supply looks like in real life, it will often sound like I transform underperforming divisions into profit centers. I've done it three times and revenue is up 40%. Or low supply thinking, low supply problem solving sounds like I build high retention teams in high turnover industries. I have a 90% retention rate versus 60% industry average. Or low supply thinking and low supply action may sound like I specialize in strategic partnerships that generate$10 million in revenue every year. Do you see the difference between the low supply positioning that we've talked about and the high supply positioning that we've talked about? The high supply is very general, very generic. Low supply is very specific, very targeted, right? That's the difference. So once you make yourself a commodity, that puts you in the high supply range. When you make yourself rare, that puts you in the low supply range. One gets you a middle management role with middle management salary and middle management bonus, and one gets you an executive role with executive compensation and executive bonus. This is really, really important here to I've really I'm hammering this in because this is all about positioning. And the mistake that I see so many of us make is that we tend to overwork ourselves. We tend to try to do and be everything to everybody, not just at home, but also in the workplace. And we mistakenly believe that if we do that, if we try to solve all the problems for everyone at work, if we give of ourselves unconditionally at work, if we work the long hours, if we respond to emails whenever they come in, no matter what time of the day they come in, if we stay late and come in early, we we're pouring everything that we have into our job, but what we don't realize is that we are oversupplying ourselves. We are oversupplying ourselves mentally, we are oversupplying ourselves emotionally, and we are oversupplying ourselves physically for the job. But if we go back to what I talked about in terms of the supply and demand concept, that microeconomic concept, right, that I didn't create, that's just the way the marketplace works. So think about you and you're constantly oversupplying. When you do that, you are under and devaluing what you bring to the table. And when you devalue what you're bringing to the table, the company is not going to want to pay you more. The company is not going to value you more. Why? Because you're always there, you're always doing, you're always giving, you're not uniquely positioning yourself to solve any specific problem. And that means that the company is thinking that they can either underpay you or find other people to do what you do. Therein lies the dilemma. Therein lies the dilemma. So one of the things that we do in my one-on-one coaching is that I help you figure out what it is that you can uniquely offer. What is your unique value proposition? And then we use that unique value proposition to start positioning you as low supply, to start positioning you as solving a specific business problem for your organization. And that positioning starts to increase your value and starts to get you in a executive role, in a senior leader role that encompasses all of those things. Now, the other thing I wanted to talk about is I wanted to extrapolate what we've been talking about in terms of the economic situation, the supply and demand, and then us as black introverted women to applying for roles. Because when you apply for executive roles through job postings, internal or external, you are literally putting yourself into a pool, right? You're increasing the supply. Right now, the job market is crazy in terms of it's taking anywhere from eight months to 18 months. Some people I've been talking to, they've been on the job market for two years. It's taking a very long time to find and land executive positions. And that is because the market is flooded. The pool is very, very large at this point in time. So when you apply to positions outside of your company, you are increasing the supply, right? You're competing with hundreds, if not thousands, of other people who are looking and applying for that same role that you're applying for. However, when you position yourself as low supply, as the person who solves a specific problem, that changes the game because you're not having to apply at that point in time. You are then switching the scenario and basically getting yourself invited, right? So companies don't necessarily want to list, they will never want to risk losing whoever they deem as rare and valuable talent. It's one of the reasons why, even when companies start and have to downsize, they already know who they want to save, even the even when the person or people that they want to stay are not people who fit squarely into the roles that they have to keep. Companies will break rules, they will create roles, they will do whatever they need to do to make sure that they retain their rare but valuable talent, right? They lock it down before other competitors can recruit you. So it's, you know, people don't like to hear when I say this, but the executive table really doesn't have an application process. Even when you are have to put in an official application for an executive role, internally or externally, that application does not mean as much as who you are and your leadership brand. Because you can bet that even with an application, before someone actually calls you for a conversation, when you submit an application for an executive role, they have already contacted other people that you know and that you've worked with prior at your last company, at the company before that, and they already have people who have said, yes, this is a person who you need to have a conversation with. So it's not your application that gets you the interview, it is your leadership brand that gets you the interview, right? Because truly valuable executive talent is in low supply. And you don't make low supply talent compete in a high supply talent pool. You invite them, you recruit them, you make sure that your low supply talent, your unique talent, they say yes. So you might be thinking, okay, Nicole, I get it now, right? I need to make sure that I'm start positioning myself as being low supply, not high supply. Because if I position myself as low supply, that means that that's gonna be the key to me being more in demand. That means that's the key to me moving from where I am now into a senior leadership role. That's gonna be the key to me being able to negotiate a higher compensation package and so on and so on. But you're thinking, all right, so how do I do that? How do I make that shift between from from high high supply to low supply? Well, there are a few things that you can do. First, and you probably ascertain this from what I've already said, the first shift that you can make is to stop being everything to everyone. And I get it, that is such a habit that you probably have right now, right? It it's and it's hard to change because it's likely a part of your identity. Like you get some type of good feeling, you get a sense of satisfaction from knowing that other people rely so heavily on you. But by doing that, by being everything to everyone, you are literally devaluing yourself and you're devaluing what you can command in the marketplace and at your current company. So stop being everything to everyone. The other thing that you can do to make the shift is that you can get specific about the business problem that you solve. It's not okay for you to just be out here solving all different types of issues and all different types of problems. What is it that only you can do? What is it that is unique about what you're bringing to the table? Get specific about the business problem that you solve because once you can talk about that, that makes the very biggest difference in terms of your place inside your organization. The other thing that you can do to make the shift is to articulate your value in terms of outcomes, not activity. So many of us have lists of things that we are so proud that we do for our organization and things that we've accomplished as a result of the role that we're currently in. And that list is fine, but that list becomes even more powerful and undeniable if you can attach the activities to outcomes and not just outcomes, but outcomes that make a difference in your organization. The other thing that I would strongly encourage you to do is to become known for one thing that matters strategically. This becomes a part of your leadership brand. Become known for one thing that matters strategically. For me, I will say that one of the things that I have been known for, regardless of the work environment that I've been in, regardless to the level of the organization that I've I've been at, is that I am known for solving relationship issues, right? And that might sound like, oh, that kind of that seems kind of you know fluffy. It's not because the one thing that happens inside organizations is that there is always some type of personality conflict or some type of situation where the business problem that needs to be solved isn't being solved because one or two or three people can't get, you know, can't get beyond themselves to have the conversation and make the compromises that need to be made. And so one of the things that I have always been known for and companies have leveraged me for is to facilitate those difficult conversations and get people beyond their own interest to invest in and to um you know contribute to a shared interest and shared goal. What is it that you are known for? What is the one thing that you bring to the table that matters strategically and that companies really want and need? And then the last thing I will say is you can get yourself to this place of low supply by making yourself scarce, but in the best way. I am not encouraging you to, you know, not pick up the phone. I'm not encouraging when people reach out to you, I'm not encouraging you to, you know, pretend like you're not available. What I am encouraging you to do is you want to be deemed as irreplaceable. You want to be deemed as unique and needed, right? And so when you're able to make yourself scarce and not oversupply your thoughts, not oversupply your emotions, not oversupply your physical presence, that puts you in a position where you are deemed as scarce, you're deemed as unique, you're deemed as needed. Right now, if you're listening to this in real time, tonight I'm going to be teaching you exactly, exactly how to position yourself as low supply, high demand. This is the same process, the same strategies that I personally use to get my five executive roles, and that I have used with all of my clients. I'm going to be teaching you tonight how to become the person that your company cannot afford to lose and how to get invited to the executive level instead of having to apply and put yourself out there with thousands and thousands of applicants. Today, let me say the date, tonight at tonight on January 14th at 7 p.m. Eastern Standard Time is when this is all going down. If you want to enjoy me for from invisible to in demand, click the link in the show notes. Click the link in the show notes. This is going to be the key that unlocks everything for you at that next senior leader and executive level. So I will see you there. And until next time, keep leading your introvert way.