The Ask: A Step by Step Process of Getting Anything You Want with Laura Fredericks

As an attorney-turned-philanthropic advisor, LAURA FREDRICKS knows how to ASK.  She has enjoyed a lengthy and successful career in industries best known for making high profile, multi-million dollar A$KS – law and philanthropy – and is the first to merge strategies from both professional sectors into a mainstream practice known as THE ASK©.

This new practice has placed LAURA on the national and international speaking circuits at conferences around the world from Amsterdam to Ann Arbor, Bologna to Boca Raton, Kenya to Kentucky, Moscow to Montreal, Sydney to Seattle, plus Australia, Italy, and the Netherlands. THE ASK© has also led LAURA to TV and radio appearances on local talk shows across the nation, and her expertise has been featured in national publications. Her four books on “How to A$K© for Money – and More of It” have become industry leaders. New books with “Asking Advice for Everyday Living”

• [01:57] – Share your story.

• [02:25] – I had a lot careers.  Started off as a journalist for a music magazine.  But I always wanted to go to law school.  Combined law & journalism, hence I did Communications Law.
• [3:24] - One of my professors said “why don’t you be a law clerk”?  I did as I had to pay bills!  People present opportunities to you – you just take it.
• [04:11] - I wanted to do something better in the world.  I know that asking came very easy to me because I realized I won every case on cross-examination because I asked the right questions.  
• [05:11] - 5 steps ASK factor (developed 3 years ago)

As more and more bombardment of social media, more things got complex.  If you can make whatever niche you are trying to do, simple, you will do very well.  What works in any sector for any person at any age in any decade for anything that you want, it comes down to 5 things:

1. Know exactly what you want with numbers and dates.  Be specific – specific dates, specific skills and specific amount.
2. Prepare the conversation.  It’s a mental exercise.  Write it down.  Especially when you are asking for money, a job, a raise, a transition.  Why should I believe in you?  Why does your skill set match this?  What do you do that nobody else in the planet does?
3. Time to shine.  Deliver with confidence.  What do you want?  Head straight and just go!
4. Reiterate what you think you heard when you did your ASK (this is the most important step).  Don’t let them go, use the word “we” – we can work this out, what do we need, what is our timeline?  It’s inclusive – you get back to me, you let me know – you are putting them in a corner of spotlight and it’s an awful position to be in.
5. Plan you next move while you do your ASK.  If they say “we’ll get back to you”.  You reply “Fine, how about Monday at 2 pm?

• [11:25] - Do not skip any step, check and go to the next one.  It is a proven method.

• [12:40] - If you are an introvert and you’re rather shy, what’s your advice and your story of how to ask for funding?

• [14:20] - You got to have data as it speaks volume.  When you ask for yourself, it’s the hardest – everyone becomes an introvert.  Just say “I’ve done my research…”, “I want to ‘challenge’ you…”, “I’ve never done this before but it’s important to me…”.

• [16:30] - You transited 9 times, how did you go through the transition to become your own boss?

• [17:14] - People won’t be listening unless they want to challenge themselves to the next level.
• [17:36