I Asked for a $100K Raise. Here's the SNAP Method I Used to Get It.

Sep 22

6 min read

Woman on a back porch at dusk preparing to ask for a raise by phone.

Erica Anderson Rooney is an ex-CPO turned executive coach and AI educator on a mission to get more women into positions of power and keep them there. She is the author of The AI Gap (2026), host of the Glass Ceilings & Sticky Floors and AI Voice or Victim podcasts, and NC Chapter Lead for Women Applying AI. Her SNAP and AI Continuum frameworks are taught to thousands of women through CHIEF, WICT, and Fortune 500 leadership programs. She is the sought-after speaker at the intersection of women, AI, and leadership.

I was hunched over my phone on my back porch, about to ask for $190,000 a year. My husband looked at me like I had lost my damn mind.

I had never made close to that number. My chest was tight, my hands were sweating, and there was a voice in my head saying, "Do not F it up, Erica. Nobody is ever going to pay you that."

Here is the part that surprises people. I was not new to negotiation. I had spent a decade in HR. I built the pay bands other people got told to live inside of. I had the data skills, the market research skills, every technical advantage you could ask for going into a negotiation.

And I still almost talked myself out of the ask.

Nobody tells you this about negotiating for yourself. The strategy covers half of it. The other half is whatever is happening in your body the second before you say the number out loud, and for most of us, that is where the money gets left on the table.

More than half of American workers (55%) accept the first salary offer they get, according to Resume Genius's 2025 Salary Negotiation and Expectations Survey. No counter, no questions, just a yes and a hope that it was fair.

The old story that women never ask is out of date, too. Research highlighted by Harvard's Program on Negotiation found that among business school alumni, 64% of women had negotiated for a promotion or higher pay, compared to 59% of men. We are asking. The pay gap is still there. So the work is in what we ask for and what we carry into the room with us.

That is exactly why I want to walk you through the SNAP Method today, using the real number I asked for and the real fear that almost stopped me.

Want the exact steps? Read how I negotiated a $100K raise with the SNAP Method.

Stop: Notice What Your Body Is Already Telling You

I did build the spreadsheet. I am not going to pretend I skipped the research. But before I opened it, I sat with the feeling first.

My stomach dropped the second I let myself think about the number my scope justified. I remember thinking nobody was ever going to pay me that. The tight chest, the sweaty hands, the spiraling voice: that was the sticky floor announcing itself, right on schedule.

If you are staring down a negotiation right now and your body is doing something similar, do not override it by jumping straight to the spreadsheet. Sit with it for a minute first. Notice where the fear lives before you try to solve it.

Hands resting on a laptop keyboard before starting salary research.

Name: Find the Belief Underneath the Fear

Here is where I had to get honest with myself. The surface fear was easy to name. I was afraid the number was too high. I was afraid they would tell me I did not understand the market. I was afraid they would rescind the whole offer.

Underneath that was something sneakier. I was so grateful for this opportunity, my exit from a job I badly wanted out of, that I was ready to accept whatever I could get just to make sure I did not lose it. I had plenty of confidence in a conference room. My sticky floor was gratitude, and I was letting it work like a cage.

I see this constantly in the women I coach. They have the offer, the promotion, the seat. And the thing they are protecting is the seat itself, instead of what they get paid to sit in it.

The data on this is reassuring. In that same Resume Genius survey, 78% of people who negotiated their starting salary ended up with a better offer, and among women who negotiated, 82% did. The burned-bridge ending we play in our heads is rare.

Woman journaling at a kitchen table about salary negotiation fears.

Ask: Answer the Questions You Want to Skip

This is the step everyone tries to shortcut, and skipping it is expensive. I had to ask myself directly: if they say no, what happens? Do I lose the offer, or do I just lose the money? Those are two very different outcomes, and I had been treating them as the same one.

Then I had to get real about what I was walking into. A bigger title, yes, and also an entire function I would own alone for the first time. If a man with my exact resume were looking at this same role, what would he have asked for? Probably a lot more than I was about to.

Once I answered the real questions, I pulled real compensation data. I skipped the salary aggregators and matched market data to the role, the company size, the industry, and the geography, all four at once, because most people only match one or two. I found people in my network who would tell me the truth instead of what I wanted to hear. And I translated my scope into business impact: turnover cost, cost per hire, benefit spend, the real dollar value of what I was about to own.

I wrote the number on a sticky note so I would not stray from it once I said it out loud. Then I practiced saying it until it came out as a full sentence instead of a question.

Desk with compensation research and sticky notes for a salary negotiation.

Pivot: Stop Protecting the Offer, Start Making the Case

The pivot was this. I stopped trying to protect the opportunity and started giving them the information they needed to say yes.

I went from "do not blow this up" to "here is why this number makes sense." It is hard for anyone to advocate for "I feel like I deserve this." Everyone can advocate for "here is the data, here is the scope, here is my number."

I said it. "For me to make this move, I would need 190K." The silence that followed probably lasted three seconds. It felt like three years. Then he said, "Let me see what I can do." I got the $100,000 raise.

What I Want You to Take From This

I felt nauseous the entire time, even with a decade of compensation experience behind me. Preparation is what carried me, and preparation is available to you whether or not you have ever built a pay band in your life.

Maybe your number is $15,000. Maybe it is the title that already matches the work you are doing, or the first time you have ever countered anything at all. The size of the ask does not change the work. Stop, name the sticky floor, ask the honest questions, and pivot into the case instead of the apology.

If you want to hear the full story, including exactly what I said on that porch and what I built afterward, listen to the full episode here.

Because I do not want another woman guessing her way through this or not asking at all, I built the negotiation research I used into an AI tool inside HER Collective. It looks at your role, industry, geography, and company size, and helps you translate your scope into the business case that gets you the yes. It is included in the membership, and you can run it as many times as you have offers. We saved you a seat.

Confident woman in an office doorway after a successful negotiation.

I am cheering you on.

Erica

Frequently Asked Questions

What is the SNAP Method?

SNAP is a four-step framework for moving through hard or uncertain moments: Stop and notice what your body already knows, Name the feeling honestly, Ask and answer the deep questions you want to skip, and Pivot into one concrete next move. In a negotiation, that means noticing your fear, finding the belief underneath it, doing the market research, and walking in with the business case.

Does asking for more money risk losing the job offer?

It is rare. In Resume Genius's 2025 survey, 78% of people who negotiated their starting salary got a better offer, and 82% of women who negotiated did. Asking with market data and a clear business case lowers the risk even further.

How do you figure out what number to ask for?

Pull market data matched to your specific role, company size, industry, and geography, all four at once. Translate your scope into business impact, like cost savings or the dollar value of what you will own, and check the number with people in your network who will tell you the truth.