VIDEO: Tracey Lynn Lloyd on Borrowing the Confidence of a Mediocre White Man

By TueNight Crew

We had such a great time hosting our November 2021 TueNight Live event, Pay Me: Stories of Gen-X Women, Ageism & Equity, that we wanted to share a little peek at one of the great stories told. Here, 49-year-old TueNighter, Tracey Lynn Lloyd — @ImTraceyLloyd — shared her story about borrowing the confidence of a Mediocre White Man (MWM) during an interview and wage negotiation:

“This year, at age 49, I decided to adopt the confidence of a Mediocre White Man and see what it would bring to my job search.”

Tracey leaned into the role, “Be confident,” I told myself. “This is already your job.”

And we love this bon mot:

” I learned that it’s okay for me to ask for what I want, and that it’s okay for me not to be absolutely perfect in every interview. I may not be a Mediocre White Man, but I’ll definitely be using their confidence to get what I want in the workplace.”

Tracey is a writer, a marketer, a feminist. Her work has appeared in The Washington Post, Narratively, The Establishment, and Cosmopolitan and we are happy she’s a TueNighter!

You can catch the full replay of “Pay Me: Stories of Gen-X Women, Ageism & Equity” here.

And you can read Tracey’s full story here.

Big thanks to Disrupt Aging from AARP for recognizing the importance of this topic and sponsoring this event.

Originally Published November 17, 2021.