Everyone has an opinion on how to get a raise, and most of those opinions are bad. Kevin opens by calling out the two approaches that backfire every time — the "ultimatum" play (the fake-or-real competing job offer used as leverage) and the victimhood pitch (leading with personal bills and expenses instead of value). Then he lays out the actual strategy, borrowed and refined from Ramit Sethi, that turns asking for a raise into a multi-month process built on favor instead of pressure. It starts with a simple email requesting a "top performer" conversation, not a compensation conversation, where you come prepared to take notes on what your boss actually wants and needs from you. From there, you bring three specific priorities you believe will move the needle, get your boss's buy-in and permission to run with them, and commit to a check-in cadence with a six-month follow-up meeting already on the calendar. Kevin walks through both outcomes of that follow-up — knocking it out of the park versus falling short — and why the right approach to either one still builds trust and positions you for a raise, because the ask was never the centerpiece, the value was. He closes with practical prep work (checking salary.com, bringing coworker testimonials, writing a short thank-you note regardless of outcome) and the bigger principle underneath all of it: favor is the invisible currency that compounds across every future pivot, promotion, and pay conversation in your career.