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The reason why I started watching Morning Joe was because of Mika Brzezinski. Without her, I probably couldn’t handle her co-host for more than a few minutes. Now Morning Joe is a part of my morning ritual and one of the highlights for me are appearances by Mika’s dad, Zbigniew whose world view always informs. Mika interviews movers and shakers, but she’s also fantastic as the referee who deftly handles the heavy testosterone during the round table discussions. You would never guess that four years ago Mika was unemployed and working freelance, so when she was offered the position on Morning Joe she quickly signed on only to discover later that co-host Joe Scarborough earned 14 times more than she did. Wow!

It’s no secret that women earn 77 cents for every dollar that men do, but how Mika navigated through that revelation and what she learned from the experience is the subject of her new book, Knowing Your Value: Women, Money, and Getting What You’re Worth. Other successful women that I respect like White House Advisor Valerie Jarrett and Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg offer inspirational advice as well.

As Mika points out in Knowing Your Value, our relationship with money is a metaphor for all facets of our lives and women must learn to deal directly with financial issues without drama and emotion, especially when doing so directly determines our self-worth. It’s time for us, as women, to stop feeling “lucky” to have an opportunity and to start asking for exactly what we want.

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