The "Zombie Number" Killing Your Salary Negotiation (What We Didn't Cover on Lenny's Podcast)
Your last comp figure follows you like a ghost. Here's how to kill it before it sits down at the negotiation table.
A lot of you are new here.
Good timing.
This past Sunday, I sat down with Lenny Rachitsky for a nearly two-hour conversation about compensation negotiation, career leverage, and why the smartest people in tech consistently leave the most money on the table.
If you haven’t listened yet—or want to revisit it—here’s where to find it:
🎥 Watch on YouTube 🎧 Listen on Apple Podcasts 🎧 Listen on Spotify
To the hundreds of new subscribers—both free and paid—who showed up this week: thank you.
Genuinely.
And to Lenny Rachitsky—thank you for the platform, the preparation, and the trust. That conversation doesn’t happen if you don’t create the space for it and take a chance with someone new. <3
Now let me earn your attention.
Something We Didn’t Get To
In the podcast, we talked about why sharing your number too early is dangerous. Why the first figure on the table tends to become the ceiling. Why information and timing create power.
But we didn’t get to name the mechanism underneath all of it.
I’ve been trying to articulate this for a while. The best term I’ve landed on is
The Zombie Number.
Here’s what I mean.
Your last compensation figure—whatever you earned at your previous role—doesn’t die when you leave.
It follows you. (Especially if you let it).
It shuffles from recruiter database to recruiter database, from reference check to “market calibration,” from one offer conversation to the next throughout your network.
It’s dead information—no longer reflective of your value, your trajectory, or the scope of what you’re walking into—but it keeps showing up at the table like it has a seat.
You could be worth $2M.
But if your last package was $800K, the system doesn’t see your potential. It sees your price tag.
And every future offer gets quietly calibrated against a number that was set under completely different circumstances—a different company, a different scope, a different market.
That’s the zombie. The dead following you around. And sometimes we do it to ourselves and believe it about ourselves.
It’s dangerous.
You often don’t know it’s in the room. Nobody tells you that the recruiter already pulled your comp history. Nobody tells you that the “generous” offer they just extended started from your old number and worked up 15%—not from the actual value of the role and worked down to fair.
You think you’re negotiating fresh. You’re negotiating against a ghost.
How to kill it:
Control what comp data exists about you and how people think about you before you ever enter the room.
If you’ve ever posted overly tactical or junior milestones or hot takes on LinkedIn, shared salary details with a recruiter “just to get the conversation started,” or answered “what are you making now?” — you’ve fed the zombie!
I wrote about this dynamic early on in this newsletter—Leaders Share Selectively on LinkedIn—and it’s one of the most important pieces in the archive to understand my mindset about this.
When asked about current comp, redirect: “I’d rather focus on the scope of this role and what a fair package looks like for the outcomes you need. What range are you working with?”
Kill the zombie before it sits down at the table.
Because once it’s there, you’re not negotiating your value. You’re negotiating against a past version of yourself.
And we’re not going back there. Are we?
New Here? Start With These
58 articles deep and counting. If you want the concentrated version of what this newsletter is about, these five will get you there:
Why I Finally Called It Quits With LinkedIn — The piece that went viral. Why I permanently deleted my profile, what the math actually looked like, and what it revealed about the gap between clout and cash.
27 “Offensive” Interview Questions That Flip the Dynamic — Stop auditioning. Start auditing. These are real questions from real clients that changed the power dynamic before the offer ever landed.
The 7 Habits of Highly Toxic Companies — Satirical, pointed, and unfortunately accurate. If you’ve ever worked somewhere that “celebrated transparency” while hiding everything, this one’s for you.
How Senior Leaders Build Secret Hype Networks — You don’t have a marketing problem. You have a sales problem. This is how I actually run my business—and how my best clients run their careers.
The Ultimate Guide to Negotiating Your Comp — The comprehensive GAINS framework walkthrough I wrote for Lenny’s newsletter. If the podcast was the overview, this is the operating manual. Give Lenny some love—he took a bet on this topic before anyone else at his scale did.
Free Resources You Should Know About
I built a Complete Job Search Course — free, no paywall, no catch.
It walks through the full process from positioning to close. If you’re in transition right now or think you might be soon, start there and share it with others.
For Paid Subscribers
Two things worth knowing:
Career Calibration Calls — Paid subscribers get 25% off one-on-one sessions with me. These are strategy sessions—we look at your specific situation, your leverage, your timeline, and we build the plan. If you came here from the podcast and you’re sitting on an offer or a transition right now, this is how we work together. These calls also get credited towards retainers if we end up working together further.
Jacob GPT — Paid subscribers get access to a custom AI trained on my frameworks, scripts, and negotiation playbooks. It’s not a replacement for working with me directly. But it’s the next best thing at 2 AM when you’re staring at an offer letter and your brain has gone quiet.
One More Thing — Monthly Office Hours Are Going Public
I run a live AMA session—office hours, no agenda, bring whatever’s on your mind—on the first Thursday of every month.
Until now, it’s been paid-subscribers only.
This month, I’m opening it up. Thursday, April 2nd. I’ll drop the link in an email next week.
One-time free access—after that, the monthly link goes out to paid subscribers only.
If you want to ask me anything about your negotiation, your transition, your career math—show up. No pitch, no slides. Just the room and the real questions.
No recordings or notetakers allowed.
Thank you for being here.
Whether you found this newsletter yesterday through Lenny or you’ve been reading since Article 1—I don’t take your attention lightly.
The goal hasn’t changed: give you the intelligence, the frameworks, and the language to capture what you’ve already earned.
More soon.
Ready to discuss your career? Book a strategy session.
Stay fearless, friends.
Kill the zombie before it sits down at the table! Thanks for the reminder and great tips, Jacob.
This was great insight. Feeling more confident and comfortable to take that next step.