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"1. The Time I Took The Pitch One day, walking in New York, this woman came up to me and said, &amp;quot;I&amp;#039;m sorry to bother you, but, Mika, I&amp;#039;m a big admirer of yours. I design shoes, and I want you to wear them.&amp;quot; That was it! She was confident, didn&amp;#039;t take much of my time, and communicated that her product was something I should see. I tried the shoes and loved them \u2014 they are sexy and comfortable; that&amp;#039;s hard to find! Now, I wear them on-air; I wore them to my Cosmo photo shoot. Layla-Joy is doing great because she believed in herself and her product enough to be aggressive about it. 2. The Time I Gave a Third-Date Ultimatum On my third date with my husband, I said, &amp;quot;I really like you. So I want you to know that I want to get married and have kids. If you don&amp;#039;t, please don&amp;#039;t call me. I don&amp;#039;t know if I want to marry you \u2014 we&amp;#039;ve only had three dates \u2014 but I&amp;#039;m not wasting time.&amp;quot; He was taken aback, but he didn&amp;#039;t run! We&amp;#039;ve been married for 20 years. Now, I&amp;#039;m not saying that third-date ultimatums are the only path to happiness, but the earlier you let him know what you want, the better. Don&amp;#039;t wait around, getting upset and hoping he figures it out. Respect both of you enough to tell him! 3. The Time I Turned a Stranger Into a Friend We&amp;#039;re all rushing around so much, it can be hard to connect with someone new. When I meet someone I think is cool, I write her an e-mail, saying I would love to be friends. I don&amp;#039;t say too much; I let it breathe and see what kind of response I get. When I saw Huma Abedin \u2014 Hillary Clinton&amp;#039;s top aide and wife of former New York Congressman Anthony Weiner \u2014 do a press conference with her husband, I thought she was fascinating and sympathetic. So I sent her an e-mail. I&amp;#039;m so glad I did. Now we&amp;#039;re becoming real friends. AGGRESSIVE DONE WRONG: The Time I Overdid It With Jennifer Lawrence Don&amp;#039;t do what I did at Vanity Fair&amp;#039;s Oscar party! I was there with my show&amp;#039;s cohost, Joe Scarborough, and we saw Jennifer Lawrence. Joe&amp;#039;s daughter had asked for a picture of her. So I went up to her, but instead of simply saying hello and asking politely, I got nervous and blurted, &amp;quot;Bradley Cooper says you&amp;#039;re amazing!&amp;quot; She looked at me like I was nuts and ran away! I know Bradley because he does our show, but she didn&amp;#039;t know that. With someone you don&amp;#039;t know, be clear right away. If you aren&amp;#039;t, they&amp;#039;ll be wary and you&amp;#039;ll walk away with no picture of Jennifer Lawrence. The Right Way to Be Aggressive &amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;gt; Doing your research &amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;gt; Being polite &amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;gt; Standing up straight The Wrong Way to Be Aggressive &amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;gt; Crowding someone&amp;#039;s space &amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;gt; Talking too fast &amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;gt; Bragging or name-dropping excessively This article was originally published as &amp;quot;Know Your Value: Go Ahead, Get Aggressive&amp;quot; in the July 2014 issue of Cosmopolitan. Click here to subscribe to the digital edition! Want a crash course in living fun and fearlessly? Then join us for Cosmo&amp;#039;s Fun Fearless Life weekends this fall \u2014 two days packed with inspiring speakers, incredible networking opportunities, tips from celebrities like Cameron Diaz, and electrifying performances, plus meet &amp;amp;amp; greets with Cosmo editors. Get your tickets before they sell out at funfearlesslife.com! RELATED: Why You Should Be Friends With Your Office Rival Get That Life: How I Turned Bite-Size Cupcakes Into a Successful Business 6 Ways to Power Your Own Success Photo credit: Andrew Heatherington "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.cosmopolitan.com/career/advice/a7185/when-to-be-aggressive/>