Over the past five years of being a coach, I’ve had a number of insights into how I think and talk about money that have made it easier for me to create what I love (money) while doing what I love (coaching).
Recently I began listing them out for my apprentices and this list quickly turned into ten separate articles.
I am sharing them here in case you too love money and want to make more of it. If so, I hope that thinking and talking about money in these ways will help you like they have helped me.
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One of the traps in service businesses is thinking that your ‘fee’ has something to do with you. Entangling your fee with your self-worth is a great way to limit your earnings.
Knowing not to associate my fee with myself isn’t always enough to stop me from doing it though.
Lots of people use the phrase ‘he/she is a $X per year coach’, as if a coach’s fee is a benchmark of who they are. This way of thinking is a trap that i’ve fallen into enough times.
The way I free myself from thinking my fees are about me is to lower them.
When the fee is lower than I think I’m worth, the dissonance quickly shakes loose the idea that the fee is about me.
As a bonus, lowering my fee also makes it more likely someone will say YES to coaching with me.
For example, I’d be more likely to sign my first $20K client if I’d lowered my fee from $10K to $3K and signed 3 people up in a short span of time than I would be holding out for my first $20K client because I’m trying to convince myself “I’m worth it”.
My friend owns an online donation sharing platform that works on the principle that it is not the amount of a donation that inspires others to give, but it is actually the *act* of giving that inspires.
In this same way, I’ve found it is the number of people who hire me – not the amount they invest – that gives me confidence in my ability to deliver real value.
I don’t want this confidence so that I can boost my self-worth. I want this confidence so I can make smart business decisions about how much impact I can deliver and how people might value that.
QUESTIONS TO ASK YOURSELF
- Am I making my fee about me in any way?
- How low would my fee have to be for me to KNOW “I’m worth more than that”?
- Am I willing to be paid lower fees to prove to myself that making my fee about me is BS?
- How many clients have I signed up lately?
- Do I want the confidence that my work has impact and adds value?
- How low do I have to make my fee to have a bunch of people quickly saying YES to working with me?
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