5改变人生的课我学会了当我长大Coaching PricesThis is what happens when you lose alignment with yourself and feel bad about the choices you make.
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A few months ago, I felt a lot of pressure from the outside world to raise my coaching prices. Many factors played into this choice. On a weekly basis, I had life-coach friends and best-selling author buddies tell me I was undervaluing myself and should raise my prices. I was coaching some young entrepreneur clients who were relatively new to the coaching industry yet charging a lot more than I was.
My ego jumped in and said I should be earning more -- my own business coach even alluded to me needing to raise my prices. I felt pressure from all angles. So, I raised my prices. I didn't just raise them. I tripled them. Because that's the price other coaches with my experience seem to charge.
So, I paid a web programmer tons of money (pretty much wiped out my savings) to roll out my new coaching program. I am an elite coach now, I declared to the world. I announced it, I advertised it, and I shared it with the world. But something happened.
Nothing!
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I lost clients. No new ones came along, and I actually felt an energetic shift. My business flat-lined. And, of course, fear set in.
Abundance is a side effect of doing what you love fully. You can't expect money to come if you don't enjoy what you do or feel good about it, and I didn't feel good about my prices. For the past four weeks, I've walked around with anxiety pitted in my stomach, tied to my new coaching prices. I didn't like them, they didn't feel good, and I wouldn't feel good about someone paying that. When we don't feel good about our choices, our customers, clients and those around us won't feel good either.
After reflecting on my choice, I realized I wasn't thinking clearly when I made that choice. I lost sight of my audience and put too much attention on what everyone else was doing. My business is about me and my clients, not other coaches or what other trainers are doing. If that works for them, great, but for me, I know what I want and what my clients can pay, so I created a new structure for pricing independent and free from all other coaches and regular industry trends. I arrived at a choice that felt great for my own business and me.
Money is energy. And when we exchange it for services we love, we are respecting ourselves. But it is easy to get lost in the sea of competition. The sea of how to market yourself and get people to want what you have.
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But what if we don't have to try so hard? What if we are enough just as we are -- because at the end of the day, isn't it about fulfillment? We become entrepreneurs because we want to feel fulfilled and help others, not because we want to make millions. That is a byproduct of doing what you love. When you connect with your joy and align yourself with all choices in integrity, you will have everything you need. Don't put the cart before the horse.
At the end of the day, it really is about alignment. You want to be aligned with all of your choices from a place of love. Not ego, not fear, not competition, but love.
Nonetheless, I learned some valuable lessons.
Lesson 1: Never let the outside world tell me how to live my life or run my business.Only you know what is best for you. Be true to you. Don't worry about what everyone else is doing -- your clients want you for you.
Lesson 2: Don't spend money on what you can do yourself.We often think that asking for assistance or hiring others to do what we can do will help us, maybe free up our time, but great pride comes with doing the work yourself. Spending money on things you don't really need will exhaust resources.
Lesson 3: Don't make choices based on industry trends.They are fleeting, and you want to stand apart from your competition.
Lesson 4: Stop comparing yourself to others or trying to emulate others.You started your business so you could do things your way. Other people's businesses work because they do them. Your business will work when you do you.
Lesson 5: The best business decisions are based on love.It's about alignment. Align all your choices with love and what feels good for you.
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