“Surround yourself with inspiring beings"
Today, I bring up this topic that I believe we all healers have encountered. Discounts!!! It comes in all different shapes and forms and I will talk about them here.
There is probably a reason you are reading this because you have probably encountered this more than once in your life. At the end of the day, it all boils down to how much we believe ourselves to be worth.
This story began with a conversation with a close friend of mine with whom I bounce around ideas and always get insightful insights.
Recently, both of us have encountered situations where our worth is put into question. Not really, with those words, but it all comes down to it. In my personal experience, I was talking with clients who were interested in my services. Likewise, there was another instance, where the client perceived my prices to be high, based on the perceived value.
If you know me, I offer packages that are based on your needs and really take into consideration what you are looking for.
What did I do? First, I asked them to tell me in detail what they hoped to get from my services and I would revise the quote and provide a suitable option. Then there was silence, I did not receive an answer. For me, this is a clear message that they are not the right clients for me.
Have you ever considered that you choose your clients as much as they choose you? In my friend´s case, she received a last-minute request for a project. And as you know, if the project is time sensitive the quote should reflect it. Consider that you might have to add additional working hours during those days to finish the tasks. The quote was sent and a request for a discount came through. The reasoning was that there was not much to do for the project. It would only take a couple of hours. You might be missing out on long-term clients just because you don't have capacity at the time due to these flash projects. What is the proper response to this? Pricing for this project reflects the urgency of the request and the required time investment. Keep in mind that in time you get to know your regular clients and find out if what they consider simple is really a simple task.
Another anecdote that I can share, I was working on a project that I was very excited to be part of. I really felt very passionate about it. So I always invest more time and energy to ensure the highest results. In this project, we had several phases, and I jumped ahead and started working on phase two before it was paid. I am an expert at time projection and knew that if we didn´t start early enough the project would be delayed. Turns out the project was put on hold until further notice. Once I had the handover conversation I was asked if I could give some credit since I worked on tasks that were not part of phase 1. The conversation should have been the other way around, I should have asked for reimbursement for travel expenses, etc.
Safe to say, all these clients are in the spiritual world. We are not talking about large corporations, etc.
This is where the question comes from, do you ask for a discount if you only eat half the plate at a restaurant? The answer is no. Can you tell me of a place where if there are leftovers they reduce your bill?
It is so imperative to keep checking in with yourself when these situations arise because they will. Tests such as these come into your life in order to confirm that your boundaries and self-worth are in order.
To help understand what’s happening here, there’s an often-told story (not sure if it’s true or not) of a Picasso fan in a Parisian cafe.
The story goes something like this:
Picasso was having a drink in a restaurant – probably a traditional French cafe. The fan recognized him and exclaimed, “Oh my goodness, are you the famous Pablo Picasso?” The painter nodded modestly, and the admirer proceeded on to ask the famous painter to sign her napkin.
Picasso was happy to oblige and didn’t seem to mind the interruption at all. In fact, he took things one step further and added a small sketch.
But as he handed over the drawing he asked for a considerable amount of money in exchange.
The admirer was horrified. “But that only took you five minutes!” she exclaimed. Picasso leaned over, carefully took the napkin back, and said “No, dear lady, that took me a lifetime.”
You are invited to look deep inside yourself and ask yourself what path you have taken to get to where you are now.
In my case, I dropped out of economics to pursue my passion for hospitality. Later on, I left my life as I knew it, moved to the Middle East, learned how to: wait tables, deal with 64 nationalities, got yelled at, and worked 13 hours a day all in pursuit of my passion. It all started to pay off and began my marketing path where I was able to be very creative. Re-branded 7 restaurants, joined the team that launched Marriott Bonvoy for the Middle East & Africa, ran competitions for 11,000 people, and organized a conference for 400 of the top Marketing & Sales executives at Marriott, planned events in 6 countries, and much more. I then moved back to Mexico with no clue of what I was meant to do, just the trust that it was the right path.
This all sums up, 18 years of event experience, 9 years of marketing experience, and a lifetime of knowledge. So, yes I am not apologetic when people want to devalue my work. This also gives me the opportunity to offer pro-bono services to those who really need it.
If you ever feel, you´re not able to charge your worth, contact me! I can help 🤩
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