Financial Abundance – Decide that Money is Important
When a client tells me that she isn’t making enough money, the first question I ask is, “How important is money to you?” The response is usually something like, “Oh, it’s very important.” And I say. “Really??”
This happened recently. A woman I know was interested in hiring me to help her grow her personal training business. Originally, we were going to set it up as a barter, since I was interested in her services as well. I asked her to tell me clearly what her rate would be for an in-home personal training session so I could determine a fair trade on my side. She had initially sent me her rates but then told me on the phone that she wanted to be compensated for travel time. I asked her several times how much that would add on to the fee that she quoted, and she never gave me an answer. I made it clear that I would not go into the first session without a clear agreement, and we didn’t have one the night before. I emailed her one last time asking for clarity and didn’t hear back, so I cancelled the session with a respectful explanation of why I chose to do that.
I got an angry email back from her saying that I had wasted her time. Wasted her time?? I was inviting her to charge what she was worth, and clearly my invitation made her very uncomfortable. What amazed me was that she was seeking help to make more money. yet she was pushing it away by avoiding a conversation about it. Many women do this. We have shame about considering money important and asking for what we’re worth, so we just don’t deal with it. Our denial perpetuates underearning and dissatisfaction with our income.
After that incident, I decided that I was not going to barter anymore. Bartering perpetuates the illusion that money is not important, as there is no visible exchange of it. If two people are interested in each other’s services, it’s best that they pay each other, even if they both charge the same amount. When we receive money for our services, we reinforce our value.
The moral of the story is that if we aren’t willing to consider money important, we will push it away in one way or another.
Right on! I totally agree with you about bartering…devalues the services on both sides. Much better to exchange checks in the same amount. And well done you for cancelling the session without her clear definition of her price/worth!
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