 Hi, I'm Mitch Mitchell and today I'm going to talk about Value as in how do you decide what you're worth? And how do you get others to understand what your value is and this is Based on a couple of conversations. I had over the last couple of days the first one actually started Monday You know, I'm an independent consultant. I mention that all the time and one of these days I may explain it a little better to some of you So, you know kind of what I do as a consultant. So anyway, I saw something where they were looking for someone interim who Well, they needed me. They just needed someone with my qualifications. So I Contacted the lady whose name was associated with it basically to ask her if this was interim because I don't do full time But you know interim gigs anywhere from, you know, a few months to a year I mean, I spent 18 months in Memphis and I just wanted to make sure before I wasted any more time So she wrote me back says yes, this is interim. Please send me information So I send her my CV which I call the CV instead of a resume because the setup is different since I'm independent I don't want to follow a traditional resume. They want to write it up fine, but me personally, no So anyway, I send it to her and one thing she asked was what my normal going rate is So I sent her what my normal going rate is and Within like a half hour. She wrote me back said she wanted to talk to me via Skype I'll talk to her via Skype. I'll talk to people via Skype from time to time So we set it up to talk around four o'clock Of course, she comes in at 420 because no one seems to value my time as much as I value their time But you know be that as it may so we get on the conversation and we start talking with each other and she says to me You know, it was just stunned how much you said you wanted I have never seen anyone get paid that kind of money and I said are you kidding? I said I get that all the time. It's just really she says, where do you get money like that? I said well where you are here in Westchester County. I got pretty close to that 10 years ago in 2005. I was just under that amount and this is 10 years later. She says Really? She says I haven't talked to anybody who ever pays that kind of money. I said well, you know I'll just tell you a truth. I've been paid a lot more than that. She says what I said. Well, let's think about this I mean you've got this position. It's open. Do you really know what it does? She says well, I really don't I'm more of a recruiter. I don't really know all the nuances of the jobs You know that I help to recruit we get something in and we go looking at it said okay Well, you know, let's look at what it is. I do so I start breaking down all the things that I do Regarding the consulting she says wow, that's a lot of stuff. I said yeah, she says what would be your biggest coup What's the biggest thing you did? I said oh the biggest thing I did I said I helped the hospital in Westchester County and there's more than one hospital So I can say I said I helped the hospital in Westchester County increases revenues $730 million in one year, so they went from $1.9 million a day to $3.9 million a day and Basically 53 weeks. She says wow. Well, that's phenomenal. How did you do it? It said if I told you you wouldn't understand it anyway, let's just say that this is what I do I help hospitals increase their revenue which indirectly increases their money and You know I was there with some other people doing a lot of different things But I was the guy over revenue creation and so this is what I do and she said Well, goodness. How do you then help people based on like this particular contract? I said well, here's an understanding the understanding basically says that what they're looking for Based on what you put down that I saw is they're looking for someone to come in and help them with their processes They obviously have some kind of issues going on as it regards cash collection Based on a type of facility it is they're not necessarily looking at creating more revenue because they're pretty static as far as what their revenue is It's going to be what it is but they must be having trouble with the cash and Probably their upfront processes may not necessarily be as clean. I know that entire situation I know it from the front to the end. I know all of that type of stuff and So we actually got into this weird conversation talking about it and she says wow well I she said I've never gotten a contract with anything like that. I said well, you know You guys are missing out. This is usually the kind of thing I get and I said, you know This other company that I was talking to they were looking at a lot higher rate of pay and she said wow I said yeah, you know, it's out there This isn't overdoing it, you know, they're looking for people sometimes with certain technical skill It's not a tons of people who do part of what I do the other part There's a lot of people but part of what I do not a lot of people who do that so that was interesting because Basically how they were running their business is they run it off of volume They get a lot of people who will go in for a certain dollar amount To go do these things, you know for short periods of time But what they do is they put all those people on the payroll. I'm independent. I'm an incorporated business So you're not putting me on the payroll. I lose a lot of tax breaks a lot of other stuff So anyway, that was the first conversation then the second conversation came today And I met someone who's local for lunch And I love meeting people for lunch because most of the time they pick it up because they want to talk to me About stuff and we talked about value in a different way because this is a guy who he's done a lot of things and He's looking to do some other stuff. And so we were talking about it. He was saying how He had been looking for someone to work with him for a certain thing But they asked for so much money. He says, oh, that just seemed really high and I told him I gotta tell you the truth. That's actually pretty low based on that industry and he was stunned to hear it I said, well, yeah, and he said well, how do they get any clients? I said, okay Get an understanding of how this is. I said, this is not a job I mean, this is not someone that you're looking to to basically sit down at a desk and put a lot of stuff out It's kind of like a plumber. So a plumber walks into your house. The starting rate is $80 an hour Now that may be sometimes it's just to show up and then there's that extra bit that they charge you The idea is not for you to basically be working with tons of people eight hours a day as if you're working a job that's not what consulting is all about and You know in his instance, he was looking more for a type of coach like a life coach kind of thing Whatever and I said, okay, think about this if you were doing it So you could decide what I'm gonna charge $35 an hour So how many people do you have to talk to in a week to make any kind of money that you can actually really live off? Think about that for a minute. You know, if you're doing a regular job where they're paying you expenses They're paying for your insurance, and you know, most of your insurance You get all these other kind of benefits. They're gonna pay you vacation pay and you know all this other kind of stuff They're taking care of your taxes and all these things then maybe you know job money If that's what you're looking for fine Go get a job But when you're working independent you can't afford job money You better at least double what you used to get off of a job Sometimes triple you need more money and you can't be working all that many hours because when you're independent You need a lot of time to advertise to market to research to write You need all this extra time. So if you were charging $35 an hour You probably have to talk to with 30 people at least a week to make enough money to actually live kind of well That's a lot of people to talk to Even if you bring in Saturdays and Sundays you spread it all over seven days. That's a lot of people and What else are you gonna do? I mean you can't do anything else with that kind of thing You might as well be working a regular job But if you charge more money you have fewer clients But that gives you time to do all that other stuff that you have to do that gives you time to be able to build up a Reserve in today's world that gives you time to or money to be able to buy insurance or to put money away into Savings or if you want to go on vacation or stuff like that, you know, you have to think differently You know one of the issues that I sometimes have and you know, I do speak in engagements and locally I almost never charge but when I go on the road I charge and I have a certain fee and people will say Wow, isn't that a lot to come talk to us for an hour and a half? Okay. Well think about this One I have to take time to put together the presentation. So I had to take time to write an outline two I have to rehearse because I have a certain amount of time So I better practice because you don't want me coming in without actually practicing anything and sound like I don't know what I'm talking about So I have to practice. I have to try to get to that time frame three I then have to put together a PowerPoint presentation on this and four You're not just getting someone who just went and read a book and I was coming in here You're looking for someone to come in who has experience doing this. I've been doing some of these things for 30 years So I've got time in there. So you're paying for my expertise and you're paying for my time and you're paying for all this other kind of stuff Yeah, and by the way, let's look at some of the big boys I mean Brendan Bouchard as a consultant charges $25,000 a month, you know, I mean people will say well, you know Look at all he's done. I'm betting he has never helped the hospital make $730 million in one year I'm just saying So you don't have to figure out one how to value yourself and then to explain to other people what your value is Now does that mean that there are going to be some people who aren't going to be able to afford you? Absolutely, but if you're gonna be an independent if you're gonna work for yourself You can't always think about everybody else. Sure every once in a while Maybe there's someone you say, you know what? I will give them some help But if you do that too often, you don't get any money and then who's gonna help you Anyhow, this is just me talking about value. This is me talking about if you're gonna work independent I talked to a lot of people who want to make money online But you know, you've got to make so much money so that you're making way more than job money You just have to so let me know your thoughts on this. Do you know how to value yourself? I mean if you're an employee, you know what your employer is Basically telling you what you're worth, but if you're looking to be independent Have you figured that out on how to value yourself so that you can actually make a real living and Have at least some kind of joy in your life. Let me know your thoughts. I'm Mitch Mitchell. Y'all take care