 One of the most common pieces of business advice that you're going to hear is to charge what you are worth Have you ever heard that before and let me tell you why that is such a bad idea Because how much are you worth? The language matters when you start thinking I'm worth this much. I'm worth that much what happens is you Start putting monetary value based on your selfish you connect monetary value to your self-esteem and to your you know You you also esteem other people based on how much they charge Is that true? Is that really how we want to relate to other people based on how much people charge is how much they are worth to us and How much we're worth to ourselves? It's terrible who started this lie of charge what you're worth. I mean I understand Maybe the people who are promoting this idea Want you to to have self-care? You want you to make sure that you are taking care of your finances and your family and your needs? Yes, yes, and yes, I'll talk about that later. I call that enoughness Okay, but to let's just do away with the entire idea of charge what you're worth Let's do it away and every time you hear people say that please point them back to this video or or just to explain why that is such a Deeply misleading idea because it connects money to self-worth And that's a very dangerous thing because people then start to do what they start to try to keep up with the Joneses You may have heard that term basically well I you know so-and-so that I you know a competitor of mine has a bigger house So I'm gonna have to get a even bigger house than him So-and-so You know has a nice car well I better get a even nicer car or wow look at so-and-so just came back from that kind of vacation Well, I better you know go on vacation as good as that you start connecting What people have and what people make and the kind of experiences they have with how much they are worth as a human being and you start to look at yourself and make those kinds of judgments as well and that is a recipe for a Vicious life to be honest. That's what it is It's viciousness towards your your your own true worth and it's kind of vicious thinking towards other people So let's not charge what our work what we're worth because we are worth infinite. How much are you worth? You cannot calculate You you are a child of God So how much are you worth? You can't calculate that? Okay, now it makes a bit more sense to say charge what your services are worth But you know, it's it's a little bit too close to the idea of charge what you're worth I don't even want to say that yeah, so let's let's talk about some of the other Relative lies in this arena and then I'll get to what I recommend So another another common one is this comes from economics charge what the market will bear Have you ever heard that before charge what the market will bear? That's what we're taught in economics, you know in business schools And that's again the language matters and how we think about other people how we think of our customers our audience How we relate to them. So if I told you I was gonna charge what the market will bear, you know what you Those of you watching this you're my market So how do you feel if I'm gonna tell you I'm gonna charge as much as you are able to bear? Like I'm gonna charge the maximum amount until you feel like oh my god. It's barely almost too much That's what charge what the market will bear means so that again is Founded on this idea that we are all supposed to be out for ourselves I should be out for myself So I should charge you as much as I possibly can get away with and You should be out for yourself. You should always be suspicious of me the seller you should buy or beware you should always be suspicious of me and You know and and assume that I'm only out for my own good and you should be out for your own good So we should just be in battle. We should just we should just go at each other I'm gonna charge you as I'm gonna try to trick you and and persuade you and Do whatever I can to get you to pay as much as possible and you do whatever you can to suspect and You know have to do a lot of due diligence because you can't possibly trust me So that's what economics modern contemporary economics Assumes that that's how we should treat each other and those values have become widespread especially on internet right chart and so my My my constant effort is to try to bring higher values into business So that we can relate to each other with how we really want to relate to each other, you know when we Reconnect to our source when we soften our hearts We realize that we want to trust each other You want to trust that I'm not going to try to charge you as much as possible right and and I want to trust that you can trust me and Like I'm trying to look out for you and you're trying to look out for me like compassion being the way that we relate to each other instead of As they say dog eat dog, right? so another third a third dangerous thought to this whole valuing our services is charge the value of the service Not by the hour not by your time Have you ever heard that? Oh charged not don't charge for your time charge for the value that your product or service provides Okay, all right. That's all again. That sounds good, right? It sounds right. I think Well, let's think it through and let's see what the values are underneath this and this why it doesn't work for a lot of people, okay? let's say that I am a You know I relationship coach Marriage coach and I'm going to help you keep your marriage Okay, how much is it going to cost you to have a divorce and literally this is how people Sell their services How much would it be if you had to get a divorce the divorce costs? But at least tens of thousands of dollars depending on your income and your assets obviously for some people It could cost millions of dollars to get into a divorce right because they have to split their income They split their assets and all that stuff and cost millions of dollars so Since you'll cost you a million dollars if you get a divorce then I'm gonna try to save you from a divorce So my service to you will only be a hundred thousand dollars. I'm giving you such a good deal I'm saving you from a million dollar divorce here. I'm gonna only charge you a hundred thousand dollars Yeah, it's gonna take me a few dozen hours of work But a hundred to see how insane that sounds. Okay. Now another another example let's say that I'm a Occupational therapist and I help you heal your physical body so that you can get back to work Well, how much does that worth to you? What's the value of my service? It's Your you know, maybe you weren't able to work for a year or two and now you're able to work You know, you wouldn't have been able to get back to work for another year or two Let's say let's say let's say two years. You can't give up now with my help You can get back to work in six months. So you've just recovered a month a year and a half of income Okay, let's say you make fifty thousand dollars a year. That's seventy five thousand dollars that my service is worth to you That's a value of my service. So I'm only gonna charge you fifteen thousand dollars to get seventy five thousand dollars in value Do you see how it's it becomes ludicrous? The these values that people are charging because why is that why doesn't that make sense? Because I can't guarantee I Can't guarantee this that you're gonna save, you know, who knows maybe you would have healed in three months without my help instead of six months Maybe you would never have gotten a divorce even without using my marriage coaching services. There is no guarantee That's why when people lie to you and say, oh, I'm charging the value of my service You're like that's a lie because there you can't you don't know my future. You can't predict the future Yeah, you could say well science scientific studies say but well, I'm not a scientific study You know, I have there's so many factors that doesn't fit into my life doesn't fit into those Scientific studies or whatever you might call it, right? So Stop stop saying charge for the value of your services rather than for your time Ridiculous, so don't charge what you're worth Don't charge what the market will bear don't charge for the value of your services, you know so what what what do I recommend instead that has us relating to each other from a place of compassion and understanding and love instead of Adversarial, you know, I'm just trying to take as much money from you as possible, right? So let's talk about the Kind of what I came to eventually I mean what what happened those of you who've been following me for a while know that I had a kind of a personal spiritual Transformation, I would say back in 2320 2012 is really kind of where I where I kind of started that 2013 was a rollercoaster year for me as I try to integrate, you know, what I was kind of going through 2014 I kind of basically restarted my business from screen have almost from scratch not entirely but I shut down all my previous services and programs because I was charging the value of my Products each course, you know how my online courses now are $60. Do you know how much they used to be? $2,000. Yeah $2,000 now. Yes, those $2,000 courses included more, but you know, I Know no not not that much more. Okay, so I start $2,000 now I charge $60 now may be next year I'll charge 75 or 100 for a course, but not 2,000 like I used to Okay, so So so that what I eventually came to as I had this spiritual transformation realizing that We I believe I came to this belief that we are all deeply deeply taken care of we are all going to be okay That we don't have to Fight so hard to try to Get things from other people I don't know what your belief system is. I'll just take take Jesus a lot of you believe, you know Christianity Jesus says why are you struggling so much? You know look at the birds of the air, right? They don't they don't struggle so much and but yet they're clothed wonderfully, you know They don't gather into barns Please give me the right quote here, but Jesus says, you know, don't worry so much about the future You know, you're gonna be taking care. You're gonna be fine pursue first the kingdom of God whatever that means to you and God's righteousness and Everything else will be given to you as well now I've been trying to communicate that idea to you now for four years, which is care more Right care versus what other people are doing. That's the kingdom of God and his righteousness, right in business It means to care to understand Your audience and to provide them what they really want and need at a really really reasonable price where they're like my god That's such a good deal right that is the kingdom of God and his righteousness in business and Everything else tends to follow Jesus as well and everything else will be given to you Well in business the same thing if you care if you if you care enough to understand your audience and Provide the kind of services and products that they want at a price that they say oh my god That's such a good deal and how come you carry you love you love me so much you talk I'm you you show so much care and in your products and your content Well, of course, I'm going to buy from you. Of course, I'm gonna tell everybody I know about you It everything else will be given to you as well That's not what other Not that I hear what other business coaches and marketing coaches are not some others are great, right? but but most of our doing this right most of Mark are teaching you this adversarial nature of business and it's very it's exhausting and it's Takes you away from What I believe is a deeper life purpose and mission It's it's disintegrated Disintegrated from your own or not. I don't want to assume what yours is But if you're following me you we probably have a similar life mission, which is to love to learn to love To learn to love of course ourselves and conditionally, but learn to love others unconditionally too and and to figure out what that means How do we do that? How do we embody that in our work and in our business and in our pricing? so what I came to then was enoughness and Compassion enoughness and Compassion that's my pricing strategy so enoughness is What do I really need to have enough not what do I how can I last year? I was at six figures and how can I get to six and a half figures this year? Why why why do you always want to make more and more and more money? Oh? Because some business coach inspired me to make more Why because if you make more money that means you have to charge your clients more probably or at least you have to try to get More people to buy from you which is in itself if you try to if you make numbers the goal because you would just want more and more More then you're gonna have to do more persuasion or you're gonna have to you you're gonna tie Your sense of success to how many people are buying from you and how much they're paying you because now you want to make seven figures instead of six What the hell who the hell told you this? I mean why who's success metric are you following? Is that what your deepest soul saying well? Yes I need to make more money because why why I honestly am baffled well because it's about expansion You know it's expanding my soul what expanding your soul has nothing to do with money for crying out loud, right? Look at peace pilgrim look at Gandhi, you know look at Expanding your soul look at all the saints of past that you respect You know just just Jeff Bezos. He's the richest guy. Does he have the biggest soul in the world? I mean, yeah, I'm sure his soul is quite big, but not I don't think Jeff Bezos has a bigger soul than peace pilgrim. You don't know peace pilgrim Please please go and listen to her audiobook steps to inner peace to change my life That's one of the things that changed my life a couple years ago Profound it's available on SoundCloud for free. I think it still is but anyway It should you'll be able to find it final on YouTube steps to inner peace by peace pilgrim listen to the audiobook. It's life-changing So does Jeff Bezos and Warren Buffett have the biggest souls because they are the richest that Okay, or look at the everyday heroes in in your neighborhood, you know look at every like who has like I don't want to judge who has bigger souls, but it can't be how much money somebody has That's ridiculous and but but that's the That's the sort of the you know I don't want to say the law of attraction necessarily But a lot of traction has some of this insidious root lives that are there that people don't question Love attraction is not all bad. It's just the idea that somehow Yes, we want soul expansion But the soul expansion mean monetary accumulation and more income. No, it doesn't it's something else to do with it It's not that more money is bad. It's not not not not true either But it's not it's not it's not tied together. You see what I mean now Not having enough money can also be soul-crushing, right? So it's not the amount of money and soulfulness. It's not tied. It's it's like two separate tracks You can have somebody like st. Francis who had a vow of poverty who had an enormous soul huge soul probably rewarded, you know With a gazillion dollars dollars in heaven, right? Like like it's not connected. So So this ridiculous idea of I made six figures last year now I'm gonna make seven so that why because I have a more Expansiveness not contraction. That's ridiculous. Let's separate soul and money. Okay, let's separate it when you have when you work on your soul, you'll be given enough money and You'll maybe you'll be given a lot of money. Maybe you'll be given a little it doesn't but you can still use whatever given and bless So many people especially nowadays with the internet. You don't have to have money to bless people So I actually in a in a couple of weeks, I'm gonna do a book review on the science of getting rich Which is one of the books that Underpins the law of attraction and underpins a lot of the expansive thinking these days expansion, you know This garbage about expansion and contraction not garbage. Sorry There is something there energetic expansion and contraction But people tie it to money and things and experiences and I think it's very dangerous It's it's more than that it's much more than that. It's much more than that So enoughness means you don't always have to keep making more and more money now Yes, there is such a thing as inflation Inflation is about 3% a year at least in the US. So technically you do need to make more money forever But like 3% cost of living you know cost of cost of living adjustment. Okay, cola, right? That that makes sense, but to keep making more and more money forever is Questionable. Okay, so I live in San Francisco. I Need more money than probably most of you Okay, because San Francisco is super expensive George. Why don't you move? Yes? I know I have thought about moving for a lot a lot of times but right now my wife has You know bless her. She's built a clientele here that she really loves and she need we need to stay here in San Francisco So I'm sorry have to charge my rates that I do But if I lived in Mexico if it was really up to me only which is not of course in the marriage But if it's up to me only I'd live in Thailand or Mexico or Indonesia or I don't know by Malaysia But maybe that's already expensive nowadays, but but somewhere where I could charge you not $200 an hour. I could charge you $40 an hour and be fine. I would charge you 40 bucks an hour if I could honestly But I live in San Francisco. So I charge $200 an hour. I know that's a lot But it's still not compared to my peers who charge 500 to a thousand dollars an hour. Yes Not all my peers, but I have people at similar levels levels me who charge at least $500 an hour So $200 an hour is a lot. I know but it's my level of experience. So enoughness My enoughness is probably more than your enoughness. Unfortunately, but I am also trying to You know be a be conscious of not just keep expanding my my quality of life Or not quality of I shouldn't even say that right quality of life a lot of people connect that to well How much money you spend again a very dangerous and I have this in my own mind a very dangerous connection Quality of life You can have such good quality of life and spending not a lot of money because you have the quality of life of working on your inner life and working on the relationships in your community which fulfill you tremendously and learning creative ways to Do what you have arts and crafts or whatever it is. So anyway, enoughness and compassion How much do you actually need and can you lessen your needs? Practice Noticing not at least not expanding your financial needs over time because that's dangerous Then you have to charge more money. You have to try to get more people to buy from you and that's all exhausting Enoughness, let's see how we can live a rich life Without having to spend more Okay, and in fact spending less if possible and it is possible because then it Uses our creativity to say how can we spend less and yet feel even more fulfillment. So enoughness is one is one side of things and then compassion compassion what I mean by this is You have to you've had two experiences in your life when it comes to buying things experience one Okay, experience one is You are talking to somebody trying to sell you their services and then they tell you their price Maybe maybe you just experiences with my with my price someone tells you the price and you're like sticker shock like my god That's so much money So you feel some stress and you feel some like thinking about making those payments you feel some stress Okay, so that's that's not a good experience, right from the buyer side And of course the seller feels like the sellers Subconsciously or consciously sees the reaction of the prospective client. So they don't like the price It's it sounds like a lot to them. Okay sticker shock. So that's one experience is Both sides don't have a good emotional experience of that price The second experience is when you are looking to buy from somebody and they tell you their price You're like, oh my god, that's such a great deal. Oh my gosh Like I have this all day long with people on fiber, right? FIV er.com if you've never used fiber She definitely Explore take it take a couple hours to explore fiber and what's there now Not everything there. I endorse do not buy SEO services from Fiverr. Well, not just be careful Just be careful. Don't buy any lights or fans or get people who say they're gonna promote your business Don't buy any promotion services on Fiverr in terms of people promoting your business on Mentioning you in an article or tweeting you out to their million followers. That's all that can be dangerous because they're getting you fake fans And bots and all that stuff. So but you know what you buy on Fiverr research internet research, okay internet research I just bought and I'm trying to figure out The best socially responsible mutual funds right now and I paid somebody 30 bucks on fiber She charged me 15. I gave her a $15 tip and she like gave me this great research I'm like, oh my god. How can you be charging $15? You know her start at $5. I'm like She says she lives in the US now. I doubt that but her English is excellent So I'm like, how are you so in this case like I I'm looking out for her as a buyer I'm like, how is this such a good deal? Like, are you okay? Like that is the experience that we all want from both sides, right? Like as a buyer, you're like, wow business How can you charge me such a good deal? Are you okay? Can I tip you more? Can I how can I how can I make sure that you're gonna stay in business and you're gonna be taking feeling taking care of and Then from the from the seller side, they have this experience of the buyer just So great, you know, like the seller the seller, you know, in the case that I'm trying to Trying to promote the idea that the seller is coming from a place of compassion Compassion for for his or her market to say, you know, I'm not gonna charge what the market will bear I'm gonna charge the lease that I can You never heard that from a business coach before I'm gonna charge the lease that I can that still meets my needs Okay, and the lease that I can and what is a good deal? It depends of course on the market rate So there is such a thing as a market rate, you know When I in my mind, I'm thinking I've a higher virtual assistant. They're at least what if you know What decent ones at least $25 an hour So someone on fiber gonna do this research for me and she produces what I would consider two to three hours at least of research And she's only charging me 15 That wow, you know, I want to pay her more, right? So so these two experience one is like sticker shock And you're giving that people people that experience they don't like the experience you don't like the experience and Maybe you've been taught to charge what what you're worth Or charge what the market will bear or charge a value of your services And the second experience is, you know, you are trying to charge just based on enoughness and compassion And the the buyer goes my god, such a great deal Such a great deal. Now that's based on the market rate, which is why I tell you the market rate for my hourly coaching is You know at least $200 an hour. I mean, yes, maybe there are some people at my level that charge 150 or 125 an hour And maybe I could you know, I could learn something from that now I charge 200 because I'm I'm trying not to have one of my clients anymore I'm trying to I I'm very much Decreasing my number of one of my clients and I'm doing just the group and the courses but But yeah, there are probably people at my level that charge 150 125 an hour But there are also very much people at my level who are charging 250 300 350 500 and even a thousand dollars an hour So there is such a the way that compassion in in pricing works is based on the market rate And if you are pricing yourself Below the market rate or at least, you know, you're charging the same market rate Or you're giving even more Then there's a sense of wow from the from the buyer a sense of I want to take care of you That the you know, the less you charge based on the market rate the more people are like, what a great deal I want to take care of you. I want to spread the word the higher you charge based on market rate people are like sticker shock And and of course you might say well, my clients don't know the market rate Which is up to you To educate them, which is why I'm educating you on what my hourly rate is typically, you know All the way up to a thousand dollars an hour 500 is not unusual 250 certainly not unusual and then to buy charge 200 so I'm like, you know, middle low market rate for for my for my experience level and my reputation That's the other thing branding reputation branding is one of those things that will uh Will make people go well, I should pay you this much, but look at your branding your branding is amazing For me, I have a sort of um a priority to make my branding Minimalistic Something I create my website on weebly and which any of you can do right? It's so easy to create a website like mine It's low brand low branding low like not premium branding. Mine is super minimalistic low branding simple simple anyway So if I branded myself like some of my peers you think well, George You should charge at least 500 an hour because look at your branding is amazing But i'm trying to my priority is to is to run a business in a way that's easier for you to repeat it easier for you to duplicate it So that's why I charge You know, not as much as some of my peers do but branding does matter and Luxury branding that doesn't feel right to me for some people might feel right You know, I saw a guy on youtube like Boss in the Bentley that's his youtube videos. He's like dressed up in a tuxedo Writing in a Bentley. That's how he makes his videos And so then of course people think why should pay you at least a thousand dollars an hour, right? Because look at you you have your Bentley, right? So but that's not me. That's not me, right? So Think about what is authentic to you as for branding think about what your market rate is And then meaning what other people similar to you similar experience level similar branding Or just let's just say similar experience level as you similar reputation as you. What are they charging? Now if you can charge less than that Bless blessings to you because you'll you'll give people that experience of what a great deal you are They're going to advocate for you. They're going to take care of you. Okay, so I hope this is helpful and Next time you hear charge what you're worth You know, don't blame that person just realize that they haven't really thought it through what that really means on a philosophical and not just philosophical but practical level Because I've had so many clients follow that advice of charging what they're worth and then they see their business going down They're like, why aren't people hiring me? I'm you know, I'm I'm my my program is only ten thousand dollars I've seen other people to do a twenty five thousand dollar program mine is only ten thousand dollars Where do you get that idea ten thousand dollar program? What where the f did you get that idea? Well, so and so Well, so and so your metric of success or your own definition, you know and look around There's so many more other metrics of success that you can borrow from not just so and so or such and such High-priced coach that that taught you there's a bunch more people like me Who are teaching you something a little bit different that will give your customers a sense of my god This is such a great deal. Such a great deal. That's what I want your clients and customers to say from from what you're offering All right. So thanks for those who are joining me here um Carissa, Alejandra, Stacy, Noe, Captain and Sharon. Thank you all so much, uh, Rochelle and Martha Let's see here Elena great to see you here So just kind of let me call out some of the comments here that I'm seeing um Okay Yeah Yeah Yeah, Alejandra says, you know, I've also heard people say I charge more because I can employ more people And people have the idea that if it costs more it's better. Okay. So that's actually a valid point When it comes to services that many of us are offering It's not like people are buying Serial or toilet paper where they know that you know a box of cereal should not cost a hundred dollars You should cost somewhere around, you know between three dollars to ten dollars if it's premium cereal or whatever, right? So it's not like that people aren't it's not a household price the pricing is not a household knowledge what what you and I offer and so Naturally if if pricing is not a if the pricing of a product is not conventional wisdom Then a higher pricing people will think means higher quality. It's true. People will think it's higher quality if you charge more Um, and people will tend to take it more seriously if you charge more that is all true My problem with all this is people tell that to you when they're actually using the higher price to justify They probably don't even know this We have this ulterior motive of trying to make more money because they're trying to keep up with such and such high priced coach um So they're using all these rationales to say oh, I'm charging because people you'll take it more seriously If I charge you more but really I just trying to like my self-esteem needs You know or I'm trying to make more money because I'm trying to buy a better car You know or I'm trying to go on a vacation because such and so went on a vacation that makes me feel bad I didn't go on such a you know, they that's Don't it's that's it's true. So what what what is what what you need to so how do we then think about that? Okay, let's think this through If you find that your clients That you have plenty of okay number one if you have a lot of clients And you find that they aren't taking you you're the work as seriously as you would like them to Okay, if both are true then I believe you should charge more Because if you charge more you won't you still have you you probably have enough clients Let's say you have more clients and you you know what to handle which I do now Which is why I'm kind of charging more now because I I have a waiting list, right? It's like, okay. I need to charge a bit more so people take my So this is more seriously and You know and if even if I charge more and a few people say I'm not going to work with you anymore. George. I I still have enough clients Okay, so if you're in my situation where you have a waiting list And you would like people to take your services more seriously. Please charge more Everybody else Should follow the advice of the rest of this video which is to charge under the market rate if at all possible So people go my god, what a good deal. I'm going to spread the word about you until you have a waiting list And then you should raise your rates Okay, so I hope that makes sense because it really I think this is if you know, that's a that's uh It's going to be better for you financially actually so, um Okay Thank you Captain says George the message in this video can pass for a sermon in church. Thank you. Yeah, we're having business church here Uh, amen Let me pass around a hat now Okay Now look at your neighbor you got to put in the hat as at least as much as they are Okay, um joking here. All right. Okay. So with that, I'm going to end this video. Thank you so much for joining me and remember You are worth an infinite amount. Do not tie be careful Be wary of how your worth and self-esteem and your esteem of others is tied to how much is being charged How much you charge how much they charge separate the two And remember that expansion of the soul does not have to do with how much money you're making or how much you're spending So get creative with how you expand your soul and not always tie to financial transactions Okay, so with that, I wish you truly I wish you well and see you in the next video. Take care