Don't Do It For The Money

Do what you love and the money does not always follow. Just ask the 80-90% of life coaches who make under $100,000. Most life coaches get into the profession because they love helping people transform their lives. It becomes a rough journey to make a living when they don’t have certain business skills in place or start dreaming about the money they used to make in their “old” job. Surprisingly, the biggest reason business owners aren’t attracting the dollars equal to their value, is their mindset with business and money. • “I don’t think my clients will pay me if I raise my fees.”
• “My customers will buy somewhere else if I don’t keep the prices low.”
• “I don’t know what to charge.”
• “My customers always try to negotiate a lower price and I cave in.”
• “I don’t know how to make more money because I’m so busy now that I can’t keep up." I’ve heard all of these and more. Just one of these beliefs will tank your business and leave you feeling sad, broke and perplexed. Do what you love, and get unattached to the money. In fact, don’t offer products and services that you think will make you rich. Offer what you think you can whole-heartedly get behind and promote the hell out of because it’s that good. Offer the products and services that will completely satisfy your ideal customers. Create and sell things that answer their deepest questions. Offer things that solve their biggest problem. Answer their prayers. Do it your unique way. With your crazy cool spin. But whatever you do, don’t do it for the money. Yep, when you start doing things for the money, some of your marketing mojo and attractiveness are diminished. Why, because you get attached to the money. You start being emotional when someone says no to your services. When your products don’t fly off the shelves you ruminate about why it isn’t working. When you get emotional about the money, in a negative way, you clog up the flow to the point where nothing can get through. This can lead to barely surviving financially. Money still needs to be a part of the plan. You have to know the model you want to follow to get the profits in the door and keep ‘em coming. Here's an example. I’ve been in the same mastermind group since 1999. Many of the members have been inspired to create continuity programs. We’ve spent many hours talking about setting one up, pricing, etc. I knew they could generate lots of money if they did it right. I wasn’t inspired. I knew that many businesses start these monthly programs to get massive dollars in the door. But after the initial launch they feel like it’s too much work and shut down the program. They weren’t in love with the model. They were focused on money. After years of saying I wasn’t interested in doing a month-to-month program, inspiration hit. I started thinking about the feedback I was receiving from the participants in my free teleclasses and my ezine subscribers. They said I didn’t offer an affordable way for them to work with me personally. Hmmmm…. I evaluated my offering funnel. Yep, they were right. I had many ways people could get live coaching with me, but they were all several hundred dollars a month and up. All of a sudden, the whole model for my own continuity program downloaded into my brain. The price point would be under one hundred dollars a month and the focus would be supporting business owners to six-figures and beyond. I was answering several of my followers' requests. And what I had to do to make it juicy for me was focus on a different topic every month so it would always be fresh. Otherwise, I know a year down the road I’d no longer be inspired and it’d be work. The passion for delivering something I really love and setting up a model that is financially sustainable increases my attractor factor. I don’t care if my whole list doesn’t buy in. However, I appreciate the ones who do show up. I give all my attention to making it the best it can be. If somebody leaves the program, I don’t beat myself up or assume I’m failing. I keep my attention on producing the best material possible, giving rock star customer service and making sure that people get what they showed up for. If I focus on the money, all hell will break loose. That doesn’t mean that I let go of my money goals or stop marketing. I just don’t make money the main reason I do it. My goals were to leverage my time and fill a gaping hole in my offerings. Being a deliberate creator doesn’t mean you do things haphazardly or from a dreamy state of mind. I am very clear when I offer something how it will generate followers, leads or customers. I follow the plan but do it in a way that keeps me excited and wanting to deliver what I promise. Do what you do because you love it and have a business model that will move you toward six and seven figures. One step at a time.