Today’s the day to decide, simply because after today the price goes up. You can read about the course here: The Heart of Money Transformational Journey
If you haven’t yet joined the no-cost learning series and want to download all 3 lessons now (PDF, mp3, video), you can do so here: Heart of Money No-Cost Learning Series
And now on to today’s topic.
Asking for (More) Money
“I love working with my clients. I also enjoy getting paid. What I don’t like is actually asking for the money.”
As a client was telling me this, I was thinking about how many times I’d heard some version of it. Whether it was someone feeling uncomfortable telling clients she was raising her prices, or someone else who had seven invoices sitting for weeks that he hadn’t yet mailed out to clients, it just seems like a common place people get caught.
Even folks who seem pretty comfortable, often find themselves gulping just a little bit when it comes to stretching beyond what they are used to.
Here’s what I know doesn’t work very well: steeling yourself up to just do it. I mean, it kinda works, but it doesn’t feel good to you, and I’m guessing it’s not so great to be on the receiving end.
Steeling yourself doesn’t work because through your discomfort your heart is telling you something. The question is, what is it telling you? Are you uncomfortable because you have an internal resistance to it, or are you uncomfortable because it’s the wrong thing to do?
Important questions! Sometimes we need to ask for more money because we’ve been seriously undercharging. And sometimes charging more money is just the wrong thing to do. Which is it?
Discerning Your Heart’s Message
The first step is to just slow waaaaay down. The trouble with money is that it’s tied up with our survival fears and it trips us easily into fight or flight mode, which of course speeds everything up.
If I learned anything from my years as a paramedic it’s that rarely is anything truly an emergency. There is almost always time to stop and take your own pulse, as my paramedic instructor told us.
So stop. Breathe. Breathe again. Take a third breath, it’s okay. If you’re feeling especially crazy, take a fourth or fifth breath. Or even, OhEmGee, take a few minutes of breathing.
Maybe you’re not in a full-on panic, maybe it’s just mildly uncomfortable for you. That’s okay, you don’t have to be in a full-on panic to benefit from a few minutes of breathing. And while you’re taking this time to breathe, bring your attention to your heart, high up in your chest.
How does your heart feel? What do you notice in your heart as you think about asking to be paid? It’s useful to note.
Now remember the Divine. Remember Source. Remember Love. Not in any effort to try to change your discomfort, but simply in allowing that your discomfort exists within a larger reality of the Source of Love. Ask your heart the question, “Is love available even here?”
Notice what happens for you. Stay with it. Don’t rush. Rushing is a great way to undermine your business, and miss the subtle nourishment in your heart.
Find your humility. Find your willingness to give what you’re supposed to give, and receive what you are given to receive. Ask in your heart if the price you’re charging is okay to ask for.
It doesn’t have to be the ideal price. Maybe your resonant price is meant to be higher. That’s okay, don’t fret about that now, raising your prices is for the future, maybe tomorrow.
Just for right now, is it okay to ask for your price? You’re not asking the client, you’re asking, through your heart, the Divine. You’re asking from a place of humility, the same place you give so generously from when you work with people.
So, you know how you just asked the Divine through your heart? Now try this radical approach: you are asking the Divine for that money, through your client. Ask your heart for the words. When I ask right now, here’s what I get:
“It’s been such a privilege to work with you. I’m grateful to receive your payment. The $xxx payment can be a check or a credit or debit card.”
If you are mailing invoices, it’s the same process, only you would type it and email or mail it.
The key here is knowing in your heart it’s okay to receive from the same Source that you give from, and that both you and your client are intermediaries for Source.
That sounds so unpersonal. I mean that you are a manifestation of Love’s Source, and so is your client. Give as that manifestation, and receive from that manifestation.
Being that manifestation means staying in humility. Resist the urge to inflate yourself, to be bigger than you are, or to steel yourself to just push through.
Humility also means not to shrink yourself. If your price feels good in your heart but wobbly in the world, just hold that wobble with gentleness and kindness. It’s your next piece of work, and that’s good to know.
Welcome the tenderness, stay in connection, and ask. Your client will give to you as gratefully as she received from you.
p.s. The Heart of Money Starts Next Week
You don’t have to be a mess with money to benefit from some healing and nourishment. Our entire economy is so dysfunctional that establishing or deepening a spiritual anchor in your relationship with money can be transformational for you and for your business.
It starts in a week, and today is the early bird deadline. Please join us.
Heart of Money Transformational Journey
Questions? Please ask.
