Someone was getting started, like brand-new, in their business, and I recommended giving away free sessions to people, willy-nilly. And she was like: “You know, we’ve got bills to pay. How much is really okay to give away, without going gonzo about it?”
Fair question. Giving it away for marketing purposes can have limited impact. One of my favorite lines came from a professional speaker I was listening to. He was talking about all the offers he’d received to do free talks “for the exposure” and said to me, “You know, Mark, you can die from exposure.”
And yet, he was somewhat missing the point, because marketing is really only one reason, and not necessarily the best reason, to give your work away.
The real reason is to build faith in your potential clients, so they’ll trust you enough to sign up for your offers
New Clients Come To You In Faith
When someone new signs up to work with you, they sign up purely in faith. They’ve experienced your presence in some way through a conversation, a website, articles, something. And yet they’ve never actually experienced your work.
They are agreeing to give time and money to the situation, because they have faith that you can help them.
The big question is: where does their faith come from?
It’s not a mental belief, as in “I believe in the Tooth Fairy.” For me, faith describes an in-the-bones experience of trust.
Faith, in this sense, is something that grows from experience. You go to a restaurant a few times, and each time the food is fantastic, and your faith that they are always going to deliver a four-star meal grows.
Even spiritual faith is built this way. No spiritual path is asking for blind faith. Legitimate paths ask you to try out the practices, to see for yourself. After awhile, if you notice that you’re experiencing more love, peace and trust in your heart, your faith grows.
If new clients are coming to you in faith, and yet they haven’t experienced your work yet, there’s only one place they can get their faith in you.
New Client Faith is About Transmission
Transmission is the direct acquisition of experience from one person to another, bypassing a conscious learning experience. Yes, it does happen, and often.
And one of the times it happens is when a client asks, “Can you help me?” And you, looking them full in the eye, say with quiet strength, confidence and clarity: “Yes.”
Zzzzzzt! Transmission. They have faith in you, because they can feel the goodness.
The trick is, you can only transmit that because you’ve got it yourself. You can’t fake it. You have to *know* that you can help them. And that knowing, that internal faith comes from experience.
Which is why you’re giving so much away. But back to the original question: How much is too much? When do you stop? How do you balance between giving it away and earning a living?
Let’s take a look.
Keys To Giving Away the Faith
- When you’re new fill up completely.
When I started, I wondered if I had what it took to have a “full” practice at maybe 15-20 sessions in a week. That’s what I did. Just about every session was free, and I just gave away tons of time.
Of course, I also had lots of free practice sessions to do as homework for Sufi healing school, so that was part of it. But there were quite a few weeks in there, when most of the sessions were free, or deeply discounted.
Believe me, I had some serious confidence in myself after doing that many sessions. Yes, I also had a part-time job at the time.
- Don’t worry about being “undervalued.”
People may tell you: “You’re underselling yourself!” Or “You’re not respecting yourself!” Don’t listen to them (unless your heart agrees with them).
Until you hold the confidence and faith in your own heart, you won’t be able to ask for a higher price anyway, so you might as well build that strength and faith in yourself as quickly as you can.
- Give until it’s no longer time.
How much is too much? How long is too long? Pay attention. It can be very easy to get on track with something and just go on autopilot.
Use your heart to pick a period of time (one month?), or an amount (20 sessions?) and then check back in with yourself once you get there. Is it time to start charging, or charging full price?
That transmission of faith and experience is really powerful for people, and is a big piece of the trust that clients need in order to become your clients. If you aren’t there yet, don’t try to fake it.
Instead, give away your work, build up your confidence, and then the transmission will come much more naturally. As will getting paid.
