money loves action

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What happens when you have to raise rates?

I was talking to a coaching student about this recently.

She was having a bit of a personal crisis over the fact that her new (perfectly reasonable) rates had scared away all her old clients… which put her in the uncomfortable position of choosing whether to keep pursuing higher paying clients, or go crawling back to her old work (and old rates).

She was furious with herself for keeping her rates so low for so long.

If you’re in a similar situation, remember:

1) There’s no point in being mad at your past self.

It only distracts you from moving forward and committing to your new path. What’s done is done and you can’t change that. And even though it may not feel like it, you’re learning from this experience. You’re figuring out what your work is worth, how much value you deliver, and that fine line between too much work and not enough money.

Learning is fantastic. Painful, but fantastic.

And we all go through that particular growing pain, so at least you’re in good company.

2) Money loves action.

This is one of those critical points where you’ve got to trust and have faith.

The thing that sucks about taking action is that the results aren’t always immediate. It’s not often that you can commit to prospecting this morning and have a new client signed and paid by this evening… that’s just not how people and business work.

What I mean by trust is that once you take action (and continue to take action even if not immediately rewarded), things start working in the background. People might be reaching out to other people and getting budget approval, or trying to set up a meeting. Silence doesn’t mean rejection – it just means they have other things that are happening.

So you won’t always be able to see the direct link between the action you’re taking and the eventual result that you’ll get – but take the action anyway. You’ll be that much closer to your goals.

3) Remember that the universe has a sense of humor.

I want to take a moment to talk about playing to win, and playing to not lose.

One is based on a position of faith, of opportunity, of there being more than enough work and clients to go around.

The other is based on a position of fear, of lack, and of competition for scarce resources.

The position you choose (playing to win vs playing to not lose) will influence the actions you take.

If you’re operating from a place of fear/scarcity/hoarding, I almost feel like the universe is out there taunting… like, “are you suuuuuuuure you wanna do that?”

The fact is, every time I’ve done something worthwhile or taken a giant leap forward in my career, it was immediately preceded by the worst terror of my life. I could fill a book with the elaborate fantasies I created about how things could go wrong (true story: I once connected advertising my services to nuclear winter).

But I decided to do the thing anyway, even after feeling the fear. I wanted to play a bigger game and knew the only way to get there was by deliberately stepping out of my comfort zone, taking projects I didn’t feel ready for, and forcing myself to grow and get better.

Every time I’ve felt the fear and done the thing anyway, it’s worked out. Almost like the universe was trying to test my resolve and see how badly I wanted it or if I would continue to make excuses for myself.

And finally… when you’re scared about losing clients, remember:

Nature abhors a vacuum.

You just created one by ditching old clients. I wouldn’t be at all surprised if that space gets filled, and just in the nick of time.

kickass-angie

ANGIE COLEE

If you’re an aspiring freelancer who’s working up the courage to leave the day job… good news! I’m sharing all the things I WISH I’d known before making the leap so that hopefully your journey goes a little more smoothly than mine.

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