I’ve got a great money mindset story to share with you today! It’s all about managing money mindset and learning to value what you do.
I just spent the past two-and-a-half days on a writing retreat with my friend Denise Duffield-Thomas. We had some amazing chats and some really cool insights into how I used to do things when I first started out in practice and learnt some of my biggest money lessons.
We also experienced the most shining example of a thing that I would like to teach you about today. First, I’ll tell you about the story that happened to us… Watch the video or read on below for the shorter version.
The Resort
We were in a coastal town, staying at a beautiful resort and having amazing moments of clarity, being a sounding board for one another, writing our books, doing all this wonderful stuff. And because it’s a resort coastal town it has resort wear type of shops. Right?
It was a really interesting experience to wander around and look at these stores from a business perspective. Once I got into my own business, it became really hard to look at things in day-to-day life without that lens. You know, the way people:
- do customer service
- present their shop windows
- name their businesses
Things like that.
So, we’re wandering down the main street and there’s a boutique shop over on the corner. It had an interesting name, not really high-end or fancy as one would expect for a resort town. Denise commented that she thought she had previously bought a nice dress at the store before. But I still wasn’t really drawn to shop there because the name and front display felt a bit “off.” It had the vibe of one of those stores with loads of really cheap clothing all crammed into a tiny space. Definitely not the high-end resort living vibe.
Anyway, we decide to go inside and just a take a look.
The Boutique
We walk inside and there’s a very sparkly blonde lady there cleaning up and vacuuming because it was actually five minutes to five.
This store was the kind of boutique that had formal dresses and things like that, but the shop name did not imply that whatsoever. It felt very disconnected.
As we stood there filtering through all these clothes, Denise was going, “these look really similar to a Camilla lifestyle outfit” and was keen to try the dress on. One of Denise’s favourite designers is Camilla. She owns a lot of Camilla. It’s been her “upgrade” since she expanded her business over the past two years.
The shop assistant, who seemed to pop out from nowhere, did not greet us or offer assistance, she simply piped in,
“You know, we close in three minutes. We run a pole dancing class as well and so you’re just gonna have to go, it starts at quarter past five.”
Meanwhile, we (her customers) were both looking at trying on $280 dresses. Yet she wanted to dismiss us before even welcoming us to her store.
Denise genuinely loved this dress she had found. She pulled out another dress and said to me “Why don’t you try it on? This green would look amazing on you.” I’m so not a bling person but she was playing with the idea about this lady saying “we’ve only got three minutes.”
The Assumptions
The store assistant piped up, “Oh, you know, that’s two hundred and eighty dollars.”
My response was “Yeah we do. My friend genuinely likes the dress. So can you just let her try it on?”
“Oh yes, yes of course. But we do close in three minutes,” she replied.
I was like, hold on a second!
We both went in and tried the dresses on. Denise walked out, looked absolutely stunning. “It really reminds me of one of the other Camillas that I’ve got,” she said.
The store owner was gobsmacked to hear that Denise owned several pieces of Camilla already.
It was an incredible feeling to be in the room. It was an incredible thing to notice how people can automatically choose for you if something is not for you. Even without speaking to you.
Both Denise & I are comfortably wealthy. This shop assistant had flippantly passed judgement on us, for whatever reason, not knowing that we could buy her entire shop out. She assumed
straight away and made the decision for us that those last three minutes of her business day wouldn’t be worth a possible five hundred and sixty dollars.
It’s an amazing thing that happens when you assume automatically that a person won’t value “that thing” enough to buy it.
Just to pee her off, Denise bought the dress.
Don’t Put Your Own Money Blocks On Others
Now this story relates back to when I was in practice in the centre of town. I had a completely deserted office with no sign on the door because I didn’t know enough to put a sign on the door to let people know that I was actually there.
Those first six months were really trying on my money blocks and managing money mindset issues.
I would so often get to the EFTPOS machine (which felt like a big expense at the time, like 30 bucks a month) and think “how am I going to pay 30 bucks a month when I’m getting less than one person a week in the door?!”
However, even with limited customers coming in the door, when I would get to the EFTPOS machine after a consultation, I’d have the customer with card-in-hand and I would look at them and make up my mind about what they could afford and I would go, “Even though it says on my website very clearly $100 for 60 minutes, today it’s $90, or it’s $80, and I’ll just sell you your supplement for wholesale.”
Have you noticed that you’ve done that?
Have you had that moment?
I’m pretty sure every single practitioner has had a moment where they have discounted for no apparent reason.
That’s why a receptionist is so imperative. It’s why I got a receptionist. It changed my entire business because I wasn’t the person to ask that question! How’s that for poor money mindset?!
But I digress…
If you get to that point and you discount or you automatically choose or assume that the customer doesn’t value the thing enough or doesn’t have enough money … it’s completely not up to you. Just like it wasn’t up to the lady in the store to choose for us whether or not we liked those dresses enough that we would pay the price.
Remember – It’s Not Up To Us
It’s not up to us to choose for somebody else:
- how much they value their health
- that they can only afford one supplement
- what they can and can’t afford
It is 100% up to us to give them the option and the time to choose.
Just like the shop owner could have given us a little bit more time and the option to choose.
I wanted to have this really important conversation because I bet there are loads of people who have done this, myself included. I’ve seen it many many times.
And, when you discount unnecessarily, many times the customer will not even acknowledge the discount. In fact, this display can come across as you devaluing what you’re giving out and in return, the customer doesn’t value it as highly either!
My Invitation
So, my invitation to you is when you are considering:
- discounting
- putting your prices at a certain level on your website
- changing your prices for next year
Once you’ve picked that price and it’s there… charge that. Charge that price exactly as it is – without hesitation!
The Lessons
Lesson #1: Charge what you say you are currently worth (even when it’s hard)
Lesson #2: If you are offering people something, be beautiful in your offering.
If you are offering your supplements, your herbal tonic, your whatever it is, instead of going,
- “Gaaawd, I don’t think they can afford the $60 for this herbal tonic. Maybe I should just make them 100ml one instead,” (who’s done that before?!)
- Or, “Maybe I should just give them a flower essence today instead.
- Or, “Maybe I’ll just give them the magnesium powder instead of the probiotics I know they need as well to absorb the magnesium powder to be able to get their B vitamins in.”
If the patient needs those things, offer them to them. Offer them as an invitation and be really open to the idea that they might actually value your guidance so much more because you are honest that it’s going to make them feel better and help them on their journey to healing.
Being honest and letting them decide is so much more valuable than saying, “Well, this time we’re going to give you a magnesium powder and then next time we’re going to give you a probiotic.”
Your particular patient came to you because they resonated with you and what you have to offer. They value what you have to say, especially when you are truthful about what’s actually going to help them.
Then, they can choose.
The Choices
At the store, Denise chose to take the dress. I chose not to take the dress. It didn’t make any difference. It was just a choice.
If you’re offering options of what will actually help the patient and make them feel better, they can choose to get it or not. And that is fine. But unless you offer it in the first place, they don’t have the option to value you, themselves, or their health.
When I spoke to my tribe about managing money mindset recently, Amy said:
“Every time I increase my prices there’s at least two clients who say they can’t afford it.”
Beautiful, then you are creating space for the people who can afford it.
When you are creating that space, the people who in that present moment cannot afford it are in a position where something else is more valuable. At that moment, they might need to instead:
- look after their car
- buy something for their kids
- deal with repairs at their home
Or look after something else right then. But at that moment, that thing they’re valuing isn’t their health. And that’s totally okay. For that moment, it might not be right for them. Just like in that moment I didn’t value that dress for me.
Recognise That It’s That Moment – Not Forever
But remember – it’s only at that moment, not forever. Maybe down the line, those values will change and they’ll ill remember the experience they had with you.
Jackie said: “Discounted prices can make you sound desperate. Dentists don’t give discounts on fillings why should we?!”
Yes. The way the lady in the store acted, she didn’t tell me about the dress, she didn’t tell me where it came from, the first thing she told me was how much it cost. This lack of offering decreased the value of the dress even more for me.
I might really love the dress, I might be going to an event tomorrow night and I’ve got the last five minutes before this place closes and I might have bought it. But telling me the cost of it doesn’t give me the benefits of what’s actually valuable to me.
Alison says, “is this different to offering a monthly special?”
Yes, it is. If you had agreed there is a special for a month and you are just sticking with that, then that’s awesome. But that monthly special means it only goes for the month and you’re actually committing to taking the money for that.
Stick with your word. Your word is a promise to you that you’re going to create that much value in your own life. Not just for the person you’re helping.
Katie said, “I’ve recently started prescribing and charging correctly which resulted in getting better results and clients are stoked”.
Yes! When you confidently value what you’re giving them, your customers will confidently value what you’re saying, as well.
The other thing about that is people do different things, they have different things, and they place value on different things at different times.
For example, it’s not like you sit at the hairdressers and say, “Don’t do this, don’t do that.” If you’re in that space where you’ve gotta choose whether to just get the haircut or both the cut and color, you ask about it at the beginning. Throughout the experience, the hairdresser will openly tell you what’s happening, which only emphasises the value on the service provided.
Valuing What You Do
So there’s an interesting thing… it’s okay for our clients to spend money on hairdressing or on their car, or on a night out… but to spend that thousand dollars on themselves and their health… why don’t we value that?!
Each patient we see has made a decision to value their health. So, making decisions to undervalue our services because they “might be too expensive” means we are taking away from our patients the opportunity to deeply value their health and well being.
We really need to open up that conversation. Create an awareness of what’s going on for you when it comes to valuing what you do and the money blocks that come up for you.
Michelle, “I’ve had so many beliefs around money, I can still tell that I have more room to grow.”
Yep, totally agree. There are lots of tools to help you around money. I use tapping and I love it – I tap along with Brad Yates and it’s great to release the build-up and release blocks like that.
Kinesiology is another tool I love. It’s a fantastic tool to be able to notice and shift money blocks.
The thing is – money blocks don’t just stop. You can’t just clear one and then it’s gone forever.
The way I describe it is as a spiral. As you go up, you keep coming around to the same place again or to the same block again, it just looks a little bit different. Or it’s a bigger version of the original block. Then you keep going on and then it comes back around again.
New Level, New Devil. It’s The Same Thing.
There is a multitude of different money blocks around fear of success. Fear of failure, fear of asking, fear of rejection – all sorts of yummy wonderful little versions or facets.
It can be really deep work and rather extraordinary to discover the crux of your money blocks and master your money mindset. Not just for yourself but for our entire profession and your family as well.
I know it’s a really interesting and triggering conversation for our profession as a whole because we just don’t talk about money. I think it’s silly because we talk about every other type of energy and healing. The energy of money can be freeing and helpful.
The more conversations around money that we can have as a profession the more the topic won’t be taboo, and we can, as a profession and as a whole, crack open a glass ceiling that has been ingrained through college and from society and a whole bunch of other things that we just don’t need anymore.
I’d love to know if your money blocks have played havoc in your business. Join us in the Natupreneur Hub to share your story of how you’ve overcome the block or maybe reading this post has illuminated a new block for you.
Resources
For more on this topic, take a look at these additional resources:
- Read the latest posts around making money as a practitioner
- Download my Free Money Management Planner
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