Stop Worrying About Your Pricing

The most asked, emotionally loaded, scary, and difficult to answer question for starting coaches is: "so, how much do you charge?" Whenever I got asked the question I used to feel like a deer in headlights... I froze, stuttered, wasn't sure how to answer, and finally came up with an answer along the lines of "uhh, that depends..?" If it wasn't for my very first client, I think I still wouldn't be charging any money for my coaching. This client told me she did not want to continue coaching with me, unless I charged her money for the services. I thought doing coaching from the heart meant you can't ask money for it. But I was wrong. This client felt like she owed me. The coaching had helped her so much, and she had no way of giving something back to me. That's why I asked my first €47,- for one hour of coaching. Not for myself, but for my client - to give her the opportunity to return the favor.

This led me on my journey to become a 'high-payed coach', which, to me, was equal to a 'successful coach'. I decided that being a successful coach meant that I charged at least €1.000 a month per client, ideally €5.000. I kept on raising my prices and noticed that I started to believe that my success as a coach depended on how much I earned, but something deep inside me told me that was not true. There are many coaches out there who believe that successful coaches charge more money for their services and that extraordinary coaches charge a sh*t load of money for their services. But is that actually true?

In this article, I'm interviewing Mandy Lyttle, an extraordinary quantum wealth coach and the co-founder of the community called Phase-2, whose insights changed my perspective on money forever. Mandy has coached her clients for $1.000 a session, something most coaches only dream of. This article talks in depth about how you can become a successful coach today, and why this success is not related to the amount of money you make. If Mandy's words have the same effect on you as they had on me, you will feel more peaceful and confident about your current coaching practice after reading this article.

"People want safety and security," Mandy Lyttle says "and they think that if they reach a certain level of income they will be safe and secure. Being safe and secure is their definition of success. However, what people don't realize is that the amount of money they make, says nothing about how safe and secure they are. It is up to them whether they allow themselves to feel safe or secure."

Mandy continues, "For example, you could make $30.000 in one month as a coach and live your whole year off of that. This could make you feel more successful than the coach that makes $5.000 a month for a whole year ($60.000 in total)."

The success you allow yourself to feel as a coach, depends on yourself, not on the amount of clients you onboard or the amount of money you receive for doing just that. Realizing this gave me a feeling of comfort, as if a weight lifted off my shoulders. I realized that there is no need to prove myself to anyone. I realized there is no need to stress about money or strive towards charging a certain number, other than for the sake of wanting to stress about or strive towards something. Making more money does not change anything about how I feel about myself - it does not make me feel more safe, confident, powerful, influential, or comfortable than I already am because it says nothing about who I am.

Mandy gave me another example: "There are so many different ways to live," she says. "Someone can be a coach who lives off a very little amount of money, and coaches others to do the same. That person could be a successful coach, even though he or she does not have any money."

It is Christian Mickelsen who said that no matter how low your prices are, there will be people who can not afford your coaching. However, no matter how high your prices are, there will be people who can afford your coaching. And according to Mandy, none of that says anything about how successful you are as a coach or as a person. Mandy's perspective made me curious about where this drive towards making more and more comes from.

"People have the idea that as a coach you need to prove something," she says. "They have the idea that they need to prove that they are valuable. What they're missing is that for any coach to get to a level of high income, they have to start somewhere else. The idea that you need to get to $10.000 as a coach is made up. Get the money out of the way. When you can stop trying to make money you will start to make more money effortlessly. You have to exit the money game."

The reason I had so much trouble with doubling or tripling my fees, was because I was too fixated on the idea others would have of me because of it. 'Making more money will change the way people see me, I will be liked more', is what I believed. I wasn't in the money game just for the sake of the experience. I was trying to make more money because I believed I needed to - to prove my worth to myself and others. The moment you get out of this mindset, this way of thinking, you will have exited the money game. At that point you can be the coach you want to be and have fun.

"If you're coaching people because you want to make 10k a month," Mandy continues, "you're gonna have a really hard time coaching people. If you coach people because you enjoy coaching and you have fun with it, you're not going to ever be thinking about money. When you simply follow your feelings and get so immersed in whatever it is that you're doing, the thought of money does not cross your mind. At that point the money just comes to you effortlessly because you're not repelling it anymore by being in this state of 'I need money'."

This personal journey of becoming a 'high payed' and successful coach, taught me that I'm not in this field for just the money. I'm a coach because I enjoy coaching. I like to talk to people and I like to be paid to exist. I like to be myself. I like having conversations and watch people change because of these conversations.

I hope this article made you aware that you can stop worrying about your pricing. Your fees say NOTHING about how good of a coach or person you are. Your pricing is not related to the value of your coaching. It's just a number. Remember that.

PS: If you're a coach who has never charged money for its services but wants to in the future, I have a fun exercise for you to get paid for your coaching today. Send me a personal message saying 'MONEY', and I'll give it to you for free.