Sitting in sufficiency

Back in 2014, I raised my 1:1 prices quite significantly, quite quickly

I went from $135/hr to $200/hr.

It was a lot for my nervous system. 

And it took me a while to catch up.

I remember a friend asking me what my price was, and I stumbled over it. She looked me straight in the eye and said ‘You don’t sound very sure about that.’

I didn’t sound sure because I wasn’t sure… at all.

I can see now that I raised my prices based on information and data I’d use differently now.

I was fully booked as a biz coach and Kinesiologist, with a 6-week waitlist for any appointment (new or current clients).

The messaging in the online coaching space was all about how when you’re fully booked, you should raise your prices so you make more money in less time; so you don’t burn out; and so you move away from hustle and into ease.

As if you can’t burn out and hustle even if you’re charging ‘more’.

I was coming into my own as a coach and I took this advice as gospel (and I shared it as advice with clients too). (I take full responsibility for my actions, I’m not blaming the online world, just speaking to the context.)

Now I see it differently. 

I don’t regret my choice as I was making the best choice for myself and I made it work. I went into a stress response but I did the work on myself and I did catch up. That price did become easy to communicate, sell and show up for. 

But now I see it like this: if you’re booking out at your current price, why change what’s working so beautifully just for the sake of it?

Why run away from that sufficiency and create another bridge to cross right now?

Oftentimes it’s to prove to ourselves ‘Oh NOW I’m really good at what I do, NOW I’ll be taken seriously.’ 

Which is to say, you didn’t think you were good enough to take yourself seriously before. 

So if things are working, let them work for longer than feels comfortable.

You might want to stretch yourself into your next level already but what if the stretch was to sit where you are for another minute or two? Another month or two?

Can you sit in what you’ve created without rushing to the next goalpost? Can you let yourself receive in overflow and be filled up like that?

Pricing is arbitrary; there is no one better or worse price. Higher doesn’t mean more value and lower doesn’t mean less value. 

I also now fully believe that selling at $100 requires the same energy output as selling at $10,000… because it’s never about the numbers. It’s about your thoughts and energy about the numbers.

The numbers are neutral.

Your thoughts and emotions about the numbers are where the charge and the change lies. 

When it comes to pricing, do what feels good to your nervous system and then when it feels so natural and neutral that you want to raise your prices immediately, see if you can stretch yourself to sit in the sufficiency you’ve created and not make it mean that you’re not growing.

That’s a new level of nervous system regulation too; that’s deeply rooting yourself in sufficiency and not always looking for ‘more’ for the sake of it, or to prove something that is already and always true; you are already and always enough. 

Love,