A Lesson I Learned About Desperation
“I AM TOO BIG FOR YOU AND YOU DO NOT KNOW WHAT YOU ARE DOING” -ANONYMOUS CLIENT
Yep… I walked right into that one with my eyes wide open and I burned myself. I teach about not being desperate with money and unfortunately, I let a moment of desperation take over after creating a new service and I had to learn a lesson… again.
Complete honesty here. I was excited I was able to pitch a new service to a prospect… and was excited that they bought the service from me!
I was getting a bit frustrated with my closing rate. I looked around and it seemed everyone was knocking it out of the park except for me. I was on stage, I was getting some interest, but for some reason… no one was closing. So, I decided to do more research on “what I do” and it was getting even clearer that it was going to be very hard for me to convince people to make changes with their finances OR I would have to get comfortable with a 5-8 month closing time… sigh. That is long time to not get paid!
After all of the reading and analyzing and being completely flustered with people that would not pay $147 to get help with money, but were instead paying $5,000 – $12,000 for coaching programs that they were struggling to pay for… or not happy with… I created a service that I knew was needed, but very time consuming… and I put a very big price tag on it.
All of sudden someone called… literally within 7 days… heck yeah!
I had nothing to lose… and I refused to negotiate the price… and they paid!
I am human… and a business owner. The desire to be validated with someone paying you is strong and I was feeling desperate. Yes, I knew there were some red flags before working with this particular client:
- I had worked with them before and they did not appreciate my work
- They wanted quick and easy answers to their finances, rather than changing their own behaviors
- They had a reputation of being difficult to work with
- I knew it was not going to last very long
But I was up for the challenge and I was confident that I could influence major change in their business. I was looking for validation. I was looking for a challenge… heck… I was looking to get paid. They were making money and could afford what I was worth. And you know what, I got exactly what I asked for… a big ole' lesson learned!
During my brush of desperation, I definitely got distracted by a few things:
- I put deadlines on myself and I was stressed about making money
- I was encouraged by others to just make a sell, no matter what
- I got way off course of what I really wanted to be doing in order to chase a big ticket pay day
- I was consumed by my clients “demands” that I did not have time to work on my business
All of this for wanting some money. I basically learned to take my own advice… silly me for not listening! Sometimes we all need a little reminder that not all money is the money you need, but in the end, a lesson will always be learned. What I learned is to not be distracted. I get that owning a business is delicate balance of managing clients, closing deals, having a sales funnel, and managing everything else. What I also learned was that I needed to stay true to myself and where my real path is supposed to take me. I got caught up on the money trail… and I lost myself. So, my client experience was kind of bad… but it was probably what I needed to get back on track.
Phylecia Jones
Founder | CEO | Speaker | Writer | Lightweight Adventurer
My mission in life is to see the world and sprinkle some magic on it to help inspire and change it! As the CEO & Founder of Budget School, my fun day job is spent helping solo and entrepreneurs get smart with their money so they can achieve their dreams. When I am not writing, speaking, or leading workshops, I love to travel and see different parts of the world!
Thank you for being so open. It’s a great reminder to not chase money, and ask yourself is that customer the right fit for your business.