Do you struggle with your finances as a creative? What about pricing your products? Do you have a system for managing your money?

In this episode of The New Music Industry Podcast, I share a chapter from my upcoming book titled “Finances.” I also share the Tony Robbins method I used to handle my money.

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Podcast Highlights:

00:14 – Another episode on my upcoming book, Flashes of Elation

00:27 – What “Flashes of Elation” means

00:46 – Pre-orders

01:04 – The book is a work in progress

01:14 – Today’s topic, finances

01:19 – The “three taboos” and pricing creative services

03:15 – Firing your worst clients

03:39 – Going into debt

04:54 – Being selfless

05:22 – Making a living and getting money handled

05:43 – The three buckets of savings

06:33 – Paying attention to your finances

Transcription:

Hey. I’m back with another episode on the upcoming book, Flashes of Elation.

“Flashes of Elation” describes what creatives often feel. I know a lot of creatives that have major ups and downs in their lives. But when they feel happy, they feel ecstatic. And when they feel down, they feel downright depressed. And that’s what that terms describes.

If you’d like to claim the pre-order bonuses that come along with this book, then you’ll want to go to the pre-order page before June 30, 2017, when pre-orders officially close.

And just so you know, what I’m about to share with you isn’t necessarily in its finished form. I’m still working on the book. But it will give you a good idea of the content that is within.

And today’s topic is finances, so let’s take a look.

Finances

How do you feel when you hear the word, “money”?

Supposedly, the “three taboos” in conversation are politics, sex, and religion. But don’t you feel like money also belongs on that list, at least in North America?

What’s your response when it comes time to negotiate salary in a job interview?

What do you tell your future client when they ask you how much that website is going to cost them?

Do you answer promptly and confidently, or do you balk and start talking in circles? Do you ask for less, or come up with some kind of friendly discount and justify it later?

How about when someone asks what you do for a “living”? It’s a loaded question, and you know you’re being sized up.

When you observe the way us creatives price our products and services, it’s usually in a very timid, apologetic way. Our attitude is, “we don’t know what we’re worth, so you tell us”.

But people put more value on what they buy than what they get for free. Give an eBook away, and nobody will read it. Sell an eBook for $7, and that thing still might not get read. Sell it for $57, and people have to take it seriously (there will always be a percentage of people that still don’t read it though). Ironically, they’ll get more value out the eBook too, even if the information in the $7 eBook and the $57 eBook are exactly the same. Imagine that.

“Oh, but no one would buy my thing for $57.”

Have you ever tried? How do you know for sure that you can’t sell your thing for $57 (and if $57 sounds like chump change to you, let’s say $597)? How do you know you wouldn’t make more money, earn more sales, and attract better quality customers? You probably would, because people would value your work more.

There may very well be a threshold for how much you can charge for your work, but that ceiling is much, much higher than most of us even know.

I find it interesting that the first tip in Michael Port’s book, Book Yourself Solid, is to fire the clients that are causing you the most stress. Tim Ferriss makes a similar suggestion in The 4-Hour Workweek. It’s not about the money you lose as much as it is about the freedom and joy you gain back.

As sensitive creative people, we put up with far more and ask for far less than a person ever should.

As artists, we tend to put up with more and ask for less than we should.Click To Tweet

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