Let’s Talk Money

Corporate Gym Setting To Commission Based Sales

“Two days after I graduated from college, I was thrown into this world where everything was  commissioned,” Lindsey said. “It’s one thing to start a job when you’re 22 and then say, this is your salary. Even if it’s low, which many are when you’re young or just starting out in your career, you can say, Okay, this is how I can budget, these are my bills. Do I need a second job to make up the amount of money?

But for me, it was commission, and all of a sudden, my mindset, subconsciously switched to ‘if I don’t make enough money, it’s my fault. It’s my fault for not getting enough clients. I am terrible at my job, therefore I don’t have enough money. I created all of these stories, resentment, shame, embarrassment and guilt about money and my ability to do my job.”

Money History & Inequality

“Although I have my own money struggles, I was able to get car loans, student loans, essentially lots of loans, and lots of credit cards, which have been problematic for me, but it has also funded my life in ways that I know other people do not have access to,” Heiserman said. “So that’s important to talk about. It’s important to realize that everybody’s money stories affect them.

So this is mine, and I want you to think about yours. I also want you to spend some time just thinking about other people, not in a judgmental way, not in an assuming way, but just observe how other people may have experienced money. It’s very helpful.”

The Way Money Is Learned As A Kid Has Lasting Effects

“So as a kid, I was like, ‘I have no problem losing five weeks of allowance if I can have the thing that I want right now’. So I learned about debt very early in the immediate gratification way, which was, if I wanted something, I could have it. But then I just didn’t have an allowance for five weeks. which didn’t seem like a problem. Later in life, this money story, this money belief, this management of money has played out so poorly for me. In loans, debt and living beyond my means. Saying, ‘I’ll just pay it off, I’ll just lose five weeks of allowance’, which does not work as an adult.”

“So I didn’t really learn much about savings. I had really learned that life and money is about skating by, having just enough. Always teetering on the edge of not having enough, but you have a good life. You just don’t have an extravagant life. Many beliefs around, not that rich people were bad, but some snide remarks, honestly about people who had money.”

Your Worth Is Not Tied To How Much You Charge A Client 

“Your worth in life, in your job, in your relationships, and you as a human has zero amount to do with what you charge for your services,” Lindsey said. “You are not your services. You are the one doing the work, but your worthiness is not tied to the dollar you are charging your client. So when I was working, we had a scale of charging. So this all feeds into this problematic structure because you could charge more per session if you had a couple of things. More education, so frankly, if you just got smarter, you could charge more. If you hit a certain revenue level, you could charge more. Also tenure, so you’ve been there for X number of years or whatever.”

“Tell me how that doesn’t create a negative view with your self esteem, your ego, and your value as a human. I looked around at trainers who are charging 30 dollars more than me per session, and let’s be honest, they weren’t getting their clients better results. They weren’t a better trainer, but because they had more knowledge, they were good sales people. So they could get clients and have a higher revenue. They’d been there for a while and they could just charge more. So this whole structure just really warped my view on the worthiness of money.”

Raising Your Prices Without Guilt

“I also struggled every single time with raising my prices because I felt bad for my clients,” Heiserman said. “It’s so important, no matter where you’re at, whether you’re at a club setting where someone is dictating your price or you are out on your own and you are in charge of your pricing, remember two things: time does not have to equal money, and client hours don’t have to equal money. What I mean by those two things is you don’t have to work X number of hours to be worthy of X price.”

Client’s Do Not Pay For You To Over Deliver 

“I used to think to myself, I have to take my clients from when the clock struck 12 o’clock on the second, and I cannot finish until 12:59­, or until the clock strikes one,” Lindsey said. “It has to be exactly 60 Minutes because they are paying me for my hour of time. I have to give them 60 minutes, which is not true. What if you deliver to them an incredible class or session, and frankly, it takes you 53 minutes. The time does not equal the value.”

“Yes, you’re not gonna end an hour session at 37 minutes and be say, ‘You got everything you came for… No, they did book you for your time. But if you find yourself trying to over ­deliver, or over extend to essentially prove that you’re worthy of the dollars, that’s where you have to take a step back. All of these money behaviors, they play out because of a thought pattern that you have. If you can identify them, you can start to break them down. Maybe even keep a little money thought journal or a note on your phone.”

How Discounts Affect Business or Employees

“Here’s the thing, if you cut what people pay, I then got paid less because I was a commission employee,” Lindsey said. “Then you got paid at this discounted rate, so I was losing money on clients who were already mine. I had already acquired them. They were already loyal customers, and several of my clients even asked me about it. ‘Are you losing money?’ I would say yes. It’s not their fault. I wanted them to have the deal. It was a significant price savings, but of course, the way the club looked at it was, ‘Well, you can just sell more’. That became very much a part of my faulty thought pattern, where I always just had to sell more to make more and that people would take my money away.”

“So when I say I have money stories, I have money  stories for nine years plus, that I experienced when I worked at the club. But that has played out for me too, and that someone can take away my money even though I am worthy of it. Even though I am working at the same level I was working before. Someone’s just gonna take it away.”

Questions That Arise When Creating A Price Point

“So this might be coming up for you. If you’re used to doing things one on one, or you’re  used to being in a physical setting and now you’ve changed your model,” Lindsey said. “You might wonder, What does that price mean? What should it be? How do I charge for this? And people who are starting out in business really have this struggle, because what do I charge? I’m new, I’ve never charged for my services before. What’s the going rate? What’s out there? What am I worthy of? Being aware of your own feelings about one on one client work versus group, maybe you want to just book yourself out with one on one. That’s great. I get  fired up thinking about this because it’s been so impactful for me to really think about my money stories.”

Sweat Equity 

“This idea of sweat equity, so whether you wanna call it ‘putting in the work’, whether you wanna call it ‘sweat equity’, it does not matter what you want to call it. I wrote this exact line down from his email, I wanna know if you agree. The more you invest sweat equity­ wise, the more you are going to view yourself as being worthy of what you need and want to charge,” Heiserman said. ”

If you’ve been around these internet parts for a while, you’ve seen a lot of people, maybe you’ve even seen this in my program, you’re gonna get more confident. I want to help you get more confidence. I’m a confidence coach. Does it just come out of thin air? You’re not actually teaching confidence. No one is teaching you confidence. No one can just instill confidence in you. That is a 100% internal job, but what leads to more confidence is competence, which to his point, comes from doing this sweat equity work, which is your education, which is networking.”

“Go listen to my last episode, all about networking and connecting. It’s time building your business. You know, putting your feet on the ground building your business. These days it’s really easy to just throw some things on social media, call it good and run a business. Frankly, that doesn’t build your competence. I mean, anyone can craft social media posts. You could even hire someone to do it for you, but if we tie this back to money, there is a level of ‘You’ that needs to do the work. Whatever that looks like to build your competence, which creates confidence, which helps you to feel more worthy. You are worthy anyway, but you have to get to a place where you believe that.”

Charge What You Feel Your Work Is Worth

“Here’s the real secret: you can charge what you want,” Lindsey said. “If you’re overcharging and you don’t feel competent in your work, or that you can deliver on the promise that you gave people and you just put out a high price because you wanted to, that’s not gonna end well. I truly believe under charge, over deliver, and keep raising your prices along the way. Under  charge, over deliver, because as you over­ deliver the clients get great results. You feel more  competent and then you raise your price. It’s a lot easier to raise your price like that than it is to  price so high and try to work your self esteem and your worthiness up to that price.”

“Now that might sound counterintuitive to what a lot of people are putting out there in the world. You’ll see a lot of coaches that tell you to create a high price program. But if I don’t feel competent, confident, or worthy, I’ll never sell the program.”

Teach Yourself Along The Way, You’ll Thank Yourself Later 

“This is important to note too, I taught myself email marketing,” Heiserman said. “I taught myself everything about my business and you will too. Unless you’re at a place where financially you can just hire people to do all of it, right out of the gates. You’re probably gonna teach yourself a lot of amazing things and that will build your competence. You will feel ready to charge more. So all that background work and ground work is so important.”

Do You Feel Worthy Of A Lot Of Money?

“I wonder what you’re thinking about when I say worthiness, because I also don’t yet feel worthy of a lot of money,” Lindsey said. “I feel like I’m never gonna get there. A lot of the time, I see people who have a house, a lifestyle, or a vehicle, and I know the world is full of smoke and mirrors, I understand that, but my worthiness for money capacity is still growing. I wanna be really honest about that, because people don’t talk about that. It is limiting my ability to grow, to sell, to serve, and to just do what I’m amazing at.”

“I’m working on it and I know you will too. So the best piece of advice I have for this, is to journal it, to talk to yourself. Why do you not feel worthy? Why do you feel like you can’t have that lifestyle? What is stopping you along the way? Why are you not allowed? Those are really important questions because there’s no reason that I can’t have that lifestyle that I desire or that you can’t. There’s no shame, and I keep saying shame because it’s very important to notice if you feel shameful around money. Because if you feel shameful around money, you’re not going to get it.”

Your History Shouldn’t Define How Much Money You Make

“In my subconscious, I am worried what people in my life will say, and that is limiting me from growing,” Heiserman said. “No one in my family has made more than six figures a year ever. In my extended family, in my immediate family, and the people around me in my life, no one has made over six figures a year. That matters on so many levels. It matters because subconsciously, I think I feel bad. Subconsciously, I feel like, why would I be the one to break out of that mold? I better not. I should just stay complacent. I need to just stay in this zone, that’s comfortable. I don’t like it here, but relative to my surroundings, this is standard. So it’s really  important for you to look at why you do not feel worthy of more money.”

Author: Lindsey Heiserman

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