"Life begets life; energy begets energy. It is by spending oneself that one becomes rich."
-attributed to Sarah Bernhardt
Let's talk about money, shall we?
I bet that you are one of those people who would like to have more money in your life and less fear and stress, would you not? I know... it's a pretty safe bet on my part.
Obviously desire alone is not enough to create the kind of money we want in our lives, otherwise we'd all have it. Interestingly enough, one of the problems people encounter when they set out to make more money is actually asking themselves some variation of the question... "How can I make more money?"
Now, you may read that and think... "Huh...what's wrong with that question?" Well, the problem with it is that when we ask ourselves how we can make more money, we've ignored what money is actually being exchanged for. I know it sounds strange, but if you want to create money, don't focus on money so much.
In the spirit of the Summer Olympics; focusing on just making money, is a lot like focusing exclusively on winning a gold medal, without actually understanding that you have to pick a sport, and put in thousands of hours of training and conditioning. Now, you might get there, but the odds aren't in your favor without understanding that a gold medal is exchanged for a world class athletic performance.
So what is money exchanged for? Well, on a purely superficial level, people exchange money for millions of different ideas, goods and services. Even if you have a traditional job where you go work for somebody else, your employer is exchanging money(your sallary) for your services.
Given that there is so many different things that we exchange money for, the real question is what is the underlying factor? What is the common denominator between all of these goods and services?
The answer is VALUE; and I think of value as the ability to make a positive difference. If something makes no difference than it doesn't really have much value. Now putting aside things like theft, the only reason anyone will give you money for any goods or services, is because someway, somehow, that person thinks they will get value from those goods or services.
Now, before I introduce you to the value formula, let me first make a couple distinctions.
The first is the distinction between value and perceived value. The value that we create in the market place is completely subjective. This means that all of the value that is exchanged for goods and services is made up; it's all in our heads. There is no "Real Value" when it comes to exchanging goods and services. Now that being said, that doesn't mean we don't still have the experience of value; which is still... well... valuable ;-).
Take for example, a service like a massage. Somebody who really loves massages is going to value them and pay money for them. On the other hand, somebody who hates having a strangers hands all over their body isn't going to consider massages valuable.
No goods or services are inherently valuable, they can only have perceived value to individuals. This is why really good advertising works. An advertisers' main goal is to convince you that the good or service they are promoting is extremely valuable in your life and worth paying for. If they can get you to believe that you can't live without it, then you are likely going to spend the money.
The second distinction I want to make is between your innate value as a human being, and the value you create for others in the marketplace.
To the extent you get mixed up and believe that your marketplace value is the same as your value and worth as a person, you are going to struggle. This tends to be particularly relevant for individuals who have very personal services like coaches, therapists, healers, etc.
Your value as a human being is innate. There is nothing you can do to diminish this value, and there is nothing you can do to increase it. One of my favorite definitions I've heard for the unconditional love of God is: There is nothing you can do to make God love you any more, and there is nothing you can do to make God love you any less (If you don't like the word "God", than replace it with what works for you... spirit, higher-self, mind, the universe, etc).
I challenge you to go into the hospital ward where all of the babies are, and tell me which babies are worth more than the others. Which ones are more valuable? Now, besides mothers being very biased with their own children, nobody I've ever met has been able to actually sensibly answer that question. This is because on some level, most people know that we're all connected, and at our most fundamental level we are valuable. Your essence, your innate value is never at stake, regardless of how many times somebody tells you they don't want to pay for your services.
Your value in the marketplace is simply that perceived value that you create for other people with whatever goods or services you provide. It's essentially the positive difference you make.
At this point you may be saying, yeah yeah yeah, but how do I make more money? Well like I said, you make more money by exchanging it for value. So, let's take a look at how to actually create more value for people in the marketplace. It turns out that there are 3 important variables to focus on. These will give you an idea of your money making potential, as well as point out some areas for you to work on with your goods and services.
Here's the value formula that I learned from super coach Michael Neill:
Scale + Magnitute(Scope) + Uniqueness = Value
Let's take them one at a time.
Scale is essentially, how many people on the planet you are reaching with your goods or services. This is one of the factors that determines why public speakers, as well as TV and Movie Personalities have the potential to make so much money. They very simply create value for millions of people. That however doesn't mean they make a big difference for each person, which leads me to the next variable.
Magnitude or scope is the element representing how big of a difference you make in peoples lives. Are you transforming the lives of everybody you come into contact with, or do people not even notice the service you provide. Take somebody like a medical doctor who is literally saving lives day in and day out; or perhaps a transformative coach who supports people to live extraordinary lives. They are creating huge value for their patients and clients, therefore it tends to be worth more to people.
The third variable is uniqueness. This one is pretty straight forward. How many people in the world provide the value that you provide? If somebody wants what you have on offer, can they just go to the next guy down the street and get the same thing, or are you the only one? The more unique the value, the more people are going to be willing to pay to get it. The goal here is to make yourself the scarce resource, and have money be the common one. Always remember, there are trillions of dollars on the planet, but there is only one you.
When you look at all of these variables together, you might notice that none of these variables on their own is enough to be successful at creating more money. For intstance, if you create huge value(magnitude) for people, but you aren't ever actually in contact with anybody(scale), than no money. If you are extremely unique, but you aren't actually making a big difference for people, than people aren't gonig to pay you much. And even if you can reach millions of people, but you aren't unique and you don't make a difference, than good luck trying to charge for it.
We've got to have all of these variables working for us in one way or another.
Here's how to put this to use in your own life. First go ahead and rank yourself in each of the three value variables on a scale from one to 10. Next, pick an area that you are weak in and work on bringing it up a number or two.
The category I recommend working on first is magnitude or scope. If you can make a huge difference for people, often times you'll find the other variables increase without much extra effort.
The brilliant coach Steve Chandler calls this 'Lazerus Marketing'. He says "all you have to do is bring one person back from the dead, and they'll talk about you forever." In other words when you learn to make a massive difference in people's lives, that becomes your marketing. If you keep reaching out and making that difference wherever you see a need for it, then people will likely spread the word.
If you find yourself scoring very high, like a 9 or 10 on the magnitude scale, then you can focus in on the other variables. Get in touch with what only you provide for people and cultivate that.
As far as scope is concerned, there are so many ways to create value for more people than you currently are. You can write, or speak, or just start having conversations with people at the bus stop; whatever it takes. Find what works for you and the value that you want to create for others.
Now, because market place value is subjective, you are going to need to be able to communicate that value to others. I'll save this topic for another time, however suffice it to say, the best way to communicate the difference you make, is to actually make the difference. Don't try to convince people to give it a try, actually show people; demonstate.
Steve Chandler talks about the idea that you never want somebody to make the choice of whether or not to work with you. You want them to make the decision to continue working with you.
One last tip. You might want to actually ask people to hire you, or buy your goods. If you don't actually make that request, 9 times out of 10, people won't hire you, even if they see the value. Believe me, I know. This one I'll be continuing to work on, right along with you. I've never had anyone hire me without me asking them if they would like to hire me. (To learn more read my article titled Clean Requests, and look for an upcoming audio recording on this subject)
If you're not quite sure what value you create for the world, or what kind of difference you'd like to make, then I'll leave you with this question to ponder that I learned from Michael Neill:
What's the difference I'd love to make, that people would love to give me money for?
Until Next Time, Love and Light
Coach Ty
P.S. If you get VALUE from my work, then you may enjoy my new Audio Recording called Transformation from the Inside Out.
