Self-Sacrifice Serves No One

self-sacrifice I talk a lot about the importance of serving prospective clients vs. selling them. That distinction is at the heart of our attraction-based marketing system, an approach that works wonders, especially for people who just can’t bring themselves to do the traditional sales thing.

But, let’s be clear … and this is important … serving someone does not mean charging them less than you’re worth or giving away your service. It doesn’t mean sacrificing for the other person’s benefit.

That actually serves no one, because it’s not a sustainable or healthy arrangement. You won’t be around long doing what you love to do, giving people what they need, if you don’t get an appropriate return on your investment of time, money, energy, and commitment.

A free and willing exchange of value for value is what you’re after, where BOTH parties benefit. So many people have a thing about money, as if there’s something’s wrong with being on the receiving end of it.

It’s just a medium of exchange. You exchange your time, skill, and dedication to the client’s well-being in exchange for money. That money likely came, in turn, from the sale of their valuable time and service to someone else. And around and around it goes.

Think of money as nothing more than the transfer of energy from one person to another, energy that can be converted into needed goods and services.

So, why all the angst? Billions of exchanges of value for value occur every day. It’s what makes the world go ‘round, allowing people to get their needs met as efficiently as possible. It’s a very good thing.

Service does not require sacrifice. If you want to do pro bono work, give “scholarships,” or discount your fees as a professional courtesy, that’s fine. But don’t do it because you think that somehow you don’t deserve to be compensated or that money is bad. That’s nonsense. That money coming in allows you to be of service! And being of service is the ultimate reward. In the words of the poet:

“I slept and dreamt that life was joy. I awoke and saw that life was service. I acted and behold, service was joy.” – Rabindranath Tagore

Love,
Denise

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