April 2015 - Eyes Wide Open Life with Alexis Katz

I've made a lot of big investments over the life of my career.

Each time, I was scared to death.

The first was when I was still a lawyer in a big law firm and while I was making a nice, steady, reliable paycheck, I NEVER spent any money on myself.

And, after taxes, insurance, mortgage payments, stuff for the baby, and my husband's daily trips to Starbucks with the baby (he was a stay at home dad), there was nothing left over.

So how COULD I start investing in myself?

I didn't think I could.

That changed when I came across my very first coach and realized that if I didn't hire her and get help, I was going to be stuck in misery.

I had worked my buttinski off to get the job at the big law firm and yet there I was with all the “success” in the world and I wanted to die every day I had to leave my husband and baby to go into the office.

Fortunately, I came across a coach I knew could help me (how I came across her is a really good story for another day), but I was scared to make the investment.

Spend money on myself? Never.

But after some conversation with her, she helped me to see that if I didn't make investments in myself (not just financial, but other investments too — more about that another day as well), I'd be stuck.

And if I did make investments in myself, they would pay back every time.

So I did it. I took a deep breath, swallowed hard and paid her more money than I thought I had for coaching. And it wasn't even that much.

But back then, it felt like so much. (It was only $347/mo., but it felt like a million dollars because I was SURE I didn't have the extra $347/mo.)

And it's all relative …

Just a few years later in 2008, I invested $100,000 (yes, you read that right!) to participate in a coaching/mastermind program.

$100,000!?! But I'm telling ya, it truly is all relative.

That $347/mo. investment felt as scary as the $100,000 investment.

My businesses were on track to make a couple million and anything less than $100,000 wouldn't have been enough to stretch me beyond my comfort zone at that point.

And that's exactly where I needed to be.

Stretched.

Outside my comfort zone.

Today, I am right back there again … about to make a huge investment that is scaring me to death. Stretching

But it's definitely the right next thing. I'll share the details of it with you tomorrow and how I know it's the next right stretch for me.

To your eyes (and heart) wide open life,

Ali

PS — If you know that our packing course is for you, enrollment is now open. There's space for 10 folks. If you read my last email and know that it's time to move from hourly to packages with your services and to easily enroll people into working with you and reaching your Money Map Number, this is the course for you. Enroll now.

I don't know if you know this about me, but my first foray into business was when I started my own law practice in 2003. I didn't know anything about business.

And for the first two years of my practice, I struggled with the question of how to charge for my services, how to explain what I charged, how to structure my fees, and pretty much made up a new fee each time a new client came in.

It wasn't that great. In fact, it was worse than not great — it really sucked.

Quite often people would walk out the door without hiring me and I knew it was because I wasn't comfortable and confident quoting my fees and letting my prospects know how to move forward with me.

So I'd get uncomfortable when it came time to talk money and they'd “have to think about” or “get back to me.”

I was a true believer that I needed to move beyond hourly billing into a flat fee model, but I didn't really have any good models for doing so.

Especially not in the legal community where most people were still charging hourly (or minutely!)

So I'd make up my fees on the spot based on what each I thought each prospect needed, would pay, could afford, and any number of other ways I could think of to justify what I was charging.

Sometimes, I would just revert back to charging hourly.

I'm curious…do you experience this too? It was a huge problem and I knew that if I didn't figure it out, I would have to go back to working someone else. I had to make sure I could put food on the table.

I was terrified everyday that I wouldn't make it in my practice, until I figured out how to package my services into easy to speak about and quote fee structures that let my prospects choose their own fees.

Packaging my services was the fundamental, first step, key to building my practice into a business with repeatable, predictable systems I could count on.

Once I figured out how to package my services (even though I was sure I never could because each client was so different) and price my services systematically so it was easy for my clients to say yes, I rapidly built my little one-woman law practice into a million dollar a year law business.

THAT is the power of packages. It changes everything. It's the holy grail, first step for any of you that are not routinely engaging enough clients or who are still charging hourly for your time.

It frees up your time (because you are enrolling far more of the people you talk to about your services), it allows you to systematize your practice into a business, it gives you confidence to hire support, and allows you to know exactly how to get to a “full practice”, which is likely your next step.

I'll have more details on this for you soon. In the meantime, I would love to hear from you about what stops you from packaging your services, moving away from hourly billing or “seat of your pants” pricing.

Share in the comments and let me know. I read every message.

To your eyes (and heart) wide open life,
Ali

PS — When you comment to let me know what's keeping you from packaging your services into easy to say yes to options for your ideal clients, let me know what kind of practice you have, service you offer, and if you know your Entrepreneurial Archetype and Archetype Path (from the Money Map), be sure to tell me that too.