211 – July 30
“Self-respect is a question of recognizing that anything worth having has its price.”—Joan Didion
Give yourself a raise. Ask for more money. You’re worth it!
Many people have a hard time asking for their worth. They know their value, but are afraid of the reaction they might get if they ask for it. They get scared that their clients or bosses will feel they have over-priced themselves and that they will find someone else who will do it for less. This is generally a groundless fear. People do business with you for one primary reason—they like you. Sure, they want to save money, get a good deal, and a pay a fair price. But if you are doing a great job for them, they don’t want to change and have to find and hire someone else who may not be able to do as good a job as you are doing.
A music composer named Steve took my workshop a few years ago, and had just found a new agent to represent him. He was very happy with the new agent, who had a great reputation, lots of experience and clout. But he was concerned because the agent wanted to increase his price from $150,000 to $200,000 per film. He said he just felt he couldn’t ask for that much money.
I asked him if there were any composers working in the industry who made that much money. “Well, of course there are,” he said immediately. “There are famous composers who get paid millions of dollars per picture.”
So I told him that $200,000 wasn’t enough—he should ask for $400,000. He was totally shocked by that amount, which seemed outrageous. I told him to practice saying “I am paid $400,000 per film, I am paid $400,000 per film,” twenty times per day for the next week. He needed to say it with positive emotion and intention behind it until he believed it. Steve laughed, but he agreed to try it.
At the next class session, I asked him if he had practiced stating his new price. He answered that he had and that it felt good. “Does $200,000 per picture sound like a reasonable amount of money now?” I asked him.
“As a matter of fact, now it doesn’t sound like enough!” he answered, which provoked gales of laughter from his classmates.
The reason this exercise works is that it helps you to convince yourself that you’re worth the money. When you establish your price, you are telling people what you think you’re worth. They take their cue from you. If you state your new price tentatively, fearfully, or questioningly, they’re going to spit it back in your face and demand a lower price. If you state it confidently, like this high price is really unbelievably cheap, they will see the respect you have for yourself and more likely accede to your request. After all, if you’re getting that much money, you must be worth it!
Today’s Affirmation:
“I love to ask for money and I get paid top dollar when I do!”
I’ve received the email below a couple of times, and I can relate to the groundswell of anger and frustration in the general populace of the American people that produced it. With the Republican/Democrat standoff in Congress over the debt ceiling, Obamacare, and the continuing recessionary times, the people want their elected representatives to represent them and fix it. But the overwhelming sensibility is that they have voted themselves such a rich package of lifetime benefits that they have lost touch with the needs of the American people.
From that perspective, this resolution makes a lot of sense. What do you think? Do chime in!
Subject: Amendment change
The 26th amendment (granting the right to vote for 18 year-olds) took only 3 months & 8 days to be ratified! Why? Simple! We, the people, demanded it. That was in 1971…before computers, before email, before cell phones, etc.
Of the 27 amendments to the Constitution, seven (7) took 1 year or less to become the law of the land…all because of public pressure.
I’m asking each addressee to forward this email to a minimum of twenty people on their address list; in turn ask each of those to do likewise.
In three days, most people in The United States of America will have received the message. This is one idea that really should be passed around.
Congressional Reform Act of 2011
- No Tenure / No Pension. A Congressman collects a salary while in office and receives no pay when they are out of office.
- Congress (past, present & future) participates in Social Security. All funds in the Congressional retirement fund move to the Social Security system immediately. All future funds flow into the Social Security system, and Congress participates with the American people. It may not be used for any other purpose.
- Congress can purchase their own retirement plan, just as all Americans do.
- Congress will no longer vote themselves a pay raise. Congressional pay will rise by the lower of CPI or 3%.
- Congress loses their current health care system and participates in the same health care system as the American people.
- Congress must equally abide by all laws they impose on the American people.
- All contracts with past and present Congressmen are void effective 1/1/12. The American people did not make this contract with Congressmen. Congressmen made all these contracts for themselves. Serving in Congress is an honor, not a career. The Founding Fathers envisioned citizen legislators, so ours should serve their term(s), then go home and back to work.
If each person contacts a minimum of twenty people then it will only take three days for most people (in the U.S. ) to receive the message. Maybe now is time.
THIS IS HOW YOU FIX CONGRESS!!!!!
What do you think?
