This Article Is A Pep Talk

To be completely honest, this week’s article is a bit self-serving,

(Or a lot self-serving, but that is neither here nor there)

Because to be frank, I am fully writing this because the core message is something that I need to hear right now:

JUST BECAUSE I AM STRESSED DOES NOT MEAN THAT I NEED TO ACCEPT WORK FOR LOWER THAN MY ASKING RATE.

(Yes, I am jumping the gun on the morale of the article this time, but honestly, the more that I hear these words, the better)

Let me catch you up on what is going on to make this make more sense: 👇

TBH it’s been a time lately

Recently, my freelance work has been very busy (YAY), but it also has been a bit up and down with communication from some of my stable clients.

(A few unanswered emails here and there that always make me feel STRESS).

Now, this is not new,

(Actually, this is incredibly common, even though I seem to have amnesia about it every time)

And yet, when I go through a communication lull, I always worry that I am on the verge of being let go.

Then, to make things even worse, once that spiral has started, I allow my brain to assume that I might lose every client I have ever had and that I will soon have no business at all.

(Yes, I am very stable. No, I never seem to learn from this behavior. It is just part of my ✨process✨ yenno?)

So anyway, if you can believe this, all of this is just the context to the real problem I want to talk about today.

(That’s right, there are other equally insidious things lurking just below the surface of this panic spiral. Freelancing truly is a never-ending parade of fun and sunshine!)

Here is the actual meat and potatoes of my stress right now:

When I begin to worry about the stability of my other clients, I begin to self-sabotage other potential work at the same time.

(And that is where the point of this email and the reminder to myself comes in).

This week, I have a client call with a potential new client that came into my inbox via a referral from a friend.

And while I usually go into new client calls with a game plan for how I will bring up my rates,

I am noticing that when I was thinking about this upcoming meeting, I am imagining situations where I was more complacent and agreeable with lower rates.

(Which, like, is so not like me???)

I am usually such a strong advocate for charging your worth and continually upping your rates to match your experience and knowledge,

And so the fact that I was allowing myself to be comfortable with thoughts like,

“Oh, well if the hourly rate they offer is half of my current rate, that’s not the end of the world”

Is kinda a big red flag about my mental state and sense of self-worth regarding my business at the moment, and I am very much not a big fan.

Stress is a big catalyst for me making less-than-great choices

I am not pretending to be a therapist or mental health expert,

(That’s what my therapist is for)

But I am seeing that there is a direct connection between me feeling bad about my other work and being way more willing to value myself and my services for less than the going rate.

(There is some supply and demand thing here, but listen, I didn’t go to business school, and I don’t want to draw out a tortured metaphor to try to sound like I did)

So, all of this is to say that I am using this article to hype myself up to be firm with my rates and my worth during my call this week.

I know that, because I am feeling some stress with my other primary clients, I am more likely to want to concede about my rates in a desperate attempt to ensure that I always have work to do,

But, as the CEO of my own business (and as a badass in my own right),

I owe it to myself to stay true to my value and worth and stay firm on my rates.

At the end of the day, my rates are what they are because I have the skills and knowledge to provide a premium service.

I have clients who are willing to pay me my rates for a reason — and I would be doing myself a massive disservice to offer my work for anything less, even if I feel the pull and stress to do so.

I deserve to be paid my worth on every project I work on.

Every. Single. Time.

So, with this energy and pep talk, wish me the best of luck during my new client call this week.

Wish me luck, and I hope that my message to me (AKA charge your worthy girl) also helps you on any upcoming new client calls too.

We all deserve it!

Until next week,