My coaching rates will be going up on January 1st, 2010. They’ll be $200 per session or $720 for a package of four (the 10% discount on the package will stay). I always allow people to buy sessions before a price increase and use them anytime later, so if you’re thinking you’d like to work with me – thank you! – then feel free to load up before the price changes. Jump on over to my coaching page to learn more.
I’ll be unavailable for coaching calls from 12/21/09 until 1/4/10. I only have a few spots open this year, but I’d love to help you come up with a good holiday plan so that you can have a running start for 2010.
I’ve had a few people ask me whether they should just wait until next year or grab one of the few spots I have left this year. That depends, really.
If you need help brainstorming and planning something, then there will still be a lot we can do in a session. Even just helping you crystallize the idea and clear the decks on some other projects would set you up for success for next year. I frequently work with people in one-off sessions, but those sessions lay the groundwork for them to be able to actually do something with their ideas rather than just have them rolling around in their heads.
If you want to do a lot of habit or workflow change and know that you’ll be taking time off, you might want to wait until next year. Those types of changes are hard enough and it’s pretty frustrating to have an on-again, off-again thing going – you can’t tell what’s messing with your mojo and it’s hard to build some up on a schedule like that.
The best thing that I can say is if you’re interested but concerned about the timing, contact me and let me know. But do so soon, as I don’t have that many open sessions left this year.
Cool to see you getting by self-employed. That is something I would like to do one day too. Maybe I will schedule a session with you once I have a little bit of money.
.-= Steven Handel´s last blog ..Grudges And Forgiveness =-.
For someone so concerned about the ethics of pricing, this is quite a disappointing move.
.-= Eric “M” Schiller´s last blog ..Authenticity, Congruence, and Small Talk =-.
For someone with so little knowledge about what I do, this is quite a vacuous rebuke.
If you think I can’t understand what you do from reading your blog for over a year, then who can Charlie?
You offer ambiguously described coaching services marketed with strong buzz-words for more money per hour than most people are willing to pay their psychologists.
What am I missing?
First, you’re smart, but every indication I’ve gotten from you in our past conversations is that you’re not really seeking to understand. It’s not a matter of “can” in that sense – everything looks like a nail to a hammer.
Second, unless you’ve worked with me, you don’t know what I do. You don’t know how much time I put into it or what I offer outside of the one-hour increments that are listed on my coaching page.
Third, part of the reason my descriptions are ambiguous is because I tailor what I do for the particular person I’m working with. My copy can’t cover all the possible specifics in the way I might work with someone – so broad strokes have to do until I can talk to someone and determine if we’re a good fit. For what it’s worth, I haven’t been the right fit for some people and had to refer them to someone else.
Fourth, every one of the clients that I’ve worked with has had great results. As a matter of fact, my clients are happier, more effective, less stressed, and achieving their goals. The claims in my copy reflect this, and if that makes them buzz words, so be it.
What gauge you’re using to make a normative judgment about the relative financial value of my service is lost upon me, and what people are willing to pay their psychologists, doctors, burger-flippers, mechanics, or teachers is only tangentially relevant. What is relevant is 1) whether I’m providing a service that’s a good exchange of value from my clients’ perspectives, and 2) whether I can stand behind what I’m charging with integrity.
I offer a unique service that helps a particular set of people who I’m especially good at working with. The people who use that service are satisfied with the outcomes of it, and while my rates are surely above the means of some people, any reasonable rate I might charge would be above someone’s means.
Your mind is already made up on this, and me saying anything more would only serve to continue a conversational pattern between us that I find to be both sophomoric and a waste of resources. It seems that our ideologies and communicative patters are irreconcilable, so the best thing I can do is disengage and do something that would actually make a positive difference in the world – there’s no fertile ground here.
So: you think I’m betraying my concern for ethical pricing and entrepreneurship. Duly noted. Have a nice evening.
Eric,
Successful entrepreneurs’ tend to perceive their own time as high-leverage. If they work on the right stuff, it matters to their business. A lot.
If Charlie helps someone change their habits and become 20% more productive (absolutely possible) that can have a substantial, material, long-term effect on their income.
–> The value of his consulting is relative only to his client’s time-leverage. That’s the point. <–
Now, if you're saying he's pricing himself out of range of some people and that's somehow unethical, that's a pretty weak argument and leaves out the fact that he provides tremendous value for free on this site, at his own cost.
If you're actually interested in this stuff, and not giving someone grief, this is an interested essay about the creation of wealth: http://www.paulgraham.com/wealth.html Charlie is increasing his wealth and that of his clients simultaneously.
The best determinant of pricing is the *value you deliver*. Period.
– Aaron
Spending time to write a me a novel *is* a waste of resources, but your justifications for your pricing listed above sound exactly like Naomi Dunford’s ad copy, so it probably wasn’t difficult for you to come up with then.
Just go watch yourself here: //productiveflourishing.com/the-thing-i-hate-the-most-about-being-an-entrepreneur/
And ask yourself if pricing your coaching services at $200 per hour is “approachable” or “inaccessible.” Your words, not mine.
Hi Charlie!
I look forward to working with you in the very near future…like very near. I am also seriously considering attending the retreat in Feb. I have been planning a trip back to AZ for R&R and this could easily be apart of that plan. So…with traveling both this week and next week, seems like the week after will start to be good for me.
Are coaching contact hours a little flexible – like will you be available for early evenings?
Thanks in advance!
cj
It’s good to hear that you’re in interested in both working with me and/or attending the retreat. I’m sending you an email to see what you need and what we can coordinate.