Somewhere along the line, creatives and artists married their self worth to the dollar value of their art, their service, their product. And this is what makes it so incredibly difficult and emotionally confronting for creatives to price their work for profit, or just price it at all. To not only stick up for it, but to even feel entitled. To not feel guilty about it. To state their prices like it’s a fact instead of wincing and discounting it on the fly. Artists have also decided that others’ financial stress and misfortune was for them to take on, even at their own expense (more on this later).

Ok Pricing, it’s not working out. We’ve been trying to make this work for awhile. Like, for decades. I’m not even sure why we got together in the first place, but either way, this is clearly not doing any good for either of us. I make you unable to do your job, and you just make me feel shitty about myself. But…I’d like to still be friends.

Here’s what that friendship looks like. The only way I like to connect pricing and self-worth is by way of this one simple belief: I deserve to have the lifestyle I want. I deserve to have a good life. I deserve to not be starving. I deserve to THRIVE.

That’s it. And I imagine that for those of you reading, the lifestyle you want isn’t unreasonable or over-the-top.

If or until something radically shifts in society in hundreds of years, we will need money to have the lifestyle we want. Once you know how much money you need to have that lifestyle, it’s a simple math problem. It’s devoid of emotion – it’s just a fact. I need $x per job to thrive. The end. And once you liberate pricing from “how good you are,” your life is going to change.

If you’re into reading books, grab a copy of Worth Every Penny. It’s…worth every penny…