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By Tamara Lowe
I see it all. the. time.
My students will be chugging along the path that I and my team have charted out for them. Creating their expert system. Giving it a title. Preparing to sell it. But then when it comes time to sell?
... they go into panic mode.
Voices start flashing in their head at light speed:
"Hold on... gulp... am I really going to ask people to PAY for this?"
"Don't good Christians give of their time freely, without asking for anything in return?"
"Jesus didn't charge for his services... so why would I?"
And some of my students don't even GET to that point in the journey!
They are so subconsciously afraid of meeting that moment, and reckoning with all those inner voices that will scream at them "heretic!" "money monger!" "you good-for-nothing greedy Christian!" ...that they avoid it at all costs, and stall in other parts of the process, spending endless hours obsessing over their title, their logo, their marketing materials... so they never have to arrive at the step when they start asking people for money.
Sound familiar?
Well here's a truth bomb for ya:
Giving your time away free is almost always the most SELFISH thing you could do.
And I'll give you several reasons why!
Here's one...
If you are constantly giving your time away for free, you will never be able to FULLY FOCUS on your ministry. Because you will never make enough money from your ministry to live off of. And so you will always have to juggle other jobs and other work.
Yes, I realize there are exceptions to this.
For example, if you have enough saved up for retirement... or if you have a spouse whose income can on its own support the fam... you can focus all your time on your ministry without charging money.
HOWEVER.
Even for these people my point still stands, that to give away your time for free is (usually) the most selfish thing you can do.
How so?
One word:
Scalability.
Money allows you to SCALE your message - and reach ten, a hundred, or a thousand times more people than you otherwise could have.
Because when you have money flowing into your ministry... you can pay for advertising. You can buy better tools. You can hire team members. You can pay consultants. You can outsource work that you are not gifted at. ALL things which are required to take your message to a broader audience.
So when you give all your time away free...
And refuse to ask for money...
You are essentially looking to thousands of people who you might have helped - moms who lost children, pastors who need support, survivors of sexual abuse, hurting, lost and broken people - and saying to them, "I could help you... but I am not going to. Because asking for money makes me super uncomfortable."
Ouch!
Truth stings a little, doesn't it?
But wait, there's more...
Asking people for money makes them far more COMMITTED to implementing what you tell them to do!
Because working with you has cost them something.
And so they now have a mindset of,
"I paid for this... I better make this worth it."
Versus the people who freely receive your advice, and feel no commitment to taking it seriously. And so they may implement it... or may not... depending on how they feel that day.
NOT an ideal state for the people you serve to be in!
So in that sense by NOT asking for money.
You are doing the people you serve a big disservice.
One more reason.
Asking for money is a choice that will reinforce YOUR OWN belief in the value of what you offer. It will raise your confidence levels. Remind you that what you are doing for people is worth something. And push you to "claim" more authority in speaking into others' lives.
And that is so so important.
That you constantly push yourself to RISE to greater levels of confidence and authority.
Which will then feed back into your ministry, and push you to reach more people more deeply.
So here's the heart of what I am getting at:
Stop it.
Stop being afraid.
Sure there is a place for listening to the Holy Spirit, and occasionally giving away your services free when the person in front of you absolutely needs what you offer and absolutely will never be able to afford your services.
But the vast majority of people you come across are not in that situation.
They CAN afford it... if they see the value of what you offer... or will be able to with some more time.
And the REAL issue is... you are bad at drawing boundaries. Afraid of asking uncomfortable questions.
So I ask you:
What is more important to you?
Feeling comfortable -
Or getting your message out to the people who need it most, so you can help them heal and step into better lives.
If the latter, then stop being selfish.
Stop giving all your time away free.
Do the loving thing.
Ask for money - and use that money to get your message to those who need to hear it most.
