Making help more affordable

I thought I’d let you guys know of a change over at Anonymous Marriage Coaching (my coaching practice).  Since I started coaching I’ve had the pleasure of helping a lot of couples through coaching, and that’s been an awesome experience.  However, I’ve also talked to a lot of couples who said they’d sign up for coaching, if it weren’t for the expense.  I hate to hear that, because I don’t think getting help for your marriage should be hindered by financial constraints.  So, I’ve come up with a new pricing structure that I guarantee is affordable by anyone.

The long and short of it is: you pay what you can.  I’m going to choose to trust people on this one.  Here’s how it works:

I’ll coach you for a week.  No obligation, no contract, no payment up front.  After the week, you send me (via PayPal) what you feel the value in your life was for this service.  I know for some, sending $80 (the previous price) for the service is considered fair trade, and they can manage that type of investment.  I know they exist, because those are the clients I have already.  I also know there are those who can’t, because I talk to them fairly frequently as well.  So, if $80 is too much, send $40.  If that’s too much, send $20, $10, $5.  If you really can’t manage $5/week…well, maybe we should be working on financial management and budgeting (which I can help you with as well).  But send something.

Why?  The truth is, it’s not for me, it’s for you.  You not sending $1 or $2 isn’t going to affect my finances greatly, but it will affect your focus.  Because as soon as you invest monetarily in something, you begin to value it more.  It becomes something of worth.  There is a psychological game that plays out that makes you realize that your marriage is worth investing in (not only with money, but with time and effort).  If this factor didn’t exist, I would coach everyone for free.  But every piece of research, anecdotal or scientific, in the coaching field tells us that clients who pay see better results.  The idea is to send enough that you’ll notice it.  If you could afford $40 and send $2…well, you can guess how much your mind is going to value our coaching sessions.  I’ll still coach you the same, but I doubt you’ll see the same results and we’ll be wasting both of our time.

If after a week you don’t send anything, I’ll follow up with you to see what’s going on.  Maybe coaching is not right for you at this time.  Maybe you need counseling instead.  Maybe you just need a different coach.  Whatever the reason, I promise not to be offended.

The next week, we do the same pattern again.  I continue to coach, and you continue to gauge whether or not is has value in your life.  We’ll continue this way until the coaching has run it’s course, because coaching is not intended as a permanent solution. It’s short-term, to get through a particular topic or transition in life, or to get over a hurdle, or out of a rut.  Or perhaps to learn a new skill like communication, or conflict management.  Or for those times that you just need some extra accountability to start a new habit, or break a bad one.  Sometimes just knowing someone is going to ask how it’s going helps spur you on.

So, if you wanted to try marriage coaching and couldn’t justify the expense before, now’s your chance.  Visit my coaching practice at www.AnonymousMarriageCoaching.com for truly affordable marriage coaching.

Note: I also do individual coaching if your spouse isn’t interested in joining you, or you have things you’d rather work through on your own first.