by Kara-Leah Grant, Musings from the Mat
On Saturday, I was on a Skype call with a sales rep from MediaPass.
He’s been great at helping me navigating my way through the implementation of a subscription system for The Yoga Lunchbox, answering all my many and varied questions with great patience – except for one thing.
I wanted to use a subscription system where people could decide how much they wanted to pay to receive premium access to The YLB.
I asked him about letting people choose how much they wanted to pay.
There was a long pause. He responded.
People usually set the subscription rates so they can make as much money as possible.
I replied:
It’s not about the money. It’s about changing the way we think about money, and the way we determine value.
A longer pause.
You’re the first person we’ve dealt with who’s not primarily interested in chasing the big dollar.
I laughed.
I’m more interested in shifting the paradigm.
A big part of The YLB, right from it’s inception, has been questioning value, cost and how we determine what people should pay for something. I’m still interested in these questions, but for simplicity sake, and so as to not explode the brains of the friendly folk at MediaPass, I’m just going to roll with set prices for once.
Plus I was curious.
Was my obsession with flexible-pricing models not just about changing the paradigm, but also because I’m afraid to front up and just say…?:
This is what it’s worth people. Pay up, or ship out.
‘Cos what if, like, everyone shipped out?
As it turns out, there’s no way I can have my subscribers decide how much they want to charge for premium access to The YLB. I have to set the rates. But you know what, I can live with that. I’m comfortable with the value I’m offering through this website, and I know it’s worth the money.
But that brief encounter with Matt also made me realise how ingrained our basic assumptions about money and it’s value are.
We chase Money as if it’s Important. As if it Matters. As if making a Whole Swack proves Something. Yet we all know, that beyond a basic level of income, over-all happiness doesn’t increase that much.
I get it.
I got caught up too.
I’ve been unconsciously rating myself a Giant Failure over the creation of this website, because in the four years since it’s been running, it’s been running at a loss, and all my time to date has been volunteered and donated.
Obviously, I suck at business because if I didn’t suck, I would’ve figured out a way to make money.
These thoughts lead into… what I’m offering must be crap, because there’s no dollars stacking up in my bank account.
Which is sooooo not true.
I am not a failure and this website is not a failure.
Oh sure, if I used money to score points, I am a Big Fat Loser. But if I use something else for my scorecard, like the number of most excellent relationships I’ve developed, like the number of writers I’ve nurtured, like the number of people I’ve impacted with the articles I’ve written… well then… it’s clear I’m a Mighty Success.
And if I’d been interested in spinning some serious cash out of this website, it wouldn’t be what it is… it would be something different, and it likely wouldn’t have created those relationships, nutured those writers or impacted those readers.
And that would be a Big Fat Loss, to society, and to us.
Money is a lousy way to score life. It doesn’t take into account Relationships, Health, the Environment, Time, Energy and the Kind of World We Create.
So I’ve tossed money from the top of my score card, just like I’m closing the energetic leaks by making sure that only those people who truly want and need The Yoga Lunchbox are getting it.
I’m loving the deepening sense of community and relationship I’m experiencing as a result of this shift.
I’m loving the clarity I’m enjoying now that I’m not fervently trying to figure out how to get more, do more, be more and win more through this website. I’m loving the space (witness the increase of original articles pouring forth, and watch out for my first e-book coming soon).
Ah space!
I’m also loving the enthusiasm I’m feeling about pouring into the website so it delivers more of what the community needs, wants, values, loves.
For this reason, I’m about to introduce a subscription system on the site, because while money is a lousy way to score, it is a good way to measure an exchange of energy.
I’m putting energy into creating this website, along with my team of columnists, and we’re creating something that has value. That means readers and subscribers are receiving value when they read the most excellent articles we produce. I’m now creating a way for readers to reciprocate that value received by offering a subscription system.
Best of all, shifting from a totally free online magazine to a mostly-free with Premium-Access Magazine means that I will then be able to produce… more premium content. More of what you love most. More of what makes The Yoga Lunchbox great.
Not more in terms of the number of articles, but more as in deeper quality and deeper connection.
I expect we may lose some readers and some traffic when the system launches. I’m curious about it – losing people because they don’t see the value in The YLB means we’re cutting loose those who perceive The YLB as low-value. We’ll only be keeping those who perceive The YLB as high-value.
Great.
Better to have 1000 true fans who connect, engage and perceive the website as high value, than 3000 kinda fans who cruise by and shrug their shoulders.
Most of all, I’m fascinated by the process I’m working my way through.
I love what I do.
I would do it for free.
I have been doing it for free.
I’ve been afraid that it wasn’t worth anything so if I charged something people wouldn’t want it and I wouldn’t get to do what I love.
That’s not true. It’s. Just. Not. True.
I’m calling Bullshit on myself, and taking steps as if what I’m creating is worth something. Because it is.
So silly huh? All this messing about, all the time, with value and self-worth and making money and success and failure. You must be getting sick of it. I know I am. I feel a settling now, a clarity. As if I’ve been circling a vast hole I was afraid to get too close to or look into the centre of incase it sucked me down down down.
I’ve looked at the hole.
I’ve seen the centre.
And I’m still here.
Oh… I’m looking for three readers to help me develop some of this premium content. If you’re keen to develop a home yoga practice, and would be happy to offer feedback on the development of an e-book, in exchange for receiving the finished product for free, I want to hear from you.
On the topic of energetic exchange and the like, I had a post published over at Nadine’s blog that dealt with some of this a bit. How do you ethically make a living teaching yoga?
I love the quote from Dharma Mittra, which speaks directly to energetic exchange and in terms of money/business.
Honestly, for me, the business side of things is a good lithmus test for me to see how well I’m doing energetically with my business. Am I staying in touch with my core values? Am I divesting (usually through supervision and it’s attendant processes) the ideas and beliefs which do not best serve me?
Just as my body is a manifestation of my energy body and how I care for that, so also is my business a manifestation of the energy that I put there. So, the money coming in and going out, the amount of “free effort” that I put in, or what have you, and whether or not I’m getting an exchange on that (doesn’t have to be money — can be emotional in some other way), is a good quantifier to if I’m “being healthy” energetically.
I find that the more clear I am in my values/thoughts/beliefs/ideas — or that energy that I put into this area of my life — then the business is healthier.
It’s still a lot of work. That is the Dharma. Taking care of business — which provides opportunity not only for others (practitioners, students to learn, etc) but also for you by taking care of yourself and your family through it. That’s the spiritual path. That’s yoga, too.
So hours-wise, we put in a lot of energy/time, which isn’t always showing up in “money” but it is always showing up in health, joy, reflection from our students and practitioners (their happiness and excitement about the work we do, the business in general, the classes, etc), as well as in the health and joy of living your Dharma, walking your path, and being that provider.
It’s a joyous thing, really. And the money — among other elements — gives us a good sense of. . . are we doing this path? are we doing ok on it? Am I correct in it?
Hey Jenifer,
As always, a thoughtful and long comment! I love your added wisdom on the YLB. I’d distill down the essence of your comment to:
Is there a healthy exchange happening? Am I facilitating a healthy exchange? If not, why not?
Brilliant!
Hi KL..I am sure i used to pay 12 bux a year! for the YLB…when it was called something else? and then one day, I got a message from Paypal (?) to say you’d stopped it….well, I would be quite happy to pay $12 monthly for the wonderful articles, and contact with your columnists-some of who I have been lucky to meet in real life…
It really sounds like you are ‘agonizing” over every little detail…I remember reading about your struggles with money vs value quite some time ago…then you were going to work for an ideas crew in Wgtn….now your at Mum’s in Queenstown….In some ways, I feel like a voyeur into your struggle as a writer/publisher/yogi…and as someone else already pointed out, maybe YOU need to step out of the way ..as in “your” personal dilemmas being so public…and allow the YLB to be what it originally was….. don’t get me wrong, I feel totally privilledged that I get to relate to you personally, almost accidentally, through my sub to YLB…but there’s definitely a conflict or cross- expectation of what it provides the reader, as opposed to its creator.
Hope this feedback makes sense to you, and helps towards some clarity? With love, Gisele
Hey Gisele,
Yes, you remember correctly. I used to run a manual subscription service called “Super Subscribers’ where people volunteered to pay. However, the cost of running the system out-weighed the money brought in, which is why I stopped it awhile ago.
Originally The YLB was exactly this – my yoga blog about living life through a yoga lens… so it’s the same as it’s always been. Recently I was wondering if it was too much of this, but the overwhelming feedback I received from everyone was that my honesty about life is what makes the website so valuable, and what everyone comes here to read.
It has been a long, convoluted ride over the last two years or so as I’ve looked at ways to earn a living while being a single parent, producing YLB, writing and teaching yoga. However, clarity is emerging, and the end is in sight… of this particular journey anyway.
No doubt, some new adventure will arise for me to share with everyone… you may not remember, but the first two years of this website were all about my struggles within relationship. I transcended that one awhile ago…. now I’m transcending this one.
So thank you for the comment, I feel the clarity already. Just being down here in the mountains has been amazing. I’m writing again, every day, and practicing every day too…. Ah!
Much love,
KLx