I’m not attached to people liking my ideas. And I don’t mind if they hate them. (OK, I’m human, it stings a little!)

But what I love most is to provoke people’s thinking. 

The word ‘provoke’ literally means to call forth.

When you provoke your clients’ thinking, it creates space for insight. And it calls forth new action or a new way of being.

Today, I want to offer you 5 ways of thinking about money that are designed to provoke your thinking…

1. $5K Thinking

“Set and enforce an aspirational hourly rate. If fixing a problem will save less than your rate, ignore it. If outsourcing a task will cost less than your rate, outsource it.

Get comfortable disappointing people whose expectations will eat your life up, one hour at a time.

It should seem and feel absurdly high. If it doesn’t, it’s not high enough. Whatever you pick, my advice is to raise it.” – Naval Ravikant

What’s your aspirational hourly rate? The number under which it would be crazy to do anything but hire someone else.

2. $50K Thinking

Build a boutique coaching business. Don’t charge by the hour. Charge for the value you create and the difference that you make. 

What would it be like if you were to no longer charge based on the number of hours you coach?

There’s a restaurant I sometimes visit, in Hawaii. It’s a simple beach restaurant but it has a $1,000 cheeseburger on the menu. Every coach who wants extraordinary clients, needs a “thousand dollar cheeseburger.” 

What’s at the top of your coaching menu?

3. $5M Thinking

Build a self-managing business by hiring leaders, not followers. Support your team members to find their Zone of Genius, in order to free you up to work in yours. Create an environment for your team where it is safe to disagree and to challenge the status quo. Tell your team what they are doing right, more than what they are doing wrong. 

Do you have a values-based business? Do you hire people more extraordinary than you? 

4. $50M Thinking 

Build a business that scales. Some entrepreneurs create the most value by simplifying things (that’s me, in case you haven’t noticed!). And some entrepreneurs create the most value by growing things (that’s my business partner). Dan Sullivan calls this a simplifier/multiplier collaboration. It takes everything to the next level. 

Be aware, scaling is not for everyone. But who would you have to be to create $50M/year? 

How would you have to show up differently, if you were coaching clients who are running $50M/year businesses?

5. F–– You Money

Back in the 1920s, the actor Humphrey Bogart used to keep a $100 bill in his nightstand at all times. That’s the equivalent of over $1,200 today. He referred to it as his ‘f–– you money’, because it meant he’d never be forced to take a part he didn’t want. He once said that the only good reason for making money was so you can tell anyone in the world to go to hell.

What’s your number? How much money would you need to happily turn down opportunities that you don’t want? And what if you could turn them down before you hit that number…?

Provoked?

Which of these ideas did you love? Which did you hate? And how will you show up differently in the week ahead because of them?

Love. Rich