When I meet a coach who wants to pay the rent, pay their bills—or even pay for a vacation—it’s usually the time I introduce them to Hugh McLeod’s ‘Sex and Cash Theory’ of Creative Work.
“The creative person has two kinds of jobs. The first is the fun, sexy kind, and the second one is paying the bills. Sometimes the task at hand covers both bases, but not often. And there’s always going to be a tense duality between the need to make a living and the need to maintain one’s creative sovereignty.
Now that’s easier to understand when you’re young, and you’re just starting out, and you’re waiting tables even though you want to be a famous writer or whatever, and you have to wait tables.
The sexy bit is being the novelist and the cash bit is being the waitress or waiter, we all understand that. When you get a bit older and a bit more successful and you make it, that tension doesn’t go away. Just because you’re successful, there is stuff you have to do for money, and there is stuff you do because it’s fun.
A good example is John Travolta. One year he’ll be in a movie like Pulp Fiction, just to get his street cred back as an actor, and then next year he’ll decide he wants to buy a new airplane so he’ll appear as this character in a very forgettable big budget spy thriller.”
If things are tight at this moment, it’s time for a Cash Project.
You can’t run a business if you have no money and your only thought is “I NEED money”. That needy energy will send every potential client running for the hills. They can literally FEEL your needy energy.
Instead go out and create some cash. Get creative: sell something, take on a paid project, or even go back to your old day job–even for a short time.
I remember in my early coaching days, when I was struggling to create clients, being paid to write someone’s blog and even being paid to help enroll clients for a friend. They weren’t my dream projects but they brought in much needed cash. And that allowed me to breathe and to relax.
So when I met my next potential client, I really did know deep down, that they needed me more than I needed them.
If you need a client more than they need you, they are almost never going to be a “Hell Yes!” to your Proposal.
It’s lovely to live a life where you only focus on Sexy Projects and you get paid well for them–and that’s possible for all of us.
At the same time… when you want to create some money: GET CREATIVE and start by Creating some Cash…
Sometimes, the Sex comes second. It’s usually worth waiting for!
Love. Rich