by Tara Joyce | May 15, 2015 | Cultural Creativity
In many ways, our culture encourages the wasting of words. They’re presented not as a resource to be responsible to, but rather something to use carelessly, without consequence. Another resource we can throw around and away. Hidden behind our screens, provided with a medium to share our every fleeting thought and feeling, we’re finding this story even easier to believe.
Please don’t waste your words. They are one of your most valuable resources; and they are one of the few resources you truly own. They are inherently yours, readily available to only you, and capable of creating incredible value. You have total freedom and control over how they are employed. They are a resource whose worth needs to be carefully realized.
Your other resources will likely run out. Your clothes will wear, your toys will break, and yet your wand for creating your world — your words — will sustain. You have endless access to the power and potential of them. All the more reason they’re so hard to manage. When you have an endless supply of something, how do you support your Self in using it responsibly? It’s a tough question that needs your thoughtful consideration.
To preserve ourselves we, as humans, need to more thoughtfully manage our resources. So why not practice choosing sustainability? Choosing empathy? Choosing support? See how your world responds in return.
For your words are a resource not to be wasted. How you use them is a true reflection of who you are.
photo credit: Sam Javanrouh
by Tara Joyce | Mar 5, 2015 | Cultural Creativity, Pay What It's Worth Pricing
I’m so intrigued by what I’m witnessing. With time, I’m learning of more and more business experimenting with not setting prices. Their individual approaches to doing so are wholly unique, with nuances tailored to meet their specific business needs. What is shared by each however, is their need to identify and communicate what exactly they are asking for their customer to do, if their customer is not paying a set price.
How exactly does the exchange work?
What are my needs as the seller and what role does the customer play in meeting them?
What does the buyer need and what role do I play in meeting them?
What is truly being exchanged and valued between us?
While their answers may change with experience, in order to sell now, these businesses need to determine what they are asking for their buyer to do, and how to communicate it clearly. For as the buyer, before I commit to make a purchase, I need to understand what I am giving in order to receive what you are selling. I need to understand my end of our agreement.
Whether I set prices or not as a business owner, I need to have clarity around the question, “What am I asking for in my business exchanges?” It fortifies my integrity (and my customer’s) to establish norms, accountability and disclosure around my system for giving and receiving with them. The closer I get to knowing what I need AND what I’ve been asking for, AND how they may differ, the closer I am to creating my most value-adding and harmonious business exchanges.
In every relationship, business or not, in order for it to be healthy and mutually beneficial, I need to be responsible to my needs by identifying and communicating them. It is of deep service to my Self and to the person I am in relationship with to do the work to recognize my needs and to share them compassionately. For in growing my own awareness, I create space for the other person’s needs to be recognized too — by them and by me. Only when both of our needs are recognized and fulfilled is our relationship a healthy and sustainable one. And one where we can both trust and grow wealthy in our exchange of giving and receiving.
In your own business, do you know what you’re asking for? Are you receiving what you need? If you find there’s a space in-between, please take note of it. The more you learn about and explore this space of lack, the closer you’ll be to whole-ing it. It’s from this place of responsibility (to your own needs and your customers) that you can and will grow harmoniously together.
photo credit: Fibonacci Blue
