I was surprised when The Squad voted for “How To Explain Value” as the topic for our May 2024 Marketing Masterclass.

We’ve already covered this topic. A lot. We have talked about how to help aligned customers imagine a better future. We’ve talked about how to use messaging to take them to the furthest edge of what they scarcely dare hope for.  We’ve talked about how to ethically set expectations. We’ve talked about why effective messaging focuses on the client rather than simply describing ourselves and what we do.

Eureka! That was it! We had talked a lot about talking about the value of our work. What we hadn’t covered as deeply?  Walking the talk.

Are you treating your work like it’s valuable?

And, how, pray tell does one treat their work like it’s valuable? 

When I asked the Squad this question in our masterclass, a few ventured good guesses- but no one knew the answer.

Boundaries. It’s boundaries.

To treat our work like it’s valuable, we have to treat it like it is worth protecting. Like it is important enough for us to get what we need to keep offering and delivering it well.

This requires boundaries with others like:

⚔️Asking for a monetary exchange that doesn’t leave us resentful or harmed to provide the work

⚔️Not marketing/selling to bad-fit clients

⚔️Telling clients when something is out of scope and either declining to take on the extra burden OR asking for fair additional compensation

⚔️Communicating when something is no longer working

Importantly, treating our work like it’s valuable also requires boundaries with ourselves like:

⚔️ Building systems into our businesses that prevent us from overworking

⚔️Adopting personal habits to prevent us from overworking- like deciding not to respond to requests for at least 24 hours so we have time to really consider whether we want to or not

⚔️Saying “no thank you” or “yes, for an additional fee of…” for client requests that go out of scope

⚔️Taking accountability for validating & resourcing ourselves so that we’re not placing nonconsensual emotional labor on clients to make us feel good enough, safe enough, or secure enough.

⚔️ Knowing what we need financially to meet our needs and wants and planning our offers accordingly.

⚔️Ditto emotionally & physically. (Like not arranging our businesses so we’d need more customers than we have the capacity to serve to meet our financial needs.)

To treat our work like it’s valuable, we have to treat ourselves like we’re valuable.

The most important aspect of walking the talk of treating our work like it’s valuable is treating ourselves well.

After all, our work doesn’t exist without us. So if our work is valuable, so are we. And if we’re valuable, that means:

⚔️ We deserve to have our financial, emotional, and physical needs met.

⚔️ We deserve to get PAID.

⚔️ We deserve the conditions that allow us to deliver our work without hurting ourselves.

⚔️ We deserve sustainable businesses that don’t drain us.

⚔️ We deserve boundaries that protect our ability to deliver our work.

⚔️ We deserve rest, pleasure, and ease.

This is foundational. You can get great at tactics, you can weave a compelling story, but until you walk the talk of treating your work and yourself like you’re valuable… your messaging won’t ring true.

If you could use some help talking a good talk about the value of your work AND walking that talk, I’d love to support you as Your Marketing Confidence Cheerleader and have you in my Squad 🎉.