C (12:50)
You're exactly right. And what makes this even harder for clinicians is, is that you're selling you, right? So when you say, I'm $150 an hour, you're saying, I'm $150 an hour. So you start doubting whether or not you're actually worth $150 an hour. This is the game that you start playing in your head, and this is anticipating rejection. When you anticipate rejection, you worry. When you worry, and everybody on this call understands, fight or flight. You kick off fight or flight. When you kick off fight or flight, what happens is, little amygdala in your brain says, oh, we got a problem, right? Which is a social threat. Someone could not like me. Someone could say no to me. And that runs not through your neocortex, not the part of your brain that's rational. It runs through your autonomic nervous system, which kicks off this entire neurophysical response, which essentially at this moment, makes it so that you can't think. That's why when the person says, how much do you cost? You go, you're trying to figure out what to say because you can't think in that moment because you're worried that they might tell you no. And trust me, I get this because, you know, when I first started as a, you know, I run a pretty large training company now. When I first started was just me. And when I'm, you know, on the phone with potential people that are asking me to what I cost to come to their, you know, their group and speak, or their group and train. And I'm really good at dealing with objections because I've been doing this for 30 years. I found it difficult to confidently state my rate, to confidently say this is what I do, this is how I do it. Because it was me. It was not just they're going to tell me no to my rate, but they're telling me no. I don't value you as a human being. If you're high on the empathy scale, you're a clinician and you're dealing with that, you've got twice the amount of vulnerability. So one of the techniques that I use when I'm in those situations is called a ledge. Now this is what neuroscientists call the magic quarter second. We go back to just basic brain science. Now, I'm not as good as you guys are. You guys are PhDs and doctors and you've got all these acronyms behind your name. I'm just a dude that grew up in a dirt road in Georgia. But my basic understanding of the brain is that as soon as you get told no, or you anticipate being told no, or you perceive that you've been rejected, it's considered a threat by the brain, a social threat. Not a physical threat, but a social threat. But your brain treats both a physical and a social threat exactly the same way. It kicks off a neurophysical response which gets you ready to defend yourself. Moving blood into your muscles, oxygen rich glucose blood, which is why you breathe fast and everything tenses up. But at the same time, your body is moving blood away from non essential parts of your brain or your body. And one of those non essential parts of your body is the neocortex. Which is why when you are in a situation where you're dealing with potential conflict, you're dealing with potential objection, it becomes really, really hard to think because there's no blood up here. In other words, you are trying to deal with a potential objection, or a real objection with the cognitive capacity of a drunk primate. So you have to be able to get that back. And this is what neuroscientists call the magic quarter second. By the way. It's not any different than what you're already teaching your clients, right? Which means that you can feel the emotion, which you don't choose the emotion, the fight or flight response happens without your consent. It's being able to rise above it and choose your response. That's all you have to worry about. But the problem is in that moment, since it's hard to think, you don't know what to say. So instead of worrying about that, you create a ledge. So when someone says, how much does it cost per hour? How much does a session cost? Instead of going, well, abba, abba, abba, abba. Trying to think about what to say, you have exactly what you're going to say every single time. So if they say, how much does it cost you? Good, that's a great question. Or you could say, that's an important question. Or I'm glad you asked, but it's something that you've memorized, that you know exactly what you're going to say every single time. And that signals your brain that, uh, oh, we need to take control of this. We're going to get the neocortex back in executive control of our emotions. We're going to be confident and assertive about what we're going to say, and we're going to manage our, you know, our demeanor as we go through the process. So if you said, well, how much does it cost? I might say, that's a great question. I'm glad you asked. Does your insurance cover this? That's important that you ask that, whatever it is. But I've seen that, Katie, that's really important that you ask that. My session fee is $150 per hour and there's a minimum of five sessions required. And then, and this is important, you shut up. You don't say anything, right? And even though, like in your adrenaline soaked brain moment of everything falling apart, you got to put it on mute, sit on your hands or do whatever. Because they're going to respond. They're either going to say, can you do better than that? Or do you cover my insurance? Or I can't do five sessions, or that sounds great, can you schedule me in? But you have to manage that. But it begins with being able to get control over your emotions. And the ledge is the greatest. It's so simple, but it just works every single time. So in my business, I'm calling people. A lot of times my salespeople, I call people and we ask them to do business with us. So they're not even calling us, right? We're calling them. So we're interrupting their day. And they'll go, well, really? Too busy. We'll say, well, that's exactly why we called every single time. That's exactly why we called. That's exactly why we should get together. That's exactly. And when you use that ledge, immediately your brain gets triggered. Oh, okay, I get this. This is not being rejected. I can handle this. You rise above the emotion, choose your response, and you can respond in a confident, assertive, assumptive manner, which gives you a much higher probability of getting the outcome that you desire.