"I know it will come as long as I'm on the path"

"I trust I will attract wealth if I do my job well."

"I can't charge that much because it excludes so many."

"That feels like too much"

"The money would be nice, but..."

That's the first 6 response that came to mind as I considered the typical responses I get from people in our fields, when I steer conversation in the direction of earning money.

The 2 most common responses I get are.

1. From those who are just starting out, still holding down another job, or trying desperately to build a business - they tell me that the money 'isn't important' and that making their 'passions manifest' is the real aim.

2. From those who are enjoying a degree of success I get (always in sagely tones) - the money really isn't important. You've just got to do what you do with congruence and belief and blah blah blah...but the money 'really doesn't mean a thing'.

I'm pretty good at picking up an incongruency when I see/hear/feel/SMELL one. In each of the examples above I gotta tell you, it stinks! So I thought I'd draw a smutty little parrallel that may help dispel any funny feelings you may hold around the subject of earning good money.

Lets imagine for a second that your professional life, your vocation, your job - whatever you call it; let's imagine that it's the act of lovemaking. Let's imagine that the aquisition of cash is the moment of climax, the more cash, the better the climax. (stay with me..)

If you go through life having loads of sex, but never experience climax and never think it's important then, sure you may get some close moments, some warm and intimate moments, you may even have the odd climax or two, but you probably won't even believe you're having one. You may find that you can 'make do' with things this way. But you'd be missing out on something, something that might make the whole experience of lovemaking that bit more, well, yummy and rewarding.

If you go through life and enter every act of sex with nothing but an end goal in mind...to climax - then, sure you may get a short-term buzz, a whole bunch of short-term highs. But you'd miss out on that chance to connect and share in something that can be simply divine!

Should we enter into our lovemaking with the climax firmly in mind? No. That'll take us away from enjoying the present moment and everything exciting and yummy that can happen along the way.

Should we indulge in the act of lovemaking aimlessly, with nothing to anticipate? No. That'll take away the opportunity to build a most intense and amazing climax.

OK. Enough sex for a moment, I trust you get my point?

Your professional life is great. A thing to be relished and enjoyed. Something to lose yourself in! Anticipating a most pleasurable by-product of doing that thing you enjoy - of doing it well so that the by-product can be HUGE. Mmmmm that's kinda nice too huh?

I could exhaust this sexy metaphor, I'll leave it to you to find other ways in which this can be useful. The next time someone asks you about how much money you want to earn. The next time someone asks you about how the job's going - you can remember the sex analogy.

Marketing can therefore be like the energy you put into your lovemaking. Money can be the great big climax. Those two 'M' words don't seem so bad now do they?

And remember - Just be careful you don't meet every client with a big stoopid grin on your face with a serious case of the munchies!