A response to Joe Vitale's question: Should I be charging for my work, or should I do everything for free?

You've probable heard of Joe Vitale.  He's the guru of hypnotic marketing who started out homeless and broke but who is now one of those rock stars in the Law of Attraction scenario.

Joe  recently invited people to watch his video about his Abundance Paradigm program and on that website where it's showing, he's asked people a really wonderful question:  Should he charge people for his products?

I think it's really very brave of Joe to ask this question and I truly appreciate being given the opportunity to respond and share my thoughts with Joe and others.  I would also like to share them with you and invite you to share your thoughts with me.  Thanks in advance.

If you want to go to the site with Joe's video, it's here: https://hypnoticmarketin.infusionsoft.com/go/JOE-AP3/drb/

I want to say that Joe has offered me and many, many others many of his techniques, insights on the Law of Attraction and its application as well as samples of his marketing materials for FREE and  I am truly grateful to Joe for his generosity.  

So, here's my response to Joe's question:  Should I be charging for my work, or should I do everything for free?

Hi Joe, firstly I want to say how much I appreciate the fact that you're asking us this question. I think it's really brave of you especially since our comments/answers can be viewed by everyone!

To be honest, I feel that charging for anything goes against the essence of who and what we are since we all are aspects of the same, one, all-encompassing source. It's like the heart charging the lungs for pumping blood to it. Or the lungs charging the muscles for providing oxygen and removing carbon dioxide or the blood charging the cells for carrying stuff to and from them. It would be quite absurd.

I suppose you could argue that there always is a 'fee' in these 'transactions' insofar as each cell, tissue, organ has to perform their unique function so that the others can benefit from it. But would you call that a fee or a charge?

Or would you agree that for the whole body to work well, each part has to perform their unique function, wherever possible and when not possible (eg as a result of diseases), other parts will naturally and unquestioningly compensate to the best of their ability?

Money, as I understand it, is a symbol and disconnected body of energy that has become a convenient (at least to some) means of maintaining flow - the flow of functions and their benefits (to keep with the body metaphor). I say it's disconnected because it is removed from the actual performance of the function that it now represents - all those things/talents/services that we individually and uniquely create or perform.

Not all of us are called by our souls to perform on the big screen of life along with those who have made it there - the multibillionnaires, celebrities, super-entrepreneurs, artists, musicians etc – but these are the ones that society rewards with the most money.

All of us, I believe, are called to be OUR greatest, OUR freest, OUR most creative, which is not necessarily society’s greatest, freest or most creative. And all of us want to enjoy life and many of us want to experience and explore more of OUR lives. Should we have to ‘pay’ for this?

I don’t believe we should. I can’t help thinking that many people still believe that there is no such thing as a free lunch. And as long as there are such people, we will continue to live in a system which allows some to have and others not and for those who have to charge a fee to those who haven’t.

And yet, our lives are given to us freely and all the abundance in the universe (in terms of potentials) is given to us freely. We have devised ways of charging the different parts of our BODY (the collective human race) for the functions that we are naturally and uniquely called to perform.

So, should you charge? My long answer is as above which effectively boils down to ‘No’. My short answer is: Do what gives you greatest joy if joy is indeed what you value most :)

Thanks again for giving so much for free and hopefully, for doing so freely :)