Alignment is a core value of mine that I seek to embody in all aspects of my life - including my business.
As the Ember Circle grows I've continued to explore how the decisions I make in my marketing, pricing, and program design can be an extension of my values and the world I want to help create.
I'm sitting inside questions such as:
- What does it mean to use my business as a tool to redistribute wealth and right historical wrongs?
- What does price parity look like so that my programs are equally accessible regardless of the currency or country in which you live?
- How can my programs serve those who would benefit most regardless of their ability to pay?
- How does the cost of a program relate to the level of committment participants make to the process?
- And how can I price my offerings in a way that allow me to make a right livelihood for myself, and offer the quality of experience that I think leads to transformation?
This is all a work in progress and I'm open to your feedback and ideas on how to balance all of these things.
But for now I've landed on offering a number of sliding scale spots in each cohort to those who do not hold economic advantage. If that's you please accept my invitation to pay a percentage of the listed program cost.
If you are in North America you can start with finding your household income on this chart (which is used to determine housing costs):
Note: This chart is for the Portland/Vancouver area. If you know of similar data for your area please use that instead (and let me know if you find a good source!).
If you have four people in your household and your household income falls at the 60% row ($52,740) under '% of Median Family Income' - consider paying 60% of the program cost (i.e. $900 CAD +tax)
This payment can then be broken into up to six monthly installments for the Ember Circle (in the example above the $900 CAD could be broken out into six payments of $150 CAD).
This pay-what-you-are-able approach was inspired by the incredible Rebecca Greenidge at JORE consulting.
This method is far from comprehensive so I invite you to take into account other factors that affect your economic advantage that are not represented in a chart like this when determining how much to pay.
Should your economic advantage change in the future, (or if you fall above the 100% Median Family Income), you are always welcome to pay it forward (now, or in the future) and contribute to a solidarity fund which I use to increase the number of people to whom I can offer sliding scale pricing.
Have more questions? Want to discuss bartering or other trades? Let's chat.