On Finances, Reciprocity and Community

okay so first off: I absolutely want you in community with me, with us. If you love art, deep diving, truth telling, fairytales/myths/alive stories...if you know that we all do better at seeing things when we walk together, and naturally lean in with curiosity to yourself and others...I want you in my community. I secretly hope you love collage, but it's not a deal breaker 😉.

Here's the thing. My classes are currently $225 for the longer runs and between $47 - $97 for the shorter ones. In your world that $225 USD might be a bargain compared to other 3 months classes. Or it might mean that you wouldn't be able to make your medical/grocery/rent payments. Regardless, it's the price I need to ask in order to have a business that supports me and my family and doesn't send me into a spiral of resentment and despair. (That sounds dramatic but resentment is sticky spiraling stuff!)

I've spent a lot of time thinking about how to make the pricing workable for folks. I always offer the code twenty, which takes 20% off the price.  I nudge my Australians and anyone with a wicked exchange rate towards that code to equalize things. And it's a starting point that's publicly available for those who have fixed income etc. You can self select that without any conversation at any point. I trust that when you use it, you need it.  I also always include extended monthly payment plans for longer courses. (And those have the twenty code too. So then the $225 course becomes $36 dollars a month.) But there are plenty of folks in the community where life is up against them right now and $36/mo is still not doable.

One of the things that I have seen in "scholarship" conversations in online healing communities is the way folks are required to drum up a full tear-gushing emotional story in order to receive a discount. I was trying to pull apart what exactly I hated about this so much. I mean, when you're on the admin side it's intense to hear these stories and difficult to say no to any of them. So opening the door is like inviting in a tsunami. But it's not that. I am super committed to strengthening and deepening my ability to be with all your hard stuff. That's what we're doing in the Storywalks after all. Looking the hard stuff square in the face and finding out how to work with it and walk with it.

So really what I hate about the existing systems is that it puts the person asking in an awkward "I am a victim, save me" storyline that tastes like poison.

Now let me be clear. I'm not saying the circumstances don't epically suck. And I'm not saying folks just need to "love and light their way out" of the hard places. That's naive and rude.

What I'm trying to say is that I can't hold you as "victim". That for me you have always been the hero/heroine. It might currently be a really terrible chapter in your story but it's your story and I want to walk with you towards your happy ending. I think you are incredibly fucking brave and interesting and a blessing everywhere you show up as yourself. Even if you are only able to show up 5% because of illness etc.

So the "scholarship" thing just doesn't sit right with me, because it somehow exchanges a story of how "broken" you are in order to be invited in.

The way I see it is simply that there are circumstances in your life right now that mean that you can't afford to pay what I'm asking for my class. That obviously isn't who you are or what you can contribute. So the conversation I want to have is about creative reciprocity.

So here is me, one unique human. And you, another unique human. Because we can't do money, let's talk about what we could agree to that would be organic and lovely for both of us!

Oh, let me stop us for a minute with an important point: if you've never walked with me before you may not know what a good exchange might be. You might not know that it  will feel like a blessing to comment on the deep musings of other folks in the group. You might not realize that here it will be organic for you to share your pages and your work. You might not know yet that you have an easy ability to spot my typos or link glitches or be the first on in the classroom to notice when my system didn't post. So if you've never walked with me before, I'll probably just invite you to be my guest first and when you've finished your first storywalk you can tell me how it went and how you could contribute the next time..

Now if you have been in my Storywalks before, then you already know whether you enjoy reading the posts or prefer keeping your process quiet. And what you see that others don't. Or maybe your heart has something it wants to offer. I know we can work something out.

Below is a form to start our conversation. I'm going to ask you whether you've storywalked before. I'm going to ask how you prefer to play and contribute in community. I'm going to ask what you are genuinely able to pay in your current circumstances. And then I'm going to ask  you to share in super broad strokes, your current situation and why simply purchasing the course isn't the best option. As I said above this isn't about winning a contest in most epically sucky situation. (Even if you can win hands down.) Really I just want to know you and what you're up against right now. At the end of the form you'll pop in your email... and after I've read it I'll email you back to find a way to have you join us!

If you have thoughts on this at a personal or community level that you'd like to share, especially something I might be missing in my communication or in the invitation, I'm totally available via email. ([email protected] or just reply to anything I send you!)

I look forward to hearing from you direct to my inbox or via the form below
👇👇👇

xo Jena