Get Free Fam,

I’ve missed you! It's been a couple of weeks - how are you doing? We’ve made it past the midpoint of the year. How is this so? How are you doing with your freedom goals? (A little reminder to cut yourself some slack on the reset/refresh/renew front from an edition of The Get Free Guide last year!) It's like we got time warped through 2026 and now it's practically Christmas again. Ho Ho Ho, y'all…

So, I took a little break because I've been in the skies clocking air miles, showing my face at conventions, facilitating conversations and - most importantly - seeing dear friends I've known for more than half my life, picking up like we see each other all the time. It was squeal-worthy joy and absolutely glorious. There's something about seeing people who "knew you when." They see the leaps you've made in life, just as you see theirs. It's a special thing!

But while I was taking trips down memory lane, some conversations and observations sparked this week's Get Free, so buckle up, kids…

OK, so I was out in these conference and airport streets this week and three very separate moments offered one consistent thread: we have to think about our value, not just money, but what we uniquely bring. Our special sauce…

The first thread was at a public media conference. I was sitting in a session on membership models, half taking notes, half people-watching, when one of the panelists talked about the long-honored tradition of the $5 ask. To paraphrase, the panelist said this ask was a mistake because it undervalues what people get in return for the $5 per month donation: access to quality news, information and entertainment across all platforms. All of it. For five dollars. Yes, it's a price many people will happily pay, but his point was that people who can afford so much more won't give more, because the ask was for five bucks. The bar is too low.

I sat with that for a second. I've built strategy around asks just like it. I understand the theory: lower the barrier, get people in the door, worry about lifetime value later. But something has been bothering me since that conversation. We are asking people to hand over five dollars for an entire ecosystem of work: reporters, producers, editors, engineers, years of craft, and then we act surprised when the industry struggles to be valued the way it should be. You cannot price yourself at basically free and expect the world to treat you as essential. It just doesn't work like that.

The second moment surfaced through an email. I heard about an individual who closed a significant deal on a project, but the public-facing information smacks of dishonesty. This person is pushy and pretty disrespectful, but because they have an inflated sense of their value and worth, the individual will do and say what they want. The word "No" hates to see this person coming, but it knows this individual won't pay any attention, so why fight? While it all feels very problematic, there's a part of me that says "good for you." They're not better than other people I know, no more talented or connected, but this person embodies their value and as such moves with the confidence of someone who always gets what they want. There's a lesson in there.

The third moment was quieter. I was reading Emma Grede's new book, Start With Yourself, and one line stopped me: "You have to think of yourself first because nobody else ever will." She's not writing that as a mindset poster or an affirmation for the mirror. She means it as an actual operating principle for how you run your business and your life. If you don't set your own price, someone else will set it for you, and it will almost never be higher than what you would have asked. If you don't claim your value, why would anyone else ever see it?

So three different entry points to the same lesson that impacts getting free: the world does not spontaneously assign you your worth. You either name it, or someone else names it for you, usually lower than it should be. That's not getting free. That's settling for the okie doke.

Here's what I know about myself, and maybe you'll recognize it too. For most of my career, my relationship to my own expertise has been a shrug. Not a "meh, whatevs" but a "well, yes, it's good, but it's my job." Someone would ask how I did something, how I built something, how I saw around a corner nobody else was thinking about, and my honest internal response was "I'm doing my job." So many years in, I now know that response is… not smart, for a few reasons. Part of it is financial (we're going to do a whole session on negotiation, because learning this unlocked a WHOLE Get Free level), but not understanding - and claiming - your value also gives people license to treat you in a way that is not OK. This can be at work, in your personal life - pretty much anywhere you have to navigate a relationship.

I used to think that was humility. It’s not. It’s a decision, made over and over again without me even noticing I was making it, to let other people set the terms of my worth. And the truth about what happens next is not subtle: we stay undervalued and underpaid for exactly as long as we sit in the corner and wait to be discovered.

Newsflash: Nobody is coming to discover you. The person who found their way to a sizeable creative deal did not wait to be invited. They rolled up with a deck chair, snacks and an expectation for dinner.

I want to be careful here, because the lesson I took from this week is not "go be pushy, go misrepresent yourself, go perform a confidence you don't feel." That's not the move. It's not sustainable, and honestly, it's not who most of us are or want to become.

The real lesson is smaller and harder: tell the true story of your value, out loud, before someone asks you to.

That's it - not something performative and loud, just no longer hidden behind "well, I'm good at that." Say what you actually know, name your expertise and claim what you've built and what you uniquely bring to the room.

The membership pitch works the same way, just in reverse. Public media doesn't need to convince anyone it's worth five dollars. It needs to tell the true, full story of what it's actually worth, and then price and ask accordingly. Same with you. Same with me.

If you've been here a while, do you remember the layoffs issue? While explaining why layoffs are not your fault, I also said your worth isn't in your paycheck or your job title. That your talent and your experience don't get laid off with you, they come with you when you leave, because they were never the company's to hold onto in the first place. I believed that then, and I still believe it. But here's the piece I didn't say out loud at the time: if your worth doesn't live in the paycheck, it also doesn't live in silence. Knowing it internally is only half the job. The other half is saying it, plainly, before someone else decides the number or rules of engagement for you.

This week, do one thing: write down, in plain language, one piece of expertise you've been treating as no big deal. Not humble bragging. Just true. Something you'd normally answer with a shrug if someone asked you about it.

Then say it out loud, to one person, without the shrug attached.

That's the whole exercise. It's small on purpose. Valuing yourself isn't one grand gesture or one big negotiation you finally work up the nerve to have. It's a hundred small refusals to minimize what's already true, repeated until it becomes the way you move through a room.

You already know your worth. The work this week is just letting yourself say it.

How have you been using some of the tasks in The Get Free Guide? What have you tried and how are things working out? We don't gatekeep here, so if you've got some advice or insights to share with the rest of the GFFs, you can email [email protected]

One hour, one inbox, let's clear that clutter so we're not still dealing with it in 2027. Let's do this together. Join us on July 20 from 4-5pm PT, 7-8pm ET. Click on the logo to register or sign up here

🚀Get Your Life: Things to read, listen to, enjoy🚀

🎧What’s on the pod: Baby, This Is Keke Palmer with Michelle Buteau: I just watched the final season of Buteau’s Survival of the Thickest and she is just HILARIOUS, and even more so with Keke!

🎵 Soundtrack for the week: This is an oldie but a goodie - Sunrise, by Simply Red. Mick Hucknall and co released their first song back in 1985 - over 40 years ago. Sunrise came out in 2003, but still sounds great, especially with that nod to Hall and Oats. I guess they’re all just holding back the years (IYKYK!)

✨ If you’ve got a recommendation drop me a line. ✨

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See you next week!