The accommodation tax
If you love this content (please share it), but also check out my Podcast & connect with me on YouTube / Twitter.
We turn your favorite newsletters into podcasts at 10minmindset.org
The price you pay for being easygoing is not getting what you want. And the worst part is, nobody will ever tell you you’re paying it.
A few years ago I took a deal for the podcast that I knew was wrong the moment I agreed to it. The terms were off. The rate was low. The person pitching it framed the whole thing as a partnership, which is a word people use when they want you to feel guilty for negotiating.
I said yes anyway. Took about four seconds.
My instinct was to push back, but a louder instinct kicked in first: keep things smooth. Don’t make it weird. It’s not worth the friction. They’ll remember you as easy to work with and that will pay off later.
It didn’t pay off later. What happened later is they came back with an even worse offer the next quarter, because I’d already established my price and my price was whatever they wanted it to be.
When I told a friend about it afterward, she asked a question that stuck with me for a long time. She said, “Do you think they would have walked away if you’d asked for what you actually wanted?”
I sat with that for a few days. The honest answer was no. They probably would have negotiated, we’d have landed somewhere in the middle, and I’d have made more money while respecting my own time. The only reason I didn’t push was that pushing felt uncomfortable, and I’d built an identity around being the person who doesn’t make things uncomfortable.
That identity had a cost. I just hadn’t been counting it.
