It’s November, and we’re getting into what I consider the real “spooky season”: the Black Friday sales, holiday sales, and New Year’s programs.
These are the times we’re conditioned to spend. Encouraged to think that this time it’ll be different—that in January you will magically have more time to implement everything that you didn’t have time for this year.
But before you make that next purchase, I want you to ask a different question.
Most people ask: “Can I afford this?”
But there are actually three costs to every purchase. And if you can’t pay all three, you’re wasting your money—no matter how good the deal is.
Cost 1: The Financial Cost
This is often the foot in the door—we first ask, “Can I pay for this?”
And if you’re anything like me, that’s how you end up with “deals” that sit unopened in your digital folders. Because I could pay for it.
But also ask if this cost is really one you want to pay.
I spend time on the LifeCoachSnark reddit, and every few weeks someone posts: “This coach is charging $15K, is it worth it?” And rarely is it ever.
If you’re going to be overly stretched financially for an investment, talk to friends. Or email me (yes, really). There’s usually a more accessible way to get the results you need without putting yourself in financial straits.
But you might find yourself looking at an investment and saying, “Yes, I have the budget for this, and it looks like a great choice. Sold!”
Not so fast.
Cost 2: The Learning/Implementation Cost
Once you’ve bought the program, now you have to actually learn the skill, build the asset, implement the program.
In my Define Your Foundations program for example, that means at least 2-3 hours per week of watching the videos to learn the information, attending the calls to get your questions answered, and implementing the foundational building blocks.
It’s a commitment of time, energy, and attention.
I have a number of things that I’ve bought that I really want to implement, but I haven’t made time for them yet because other projects come first. And yes, I keep snoozing the course access email every month for another month, month after month. But especially for lower-priced impulse investments, only about 25% of the time do I actually do the program I bought.
Because I couldn’t pay the cost to learn and implement.
I’m better about this this year. I knew would be spending all of my time and money on my rebrand and publishing my book, so I automatically said "No" to most extra purchases just as a rule. I wouldn't have the bandwidth to implement anything else, which turned out to be the case.
Ask yourself before any purchase: Do I legitimately have the time to do the learning and implementation required to make the most of this investment?
(And PSA — this is why I always announce programs and course launches with 6-8 weeks of time in advance. I want to get my investments on your radar, with specifics, before your calendar totally fills up or give you time to shuffle things around. My new Operations program will be coming in January, with more details to come.)
Cost 3: The Run/Tend Cost
In many cases, we take on projects that require ongoing effort to maintain. Even after you’ve implemented something once, there’s the ongoing cost of keeping it alive and working.
You buy a course on growing your YouTube by making better thumbnails. That doesn’t get you any results unless you can make regular YouTube videos and thumbnails.
You join a community or a program, but to get the results you have to regularly show up to that community.
When you build a system, you must run and tend it to see results.
And you might not have the time for that.
When I launched my YouTube channel, I published regularly for a year.
Then the Aggressively Human podcast launched, and something had to give.
I could pay the editor (the first cost), I had gotten the channel up and running (the second cost), but I couldn’t keep paying the third cost. I didn’t have time to dive deep on good ideas, new frameworks, and I was always running late to my editor. Ultimately, that meant I was actually wasting money.
Before picking up (and paying to learn) a new tactic that requires repeated effort over time to get you results, ask first if you can pay the third cost.
When you need to change your investments
There have been times where I wanted to make an investment, and realized I couldn’t pay all three costs.
But I knew the investment in money and time was the right move for my business.
In that case, I needed to rebalance my business investment portfolio.
I had to stop the ongoing activities that I was doing that were less impactful (so I could pay the third cost)…
Protect my time and attention from shiny objects and other commitments (so I could pay the second cost to implement)…
And shift my financial investments so I could afford the first cost (to make the purchase).
When I got into YouTube, I put up a static grid on Instagram and stopped paying a social media team.
When I needed to focus on my book publishing, I paused my YouTube editor.
Now, when I want to focus on building new course material for the Deeper Foundations brand, I paused every coaching/community investment I’m a part of so I have time to build, not just time to learn.
What this means for you?
Before you hit “buy” on that next Black Friday deal, ask yourself:
- Can you pay the financial cost without strain?
- Do you have 2-3 hours/week to learn and implement? (Not “I’ll find time”—do you actually have it on your calendar?)
- Can you maintain this for 3-6 months to see results?
If the answer to any of these is no, either pass on it or decide now what you’ll set down to make space.
Because the scariest thing this season isn’t missing a deal.
It’s spending money on something you’ll never use.