...which of course raises the question: what if Pay What You Want but good tho? unlike sometimes when I ask this question, this isn't a hypothetical for me—I've been running PWYW-based life-clarifying workshops for years! here's how we approach it
How pay-what-you-want pricing works for our workshops
18 tweets · December 2023 · 53 likes · 0 retweets · read on Twitter
we have a clear de facto minimum in the form of an up-front ticket price our workshops often sell out, and it's important we don't get people showing up thinking it's "free". it's not free. it's pay what you want. (we also offer a "you don't have to think about it" option!)
so implicitly, there's kind of a sliding scale that starts at $35 and goes up to $375 & beyond but also we did once have someone ask for a refund of the $35 after the workshop, and we gave it! (he was a 99.9th percentile bad customer and I was happy to send him on his way)
but unlike sometimes when people use "sliding scale" (eg below) ...since the PWYW part comes at the end of the workshop, it's not just based on how much you can afford, but on your experience of the value of the workshop!
at the end of the workshop, we highlight 3 relevant dimensions: ‣ value you got ‣ your budget ‣ your desire to support our work & other people with less money being able to attend and then encourage people to find an amount that feels good on all of those dimensions
since the beginning, we've always ended our PWYW spiel with: "whatever you put in, it's the right amount" and we mean it!
it wouldn't be worth it for us to keep running the workshops if *everybody* put in nothing, but that's just not what happens, so it doesn't really come up. we've never come close to that.
the nature of these we're doing is that it scales quite well, and in a way that's quite low marginal cost it's not ~zero marginal cost the way selling software or an ebook is, but one more participant at a workshop doesn't require more input from us
so the tickets are $35 and then during the PWYW part at the end, we have people who put in $10 or $20, or even $3. and we appreciate that! it's still real money, some people are broke, and/or maybe the workshop was interesting but not life-changing
and some people put in $100 or $200, or they look at what the "full price" ticket was and put in that much since it "met expectations" and sometimes people put in $500 or $600! (I think that's the highest we've gotten so far)
and some people put in nothing at all, whether because they get tired before the end of the workshop and leave (it's intense!) or whether because they can't spare another dollar, or again, maybe they just aren't impressed.
the people who contribute nothing go unremarked. we don't single them out or nag them we do say a brief "thank you" out loud to each person by name as they contribute!
the "thanks John" etc does create a small amount of social pressure to contribute something, which some people have told us they found unpleasant but the workshop *IS* Pay What You Want—not "free" and not "$35". so that seems fair!
the thanking was inspired by livestream tipping culture (although those usually show the amounts onscreen—we don't do anything like that. I don't even thank larger contributions more effusively!)
another inspiration for me was going to the Halifax Busker Festival many summers in my teens, and hearing the pro buskers explain the deal before the grand finale there's social pressure but it's playful, & not personal. and they say "thanks" for every amount big or small
I also gotta give a shoutout to @TadHargrave, whose approach was an inspiration to us back in 2016 he calls it "Pay What You Can" but I like "Want" because it emphasizes desire to contribute, which incorporates "what you can" and more interview:
another reason I like "what you want" is that our whole workshops are ABOUT exploring that question! the lifelong journey of learning to listen to yourself and not let social pressure or fear keep you from moving towards what feels right to you!
if you're interested in learning more about our approach and the workshop format—and potentially signing up, however much you pay now or later—here's the site: intend.do/event/bgi?tw=m…