Autism Chrysalis

On Economic Justice

Living my values.
Seven young adults holding hands on a city street in protest.

Where I'm coming from

It’s not that long ago that I was on the receiving end of needing scholarships and handouts for just about anything and everything beyond basic survival. So I know what it’s like to desperately need something and not be able to afford it. It sucks.

And I was deeply resentful of people who had so much money it didn’t matter if they blew it on crap. And of people who gained wealth by exploiting others.

So it matters to me deeply that the business I am building doesn’t contribute to that problem. 

I am committed to furthering economic justice in my own way, to the extent I am able.

But my understanding of what economic justice is has also evolved as I’ve explored and challenged my own biases.

Rearranging money isn't enough

A lot of times when people talk about economic justice, all they mean is giving discounts or handouts to people with little money at the expense of people who are better able to take the financial hit.

That’s part of the solution. And I use what I call a Robin Hood system of pricing, in which most of my clients pay my full rate, which allows me to offer a sliding scale to some of my clients, and partial scholarships for some of my courses.

But I don’t think that’s seeing the full picture of economic justice, because the money is only part of it. The problem is systemic. And though I can’t fix the systems that create inequity, I can do my part by fostering equitable relationships in how I work and run my business.

I see money as nothing more or less than a stand-in for an easily tradable value that is being exchanged. I contribute something to you, and you contribute something to me, and we both walk away with something of value.

An example

Take my burnout course, for example. You get information, skills, and techniques that could literally change significant aspects of your life. What’s the value of that?

Some schools of thought in the personal growth industry would have me charge something equivalent to a percentage of the lifetime value of all your future earnings potential from a transformed life. Which would be in the $10,000+ range. And many life coaching programs charge that much. But I don’t buy into that idea.

I don’t know how to put a price on transformation, but I do know what it costs me to put on this course. It’s surprisingly expensive, and includes paying a fair wage to the people helping me, the hard costs of the technology I use to make the content available, paying my bills and supporting my family, and having a reasonable profit that makes it worthwhile to do this work without burning myself out. Because burnout is not an option.

But even with all those costs, I can spread that out across a lot of people each contributing to the course. That’s a much lower price for each person, and I still get a fair compensation. Everyone wins.

The problem with traditional scholarship models

When I’ve gotten straight-up scholarships and haven’t contributed materially (financially or in trade) to any portion of it, sure, a part of me was thrilled and relieved and grateful. 

But a part of me was also resentful and shamed and angry at the system. And that wasn’t healthy. Those mixed emotions created the kind of cognitive dissonance that I’m trying to move away from in every part of my life.

And now that I’m on the other side, as a provider of services, I’ve also sometimes given more (in sliding scale, or time) than I can really afford, and have grown resentful. And I’ve seen people take and take and complain when I didn’t give even more, and that’s felt awful.

So there needs to be an exchange of some kind that feels fair to all: a win-win where both parties walk away with something of value, and both parties contribute something of value. 

That’s how to build healthy relationships. Even a business relationship, a learning relationship, a coaching relationship, is still a relationship. And both parties need to feel good about it for it to be a healthy relationship.

It's about relationships

I know there are times when there simply isn’t money, and it’s not about your priorities, or money mindset, or scarcity mentality. There just. isn’t. money. 

So I’ve set up alternative options to cash, but there does need to be some kind of energetic exchange where we both get something of value.

That might look like helping spread the word about my courses, trading for a skill I need, or contributing what you can financially. It might be a mix of these.

Maybe you’re a graphic designer, or have research skills, or know people who could genuinely benefit from the course. The point is—we’re creating something together, not just completing a transaction.

I want to move away from exploitative systems towards true economic justice. And I believe that means seeing the full humanity in every exchange. Yours and mine.

This approach is about healing relational wounds. It’s about rebuilding trust in economic systems by creating interactions where both parties feel respected, valued, and empowered.

The goal isn’t just to exchange a service, but to foster relationships where everyone walks away feeling good about the interaction—where the exchange itself becomes a form of personal and collective healing.

Principles of equitable exchange

My business model is built on several key principles:

1. Accessibility

There will always be something of value that people can access, no matter their financial ability to contribute. And it is okay to ask for compensation for my time, labor, knowledge and experience.

2. Mutual Value Creation

Every transaction should be a win-win, where both parties contribute something and receive something of meaningful worth to them.

3. Flexible Options

Not everyone can contribute financially, but all can offer something valuable—whether it’s skills, time, research, or spreading the word about my services.

4. Sustainability

Pricing must cover my hard costs, support fair compensation for my collaborators, and allow for a reasonable profit that prevents the need to work so much that I risk burnout, so I can continue this work long-term.

5. Community Support

I maintain a small scholarship fund, which is partially community-funded, allowing those who can afford it to help subsidize opportunities for others.

Also, I enjoy promoting the services and small businesses of other Autistic/ND creators when they align with my values and make sense for my community.* I look forward to doing more of this in the coming year(s).

*(Note: if I don’t already know you, please don’t ask. This is for people I already have a healthy relationship with.)

Practical implementation

In practice, this looks like:

  • Creating lots of high quality free materials of real substance, like my free workshops, info on my YouTube channel and blog, free downloads, and curated recommendations of books and other resources.
  • Offering group and asynchronous courses and ebooks at a lower cost than I could provide the information individually.
  • Offering sliding scale pricing and trades for coaching, without jumping through hoops or requiring documentation of need. I trust that people will only ask when there is a real need.
  • Offering payment plans for courses, with no interest and without excessive fees.
  • Offering individualized extended payment plans upon request, for people who are able to pay but need more time to do so.
  • Maintaining a fund for partial scholarships for courses. This fund is partially community supported, by some of my clients with more resources voluntarily contributing to those with fewer.
  • Creating trade opportunities for those with limited funds, to contribute via skills and work. This helps me get projects done that I would otherwise do myself or pay to do.
  • Listing prices in whole numbers and round numbers ($5, $100, or $500, not $4.99, $97, or $499), so you can make an informed decision about whether the price is appropriate for you. (Setting prices just below a threshold is a tactic to make the price seem artificially lower, and it does increase sales, at the expense of people making financial decisions they regret.)
  • Keeping my prices as low as I reasonably can, without hurting myself.
  • Recently I started an affiliate program so I can pay you for spreading the word about my courses. You can take the payments in cash or apply them to the cost of my courses.
  • I made this document of 17 Creative Ways to Pay for Autism Coaching, to spark ideas of alternative methods of financing this and other services.
  • One of my free workshops specifically addresses Alternative, Sustainable Income Sources for Autistics and AuDHDers. 

Other aspects of economic justice

There’s more to economic justice than what we contribute to each other.

I am also conscious of how I spend my money and what products I buy and services I engage, including:

  • Supporting small businesses, marginalized creators, and Autistic/ND-owned businesses.
  • Supporting software companies who value diversity and build accessibility into their tech.
  • Hiring Autistic and disabled team members.
  • Paying my team a fair wage, offering flexible and adaptable working conditions, and treating them with respect and dignity.

Likewise, I am very intentional about how I offer my services. I see marketing as nothing more or less than a way to let people know what I have available.

If that’s what they want, and the timing and finances work out, great. I won’t try to talk anyone into anything.

If that’s not what they want, that’s even more reason not to try to convince them that they want what they don’t want.

I choose to market ethically, which includes:

  • Offering choices, and letting people make up their own minds.
  • Giving enough info that they can make an informed decision.
  • Only emailing people who have opted-in to hear from me.
  • Asking email subscribers for consent again before sending extra emails about a new offering. 
  • Letting people know what is available rather than holding back out of misplaced fears or false assumptions.
  • Never engaging in money-shaming.
  • Never using manipulative, deceitful, or hard sales tactics.
  • In short, treating people with dignity.

What goes into the price?

I’m aware that to some people, my prices will seem high (and to some people quite low), and it’s reasonable to wonder if that’s really necessary. Especially when I talk a lot about trying to make things accessible.

So what goes into the price? 

It’s not random, or based off of industry standards, or what feels “right” in my gut. It’s based on hard numbers. My prices are the minimum necessary to cover all my expenses without risking burnout.

There’s a lot that goes on behind the scenes to make possible the part of the work that the public sees.

There’s all the various costs of running my coaching practice: software subscriptions (scheduling, Zoom, email, editing, etc.), time creating blog posts, a newsletter, free workshops, and making and editing videos, paying my small team of assistants fair wages, paying myself a living wage (I also support my mother), my professional education that makes me a better coach (I’ve spent a lot on high quality professional education since starting coaching), books, insurance, taxes, credit card processing fees, basic office supplies, Internet, business licensing fees, and more.

Now that I’m offering more group courses and programs (and intend to expand this), there’s the cost of the learning platform, mobile app development, my time to create the course materials (it takes about 10-15 hours to create about 1 hour of presentation), paying a human to edit the transcripts and format them so that they are useable, making the materials accessible in multiple ways for different access needs, affiliate commissions that I pay out, and more. 

These costs are spread across all the people that I work with each year, and all the people that take my group courses. The more people that I can reasonably expect to contribute to this, the less I need to charge to cover everything. On the other hand, if not as many people sign up, then I have to scramble to work more hours, with more people, to make up for the gap. And that risks burnout. 

So I base this on the real data of how many people, and hours, have been consistently reliable in the past. And divide all the expenses by the number of hours I can reasonably afford to work, and how many people I can reasonably expect to want to coach with me 1:1, and sign up for my group courses, and voilà, there’s the price.

Putting the price in context

To put this in context, my current coaching rate is $150 per 1 hour session. The typical rate for a life coach of my training and experience—master coaching certification from an ICF accredited training program, with well over 1,400 hours of coaching, and very high client satisfaction (see client testimonials)—is easily $250/hour or more. Often much more.

I’m intentionally keeping my prices as low as possible.

Even still, I understand that this price will be a barrier for some. Which is why I offer sliding scale and trade options. And there are many other options out there for people to get similar benefits without the price tag. The benefits you get from working with me can largely be attained for free or lower cost from books you can get from libraries, my free public materials and videos, other coaches who might charge less, therapists whose services might be covered by health insurance, and extensive amounts of introspection and self-reflection. 

I’m offering one option, one style of approaching things, which may be a good for some, but it is not the only way. 

My goal is to offer ways for people who have figured out as adults that they are Autistic or AuDHD to make their own lives better—whether that is with my services or not. But I am unwilling to hurt myself in the process by undercharging and scrambling to make up the difference. That’s the mentality I want us all to move away from. That’s not economic justice.

But is that fair?

But is that fair?

Especially with the prices of so many things going up, and so many people facing difficult financial times, is it fair for me to add to the hardship of people who really need help, by charging so much money?

  • I’ve run the numbers: this is what it costs me to run this business, support my family, pay my team, and cover a lot of medical expenses. What I charge is simply what it costs to make all that happen.

So is it fair?

Objectively, yes. 

What would not be fair is working for less than what it takes to cover my expenses, or more hours than I can sustainably keep up, and consequently going out of business, so no one else gets any benefit from my work any longer.

That’s not economic justice, it’s just passing the burden to someone else, and not where it belongs. It’s volunteering to contribute to my own oppression. The system has already done its best to keep me down and silent and powerless; if I go out of business, they win. Pushing back includes charging what it takes to survive, so I can keep working to create a more just world.

And am I adding to the hardship?

Also no. Because my prices are not really the problem. There are systemic and individual reasons why some people will not be able to afford my rates, and others will think I’m cheap. 

And compared to industry rates for coaches of similar education and experience, I am very much on the low end, intentionally, to keep my rates as affordable as possible.

My clients span a wide spectrum of financial situations, and my own estimation of what is “a lot” comes from many years of living in poverty, not some objective truth that applies to everyone.

I’ve already addressed, above, the many systems I’ve put in place to help out those who genuinely cannot afford my standard rates. Beyond that, I cannot single-handedly take responsibility for everyone’s financial situation. That’s simply not possible, reasonable, or reciprocal.

I can take responsibility for mine and the people who depend on me, by ensuring our long-term financial security.

And when more people with a strong sense of justice are financially stable, we can be more effective at creating economic justice for others. My continuing to struggle only benefits the bullies.

Working in difficult times

The mindset that says I should undercharge—depriving myself of needed resources—in order to relieve the economic stress of our entire toxic system, is propagating unhealthy and unequal relationship dynamics, which will make us all loose, eventually.

And I think the term “economic justice” sometimes gets weaponized to shame those who are starting to build some financial stability for themselves. “How dare you charge/sell/advertise! Don’t you know there are people who can’t afford that?!”

I appreciate the perspective on this that Kelly Diels offers, that it’s interesting that people so often expect independent service providers (especially women and marginalized people) to negotiate prices, give discounts whenever someone can’t afford their standard rates, and even stop selling when there are tragic world events or crises, and yet they don’t expect the same of big corporations (who are usually much more able to take the hit), or offer to cut their own salaries until the world is less of a shit show. Hmmm.

What privilege to be able to work without compensation. I don’t have that luxury.

Of course I don’t expect anyone to cut their own salaries, or to negotiate the price of eggs at the supermarket, or argue for need-based discounts from major corporations (as much as I wish that were possible (and believe me, I’ve tried)). 

But that’s really the point, isn’t it. We don’t expect that of “regular” employees and big businesses.

I think it’s so much more common to do this with small businesses and independent service providers and marginalized creators simply because there’s a person you can talk to. Someone to negotiate with. A warm body to ask who might actually care and respond.

And I genuinely do care and want to help out. Because I remember all too clearly how frustrating it was to finally find a product or service that might help and to be stymied on the price. So please do take advantage of what I offer. 

But I can only offer up to a point, without hurting myself in the process. And then it becomes win-lose again. That’s not a healthy or sustainable relationship.

That’s not the world I’m working to create.

Rather, when people who care and are thoughtful and are good stewards of money, have more of it, we can make more of an impact in the world.

If you're ready

If you’re at a point in your Journey where you are completely ready to take full advantage of one of my courses or coaching, and do the things that it takes to make your life better, and it’s literally just a lack of money that’s in your way right now, contact me and we can work something out.

I’m not going to turn anyone away for a lack of money, but there does need to be some kind of an energetic exchange where we both get something of value.

Does that feel fair to you?

Closing thoughts

Economic justice, in my view, is about seeing the full humanity in every transaction: recognizing value, including and beyond cash, creating genuine reciprocity, and building systems that honor both individual and collective well-being.

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