You can always make more money. You can't make more time.

You can always make more money. You can't make more time.

I recorded the video this comes from at six o'clock in the morning, out in the mountains. My wife was asleep inside, probably wondering why I was up talking to a camera. I hadn't slept. I'd been up all night thinking about my business, and not just the business, but what it was actually costing me.

Let me tell you what kept me up. Then let me tell you what I did about it.

The question that wouldn't leave me alone

A few days before, I watched a documentary about Arnold Schwarzenegger. His whole thing was vision. He decided he was going to be a bodybuilder, he was going to be famous, and he made it happen because he believed it.

Now, the things he was chasing don't mean much to me. But one thing hit me hard. Arnold bet on himself. He valued himself.

And I walked away asking, "Richard, do you value yourself?"

I was 33. My life has been good. My business was growing. But the one thing grinding at me was simple. What am I doing with my time?

I looked at the data

So I did what I do for a living. I pulled every purchase my business had ever made and looked at the data.

Here's what it said. Whenever I charged people very little, I got a lot of support burden. I got a lot of hate in the comments. I got a lot of problems. Not from everybody. I had some great customers at those prices. But the pattern was there.

Then I looked at the other end. The customers who paid me the most were the most loyal. The ones who had to open their wallets and really commit were the ones who stuck with me, who brought me their connections, who wanted to build something together.

That's not what most people expect. Most people think cheap prices make happy customers. My numbers said the opposite.

Pricing like you don't believe in your own work

I put on a couple of Alex Hormozi videos after that, and they made me ask a harder question. What am I valuing myself at? And what kind of people am I attracting because of it?

Because here's the truth. I do this professionally, in my day job, for billion-dollar companies. What I build can help a business make serious money. And I was pricing it like I didn't believe in what I bring to the table.

So I raised my prices. Significantly. Not because I got greedy. Because I had to, for me.

Where the time actually goes

I have a family. I have people I want to be around. My dad is 70. My wife was asleep inside while I recorded that video. And I had exactly one more day out there before I had to go back home and back on the grind.

Every hour I spend on a client who's paying me next to nothing is an hour I'm not spending with them. That's the real price. Not the number on the invoice. The hours.

People think, "I've got to save my money. I've got to save my money." I'm thankful for the money I have. But what is it for, if it costs you the time you were trying to buy with it?

And I'll be honest about the fear, too. I had a day job I liked. I've also been without a day job before, and I got another one. So why would I act like I couldn't make it again? Why not take the chance to control my own time?

What changed when I valued it

When I value my time, I'm also telling you how seriously I'm going to treat yours.

That's how I look at it now. The time I work with a client is time away from my family. So when you work with us, it's precious time for me, and it's precious time for you. You think at that level we're not going to give you our absolute best? The RMDW team will.

And if somebody can't see that, that's okay. We just can't do business together right now.

What this means for you

You're running a business. Look at your own numbers the way I looked at mine. Which customers cost you the most hours for the least money? Which tasks eat your evenings? Which phone calls pull you away from your family at dinner?

Some of that you fix with pricing. Some of it you fix by handing the work off. That's a big part of what the RMDW team builds now: websites that capture the lead for you, AI that answers your calls, and automations that take the repeat work off your plate.

Every hour you get back is one you couldn't have made any other way. Money comes back. Time doesn't.