The Syndicate Sliding Scale
When the full price of $2400 represents a true barrier to entry for the Visionary Syndicate, there are some sliding scale options available, as well as the option to do more installments than the typical 1-3.
For now, I offer these options only to Black people, Indigenous people and people of color. (My reasons are at the end of this page.)
Think about what would be enough of a stretch financially that it will reinforce your commitment and accountable to yourself with the work you wish to do in the program, but will not harm your financial health!
Please select the option that works best for you. When you do, you will be taken to a registration form.
Note: there is no extra charge for using installments.
Option 1: $2400 USD
Option 2: $1900 USD
Option 3: $1600 USD
Why Black, Indigenous and people of color only?
The pricing of the Syndicate relies on a few things:
1) what it takes for my business model to be sustainable;
2) the position of my program in the market of similar educational offers and of branding and rebranding projects that are directed towards the kinds of clients I built the Syndicate for;
3) value of the results of the program and the robustness of its resources.
The positioning piece (#2) is tricky. Most business models make assumptions about what kinds of resources people have, as a whole, when they reach a certain level in their businesses (in my case, when people are solid enough in their venture that they are ready for a more thorough branding process.)
Positioning and pricing necessarily rely on generalizations. But that’s not nuanced enough to account for the lack of a level playing field, systemic oppression, and other differences in economic context from one business owner to the next.
Again speaking generally, white people as a whole have more access to generational wealth, loans, grants, social and networking capital, and other forms of concrete business support than people who have been targeted over generations by systemic and institutional racism.
And white people do not get subtly or overtly discriminated against or excluded from white-led business programs and courses, coaching programs, professional communities and more on a racial basis; Black people, Indigenous people, and people of color have and do.
A mistake many white business owners make is to make pricing decisions based on a "norm" about how business owners relate to investment, cost, value, and revenue. We need to question these norms and ask who our assumptions are based on and who they leave out.
I recognize that in creating this policy, more nuance is left out. There are white people without generational wealth or social capital because of class who might not be able to afford the Syndicate. There are people of color who can easily afford the Syndicate at full price. There are other marginalized groups who are systematically denied equal access to resources.
The truth is, ANY blanket decision you make leaves someone out. But while we are engaging in the messy work of trying to change things, and until I can offer a sliding scale to everyone in a way that protects my own capacity, I choose to err on the side of being more inclusive for Black people, Indigenous people and people of color. Because for too long, white America has erred on the side of systemic racist exclusion.
I am working on a business model that has a more robust sliding scale that can include more people. In the meantime, this is what I can do to ensure the financial sustainability of my business and create more access in alignments with my values, one of which is anti-racism.
My thinking about this has been shaped by many activists, artists, movement leaders, and authors of color, both indirectly and directly. Thanks in particular to Naima Lowe for her feedback and guidance on the content of this page and terms/process of my scale.