Breaking into new territory re payment/income while having an increased need for rest

Dear Coaches,
Given this month´s topic of levelling up and breaking into new territory (as opposed to incremental changes), life is presenting a fantastic opportunity. I´ve been thinking about it quite a lot and would love your coaching on it because I feel stuck and fearful in several points.
The opportunity
I´m having the opportunity to name my conditions – time, money, working conditions, to the client of my choice. It is the perfect client for me at this point in time and for years to come. I could not think of a better opportunity. Also, I am the perfect person for the job because I bring rare and deep technical expertise as well as leadership skills across cultures.
I struggle with several points:
1) Increasing my daily rate.
– I have a daily rate in mind that is way above my current rate. I don´t think it is out of range for that position and for what I bring to the table. However, I´m feeling scared to name this rate, because I am afraid I will be rejected and lose the client. It is so important to me to do this job that I would accept a lower rate if I had to. However, I do want to get paid what I deserve, and this is the higher rate.
Could you please help me figure this out?
2) Figuring out how much available time I can offer
– I´m wondering how many days per month to offer. I have a few existing commitments which do fade out over summer. Given the new higher rate, it is in my financial interest to do less work for existing projects and more for the new project.
My thoughts on this: I will complete the milestones I have committed myself to do – because I do what I say and honour my commitments. Other thoughts on that:
In one case, the big load would be done by end of June. In a second case, it could be end of June – if things go well, though. In this second case, the client is more chaotic, and I don´t want to make this my problem. Here, my thought is to be clear about the timelines, deadlines, and consequences. Here, I want to cut off whatever they don´t deliver by x (which is already past the original timeline) as not part of my responsibility, which means it won´t be part of the final results.
I have a third case where I service clients as a subcontractor for a team I´ve been working with for more than 10 years. This matters to me. By now, this is a productized service and I´m building a webapp for that. My idea is to shift the service from semi-manual to fully automated by end of August, using an API to their system. This would reduce my time spent with their customers tremendously and I like that approach.
– There is a fourth case, which is another chaotic project. I´m not responsible for the operations, which are a mess for technical reasons, and depend on them solving their issues, which they haven´t in the last 12 month. Basically, I´ve been waiting for them since a year and my work here could be past August. Here, my thought is to drop this project when I´m not able to deliver “on time” or deliver late. The project can choose, but I´m not willing to include them in my planning anymore and don´t think I owe them anything given how they did not deliver for so long and how crappy they have been communicating their delays.
– There is a potential collaboration with another company – but I´ve been waiting for them to present clear terms to make a decision if I wanna move forward with them for a while now. They feel quite chaotic to me, too, and I don´t feel like adding more chaos to my life, rather clarity and a structure that works for me. Also, I don´t feel like waiting for them any longer to make my choices and seize my opportunity.
Based on these thoughts, I came up with my availability on a monthly basis for the rest of this year. Also, I included 5 work-free days per month on top of the weekends to account for my higher need for rest during late luteal and period, and coming back from travel. I realize how good it is for my whole system to step away from my job and just rest and float through the day during that time. I would certainly not to that if I was on a paid project.
Here, I am unsure if this is the best way forward. Many other women struggle during late luteal and period and don´t take time off but receive full pay, while being less productive. What are your insights on this and can you recommend how to handle this?
3) How to handle stuff that comes in on top of the existing commitments
– I used to have some time available from things that came in from within my network, be it speaker engagements, TV or radio stuff, smaller additional projects.
– I realize that with the new system, I can be fully booked with a well paid and exciting job (my dream job), while acknowledging my high need for rest at the same time. How fantastic is that!!!
– Doing the planning, I realized that if the new client booked all of my remaining available time, I would be fully booked.
One consequence would be that unlike previously, I would not have time for any side gigs and would have to say no to virtually everything else. Otherwise, I would decrease my downtime – and this is something I absolutely do NOT want to do. My downtime has become holy to me.
I´m grateful for your ideas and insights. Thanks a lot.

Answer:

First of all, MAJOR excitement from us about this new opportunity! Congratulations!

Let’s examine one particular thought: If I ask for what I want financially, I will be rejected. This is some black-and-white thinking. What else might be on the spectrum between them saying, ‘Yes’ or, ‘No’ to your rate? You might consider what spectrum you’re willing to work on – good, better, best. If you’re willing to negotiate, it’s possible that they are too.

When you approach it from this lens, what changes?