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Lesson Info

How to Price Yourself

So one of the hardest things that you're going to have to deal with now that you've actually discovered where your money blocks are is pricing yourself in business. Now if you're not in business and you're working or you want to be in business and pricing is going to be relevant to you, if you're not in business right now and you're working, pricing is not relevant to you, however, valuing yourself is in your job right now. Because until you value yourself, you will not be pushed forward, okay, you will not be pushed forward and you will not go further in your career right now. I do not understand that people are riding a bus every day or riding a train a job every day to hate, to hate what you do, have you ever lost a family member? Have you seen somebody pass away? Have you seen somebody leave this life and suddenly felt the jolt that life is too short to be spending 10 hours a day in hate and your hate is perpetuating at the highest level and it's perpetuating more hate. And so if y...

ou have a dream to walk away from that, you can wake up today, okay, you can actually walk towards it, will there be pain, yes there will. With change and growth always comes pain. But you will choose the pain in order to step forward. You will choose the pain in order to change. And at least the pain you choose will be the one you chose. I chose this pain to grow and change. I chose it today but I will no longer live in hate. I refuse to, in order to sell carrots, you need to grow them and then you need to take them to the market. You need to your carrots to the market. You need to put a price on them. That to me was how business was explained to me. I was like well that's not hard. Grow carrots, take them to the market, tell everybody what the cost but suddenly, you get to the market and other people have bigger and better carrots than you. And suddenly your carrots are just not good enough. And all of a sudden, everything you thought about growing and selling your carrots has changed and pricing in our market is one of the biggest contradictions you're going to actually go through as a business owner because whatever you sell, whether it's crafts or making or whether you're a service provider or a masseuse or a beauty therapist or a photographer, whether you're giving product or giving service, you have to put a price on it and when you put a price on it, you're going to have people accept or reject you and human nature dictates that if you accept me, I'm good enough, if you reject me, I am not. Now throw in a couple of colored money blocks. You're gonna have a problem pricing yourself. You have no self worth, you have four money blocks and then you're a little bit kicked down because you went out to market and somebody said you're actually not that good and you're overpriced and somebody down the road does it three time better than you for half the price. So you go home with your money blocks and suddenly you're laden not only with your money blocks but with your inability to back up your pricing. And you suddenly feel lower than low and then you don't wanna get out of bed and you don't wanna be in business anymore and that has happened many times to me so market price is this illusion that you're gonna price yourself in the market and then what you'll do is actually price yourself lower than market price because who wants a deal, everybody. And so if I'm lower than market price, it stands to reason that people are gonna come to me. And then what you do to the industry you're working in is you undercut the industry, make no profit, you barely scrape by but what you're doing is telling the whole world that you're cheap and nasty and you will attract cheap and nasty because you do not value yourself, you do not value your product. You do not value your service and in terms of where you are in the industry, you certainly do not value who you are so everybody's gonna look at you and look at the industry and see the people that are above medium price, above market price and higher and they're gonna value them. Because they're the one that actually get valued, why? Because those are the people that actually value themselves. So you think they're getting valued because their work is better except for them you contrast and compare, you go and look at their work and it's not better than yours and then you're stuck at home on Facebook all bitter and twisted because they're not only not as good as you, they're earning twice as much as you. And then all of your energy is spent and competition and there is no creation in competition, none. You cannot create, you cannot make money. You cannot service people, you cannot creatively perform any task in competition, do you know why? You are filled with hate and fear and resentment. So you've got hate, you've got fear, you've got resentment. You are permeating this out of your body, a stinky aura all around you of cheapness, nastiness, stinkiness, competitiveness and you're just in that little corner like. (growling sighs) Like Gollum, my precious and underlining ego. The ego inside you is sitting in there going but I'm better than all of them. In comes the victim and the victim's like but I am better than all of them, if only saved me and gave me $30,000 so I could start a business. I'm actually not making this up. That's what I used to say, 2002 I was so broke. I hated my job so much, my gallbladder collapsed. I had my gallbladder removed, metaphysically that is bitterness, bitterness, filled with bitterness. I was 100 pounds overweight, I had my gallbladder removed, the surgeon told me it was filled with gangrene. I was 30 years old, gangrene is a stage of cancer. I was so filled with hate. I got in my car three weeks later after I'd healed to drive back to the job I hated so much. I had zero money, my credit card was in debt so I had to go back and my car blew up on the freeway. Yeah and I just sat there knowing that I had nothing to buy a new car, nothing and I had all the talent in the world but I was so filled with hate, it was consuming me. I was so filled with I'm better than them and unable to see out, move forward or value myself. And that's when I started to significantly change my life. The contrast and the compare you need to understand is your ego asking you to boost you. Your ego is saying it's okay, I just need to boost you up so when I see ego now, I don't say this person is jealous of me, I say this person needs an ego boost. They need to go to the next level and don't know how. So they're stuck in hatred for me because they perceive me as having something that they want. Success or support or an easy ride. They see me as having something that they want and they see it as being something that came very easily to me and so they resent it. I've been there, I no longer get angry at these people. I understand it, now there's a newbie price and then there's a profit price, okay. And this is the hardest thing to teach in business. 'Cause this is the business life channel and I think a small business is the fastest way to integrate business in life, Tiffany and I were talking about it last night and she said the fastest way to learn about yourself is to become an entrepreneur. You will learn everything you do not like about yourself. And you will see in yourself your confidence, your belief system and it will hurt you every single day until you confront it but you chose it and you choose the pain which means you choose the growth. Now there's a newbie price and there's a profit price. And you know the difference, okay because anybody that's run a cost of doing business knows that the newbie price will not sustain you in business. You will not be paying tax, you will not be profitable. You will not be sustainable. But your newbie price is screaming out I just wanna be in this market and your newbie price is hurting you and your industry and you're too afraid to go from a newbie price to a profit price because you know the second you go up into a profit price, what is the mirror here, no body's gonna buy it. Well you're not making money as a newbie. (laughing) So this is what I'm trying to get through to you. You're gonna sell your service for $65 when it should be 600 and you will not go up to 600 because nobody's gonna buy it but $65 isn't buying you jack. So here's the irony, you're stuck in this perpetual idea of what you think you're worth and that is nothing. Nothing and you're still telling me it's your area. It's your market, that's not true. No matter what you sell, let's say you woke up tomorrow, you wanted to knit beanies, I knit beanies. You go to a market, there's a girl there, she knits 1,000 beanies a week, you knit three, okay. Clearly, she's gonna have a higher profit margin. She's gonna sell more, she makes more than you. But any market has somebody that's leading the field already, there is not a market in this world that does not have somebody that's incredibly successful doing it and somebody who is incredibly unsuccessful doing it. And you're choosing to base yourself somewhere on that scale based one where you think you're worth on that scale. Now one of the hardest things you're gonna have to get through is removing yourself from the idea of why is Joe down the road charging so much less and getting 10 times work, I run a Facebook with 28,000 small businesses in it and every single day all I hear is these people are undercutting me and they're getting all of my work, no, they're not. You are every day obsessing about this person. Everyday you're getting online and watching their Twitter feed and their news feed and their Facebook and their Instagram and you're perceiving them as being times more successful than you are and you're avoiding actually doing any work and you are using this as an excuse. You are stuck and you are using this as an excuse to not move forward and like Tiffany said, you are avoiding doing something and that avoiding is standing up and actually going and doing the work. This is the hardest thing you're going to have to get through and then the second one is taking yourself from a newbie price to a profit price. Now there are two conflicting teachings here. I've seen it in business and this is why business is so hard to teach, vanilla business is hard because everybody in this room, one of you might sell a product for $10. And one of you might sell a service for 2,000. You're both priced differently, you're both selling a different service or product and both of you are priced differently in your market which is relative to your market. So how do I teach you both how to price yourself because there's a part of you inside that wants me to give you the perfect answer, your product shouldn't be $10. It should be $99 and you're like yes. My product is worth that, you are not asking me to help you make more money. You are asking me to validate that you are good enough to earn this money and you've made something good enough to get paid and that's what you're asking your clients for. So you're not marketing to your clients based on service. You're marketing to your clients based on validation. Please buy my product so that I know that I'm good enough because then I will know, well I'm not here to tell you how to charge, I'm here to tell you can charge whatever the hell you want but you're the only one that has to believe in it. And you are the only setting the rules in your industry. You're the one doing it, you decide. It's not me, I know you want me to give you the answer. Yes Kelly, you are good enough to do this, Kelly. But guess what, next week, Kelly, you might not be. You might run into a situation that is above you. You might run into a client that pressures you. You might fall down, you might have to stand up. And so next week, you will not be good enough. Next week you will suffer but that's what business is. It's an ebb and flow, an allure of averages and a regeneration of what you love doing while sustaining an average in direct proportion to the exchange of money you are given for the service you offer. And it's not easy and it's not for everybody. Can I talk you out of being in business? I might try in the next hour. I certainly talked myself out of it many many times. I've talked myself out of it so often I wonder how I'm standing in front of you today actually being successful in business. The other teaching I've heard who I do want to model my business on, let's say we're in the same industry and you like my work but I'm ahead of you. I'm ahead of you in experience and I charge more than you. But you want to model your business on me. The second you decide that your service is as good as mine, you can charge what I charge so do you model your business on somebody else, I say hell yes. The second teaching I've heard is do not model your business on anybody, stand up and forge a path to success, forge a path not based on what other people charge, not based on what other people do and I'm like really? Okay, let's put them two here. You decide, I'm picking the top one, do you know why? I come from a place of contrast and compare. I needed to know my own power and my own strength. My ego needed to push through bitterness in order to know my power so to me, nothing motivates me more than contrasting and comparing myself. Now I just don't get lost in it. Now I don't feel like a lesser person if the person running ahead of me is faster or stronger or better. They just motivate me to run faster, stronger and better. But I'm not looking at them going they're younger than me. They're prettier than me, they're getting it easier than I am, I never got a free ride, I'm not running behind them with the baggage of resentment. I'm running behind them going I'm after you. You're doing it, I'm using you as my role model. I'm using your business as my role model. I'm going to charge as much as you. It's only a matter of time, I'm running and I'm running and I'm powerful and I'm right on your tail. And I'm behind you and I see your success and I admire your success, I do not resent you because you are better than me, I respect you because you have done the work, you're leading the way and you're holding a torch and I'm running behind you and I'm knowing, I'm knowing I'm going to catch you, I am certain that I am going to catch you, I believe I'm going to catch you because I love what I do, I believe in what I do and I'm going to change my value every single day until I catch you. Because you are a leader in my field. That's how I feel, I have never looked at somebody else and said why has she got that and I haven't. I look at somebody ahead of me and I go how did she get that because if she has something that I want, it's because of hard work, dedication and consistency. I know this because those are the things I've had to reign in on myself, daily practice. I write it down and I go after it. And I will catch you, it's only a matter of time before I do and not because I wanna beat you. But because I want to lift myself up. Now I spent the first half of my life begging for somebody to uplift me, to hold me up, begging for someone to see me, tell me I was good enough, value me, pay me, please, I was in supplication. I think back to the times I did it, I struggled. I had no money, I didn't know how I was gonna pay my rent. I would just stand there and think if only these people valued me, then they'd pay me and then I could pay my rent. And it wouldn't be so hard, so hard. And I struggled and I struggled and I struggled. And the truth is is the whole time I was asking somebody else to elevate me and I never considered for one minute that I could elevate myself, that I have the strength and the power and the tools to actually elevate myself by valuing myself. Business is not for everyone, it is not for everyone. I'm gonna ask you a question, something I really want you to answer. Are you a hobbyist, a creative, a professional or do you have a sustainable business? Let me define those four things. You start off creating crafts because you're a hobbyist. And before you know it, people want to buy them and you're like hey, I could make money and maybe you're supported, maybe you're not. Maybe you're a husband or a wife that has a spouse that's happy to support you, maybe not, it doesn't matter. But that hobby is just gonna give you a little trickle of money but tell you what, the word hobby comes with the word love, doesn't it, I have a hobby that I love doing whether it's collecting cats. (laughing) It doesn't matter, you have a hobby and your hobby is filled with love and then all of a sudden, you decide to go and create, be creative and start selling this hobby and maybe you work or maybe you're supported, bringing up kids, it doesn't matter where you are. You're in a situation where you can or you're not. And suddenly the creative process takes over. You're trying to sell this creative hobby and basically you're trying to manage a job you hate or being stuck at home with the kids when you know you could be out creating more and all of a sudden you're torn and your creative process between making money and actually having the responsibility of a family or a job and not being able to let it go. And there's a huge pull apart in there. Okay and you're struggling to price and value yourself because it's a hobby so you've priced it low so that everybody buys it because it's a great, fun product and there's lots of love and then before you think about it, you think I could make this into a profession. You either leave your job but you don't. You don't leave your job because nobody actually leaves their job and goes and creates a profession out of what they love, in order to make change, we first we have to create negativity. So first we have to wallow in self pity for about three years, put on lots of weight, maybe get an injury or an illness that stops us from going to work 'cause we don't wanna go anyway. And then we get depressed and we're carrying all this baggage and the whole vocal outpouring to anybody who will listen is I hate my job so much and nobody says well leave right, so you stay and then you get sicker and sicker and bitter and twisted. And then the hobby is not fun anymore and before you know it, it's done or you lose your job or you get so sick you can't go to work. Isn't that ironic and then the whole thing you didn't wanna do anyway, go to work, is now stopped for you. And the truth is is that at the end of the day you could've turned your hobby into a profession at any time but what you needed to educate yourself on is how hard it is to be in a profession. Now what is a sustainable business? Somebody said to me one day are you a business owner. I said yes and they said so what do you do. I said actually I'm a photographer and they're like okay, how many photographers do you have, I said none. And they're like so you're the photographer. And I was like yeah and they're like so you have a job. And I was like no, I'm a business owner. And he said to me, well if you're not shooting, who's making money for you, like if you get sick. And I was like oh, well, well, I work like six, seven days a week, and he's like right. So you have a well paid job 'cause a business is a business that makes money when you're not there. And I was like oh, well, yeah, I have a job. And I pay other people and I'm responsible for other people and I work really hard and he says right. Yeah, how close are you to burning out? And I thought wow, oh yeah. So there are about 100 levels from hobby to sustainable business and what you need to decide is what level do you want to go to, now if you want the professional well paid but I'll work my own hours and you can manage that and control that, then go for it. If you want a sustainable business where you wanna grow something, you manage staff where they're working when you're not there, it's earning you money, like how the economy runs in this world, then go for it. If you wanna come back to just being creative and that means either staying at home with your family, being supported or having a second job, do it. But stop trying to be something that you don't want to be. Stop trying to force something that you don't want to do. Don't get mixed up with a fear or social anxiety of putting your business out there and then thinking I don't really want to be in business. There are so many layers in what you can create an income, price yourself and create and income and survive if you uncover all of your money blocks. And once you work out what your money blocks are, you can really start to live a life that you truly want. Because then you'll know the difference between what is your fear and what is your truth. Now I have to ask this question. Actually let me just tell you one thing. Work a job and earn creative income Lucy. I have a great friend, her name is Lucy and she's an architect and she's incredibly talented. She's young and just a very talented photographer but just does it as a hobby so Lucy is an architect and she's on an architect salary which is good but not huge, architect's get paid well when they have a good corporate job or when they own their own business but when they're a partner, they don't get very well, unless they're a partner, they don't get paid very well. And so what she did was started taking urban landscape while her camera and printing them and then she started to take them to a local market, alright. Now what Lucy did was she started charging been eight and $40 for a print matted and wrapped in cellophane. And on a Saturday, Lucy makes between 1,500 and $2, every Saturday, she sits at the market herself. She sells her own work, she makes more money as an urban landscape photographer at a local market than she does as an architect. She's been running this business for eight years. And it's just her choice. Could she be more, yes, could she do more, yes. But she devotes two days a week to her business. Saturday is the day that she devotes to selling and one or two nights a week she devotes to printing and matting and wrapping them in cellophane. And for that, she gets more than her weekly income. She was somebody that I saw for the first time that actually balanced what she wanted without struggling and I want more and I can't get it and I'm struggling, she was just there doing her thing every week, week in, week out, cashing that money. And she's brilliant at it, brilliant, brilliant, brilliant at it so stop telling yourself you want this when you really want this. Like wake up to what you really want. Anybody who's ever seen anything to have to do with business from me is going to know that the first thing I'm going to say is tell me what you want first and 98% of people can't tell me what they want. And yet I'm asking what you want, what do you want? I don't know what I want, everybody knows what they want. If you can't define what you want, you're not gonna get it. That would be one of the biggest things I'm gonna hit home today, like what is my ultimate day rate? Have you considered a day rate? Instead of a product rate, have you considered a day rate? Instead of a service rate, have you considered a day rate? Ask yourself this question, how many days do I want to work and what am I prepared to earn a day, okay? Now include taxes and expenses to that rate. What is your day rate, have you even asked that? Because if you go and do a service, you have to drive there, you have to drive back, you have to take the booking, you have to follow through. If it's not a product that they're buying and it's a service that you're giving or it's a service and a product, you probably have to come back and voice wrap the products in, the product. To me, that's a day, your service and product is a whole day, what are you prepared to get paid for that whole day? And that's gonna change the way you're looking right now at your pricing, what do you think you deserve to earn in a day, what makes you uncomfortable? Like if I told you today you've earned $2,000. Does that make you feel comfortable or uncomfortable 'cause at first it's like yeah, its like you want it. Okay but you need to shift this thinking. This is not a winning, a winning will not stay in your bank, this is earning, okay and there's a disparity between what you think you deserve to get paid and what you really think you deserve to get paid. And I bet you right now most of you do not think you're deserving of it, you can sit there and say I don't get out of bed for less than $10,000. (laughing) I think that's what my dog thinks, I swear to God. I don't get out of bed for less than $10,000. But the truth is you're saying it but you're not doing it so you don't believe it so when I really challenge people on their worth, okay, now imagine actually going and doing the job and getting the $10,000 and imagine the feeling and the responsibility of the $10,000 job. Because $10,000 is not like hey, hey, you were amazing. Here's 10 k, you're gonna have to work for that money. And if you think about what you have to go through, do you really want that, like what are you really telling yourself in your mind because it's often very untrue, what would you take, what would it take to get me to this much money a month? Okay, it occurred to me when I first started my business, I said to my business partner Sarah, we could make like four grand a week, I just threw that number out there. She was like yeah and then we made $4,000 a week and it barely covered our costs. And I was like we could make like $6,000 a week. And she was like yeah and then we made $6, and it barely covered our costs. And then we made like $10,000 a week and we were like yeah, $10,000, now we're rich. And it barely covered our costs. And I thought the more we drive, the bigger we get, the bigger this engine gets, the bigger the beast gets, the more you have to fed it and then the more work you have, the more staff you have and then all of a sudden, the more expenses you have and everything is just getting bigger and bigger and bigger and that means the more clients I need to have. And suddenly I needed to earn $80,000 a month. And I went from being a girl sitting on a couch going we could earn like $4,000 a month to being like we just made $20,000 this week. We could do $20,000 every week, okay. And straight away I put the pressure on myself to make $20,000 a week in my business and it nearly killed me.