How to work out your pricing to align with you and your values

Today’s episode of the podcast is a solo episode all about knowing your value and aligning with your true North.

I talk all about the journey I have been on recently to do this, and the changes I am going to be making to my podcast and my pricing as a result.

I’d love to hear if any of this resonates with you, or if it prompts you to review any areas of your own business - feel free to connect with me over on social media and let me know!

 
KEY TAKEAWAYS COVERED IN THE PODCAST

The journey I have been on to make changes to my pricing
What my pricing will look like going forward
How you can make sure your pricing aligns with your business
What to expect from the podcast going forward


 
THE ONE THING YOU NEED TO REMEMBER ABOVE ALL ELSE
You are running your business, and only you get to decide what that looks like and how you want to run it.

 
HIGHLIGHTS YOU SIMPLY CAN'T MISS

Why you shouldn’t price based on meeting people where they’re at
Why it’s not about the tactics of how you sell, but the intent behind it
Why you can charge a premium price and still sell morally and ethically


 
Transcript

Hello and welcome to this week's episode of the podcast. How are you doing?

Okay. I think I've told you recently, or if you've been watching my socials or on my emails, that I've been doing quite some reviewing of my business and it also stemmed from the fact of when I went to Nashville and I was on that retreat. And often what happens when you take time out is your brain starts to kick in, you really start to think about things.

And I've started working with my amazing coach Mary again, and I've been working with a couple of other business owners who are coaches. And I basically have been taking some time to review stuff, look at everything not only in my business, but also in my life, and just question myself about what makes me really happy.

What's the thing that I love to do? What is in alignment with me? And this might sound a bit kind of heavy and a bit serious, and you might think, really, do we have to do this? But when was the last time you did that? When was the last time you sat and thought, Why am I doing the thing that I'm doing?

Is it what I wanna do or should I be doing something else? So that's what I've been doing over the past, God knows how many weeks, and it's been a bit of a journey and a tough one really, because I've had to question stuff that I've been doing for a long time and have had to ask myself, is it really working?

I've had to look at my products, my services, my team, how I show up, how I sell things, what price I sell them for, and I've just had to review a whole load of stuff. When I say have to, I haven't had to, but actually it has felt, the process has been hard, but it's felt so good doing it. And also when you've been doing something as long as I have, you know, this podcast is on episode 200 and whatever I just said, 67.

It's a long flipping time. I've had the membership for four plus years. It's a long time in this world, so I think it's really worth sitting and considering things. So that's what I've been doing and that's kind of my, I dunno, my question to you about when did you last do this? Have you done this?

Now later in the year, and I know we like in November already, I think by the time this comes out. Yeah, we are in November. Just I am actually gonna be doing a day, well,...

Today’s episode of the podcast is a solo episode all about knowing your value and aligning with your true North.

I talk all about the journey I have been on recently to do this, and the changes I am going to be making to my podcast and my pricing as a result.

I’d love to hear if any of this resonates with you, or if it prompts you to review any areas of your own business - feel free to connect with me over on social media and let me know!

 
KEY TAKEAWAYS COVERED IN THE PODCAST

The journey I have been on to make changes to my pricing
What my pricing will look like going forward
How you can make sure your pricing aligns with your business
What to expect from the podcast going forward


 
THE ONE THING YOU NEED TO REMEMBER ABOVE ALL ELSE
You are running your business, and only you get to decide what that looks like and how you want to run it.

 
HIGHLIGHTS YOU SIMPLY CAN'T MISS

Why you shouldn’t price based on meeting people where they’re at
Why it’s not about the tactics of how you sell, but the intent behind it
Why you can charge a premium price and still sell morally and ethically


 
Transcript

Hello and welcome to this week's episode of the podcast. How are you doing?

Okay. I think I've told you recently, or if you've been watching my socials or on my emails, that I've been doing quite some reviewing of my business and it also stemmed from the fact of when I went to Nashville and I was on that retreat. And often what happens when you take time out is your brain starts to kick in, you really start to think about things.

And I've started working with my amazing coach Mary again, and I've been working with a couple of other business owners who are coaches. And I basically have been taking some time to review stuff, look at everything not only in my business, but also in my life, and just question myself about what makes me really happy.

What's the thing that I love to do? What is in alignment with me? And this might sound a bit kind of heavy and a bit serious, and you might think, really, do we have to do this? But when was the last time you did that? When was the last time you sat and thought, Why am I doing the thing that I'm doing?

Is it what I wanna do or should I be doing something else? So that's what I've been doing over the past, God knows how many weeks, and it's been a bit of a journey and a tough one really, because I've had to question stuff that I've been doing for a long time and have had to ask myself, is it really working?

I've had to look at my products, my services, my team, how I show up, how I sell things, what price I sell them for, and I've just had to review a whole load of stuff. When I say have to, I haven't had to, but actually it has felt, the process has been hard, but it's felt so good doing it. And also when you've been doing something as long as I have, you know, this podcast is on episode 200 and whatever I just said, 67.

It's a long flipping time. I've had the membership for four plus years. It's a long time in this world, so I think it's really worth sitting and considering things. So that's what I've been doing and that's kind of my, I dunno, my question to you about when did you last do this? Have you done this?

Now later in the year, and I know we like in November already, I think by the time this comes out. Yeah, we are in November. Just I am actually gonna be doing a day, well, it's not a whole day, it's a few hours and it's gonna be online where we do a workshop where we can plan next year and do a review of your business. And it just gives you the head space just to sit and with some guidance from me, go through stuff and question stuff, and then also have that community of people for that time period in which you can say, this is my thought, what do you think? And you can get some feedback from them. So I am actually gonna be offering that, but I will tell you about that in later podcasts and in a few weeks time, once we've got everything sorted for that. But I am excited about that cause I do love doing this kind of thing.

And the people that I work with who do this kind of planning and goal setting and strategy and just thinking about them and their business, they're the ones who I've seen make the biggest moves and the biggest impact. And have got through those blocks because sometimes we need to review those things to see where we are being held back, to see where our business is not succeeding and where we can make a change. And sometimes that changes to us. Sometimes we have to make the change and it's us. That's the problem, as is most often the case, if I'm honest, especially in my business.

So today, what I wanna talk to about today, I wanna talk to you about pricing and how in my undercover work that I've been doing, I have decided and discovered that me and my pricing are not in a line, and there are many reasons for this.

So I know working out pricing is one of the hardest things for me and my business. It really, really is difficult to work out. How and what I price at, and I know it's the same for everybody else, but the thing is I can do it for other people with ease. In fact, it's one of my things I love doing the most.

I love doing the math. I love working stuff out, and I love giving my members, my community, the confidence to go out and charge what they charge. As a side, and I wasn't gonna talk about this actually, but it was such a nice example. I had a session with one of my members the other week as she won an hour with me.

And in that hour we wanted to go through pricing and basically we spent the hour. In fact, we ended up spending one hour, cause I'm soft and can't help myself. But we did it over a couple of sessions. We went through all her pricing and we looked to everything and we worked on her confidence in terms of how she could charge more.

And it's not always as simple as just charge more. That isn't always the case, it has to be a considered thing. I have to know who you are, what you do, how much you charge to know whether you should be charging more. But in her case, she should be. So we went through and we kind of not only did a very practical exercise, but also a more coaching exercise to give her the confidence to then look at how she put her pricing up.

And then I did it in a really strategic way. So I literally helped her create a spreadsheet and I created this spreadsheet where she just plugged in the various elements of what she offered and that gave her her price. She did something that was very, she was a wedding stationary designer, so things like adding on the cost of a ribbon, you know, was pretty straightforward.

So we did that, and we went through and we created this spreadsheet and it kind of took the nervousness away from her cuz she could literally just plug in the pricing and then it would go, This is what you have to bud them or this is what you should charge them. So she did it and her first two came back and the first one actually said they'd been to someone else, so she sent the pricing. So that was the first thing, like the bravery and that amazing. And she messaged me going, Oh my God, I've just sent this pricing. And I was like, Brilliant. She said, I'll just wait and see what they say. I said, Well, that's, that's by the buy almost at this point.

So one, one came back and said, Can you do it for cheaper? And we then looked at how we could negotiate in terms of not just dropping the price, but what can we change about their order in order to make it cheaper. Then the other person came back and said Yes and didn't even question it. So I was over the moon and that's what I mean when it's easy for me to look at someone else's business and go, this is what you should charge. It's so much harder for me to do it for myself. So in this episode, I'm gonna talk you through how I have come to the conclusion about my pricing and how I've changed it and why I've changed it.

But also, before we jump into that too much, I want to update you on something else. One of the other things I've changed, through this whole business review. So the podcast, like I said, I've been doing it for a really long time and I've interviewed some of the most phenomenal people. I have been very lucky.

You know, if you've been listening to the podcast for a while, I've had the likes of Michael Hyatt, Mary Hyatt, Megan Hyatt. I've basically had the whole Hyatt family, which is pretty phenomenal. I've had a Porterfield Ding, Graziossi, Denise, Duffel Thomas. I've got Sigrun coming up in a few weeks time. I've got, I've had James Wedmore.

I've had, oh God, I can't even think so many amazing people. So, and people who are top of my, their game and some people who I was a huge fan of and now I'm not so much a huge fan of, and some people who I just discovered kind of later on. And so anyway, lots and lots of different people, different thoughts.

And in the last few kind of, I don't know, . I was gonna say years, but I guess it is years. I've been really picky about who comes onto the podcast because I only want the best people and also the people that I'm having on now has changed. So some of the people I've had on in the past, I wouldn't have on again.

And given the choice, they're not my bag anymore, but that's fine. People change, we learn different things, we discover different things, and we decide. You know what we like and what we don't like. But like I said, I've been really picky, but recently I've been thinking, how can I shake up the podcast? I've been doing it for a long time.

How can I just, I don't know, make it fit with me a bit more? How can I make it easier? And this is a question I ask my members all the time, and especially in the executive club when they are struggling. You know, I asked them to think about what if it was easy. So I did this with the podcast and I was like, well, what's the difficult bit about the podcast?

Well, the difficult bit is we get an absolute ton of applications, like not even joking, anywhere between one and three a day, and the processing of those applications is huge. And also there's a lot of people, I don't want to come on the podcast cuz I don't think they serve you as well as I would like them to.

And also because I am interviewing people that I don't necessarily know anymore. It's really tricky, it's not been an easy thing. Sometimes I interview someone and think, Oh, and you're really not my bag, or, that wasn't as good as I'd have hoped. And there's that whole thing about do I allow the episode to go out?

Do I not allow it? Do I upset the person? It's hard. And then there's the whole, like I said, work that goes along with a processing all these applications, managing them all, booking them in. And it just got exhausting. So I surveyed some people, I reached out to some specific people that I know listen to the podcast cuz they, they speak to me about it and I asked them what do they like?

And they all said they like short episodes. And I get it right, the world has changed. No longer are you on long drives to offices or to a different office. You're working from home. You're probably listening to this well, doing something else as I always do, getting ready in the morning or making some food or whatever it might be.

Maybe it is on the school run, but a school run isn't gonna be an hour long or hopefully not. So I've decided to make some changes. The first change is I'm not interviewing anybody else anymore. Now I have got some interviews in the bag that need, that I will honor and put out, and I think that's about a four.

So you've probably got another few weeks of interviews that are coming up. So I've got, still got some interviews, but after that I'm going to take a break. And it's not to say that I'm never gonna interview anyone again. It might just be the case of. I don't interview anyone for a while, or if someone amazing comes along like Brene Brown, Anytime you want Brene, you can come on the podcast.

Glen and Doyle, I'll love to interview you too. Like there are some amazing people I would love to interview and if they come along great, I will obviously bite their hand off, but I am not interviewing as a normal standard thing. So my episodes are now going to be so low and they're going to be short to the point and fairly practical.

And sometimes I'll talk about, you know, practices that I do personally and mindset wise and mindfulness wise. And sometimes I will give you very practical advice about marketing and social media and strategy and business. So it's going to be a bit of a mix, but I'm just gonna try it and see what I think like, and I think this is the message I'm trying to put out to you in terms of this and when we get back to the money conversation is it's your business you get to decide. So that's what's happening with the podcast. I wanted to update you that I know I was literally starting one conversation and I've jumped into this one, but I wanted to make sure that you know where we're at with that. Okay. But like I said, next few weeks, I think probably still about four episodes that our interview still to come. So it, it'll be a little while yet until that stops.

So let's get back to the pricing. So how do you know that you're in alignment with you and your pricing? So one of the things I did is I wanted to think about, why I price at the price that I do. And I was asked this and I had a coach help me with this.

The amazing Mary help me with this. So this isn't a, something that I did on my own because as I've already said to you to do it on your own is very difficult. So I basically sat and talked to Mary and we went through a session and we looked at why I price the way I price, and is it in alignment to my values and me.

Some of the things I had to do to work this out was think about why I've put it at that price. Now, As I've said to you before, and I was really honest about why I stopped the $19 level. I was trying to meet other people where they were and that wasn't in alignment with me and who I am. I have been in marketing a very long time, as I constantly talk about, you're probably bored of it now.

I have a degree in it. I've worked for some of the biggest brands on the planet and I consult at, at a high level or have consulted at a high level. And now I have some, you know, amazing programs that I offer right to people which vary in cost and start at a lower cost, but, what I'm trying to do or what I have been trying to do is meet people where they're at.

And the other reason I priced the way I priced was not only to meet people where they're at, because I'm trying to be affordable for people who can't necessarily afford a lot of money, or they're just new in their journey and they're starting up. But also, I didn't wanna be seen as unethical or immoral.

So, you know, I have a real be in my bonnet about the way that people sell online and how people sell and some of the tactics that they use. And actually, it's never about the tactic, it's the intent behind it. And I think that basically I started off my journey, and again, this was all through coaching with Mary that we discovered this. I started off my journey and I was following what the expert said because I didn't know any better. And so I'm one end of the pendulum, and then I realize I don't like what they're saying. And actually this doesn't, this isn't in line with me. I don't want to feel that, you know, I'm doing this sleazy, horrible selling, and I'm using underhand tactics. So I basically swung from one end of the pendelum.

Right the way through to the other end, and then suddenly offered a very low price thing. Felt like I had to be available to everybody all the time, and it was almost like I literally did the complete opposite of everything that they said, which I'm not saying is a bad thing. I'm just saying I'm explaining my journey, but I took it to be that if I was being moral and I was selling ethically, I couldn't charge a higher price. I took it to mean that doing that meant you sell at a low cost and that isn't the case. And I had this kind of brainwave the other day when someone was interviewing me and we were talking about cars and, and also I'd written some emails that'll be coming out this week where I'm talking about handbags, right?

So two examples. One, we went to Turkey, my husband and I, I wasn't expecting the whole day to be all that. And it was actually, it was really, really lovely. Turkey's lovely place. Well, we were over in Turkey. There is a mall called Quality Mall. Now, if anything's got the word quality in front of it, fairly confident it's not.

And I got there and seriously, and I do not know how they get away with this stuff, but everything in this mall was, came to fit or fake or, and literally, I dunno, how do they get away with it? Anyway, so my husband and I are walking around, obviously not knowing that this is what this mall is about, but literally like, you know, Louis Vuitton, Gucci, all the watches, all the jewelry, all the bags, even clothes, like everything. And my husband joked with me and he went, Do you want a Louis Vuitton handbag? Cause he knows I would like a Louis Vuitton handbag. And I was like, Yeah, no. Yeah, I want one. I do not want a fake one. I want the, the knowledge that I can afford to buy one of those handbags.

The same thing came in the example I gave on the podcast interview with cars. You know, I have a very nice car, but I would quite like a Tesla. And I got my stepson, who is car mad to speak out what I would want in a Tesla, and it came in about 120 grand, 110 grand, something like that. And, I thought to myself, if Tesla said, Oh, you can have a car for seven grand, would I want it?

No, I wouldn't because again, I want the 110, and I would think if it was either cheap or fake, I'd think, well, it's not the real thing or it's not as good as the real thing. And I think that was the problem because when I look at all my, who I am as a person, and my personality and my values, and the example I give in my emails this week is I talk about the different things, the different personality tests I've done.

So I'm an enneagram three, which is described as self-accepting, authentic, being a role model, and inspiring others. I'm an E N F J on the Myers Briggs. Which are born leaders, they can be found as politicians and coaches and teachers they're passionate and charisma allows them to inspire others, not just in their careers, but in every arena of their lives, including relationships.

And it says things like, you know, they wanna