Cash Confident with Brie Sodano
Welcome to Cash Confident an original podcast with Brie Sodano. Cash Confident is an empowering podcast created specifically for women who are ready to take charge of their financial lives. In this series, we delve into the fascinating world of money, providing you with a wealth of practical tips and invaluable insights to help you cultivate a powerful relationship with your finances.
Join host Brie Sodano, personal finance expert and founder of the Cash Confident Community each week as she equips you with the necessary tools and knowledge to confidently navigate the complexities of money management. But Cash Confident goes beyond just managing your money; it also delves into the realm of mindset and emotions, exploring the profound impact they have on our financial decisions. We explore how our beliefs, attitudes, and emotions shape our relationship with money, shedding light on the subconscious factors that influence our financial behaviors. By uncovering these hidden patterns, we empower you to develop a positive and transformative money mindset that will propel you towards financial abundance.
So join us on this exhilarating adventure as we embark on a quest for financial empowerment. Cash Confident is your trusted companion, guiding you through the twists and turns of personal finance, helping you unlock your true potential, and empowering you to live a life of abundance and financial freedom. Together, let's pave the way for a future where every woman can confidently conquer her financial goals and build the life she deserves.
Cash Confident with Brie Sodano
5 Root Causes for Under-Charging
What if your pricing strategy is holding you back from financial success? Learn how to uncover and tackle the root causes of undercharging in service-based businesses in this episode where I emphasize the critical importance of understanding your numbers, encompassing the true costs of delivering your services—from time and overhead to investments in education and tools. By shifting your pricing model to reflect the value you provide rather than just input costs, you can scale your business effectively. Gain practical insights and actionable solutions to ensure you’re charging what you’re truly worth!
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Welcome to the Cash Confident Podcast. If you're a woman ready to take charge of your finances and create a life of abundance and exponential wealth, you've found the right place. I'm Brie Sedano, your host, known to my clients as the Queen Maker. Get ready to dive into a world of money management, mindset and manifestation. Oh, hello, hello, everybody. Today we are talking about some of the root causes for undercharging. So if you listened to my episode last week, you know that I'm running a two-day event in Connecticut, live and in person, called the Top Dollar Method, on September 12th and 13th. People are traveling in from all over the world to come to this event and I'm really, really excited. What we're going to be doing inside of the Top Dollar Method is I'm going to be teaching the strategy, the skills, the mindset, the energetics, the messaging, the sales process for adding an ultra high ticket offer. So this event is best for somebody who is already in a service, for women already in a service-based business who can already deliver good results to their clients and are looking to scale from probably around a hundred grand to multiple hundreds of thousands of dollars towards millions of dollars a year. And so in today's episode, I want to talk to you about the root causes of undercharging, like why people get into undercharging altogether, and more or less like what you can do around it. Let's just do the things of it.
Speaker 1:The first and easiest reason to solve that some people undercharge is a lack of clarity around their numbers. So sometimes it's inexperience, sometimes it's not really understanding the value of their time or their cost of their goods In a business. It's the cost of goods or they're not really looking at the value of the sales process. So the way to really work through that for yourself is to put the pen to the paper and to start to get clear around. How long does the service take to really deliver? What are the total cost of supplies and everything that you need? What are the total cost of supplies and everything that you need? What's the total cost of your overhead? What costs really need to be made? So if your clarity is too small, so let's just say, for example, I'm going to sell an hour of private coaching and I only look at it as my time. My time is one aspect, so my time is a cost to the business. I'm on payroll, so my time is what I would make from my paycheck, but that's not really the entirety of the cost. My time is premium because it pays for overhead, it pays for my staff, it pays for my VA, it pays for my subscriptions, it pays for these other things. So this is just like a behind the scenes. Look on what these offers pay for. Now, that is not the way that I price it. When I'm pricing it, I'm looking at their value, the value that my clients get, which I'm going to talk about separately in a second. But I have to know the clear cost, like the clear cost of my doing business.
Speaker 1:This is something you have to really think through. Maybe get a spreadsheet, get a pen to the paper and start to look at it, and you may need to track things like your time or the amount of expertise, like the amount of skill. It's not even really about skill, it's more about the hard things right. But also if you need education to be able to do this and that's something you're funding going forward that's got to get factored in. If you're taking yourself to the next level and you need primo tools or subscriptions or education, you got to factor that in. So the main solution to that is experience and clarity. You have to run your numbers, and the more diligently that you do that, the faster that experience. This is more like if you have a custom service, like if you're in digital marketing or if you're in systems build out or if you're in construction. Something like construction is extra difficult because you have the service plus the cost of goods, so you have to figure out your own math equations for your business. But that's one of the main reasons is a lack of clarity around the numbers and the true cost of running things, and mostly that comes from inexperience, really. So that's one thing. Okay.
Speaker 1:Now the next thing is really three or four things that I'll talk about, but it's inward facing pricing structure. So listen, when I'm pricing something, I'm pricing it for the value that you get. I'm not pricing it for what I put into it. Right, I'm pricing it for the value that you get, and so the more of your, the more value that you can see. Now, this is not necessarily the same thing as a deliverable. It's not the same thing as what you get from a deliverable. It's not the same thing. It's what you get from the deliverable. So the more value that I can see that you get, the more value that I can clearly and succinctly articulate in my messaging and my copy, the more that you're going to perceive. You're going to see the value Now.
Speaker 1:If I cannot see the value of the service that I provide, see the value Now. If I cannot see the value of the service that I provide, you are sure as fuck not paying me for that. You're just not. And there are some people who will see the value and see that you're undercharging and be into that. There's some people who will see the value, see that you're undercharging, not be into that. Both are fine. There's some people who will tell you that they see the value and that you're not charging for that. You should raise your prices and you should give those people a smooch on the face, all right. So when I'm talking about value, I'm talking about the layers, the ripple effects of what they get, all right.
Speaker 1:So let's just say I'm teaching you a method on how to pay off credit card debt. All right, I'm teaching you the habits, the strategies, the mindset, the energetics all about getting out of credit card debt once and for all. So you're getting, let's just say, the deliverable is a five-hour online course. Actually, I have one of these. It's called Drop the Debt. So let's just say you're buying Drop the Debt, so the deliverable is a workbook and let's say five hours of content and let's just say a certain amount of Q&A time with me. So that's the deliverable, that's what you are buying, but the value that you're getting is paying off your credit card debt. It's all of the interest that you're going to be saving on credit card debt.
Speaker 1:It's not getting back into credit card debt. If you've had a dot, like if you've had yo-yo debt for years, it's not doing. It's breaking that pattern. If you have kids, it's not passing on the modeling for being in credit card debt. There's the emotional piece. There's the piece around having your credit card being paid off, the not having to carry the stress, the anxiety, the worry. It's not having to be mad at yourself for paying interest on things. Right.
Speaker 1:Like I've helped people pay off credit card debt that they might be paying four and five figures a month Probably not five figures I've definitely helped people have four figures of credit card debt interest that they're paying every single month. I don't think I've met anybody with five figures of credit card interest every month, but actually maybe I have. I'd have to look back at my notes but it doesn't matter. And so there's a lot there, and if it wasn't boring, I would keep going and I could keep going and I could keep talking about it. Why? Because I've made lists of the value that people get. Why? Because that is what helps me to get behind my pricing.
Speaker 1:Now, for when I sell courses, I generally price them pretty low because my mission is to end financial suffering and obviously I do need to cover my cost of goods. But these are not my premium, most expensive offers. I've made these very accessible, right, like I do my best to be able to, like, obviously, fund my life, eat food, pay my people, but at the end of the day, these offers are priced and that's cool. If I wanted them to be a premium offer, then I could price them accordingly, like I could price them higher, and for a long time I did not have low ticket offers at all. For a long time I didn't do that. I wasn't ready.
Speaker 1:Okay, so if I'm looking at the time that I put into this, so let's just say I'm going to make a workbook. Let's say that costs me and my staff, let's say, a total of 10 hours between the two of us and I have five modules that I'm going to record and let's just say each one of them takes me an hour to map out and then an hour to deliver. And then let's say I do some Q's and A's and that's another couple hours. So now I'm in this thing for 20 hours. Now I can sell this thing as many times as I want. So if I'm looking at it like, oh, this is, oh, I put 20 hours in and I'm going to sell it for $200. If, where am I going? How am I going to say this?
Speaker 1:If I'm looking at what I put into it, it's really really easy to think that the value on it is really really low, or the price on it should be really really low, because obviously it's really easy for me to make the 20 hours of money back. So let's just say the total cost of the course and the marketing. Let's just say it cost me $3,000 to produce. I made these numbers up. But if I'm selling for $200, I'm like, oh, it takes this many to break even. Okay, I know that I can sell at least this much on my initial launch. Whatever. If I'm looking at it like, what I put into it and how much money I want to make is really easy for me to undercharge. It's just really easy.
Speaker 1:Now if I'm selling Primo services and I'm looking at what I put into it right. So if you hire me for one-on-one coaching, currently the one-on-one coaching price is $2,222. If I look at that, like, oh, I'm putting in one hour, it doesn't seem to make sense. If I look at it like the value that you're getting, it's a great deal. It's a great deal for the value that you're getting. But when I look at it in terms of pricing, it like makes my butthole pucker, like it makes me cringe. And so this perspective shift of inward facing pricing versus value facing pricing because if I'm faced toward me, I'm not faced toward my customer. I'm looking at my insecurities, my bullshit, what I put into it, yada, yada, yada, and nobody gives a shit. Nobody gives a shit about my expertise, my time. They're really looking at it like what's in it for them.
Speaker 1:So when you're looking at your pricing structure, you obviously need to know how much time it takes to make sure that you're covering your costs. But you're not billing for your time, you're billing for what they get. When you're billing for your experience, now, experience is going to allow you to create speed. A couple of years ago, if you hired me for coaching, I wasn't charging this amount and it might take me two or three meetings to get done. Now, what I can get done in a fraction of one meeting because I'm practiced at it, I'm experienced at it. I've done thousands and thousands of hours of this, and so the value that somebody could get from me in one hour. A couple years ago it might have taken six months to get that right. And so the speed is a primo thing. Like people pay more to get those results fast instead of get those results.
Speaker 1:But if I'm looking at it facing me, then I'm like I'm putting the same amount of time in it. Should I like it? Just, if I'm facing myself, everything just feels gross and bad. But if I'm facing what they're getting, I'm like shit, yeah, this is a great deal, even if it is a premium price. Okay. So inward facing pricing models.
Speaker 1:So if I'm looking at my time, my expertise, if I'm looking at my sense of self-worth, if I'm looking at my sense of confidence today or whatever else, it's a root cause for undercharging. It's just a general root cause for undercharging. Also, it doesn't lend itself to great sales discussions, right. So if I'm telling you so, if you're wondering what the ROI on my coaching is and I say it takes me a whole hour to do this meeting you're like what I have to keep it focused on you.
Speaker 1:When people are looking to see whether or not they want to be paying for premium offer, they're looking for what's in it for them. You need to be able to explain that ROI incredibly clearly, and this is true even if you are in an employee situation. If you're an employee asking, like wanting a raise, you're putting the same amount of time into it, and now that maybe you have a little bit more expertise, but you want to be able to convey the value that you're bringing to this workplace. But you want to especially things that you're doing that you're not being paid for, things that are outside of your job description, things that are bolstering the company, saving the company tons of money, like. You want to be able to clearly articulate the value that you're bringing to the table, and that value is not about you. They're two different things. They're just two different things. Okay. So then there's then.
Speaker 1:The next thing is fear. So a root cause of undercharging is fear, and there's three different flavors of fear. That are the main ones. The main ones, although as you get into this, you may find that these five causes, maybe some of this will resonate with you and maybe you have something else, and that's fine. We're all a little different, but these are some of the main things that I see.
Speaker 1:So fear, and so it's the fear of judgment, the fear of rejection and the fear of scarcity, and they're usually a little intertwined together. Usually it's not just like, oh, I'm afraid of being judged, and that's the only one. So the fear of judgment might be something like oh, what are people going to think? And, honestly, the fear of judgment mostly comes from the place of I would not pay for. I would not pay this amount of dollars for the service that I'm providing and I feel bad that I would charge that much. That's generally the like judgment, the thought process that's there, and the thing about it is like people are allowed to buy what they buy, right. Like I work with clients who often make way more money than me and I'm really good at the thing that I do, but a lot of my clients make way, way more money than me and maybe my rates are appropriate for them and they might not be appropriate for me where I'm at in my personal business.
Speaker 1:Or let's just say let's just say you make a real fancy, high-end wallpaper that, like Jay-Z buys for his house. You know what I mean. Let's just say you're the artisan wallpaper maker and also maybe you make $100,000 a year and you would not pay hundreds of thousands, you would not pay tens of thousands of dollars for a room's worth of wallpaper. You just wouldn't. It's just not the same. Does that mean that Jay-Z doesn't want that wallpaper? Absolutely not. Put it, it's just not the same. Well, does that mean that Jay-Z doesn't want that wallpaper? Absolutely not. So I think really, when we're afraid of judgment is we're mostly afraid of being on the wrong side of our judgment. And so if we think that we wouldn't pay that much money for that service or that product, that other people won't, and that's just not true, so you could just go ahead and sit with that, break that down.
Speaker 1:But okay, so rejection is the fear that people are going to say no. And so here's the deal If you own a business, you are going to eat a rejection sandwich. Facts you might as well learn to love the taste of it. Honestly, it's the best advice, like it's the best advice, it's learning to love the sensation of rejection in your body, because you are going to, you're going, you're going to face it. I wish I could tell you that something else was going to happen and that if your sales process was good enough, that you'd have 100% close rate. But that would be a total lie, an absolute nonsense. So if you're selling anything, especially of a premium price, you're going to get a no.
Speaker 1:And so if you're afraid of that no, you're going to wobble in your price so hard because you're going to be evaluating what they should be able to spend and it doesn't work. So you're going to have to learn to sit with the discomfort of rejection and I will tell you that the fear of rejection is so much worse than the rejection itself. It's so much worse than the rejection itself. So if you're afraid of the rejection, that's going to bother you so long. But if you actually just let yourself have the rejection when it happens most of the time, if you can sit with it with your full attention, it's gone in 60 seconds. One minute of feeling like a flush of discomfort, right. But if you're afraid of the rejection, you're going to wobble in your price.
Speaker 1:And that brings us to the fear of scarcity, which is the fear of there's not going to be enough. People are going to say no, what if nobody says yes? What if nobody can afford this? That's like the fear that if you're charging too much, people are not going to buy it. It's like the fear that you're not going to have enough and that the fear of doing things out of the fear of scarcity always just brings you right back to scarcity. So you also have to learn to be steady and solid with yourself so that way you're like this is what I charge, and the more that you get behind the value of that, the easier your ability to be steady in your pricing becomes.
Speaker 1:And, like I'm saying, even if you're charging premium prices or if you're asking for a raise, if you go in there and you're like wobbling and you're not sure and you feel insecure, like that all comes across and people are like it doesn't translate well to success. So what you want to be doing is really looking at the value that you have. Be confident, build up your sense, build up the idea of the value that you provide until in your mind it's so big that somebody would literally be silly to say no. Now are people still going to say no, of course, but at least that way you don't have to wobble. If I know fully and completely that the amount of money that I charge for something is so worth it that what they're going to get is worth so much more and that, essentially, the results that they're going to get is so much bigger than the money that they spend, I'm like, yeah, it's this much, it's a great deal. Now, whether or not that's in somebody's budget is something else, but I can stay steady in it. So when you're asking for raises or you're asking your clients to pay top dollar, these are things that really come up.
Speaker 1:So those fears judgment, rejection, scarcity. So if you're on the wrong side, if you're afraid of judgment, I would be looking at your own judgments, because it means that you're on the wrong side of your judgments. If you're afraid of rejection, the only thing I could say is pour yourself a little cup full of rejection, eat that rejection sandwich and come to find out that it's not that scary. It'll be okay, you'll be fine. It's uncomfortable for a minute, but if you want to be making a lot of money in your business. You're going to eat that rejection sandwich over and over again, so you might as well acquire the taste for it. And then scarcity is the fear of not having enough. Everybody's going to say no, and that's. It's really tied to that judgment of like. I would say no, I would say no. So I think you should say no.
Speaker 1:Which brings us back to the point of keep your focus on them. You are not selling to you. Keep your focus out of your bullshit, keep your focus out of your insecurities. Keep your focus on the value that they get, not the time, the expertise, the energy, the skills that you put in. Keep it on them what they get right. And if you flip your focus from what you get to what they get, it's really much more easy to sell and to be paid top dollar rates.
Speaker 1:I hope this was helpful. I hope that if you're in business, you're like oh, I see some places that I could charge a different kind of amount. Or even if you're in a W-2 situation, you're like shit, I could do better at asking for my next raise. I'm being underpaid for the value that I'm bringing to the table. This exchange isn't fair and I would just want to reiterate that if you cannot clearly articulate the value that you're bringing to the table, you are not getting paid for it.
Speaker 1:Learning to see value is critical, learning to see layers of value, learning to see value is a cornerstone of wealth consciousness. You have to do it if you want to be wealthy. You have to understand value, and value is not about inputs, it's about outputs. So you have to shift your perspective from inputs to outputs, although the inputs can also be valuable. Like input value is great, output value is great, but if you're selling service, output value is the place to focus and to be able to clearly articulate.
Speaker 1:All right, I love you so much. I will talk to you later and if you want to come to the top dollar method, the link is in the thing and I will. I just want to say again this event is it's a $500 event. I'm expecting everybody that comes to walk away with an ultra premium, high ticket offer that they should be able to immediately sell. So I'm expecting that everybody that comes should be able to 10X even upwards of that their investment on the event, the time, the travel, the two days, all of it very quickly. It's something that's tried and true.
Speaker 1:So, anyways, I hope you can come if it's the fit for you. I love you so much. Bye. Thank you for listening to the Cash Confident Podcast. Remember, knowledge alone isn't enough to build wealth. It's what you do with that knowledge that counts, and that's where the Cash Confident community comes in. Our community is where aspiring wealthy women gather together to master money and mindset and build exponential wealth. I invite you to join our community where women are cultivating a healthy relationship with money and living the life of their dreams. Visit wwwcashconfidentcom to learn more.
