From a #PriceLikeAGirl FB "Live": You're worth more than you think!

Hi there, it's Mary Schiller from pricelikeagirl.com, and I was inspired to jump on here with a quick Facebook Live from the amazing discussion that was going on in the Price Like a Girl Facebook group here with Jill's question about how much she should charge for a presentation for a pharmaceutical company. And I want to thank Jill for starting that conversation because I think that it helped a lot of us see something that may be invisible to us a lot of the time, which is that our skills and talents are worth a lot more than we think they are. You know, even just thinking about myself, when I consider How many years, for example, I have been working on my own business and supporting myself through that. I did that for several years before I went back to working for someone else full-time. I learned a lot about working for myself, about generating a business and developing great client relationships and all kinds of things like that. And then in the past you know, 2 to 3 years and gradually moving back into working for myself and now having a business that is profitable and fun. You know, there's a lot of years of experience and a lot of things that are valuable to other people that I'm sure I'm not even aware of and that are worth a lot more than I think. So this doesn't just apply to you, it applies to me too. So the question then becomes, you know, how can we start to see ourselves more from— hi, hey, it's Amanda, it's so nice to see you, how fun. So the question is, you know, how can we start to see this value a little bit more so that we know what's appropriate to charge? And I think that what Jill did in posting the question was really great. It's so great to see Amanda and I are good friends. So, uh, we don't get to interact too much because we don't live near each other anymore. So it's really, it's really fun to see you here, Amanda. Uh, you know, what Jill did was really cool. She put the question out there and she explained, you know, who she was going to be talking to. And a few of us chimed in and were like, are you crazy to charge $300 for that? You know, it's worth a lot more and your audience certainly has the money to pay you. So kind of go for it. And then I'm forgetting, I'm sorry, who else said, you know, use that phrase, see what you can get away with. You know, I have been using that a lot myself, you know, just seeing, is this number something that I could get away with charging? Let's see. And what's been so surprising is more often than not, and in fact, I'm trying to think if there's ever been an instance where someone didn't pay what I was charging for something based on the price, and I can't really think of anything. That's kind of interesting. I didn't realize that until just now, that every time I've put a price on something, someone has paid it, which tells me that I may even be charging too little for things. So like I said, this is a good lesson for me as well. So the way I think we can start to see our worth and our value in terms of our skills and talents is to ask people. In fact, with a new service that I launched recently about helping people getting their projects finished, one of the things that I asked them afterwards was, would you have paid more for this? And I was surprised to see that in most of the cases, the answer was yes. Let me see, does this apply to retail as well? What do you think? I think it totally applies to retail. I mean, I think I might have mentioned this before, but, uh, you're, you're too young to remember Pet Rocks, but there was this craze— I don't even remember when this was, maybe in the '70s or something— where someone came up with this idea to sell rocks in the store, and they called them Pet Rocks. So people actually bought rocks and put them on their desk at work and things like that. Now, I don't remember how much they cost, but it's kind of ridiculous, right? Do you remember that? That's so funny. And even at the time, I was thinking, this is really weird that people are paying for rocks when they could just go out into their yard and get one. So the way that people see things as valuable is very odd. You know, you can look at anything in retail like that has any sort of craze attached to it, like Beanie Babies or Cabbage Patch dolls and, and things like that, where the value is just completely unrelated, it seems, to the actual object, but people are placing a value on it based on something that we kind of— is kind of intangible. So I do think that it applies to retail as well. I'm less familiar with that because I've more based my own pricing on services. But in a way, because I'm now creating products like books and online programs and things, I am becoming a little bit more familiar with pricing in that realm too. Um, yeah, it really does, Amanda. I really do think that it has a lot to do with how you are talking to a potential customer, how you are packaging things. That was a big thing I learned recently in selling this program, Let's Make Money, Honey, and, um, and how I was offering it to different audiences who are following me. I learned some big lessons there in how to appeal to them and how not just appeal like, oh, I want your money. That's not what I mean, but how to show them the value of it to them. So I think that's a big part of it is how something is framed and how it is speaking to the potential buyer. So I think that what's helpful is really having a clear understanding of who your audience is. Like in Jill's case, you know, she was going to be talking to a doctor. I think that was who her original contact was who was working at a pharmaceutical company. So automatically you're looking at an audience there that first of all has money to spend, and second of all, it sounded like they were looking for some new ideas. So they were really, you know, potentially very interested in what Jill has to offer. So that was a really ripe audience for her. So she could easily charge more than she originally thought. So, I think it's important to not only look at what skills and talents, and in your case, retail things that you're offering, but also what your audience is looking for, what's attractive to them, what's appealing to them. And there's nothing wrong with asking people. You know, as I said, with this project finish that I've been doing, I asked people afterwards, you know, would they have paid more? And, you know, just seeing was my pricing in the right range? And I think it was actually a tad low. Hi, Angela, nice to see you here. So, and also, you know, don't be afraid to just ask people in your immediate circles. If you're unsure about, you know, being able to kind of see yourself from the outside, it does help to get some input, just like Jill did here in the group. Because we don't always, we're just not always able to see the value in ourselves because, and I think I mentioned this in the Price Like a Girl book, You know, we're, we're offering something that to us seems like second nature or seems very easy, or, you know, in your case, Amanda, you've created something that's really cool and it's coming from within you, so it doesn't seem as, um, uh, as difficult as it does for somebody from the outside who can't do that, who can't create those things, who can't provide services in that way. Amanda, yes, they would have paid more after, but isn't getting people on board to begin with a very different beast? Yeah, and I think that I kind of waffle on this, to be honest, where I felt like the price that I offered was, um, sort of an introductory price, and it's not something that I normally do. Um, I did it in that case because I honestly wasn't sure how it would work. I wasn't sure if the service itself would work the way that I thought it would. And so I think looking back, I was a little bit timid to charge what I thought maybe it was actually worth because I wanted to test it. And that's, you know, there's nothing wrong with that. I made the best judgment that I could at the time. So yeah, I do think that sometimes if you're not completely sure of something, as I wasn't with that, it's fine to set sort of an introductory price. But after you get feedback on something, it's totally okay to, to raise it. I see no, no problem with that at all. Um, uh, so I think I'm gonna wrap this up here in just a couple of minutes, but if anybody on here has any other questions, I'm happy to answer. And I just really was excited to see people jumping in on Jill's question and helping her to see what she was really offering and how, you know, her initial thought of a really low price was just way off the mark. Because sometimes, like I said, that's hard to see, and we can have all of this kind of fearful thinking going on and worry, and we can feel like we're stepping out of our comfort zone or, you know, too big for our britches kind of thing. And, you know, we're really actually allowed to ignore all that kind of thinking and instead rest in the knowledge that what we are providing, whether it's a service or product or, you know, anything like that, is a beautiful piece of our own selves. It's an inspiration that we've had. It comes from years of experience that we've had, and it's probably actually worth in money a lot more than we imagine it is to somebody who really wants it. All right, so I think I'm gonna, uh, sign off. Thanks so much for watching, whether you've been with me live, um, or you're watching on the replay. And please feel free to post comments and questions here anytime. I love interacting with you. Thanks so much and have a beautiful day wherever you are in the world. Bye for now.