Art of Earning, Quiet Power Strategy
It doesn’t matter how much time, energy, blood, sweat, or tears you put into marketing and selling what you’ve already created if it isn’t designed to get you where you want to go.
The beauty of starting a business today is that it can be rough & tumble, fast as lightening, and fly by the seat of your pants. You don’t need to know what you’re doing and you don’t need to plan ahead. But I often see business owners stay stuck in this cycle of unintentional creation.
They keep creating products or programs. They keep creating marketing campaigns. They keep creating content.
But they don’t create a true system for growth.
They end up frustrated–sometimes at the edge of burnout–and tell me, “I’ve realized that what’s gotten me here won’t get me where I want to go.” Yes, exactly.
You can make money, change lives, and create great stuff without a plan. But if you want to take a break, realize a big goal, create a legacy, and level up your earnings in a big way, you need more.
When Adrianne Meldrum, founder of The Tutor House, came to Quiet Power Strategy, she was ready to make some changes and try things she hadn’t done before in the name of creating an intentional, cohesive strategic plan. Here’s her story:
Adrianne Meldrum, The Tutor House
324 hours lost. Hours I couldn’t get back no matter how much I wanted to. These hours were not lost watching television or browsing social media. They were not on account of making mistakes and fixing them. The hours were the victim of worry. Worry was starting to take the joy out of running a small business for me. At night when my entire home was quiet, I was awake worrying if I had made some serious mistakes in my business. It had to be something serious because I did a lot of things right in my business.
I had opt-ins, products, a podcast, a new app, and a tribe of dedicated followers. I often would feel hopeful that the launch of my newest idea would be the ticket that would finally set me on the path to profit. It just had to be some huge mistake that I was overlooking. It had to be! The question that always ended this barrage of thoughts was, “Why was I spending so much time working without much in profit? Is this really worth it?”
Just when I was ready to throw in the towel with my business so I could claim my life (and my sleep) back, I got an email from Tara inviting me to her free webinar about doing business your way. This caught my eye. I attended the webinar and then devoured her eBook. So much of what Tara was saying made sense to me. The way I was doing business is what other people were advising and in fact may not work at all for my own business. For the first time, I felt the weight of what Tara was saying. My unique talents were the key to my business success and she could show me how to harness them.
During my time in the Quiet Power Strategy program, I felt empowered after each lesson. I understood myself better as a person and why my tribe is attracted to what I have to offer. Tara taught us about personal archetypes, or how the world perceives you. When I saw my results, I couldn’t believe how well they fit me. I found a lot of value in understanding how to use this knowledge to make decisions in my business. It made writing sales copy easier and also allowed me to embrace some of my limitations so that I would look to add other team members that had different strengths than mine in the future.
Quiet Power Strategy taught me to start with the end in mind when creating a product first. This was a game changer for me! My flagship product resonates with my audience because I was able to make the benefits clear. Before I would slave away at the new product and then write my sales page when I was exhausted and just ready to be done. By swapping those actions, I was able to use some of those key phrases that connect my audience and I, directly into my product bringing it full circle.
Quiet Power Strategy has also completely changed my mindset. Tara taught us about valuing ourselves and our unique craft whatever it may be. During one of our group phone calls, she was able to help me bust through some assumptions I had about my audience and make a plan to succeed. I’ll be honest, there were tears when I realized that the pricing I chose was one of those big mistakes that I didn’t see and lost sleep over. Pricing based on value affects so many pieces of your business. Now I have the confidence to take my business and navigate it back onto the right path.
Tara and her team taught me how to re-work what was already working in my business for maximum impact right away. After completing Quiet Power Strategy, I have earned ⅔ of what I originally invested within three weeks of finishing and I am on track to earn the rest back within a month. This was some of the best money I’ve ever invested in myself.
I sleep really, really well these days because I know how to confidently move my business forward with tools like the Business Model Review, the Quiet Power Inventory, the Customer Perspective Process, and the Chief Initiative. With the help of QPS, I’ve had my first ever successful launch!
To echo other QPS-ers, “This process is freaking changing my life!” I am excited to work through the lessons again and uncover new insights. Thanks Tara and Team!
***
One of the biggest realizations Adrianne made was that she was actually underselling her products. By not connecting them to outcomes that her customers already knew they wanted, she was convinced they wouldn’t pay more than $10 or $20. We tied real, urgent results to what she was already selling, put it into a complete package, and raised the price by a factor of 10.
Now she’s selling more than she’s ever sold before.
If you’d like to learn more about Adrianne and her Tutor Business Framework program, click here.
This session of Quiet Power Strategy is half sold out. Join us for the Fall Session (we start September 28) and create your personalized strategic plan with our hands-on support. Click here to learn more.
Art of Earning
Think about the last thing you “splurged” on: Why did you buy it? How did it make you feel? What story did it tell you? What story did it tell about you? What part of your values or personality did it confirm?
When it comes to the things we care about, we rarely make decisions based on price. Price might be a factor but it isn’t the make or break detail we worry it is as designers, idea people, and business owners.
If you create things that you want people to care about, you have to use price as an opportunity to tell a story not just pay your costs or your salary.
Price isn’t just what ends up on the tag. Price isn’t the only thing that determines whether something is affordable or too expensive. Price isn’t even the determining factor in whether someone decides to buy something or not.
Getting the price right for your products and services is important. But if you’re basing your prices solely on how much it costs you to create, how big or small it is, how complex or simple it is, how much you’d like it to be affordable, or what assumptions you’ve made about how much people are willing to spend, you’re missing the pricing boat. I’m often asked for rules of thumb when it comes to pricing.
Beyond a few calculations, an imperative to price for profit, and gentle urging to analyze the market, I don’t have any. There is no magic formula for getting to the right price for your new product or service. There is, however, an awful lot of strategic work you can do to determine whether your pricing strategy is going to succeed or fail.
You need to know who you want to have buying your product and what they expect to pay for something like it. You need to know what problem you’re solving and how the resolution of that problem can be quantified. You need to know who your customers aspire to be and what community they want to fit in with. You need to know how you want your business to be positioned and how it is already perceived.
And beyond knowing all of that, you need to choose. Most pricing struggles come down to trying to be too many things to too many different kinds of people (kind of a universal life problem, isn’t it?).
Of course, if your whole business is a little wishy-washy, you’re going to have problems pricing. Use price as a way to make a statement about the strategic direction of your business and then follow-through with every other aspect of your business. You’ll feel more confident about what you charge—and so will your customers.
Art of Earning, Business Brainstorm
Coffee can cost you 69 cents, $1.29, $3.25, or even $6.99…
…and I’m just talking a simple cup of joe, not a latte or cappuccino.
The same is true of life coaching, web design, weight loss programs, yoga classes, virtual assistance, or any other New Economy service or offer.
Price is relative. Price tells a story. And pricing is a decision to be made, not a hole to fall into.
Coffee can teach us a lot about pricing
How much should a cup of coffee cost? And what does that have to do with how much you should sell your product, app, program, or service for?
The first answer is, it depends. The second answer is, everything.
The price of a cup of coffee is influenced by a lot of factors. And one of the factors that influence it least is the material cost of the beans.
Even expensive coffee beans tend to be relatively “cheap” (with a few notable exceptions).
The factor that influences it most is perhaps the different markets it’s sold in. You can get coffee almost anywhere, and where you get it influences how much you expect to pay.
Grab a 64oz Big Gulp of coffee at a gas station and you might pay 69 cents.
Pick up a 24oz coffee at a fast food chain and you might pay 99 cents.
Sip on a 16oz coffee from a specialty chain and that’ll set you back a little over $2.
Or, sidle up to the brew bar at high-end coffee establishments and that cup of coffee might set you back $5-7 (yes, I’m still talking about brewed coffee, not espresso).
While there is certainly a difference in the cost of the materials, overhead, and labor at these establishments, the price of a cup of coffee is influenced as much by the conversation you share with your barista, the environment of the shop, and the people you expect to meet there.
The same dynamic is at play with digital products and most services. While there are hard costs that influence price, most of the price is subjective and based on many factors that have nothing to do with materials or overhead.
Meaning influences price to a huge degree
The price of coffee is also largely dictated by what the product means to its customers.
Gas station coffee is a necessary evil, the solution to the problem of working too many hours, too early in the morning. Fast food coffee is a convenience, a simple pick-me-up in the middle of a hectic day.
Specialty chain coffee is a predictable luxury. Brew bar coffee is an experience all its own, a ritual, a little slice of heaven for the connoisseur.
If the local specialty shop started charging 69 cents for a cup of coffee, it would be jarring to your consumer mind.
You’d ask, “Why?” and you’d expect an answer about a promotion. If they just exclaimed, “Well, that’s what it costs,” you’d start to wonder, question its quality, wonder about the people running the place.\
If you price your products or services discordantly from what your customers expect to pay, you’ll leave them wondering the same things.
Whether too low or too high, the price of your product is suddenly something that makes people uncomfortable. And uncomfortable people don’t buy.
If your product or service promises a big life change or meaningful transformation, the price should be fit into that context.
To make sure you’re putting your customers at ease with both the experience of your product or service and the price you’re asking them to pay for it, consider these questions:
- What do you want your product or service to mean to your customers?
- How do you want them to experience your product?
- What does your customer expect your product to mean to them?
- How does the set of features you’ve arranged for her add up in her mind?
- What other products, services, or solutions might he be relating to your product?
Pricing is largely a chicken & the egg scenario
And too often, business owners play chicken.
You don’t have to price your products like a gas station prices coffee. You can choose to have a more refined aesthetic, offer a more distinct point of view, cultivate a more demanding clientele, create more favorable positioning–and charge more.
It’s your choice.
Don’t believe that these factors are out of your control. If there is any part of your business that you believe is negatively impacting your ability to set the price you want, take control and change it.
Adjust your brand or positioning, change marketplaces, rework your network, invest in design. Create an experience that really means something to your customers and results in a sustainable, profitable price for your product.
Make your customers comfortable with both the value your business is creating and the price you ask your customers to pay. And then have a cup of coffee.
Art of Earning
While some businesses focus on catering to the luxury market, most businesses are looking to serve a broader market of incomes & lifestyles. Even when you’ve gotten crystal clear on who you’d most like to serve, that group can be diverse.
So it’s natural to want to offer a way to engage your work that’s “affordable.”
The thing about “affordable” is that it’s not actually related to price; it’s related to value.
Here’s what it takes for something to be affordable:
An affordable product must deliver considerably more value to the customer than the value she exchanges for it.
Of course, all of your products should fit that description. Michael Port, author of Book Yourself Solid Illustrated, uses a baseline of 20x–he prices his products in a way that he can guarantee a 2000% return on investment if implemented properly.
So the real danger in using the word “affordable”–even just in your own head–is that, I believe, it undermines your perception of the value you are already offering. Everything you create is affordable. Everything you offer delivers a significant return on investment in terms of money, convenience, fulfilled desires, time, etc…
That’s the very essence of affordability.
But that’s not what you mean when you make offering something “affordable,” is it?
So let’s stop using this word that doesn’t really mean what we think it means. Let’s remind ourselves that businesses are have a duty to create products that are affordable based on value and return on investment.
So what does your business need?
What your business needs is something accessible, something with a low barrier to entry, something that requires less trust on the part of your new customer. Those are the kind of products that help your potential customers turn into loyal customers, while creating a stream of revenue for your business at the same time.
Look more closely:
Accessibility
Often brands have their own language, their own energy. Does your business offer an initiation to this language? Do you offer a product that imbues that energy to new customers?
Doing business with a new brand can be intimidating to customers, especially when their hopes, dreams, or goals are on the line. When you offer an accessible product, you’re giving your prospects a way to ease into your business’s bigger offerings.
Low Barrier to Entry
Does your business offer a product that is easy to get? Something that’s on sale all the time? Something requires very little of your potential customer?
Products with a low barrier to entry allow new prospects to turn into new customers very quickly. They can often open the door to a more in depth sales conversation.
Lower Trust
You want to deliver big results for your customers. However, those big results often require a big leap of faith on behalf of your potential customers. Do you have a product that requires a little less trust? Promises an equally important but smaller outcome?
Products that produce concrete results and accomplish tasks that your customer are already seeking solutions for require much less trust than those that promise transformative change. Building trust in small steps prepares your customers to bigger steps with your business in the future.
Stop selling yourself short on the value of your products or services. Look for an opportunity to create a product that creates a path into your business that’s accessible, low barrier, and low trust.
Art of Earning
When you wonder about pricing your offerings, what’s the script that runs in your head? My bet is it’s something along the lines of “I’m not worth [that much, a higher price, others paying that].”
Rarely is it “The work isn’t worth it.”
This money script is all about shame.
Shame is this feeling we get that something is wrong with us and that somehow we are flawed or inadequate in a way that makes us unworthy of a connection with other people.
— Brene Brown
That’s the trick, isn’t it? We know deep down that each of those transactions, each time money & goods change hands, that it’s a connection with another person. A living, breathing human being.
Shame, that “most primitive” of human emotions, tugs at us when we go to set a price and forge a connection. “No,” we say, “I’m not worth it.”
What is also implied, of course, is that your customers aren’t worth that deep personal connection, either. By pricing the offering too low or not bringing it to market at all, we don’t let our customers exercise their own worthiness. They can’t connect with us and our work.
How do you replace this shame script with a positive one?
Ask yourself about the value of the work. As I said, rarely do we say “The work isn’t worth it.”
We know it is. How much is a website worth? Often over a million dollars over its lifetime. How much is losing weight worth? Medical bills reduced and years added to life. How much is jewelry worth? The priceless feeling you get when you put it on.
Put the emphasis on the work. Put the emphasis on the value. And don’t just try to imagine it – when has that ever worked?
Quantify it.
Run the numbers. How many shopping trips saved? How many sleepless nights avoided? How many good relationships gamed? How much peace realized?
Certainly, the value of your work is not so easily quantifiable. But that’s really the point. The work is worth it. The work is worthy.
The worthiness of that work is the tie that binds you & your customer together. It provides the gentle reminder that you are worth it and that she is worth it.
You’re not worthy because of your work. You’re worthy because you’re you. But the work is a tangible product of that worthiness.
Set your price accordingly.
— PS —
I had a Twitter conversation with Brenda Johima last night that I felt compelled to add to this post. I tweeted that, “It’s never to late to set financial goals higher than you ever dreamed possible.” And she replied that she’d recently done just that, told a few friends, and then was immediately deflated by their reactions.
Unfortunately, you & I both know this is a common story. I’ve been there myself.
That’s why it’s of utmost importance to find yourself worthy of making friends who understand & believe in your big goals. The friends you have now want to protect you – and what you’re doing is scary. The numbers you’re throwing around are downright crazy.
Find new friends who realize that scary and crazy are exactly what you need right now. It’s not that you need to ditch your old friends, just that a business needs friends too!
And where to find these magical people? Well, I’ve found mine (Megan, Adam, Amanda, and so many others) on Twitter. Cliche but true. Maybe you’ll find yours at the local coffee shop, the conference you just signed up for, or in the program you’ve just started.
But make an effort to find that core group of people who are willing to help you draft plans & strategies just as crazy as your goals.
