Hello gorgeous hearts!

It’s all family-family-family time for me right now, with pockets of work, writing, creating, aligning, slotted in here and there. I love being a mama. I love what I do. I don’t want to ever have to choose between the two.

I’m so so so infinitely grateful that I don’t have to. That I’ve crafted a life + a business where the two can work together.

{This is me + my little loves having a GIRLZ PARTAY in my studio/office/turquoise thinktank yesterday afternoon. I’d been doing a bit of work when Chris brought the girls in to visit so he could start cooking dinner. Mermaid Daughter # 2  promptly fell asleep on my lap, and Mermaid Daughter # 1 drew pictures of butterflies. The sacred balancing act of life, mamahood + business!}

So, since we are getting ready to launch my new Double Your Biz Course for Academy Members, I thought we’d talk about another icky-sticky, itchy, uncomfortable problem that loads and LOADS of entrepreneurs come up against:

How do I overcome undervaluing my services as a coach?

I’m in training to find out how to pitch myself within a professional price bracket. The little voice of “you are only training and how can you justify your fee” always pops up and undermines my confidence.

It’s to do with confidence and self-worth, and I can rationalize and think about it logically, but I do keep tripping myself up. Any advice will be gladly welcomed.

Oklydoklywho! Let’s get to it.

So, whenever you’re just getting started, or you’re offering something TOTALLY new, we all can be supsceptible to hearing that shitty voice inside our head.

The one that says crappy, unhelpful things like:

• Why would anyone pay you?
• Who are you to charge so much?
• You’re still in training / just getting started / don’t have a track record yet.

And all those other negative nasties.

Our lovely Q here knows in her big ‘ole brain that this is her self-confidence (or lack thereof) talking. That these are her little demons on her shoulder telling her things to knock her right off her soul’s path.

But just because her brain knows it ain’t true, doesn’t mean her heart can’t hear it.

Oof.  Tough cookies here.  But guess what, goddesses?

There is a SURE FIRE way to make those self-doubt demons give us a bit of hush-hush time + piss off + do something useful.

The best way to build confidence is to get results.

To get results, you’ve got to have a client, right?  Right.

If you’ve already had some clients, FABULOUSO! You are good to go.

If you haven’t had any clients yet, then you need to consider how to get your first one.

That’s really the hardest thing in business: getting your first client.  Every one after that gets easier and easier!

If you’re looking to get your first client(s), you can do a couple of different things.

• You can just get out there and hustle and get your first client.  Pick a price! ANY price will do for your first one, lovebug!
• You can ask people to be a part of a “beta” program — which means you’re still working out the bugs. Usually people get a discounted price in exchange for their feedback. Sometimes I think people feel like it’s easier to give a “discount” at first and feel out what people are willing to pay.
• You can also give away a free session or two, but DON’T do too many of these (you will get stuck in the free zone which is WAY worse than the friend zone!), and be aware that people are GENERALLY more invested in something they invest in. Some biz experts will say no freebies, but you have to listen to your soul here, goddess.

Then measure your results.

So with that very first client (EEEEE!) or the clients that you’ve already had, start measuring how things changed for them, and really take on board the positive feedback that they give you, even if you have to write it down to really understand and absorb it. Oh my gosh, this happened to them, and they felt differently about this!

You are growing right along with your clients.

When we first start out in coaching, it’s a real exploration for us and for our people. It can be really beautiful to see what appears for them.

Your gifts and your brilliance are starting to emerge and coaching can be such a beautiful medium for that to happen and who knows where that path is going to take you. Who knows what brilliant insights are going to come from your clients!

So make sure that you get everyone to fill out testimonial forms for you.

How to ask for a testimonial without feeling like a schmuck.

Some people don’t like asking for feedback, but it doesn’t have to be hard at all!  All you need to do is say,

You know, in coaching with you I really, really appreciate your feedback and it would mean so much if you were able to share about it using this form, because then if people are wondering whether to use my services, they can hear your story and know what it was like for you.

P.S. A form makes life a LOT easier for your client because they don’t have to come up with what to say from scratch.  You can use Survey Monkey or Google Forms or TypeForm for freeeeeeeeee.

Ask questions that get to the root of their RESULTS.

Make sure that you ask questions that get their results.  Ask them to be specific!  Like:

“What three things changed for you after working with me?”

Then make sure you’re asking:

• what did you feel before the experience
• what did you feel after
• what significant changes did you notice in your lives, or health or business

You’ve got to toot your own horn a little!

Once you’ve gathered these amazing words about how AWESOME YOU ARE, you have to share about them as well.

Make sure that you’ve got a really great testimonial page so that people can really see the results that you’ve already had.

The results you get will give you the confidence to charge what you’re worth.

Here’s a wee case study from Leonie Land!

When I first started out doing 1-on-1 business coaching, I knew that my time was pretty dang valuable already. I’d already created a successful six figure business, and created lots of programs that had done really well. And I knew there was a real want out there among my tribe to get business advice from me.

So I invited a few people who had already asked me if they’d like to try out my business coaching for half price.

Then I gathered the results, and by the time I opened my services publicly, I had evidence. I knew I could charge a premium price ($1000 an hour) because my clients were getting more than their investment out of it – they would leave their session and go on to create ten times that or more.

Having those testimonials and results there helped me feel super confident in my higher price, and it also gave a lot of confidence to to potential clients.

When I did open up some coaching spots publicly, they were snapped up super quickly.

(Nerp, sorry lovey, I’m not offering them at the moment! Have to say because I know we will get asked! I’m concentrating all my efforts on my Academy members for now!)

It takes time to build up these coaching clients and it takes time to get those kind of testimonials.

Don’t be afraid to start with a number that feels comfortable and safe.

Just be committed to not staying there too long.

Make it a commitment to yourself: Every time you’ve gotten three new clients, you raise your prices.  Something like that.

Doing it that way makes it feel safer, but also makes it feel more real, like—I know I can do this now, because I got three clients, so I feel more comfortable raising my prices a little.

Don’t let the price tag get in the way of your vision.

Wherever you decide to set your prices, you need to stay completely focused on your vision and your purpose. So if you are in coaching because you so love those aha moments or you so love connecting deeply with another person, and being their cheerleader, then I want you to really stay in that energy of why you do that.

Make that be your besotted love, that thing that you are completely devoted to, because otherwise you’ll get so distracted by all of the other things out there and by the fears and by the oh god am I good enough.

(P.S. YOU ARE.)

When you can stay completely focused on why you’re doing what you do, then nothing can push you away from that.

When I was first putting together the Academy, I really knew in my heart that the Academy is something that I so believe in and so love and I knew that this is what I’m meant to do. Of course challenges come up and we had to create a whole new website, there was just so much work, we were hitting a wall, and people were freaking out about what the change was going to be like — all that sort of stuff.

That could all distract me and put me into procrastination, fear and all that sort of stuff. But I can’t. I can’t let it be that because my goal and my dream and my vision is to make this the most amazing thing possible.

And so that is my love note to the universe. That is the thing that I live every single day, the essential and important workings to make that dream come to life.

It’s like being a midwife to this beautiful soul child that wants to come into the world, and loving it so deeply already.

So whatever it is that is your thing – the thing that lights you up — follow that and be obsessed by it and refuse to give into fear because you love this vision of yours much too much to let it go. 

That’s what you were born to do.

Go out, and do it hon.

Do it today.

So much love to you buttercup,

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