Ep 201 - Profitable Pricing: Secrets to Growing Your Coaching Business

Episode 201 of the Life Coach Business Building Podcast

Join me on this episode as I reveal the secrets to setting the right prices and growing your coaching business.  Learn how to fix common mistakes that most coaches make, which hold them back from making money.

I’ll share insights from my own experience, along with practical tips to help you deal with overvaluing and undervaluing your coaching, mindset blocks, and the need for a solid foundation in your business to attract high-level and high-paying clients.  Tune in to transform your pricing strategy, discover the true value of your coaching, and let’s get you fully booked and thriving!

👉 Don’t forget to save your seat for the FREE workshop! 

👉 Create a profitable business that looks good and sets you up to be respected through the Fast Track Business Building Boutique Program 

👉 Check out my FREE Canva Workshop and learn how to create stunning graphics for your coaching business! 

If you enjoyed this episode, please leave me a review and forward this to a coach who is building and growing their coaching business. CLICK HERE TO LEAVE A REVIEW

Don’t forget to connect with me on social media: Instagram | Facebook

Transcript:

Preview:  If you are undervaluing, there's a couple of things that might be going on. Number one, you might be thinking coaching is a job. And if you are somebody who just decided to be a life coach because you thought it sounded fun and you haven't been able to successfully sell your coaching, chances are you keep lowering your price and you're lowering it because you don't actually understand the transformation of coaching. If you have not had coaching yourself and not had transformation, it's going to be hard for you to sell it. I happen to have had a lot of coaching and I've hired a lot of coaches and I think it is mind blowing what happens with coaching. 

Intro: Hello, I'm Debbie Shadid, the host of the Life Coach Business Building podcast. If you are ready to have more clients in your life coach business, then you're in the right spot. Each week I'm gonna teach you super simple strategies to grow your business without feeling overwhelmed and without spending money on paid ads. If that sounds interesting. Stick around and let's get started.

Welcome to today's podcast. I want to tell you something before we get started, that when you do a podcast or you do videos, sometimes the most interesting thing happens. And I just recorded this whole entire podcast. This is take two because the first take I recorded the whole thing without the video going.

So welcome to today's podcast. It is so much fun being an entrepreneur. Today we're going to be talking about pricing and I really want you to first go and join our workshop. We're hosting a workshop on March 22nd where we're going to be talking all about pricing. That is at debbieshadid.com/workshop. In fact, if you guys will remember that link. And if you follow me on Instagram @debbieshadid, you will see that I host two incredible workshops every single month where I teach you the same things that I teach my clients. So you will actually be learning and getting the same coaching opportunities that my clients have. 

So our workshop about pricing, I will tell you it is the highest attended workshop that I do all year long. more people decide to work with me after that workshop than any other workshop. Now, maybe you're saying, well, why is that? Well, first of all, I can tell you when we teach the formula for pricing and people really understand it, they also then see, okay, I realized that pricing wasn't actually my problem. What I'm seeing now is the problem that I had about pricing was I'm not in belief because with pricing, there are often big mindset issues. There's gaps in belief. We're going to talk about that today.

But also you might be having unengaging marketing. You might be lacking in your marketing. You could be speaking to the wrong person. All of those things, sometimes people say, well, my pricing is off. I have to tell you that in the beginning of my online business, I would say, well, I think my pricing isn't right. And I'd have to laugh at myself because the truth was until you have consultations and a lot of them, pricing is never the problem. Like you're trying to figure out the best price and you haven't even talked to anyone about your coaching yet. So pricing is not going to be the problem. Again, make sure you sign up at debbieshadid.com/workshop to meet me on March 22nd, 11 AM where I'm going to give you the formula for pricing your coaching. 

Today I'm going to talk about the four problems that I see most coaches have when it comes to pricing their coaching. Let me just run down those four. Number one, it is overvaluing your coaching. Number two, it is undervaluing your coaching. Yep, there's a sweet spot that you need to hit. Number three, the belief that you have about not being able to find somebody to pay you that price, your price, and number four, it is not actually having that plan in place where you are just winging it on a consultation.

In that case, the person on the consultation is influencing your pricing and you are deciding in the middle of the consultation what price somebody will actually pay. I can tell you I've done it and I bet you've done it too. That is not the best way to sell your coaching. In fact, when you pick a price based on what you think they're saying, chances are you're not going to sell them anyway.

All right, so let's get started. Let's talk about over-valuing your coaching. I'll tell you this happens when you listen to other people. And yes, I'm going to give you the formula for pricing in our workshop, but when I give you that formula, you're going to actually understand that it's based on having a profitable business, based on the availability of time that you have, also based on the level of business that you are at.

So the pricing comes up and it will make sense to you. But oftentimes people will look around at all the women on the internet or all the gentlemen on the internet and you'll say, Oh, well they charge $10,000. So I think that's what I'm going to charge. That's like, the going rate or you'll do the math in your head of five, 10 clients at $10,000, then I'll make a hundred thousand. That is not going to be a price that's going to work for you. 

Listening to other people and deciding to pick their price for you does not work. I want you to be grounded in yourself and the thoughts that you have about your pricing. So if you're looking outside of yourself for a price and you're starting to say, well, everybody who has six month coaching offers, they charge $5,000. That is just not true and that is not the best price for you. 

Your price and your offer are based on what it is you deliver in your coaching and it's also based on the value that you see in your coaching. So the bottom line is if you do not believe in your own price you will not sell your coaching. If you have overvalued it, you will have consultation calls that you will not be able to close. And I can tell you that from firsthand experience, y'all have heard me say that in the beginning of my business I had 800 consultations. In the beginning, because I didn't believe in my price, I was selling 1 in 20. 1 in 20. I eventually got more comfortable in the value of my coaching and I got to where I was selling 1 in 10. But 800 consultation calls, at least half of them were wasted because I was overpricing my coaching.

I wasn't ready for the price that I was offering and I was doing it because my coach told me the price. If we have the opportunity to work together, I'm going to tell you that we can figure your price based on my formula. But you're going to price your coaching based on what it is you believe the price should be.

All right, so that's number one, overvaluing. When you overvalue your price, chances are you're not going to make very many offers. Your marketing is going to be very weak. And when you have consultation calls, you will not be standing tall in that offer. You will actually probably hem and haw around when you make that offer.

I want to encourage you to record your consultation calls because if you listen to your consultation call, first of all, you'll learn a lot about the way you're showing up, but you will also be able to see what the other person is seeing and hearing from you about the price of your coaching. And if it's not a solid, strong offer at the end, they're not going to see you confidently presenting it. It will not work. 

All right. The second problem is undervaluing. If you are undervaluing, there's a couple of things that might be going on. Number one, you might be thinking coaching is a job. And if you are somebody who just decided to be a life coach because you thought it sounded fun and you haven't been able to successfully sell your coaching, chances are you keep lowering your price and you're lowering it because you don't actually understand the transformation of coaching.

If you have not had coaching yourself and not had transformation, it's going to be hard for you to sell it. I happen to have had a lot of coaching and I've hired a lot of coaches and I think it is mind blowing what happens with coaching. When I went to certification, I heard that single concept that you could change what you were thinking, you didn't have to think a certain thing like everybody else did about something, you could change your mind. And you could get a different result. My mind was blown. That alone was worth every penny I paid to be certified. The same goes for the coaching that I get. 

When somebody gives me an awareness in my business coaching, let's say from my business coach and it changes the way that I show up in my business, oh my gosh, you couldn't even begin to pay back the value of that coaching. This has been huge for me because it has taken me from being very average in my business making $100,000 over and over and over for literally 20 something years. You know what the problem was, you guys? Belief.

I was undervaluing what I offered. Now after getting coaching on it in the last few years, I can make hundreds of thousands of dollars. That is what happens when you don't have belief in coaching transformation. That is work that you have to do on the offer that you make for your niche, right? You've got to think that you can get people the result. This is also when you need to check in and see if what you are promising is actually achievable. 

I can't promise you guys when you come work with us in the Business Building Boutique that you can make a hundred thousand dollars because I have no idea what you're going to do with what it is I teach you. I have no idea what's going to happen in your own personal life. Will all of a sudden you be taking care of a parent? Will you be actually so introverted that you can't even get out and talk to people and you're not willing to get coached around that? So you see what I'm saying, I can't guarantee anything.

What are you trying to guarantee in your coaching? It has to be something that you feel confident about or you will undervalue your coaching. If you are looking around to see what everyone else is doing and it is causing you to feel intimidated and you're telling yourself that there's so much competition, the market is flooded. I've got to lower my pricing or I will not have any clients. You're wrong about that too. That is undervaluing your coaching. I'm going to tell you that the market is not flooded. There are millions of people. And again, I bet you hardly know anyone except for your coaching friends who have bought coaching. We have so much to do in the way of educating people about the value of coaching.

I want to give you an example about undervaluing your coaching and what can happen for you when you do that. I had a client a couple of weeks ago who was offered an opportunity to speak. Somebody, a friend of hers, had heard her talk. I think it was the talk that she had at our summit. And she had heard it and she said, Hey, will you come talk at our company? I want to have you come and talk and teach people at our company. So she asked my client what price she would charge for her coaching.

We had actually not had an opportunity to discuss this on a coaching call. And so this particular client threw out a price and her friend, luckily, said you cannot charge that price. That is too low, and if I take that price back to my company, it was a big company, if I take that price back to them, they're going to think you're no good. They're going to think that you should not be the person coming in to talk to their employees.

That is a perfect example of undervaluing. Luckily, my client's friend said no, we have to raise your price, it can't be that low. What an incredible opportunity. So she was able to double and a half the price that she had originally offered. And chances are, she could have gotten more. She just threw out a much higher price and her friend said, okay, that's what they'll pay you. So do not undervalue your price.

I think of this example, like if you wanted to have plastic surgery, you would not be bargain shopping for a plastic surgeon. You would be looking for somebody who was experienced and you would not want the cheapest person because you would want to know like, Hey, this guy's really well sought after, right? I don't want him to mess up my face. I want this guy to be the best. You would want to pay more. So wouldn't you want that with your coaching? The cheapest is not the answer. The cheapest is somebody who doesn't believe in themselves. If you think that people won't pay, I'm going to tell you what, that is a big problem too.

People are willing to pay crazy prices for coaching. And I can tell you for sure that I know a personal coach in the last few years that was coaching other high earning coaches and she was charging $100,000 a year for her coaching and nobody thought it was crazy. You know why they didn't think it was crazy? Because she didn't think it was crazy. She was like, look, my coaching is worth it. What I have to offer you, you need. And as a high level earner making millions, you need somebody like me in your corner. So I will be accessible to you, but it's $100,000 a year. 

So how did she charge that much? She had belief that they needed it. She had belief in the value of her coaching. And so she got herself fully booked. In fact, this lady made millions in her business. Now I heard about her recently in training in the last year, and she was talking about changing her pricing so that it was more accessible to more people. Now I can tell you the only thing that changed is that she changed her belief about that $100,000 price. She was specifically talking in this training about people charging too much and the exorbitant rates people had been charging. And again, she had plenty of people paying her for that. So the only thing that had changed was her belief that her coaching was worth that price. 

So what price do you believe that your coaching is worth? Because I know for sure there are people in the world who would still pay this lady that exact same price. In fact, there are people who want to pay that much money because they're looking for somebody that is that confident, that comfortable, that maybe is that exclusive.

So people will pay for your coaching. If you are not finding somebody to pay for your coaching, It's either a mindset issue on your part, it's a confidence level, or your marketing and branding are just off. Y'all know if you've watched the professional Canva training that I host, I talk about doing a professional coach brand, because I want you to represent yourself professionally. I want you to speak to a higher level client, and if that is off, then that might be the reason why people are not willing to pay you. So I want you to do that. Take a look at your pricing, take a look at your mindset, take a look at the messaging to make sure it is speaking to a person who will pay the price that you want for your coaching.

Alright, the fourth problem, as I already mentioned, is that you don't have a plan. And that is what we're going to be talking about in the workshop. If you do not have a plan for your business, you're going to wing it. I'm telling you. And if you do not know how to set up your business, set up those foundations to attract a high level client, that's the work we do in the Business Building Boutique, but we also teach you how to do all the free marketing.

We teach you how to communicate, that is writing your messaging to a higher level client, but we also teach you in the Business Building Boutique how to have a profitable coaching business. And what happens is most of you guys are like, yeah, yeah, I'm going to have 20 clients because I'm going to work 20 hours. I'm going to charge $5,000 and that means I'll make $100,000. If I do my coaching for six months, then that means I'll make $200,000 a year. So 20 clients times $5,000 for six months is $100,000 and they'll just double it and say, I'm gonna make $200,000. Well, guess what? If you have 20 hours a week to work, and I'm going to talk to you really step by step in the workshop about this, but if you have 20 hours, you cannot have 20 clients. I'll just tell you, if you have 20 private clients, you're going to find out that it is difficult. It's a lot to manage 20 clients. In fact, most of my clients tell me when they reach about 10 private clients, they're saying, wow, that's a lot. And it is a lot. Until you've been there, you just don't know it.

So the truth is you will have expenses in your business that you need to consider when you come up with your pricing. You have to pay taxes. You have to cover health insurance. You're entitled to a paid vacation. All of that impacts what you charge. And as I mentioned, you can't have 20 clients in 20 hours.

In fact, what is more likely if you have 20 hours to work in your business is that it's more feasible to say that you're going to have five hours of client work because you need 10 of those 20 hours to be doing your marketing. Yep, 10 hours a week doing marketing to maintain five clients. You also need time for consultation calls. Plus you guys are still learning. You're still working with coaches yourself. That is work time. So chances are that 20 hours, that's closer to how that would break down instead of 20 clients in 20 hours.

Again, join our workshop on March 22nd, debbieshadid.com/workshop where I will teach you the formula to have this figured out and mapped out so that you will know how to have a profitable coaching business. If you create profit in your coaching business, it will be sustainable. You won't quit, trust me.

The first three years that I was coaching online exclusively, where I didn't have any clients in person, from 2017 to 2020, I didn't really make any money in my business. Even though I sold between $50,000 and $70,000 worth of coaching, my expenses were so high that I really didn't make much money. And again, the coach that I was working with, I wish you would have shared some kind of pricing formula like I've created so I would have understood how I should be pricing because chances are I would have charged a higher price. I would have believed in the value of my pricing and I would have made more money for the amount of hours that I worked. 

So I want you to have a sustainable business. I don't want you to quit before you ever get your business off the ground. I don't want you to be doing this for the next 10 years and not making money. I talk to clients often who have been working on their business for 10 years, you guys, and they have really never made any profit. All they've done is buy more coaching and more coaching and more coaching. So work with me and let's figure out what your pricing should be.

I want to encourage you to come to that workshop with one question about pricing, specifically one question. Let me work you through the pricing formula and then I always stay at the end and I offer coaching. So bring your one question, be there live with your camera on so that I can give you complimentary coaching. Also, we do that every Monday at 2 PM Central Standard Time.

If you head over to Instagram @debbieshadid, you will find the links for all of these things that we offer. We are here to serve you. I would love to have the opportunity to work with you on a regular basis to help you accomplish what it is that you want to in your business. But in the meantime, come take advantage of the education that we provide and the complimentary coaching that we're offering.

All right. I hope that was helpful. Let's check off those problems that you have about pricing. Let's get those fixed. Let's get you making money in your business. Until next time. Have an amazing week. I will see you at the workshop. Bye bye.

Outro: Okay, ladies, that is it for today. Before we go, I want to invite you to head over to debbieshadid.com. I have this incredible Canva training, specifically designed for life coaches where I'm gonna teach you how to use Canva to create beautiful graphics to market your life coaching. All right. Have an amazing week. I'll talk to you very soon. Bye bye.