Buried Treasure: How to price for life-changing economic outcomes
Most people radically undervalue themselves.
Arrrrr! 🏴☠️ Welcome to a 💎 free edition 💎 of Category Pirates. This Buried Treasure series shares snippets of the best ideas and frameworks from our subscriber-only posts. As a paid subscriber, you get access to an archive of 99+ mini-books, audiobooks, jam sessions, and every future post.
Dear Friend, Subscriber, and Category Pirate,
This week’s Buried Treasure dives into how to move from hour-based pricing to outcome-based wealth.
Pricing is a highly emotional topic. Have you ever wondered how much you're truly "worth"? Just thinking about this question can create anxiety about the “value” of your value.
But here's the reality:
Your value reflects the perceptions and budget of your clients and/or customers, not your intrinsic worth.
If someone can't afford your rates, they're not the right fit for you. People who recognize the value you provide will happily pay you what you’re worth. This mutual respect leads to a more fulfilling and rewarding experience for everyone.
Let’s dive into how this works.
The Value of Your Value mini-book explains how to price for the outcomes you deliver vs. the hours you work.
Most people charge for time.
A few people charge for deliverables.
And almost zero people charge for outcomes.
When you charge for outcomes, people don't just pay for your time. They invest in the outcomes, solutions, and results you deliver. And these have nothing to do with how many "hours" you put in.
That’s because value is not always the same — it’s a matter of perception.
You instantly increase your perceived value when you shift from hourly to outcomes. Even $2,000/hour lawyers are perceived as more replaceable than $50 million/year CEOs. This is, in part, because they charge by the hour.
Transitioning to outcome-based pricing requires a mindset shift.
Most people radically undervalue themselves.
The problem with pricing yourself is it feels so much more personal.
If you're a creator, consultant, coach, or solopreneur, you equate the value of your offer to the value of who you are as a person. Your identity is intermixed with your product/service. So it can be hard to defend your value when someone objects because it feels like you’re defending yourself.
That’s a powerful emotion to manage in real time.
Our friend Camille recently experienced this when negotiating for a new job.
Camille spent the last five years consulting as a solopreneur and loved every minute of it. Then, one of her clients wanted to hire her full-time. She went through the entire hiring process but told the client she wasn't going to change jobs unless it was going to have a life-changing economic outcome for her family. (Pirate Christopher taught her to say those words. ARRRR!)
So, the client put a deal on the table.
It was what she already made, in cash, and a Scooby snack of stock that would be “nice-to-have” if the business worked out.
To figure out if the offer was “worth” it, (aka, going to have a life-changing economic outcome), Pirate Christopher and Camille went through the math. But it didn’t make sense from an economic perspective. So, she turned down the offer. The client spent the next three months trying to hire someone else for the job. But they couldn’t find anyone.
Ultimately, the client reached back out to Camille and gave her exactly what she wanted.
Why?
Because her value was worth the value.
When someone doesn’t recognize your value, the best thing you can do is leverage category design to Frame, Name, and Claim the conversation in your favor.
Dive into the full mini-book to see the 3 steps to frame, name, and claim a pricing conversation and embrace your true value.
Arrrrrrr,
Category Pirates 🏴☠️
P.S. - Accelerate your ability to “think different.”
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This concept is what got me to increase my prices from $300 to eventually $5000 for s year or coaching.
As I raised the price and kept providing the outcomes and proved to myself and others that it was working I kept raising the price