Listen to this episode on the From Imposter to Empowered podcast:
How can you charge 4-figures for your coaching package? Even if you have charged more than $1000 before, this will still come up for my clients who have thoughts around what coaching is worth, and not believing someone will pay them a certain amount when they increase their prices. So let’s get down to business!
So here are the things I think you need to get your brain around:
✨ The value of emotional labour
✨ Getting clear on your impossible result
✨ Having a GOOD process you take your clients through; and
✨ Being the supporting actor when you think you’re the main character
First, you have to believe in the value of emotional labour. If you think about it from a societal and patriarchal perspective, emotional labor is not seen as worthy and as important than other kinds of “work”. My fiance’s mom is a personal support worker, and she spends all day dressing, bathing, and cooking for people, taking care of them. She makes very little money for the amount of work she puts in. From a patriarchal perspective, women who stay home or do all of the domestic duties are still seen as less than by society’s view, as if the emotional, physical, and mental wellbeing of children does not positively impact the future of our society.
Even with therapy and coaching being on the rise to being normalized - there is still a lot of stigma around “getting help” with things that society tells us we should be able to manage on our own, like emotional and mental wellness. But to this I say - what if we don’t have to anymore?
When I get coached, things make so much sense. I feel lighter, supported, and not alone in the thoughts I’m thinking. Therapy started me off great for personal development, but coaching has completely transformed me and my business. I have a family that doesn’t really believe in mental health support, so you may also have beliefs and stories from childhood that make you think that things like therapy and coaching aren’t “necessary”.
Emotional labour is labour. Especially if you have ADHD or anxiety, it is emotionally taxing to coach others - and we shouldn’t feel bad about that. In 2020, I had an over-full client roster with my full-time job, and I made my discomfort and tired emotions mean that I was doing something wrong. I thought I should have felt energized and excited from coaching all day long after working all day long at my full-time job, but nothing was actually wrong with that. Emotional labour is tiring, and it is only because we tell ourselves it shouldn’t be, like how we tell ourselves that we shouldn’t need to recharge after being around people, when that is literally necessary for me in order to function.
So how do you view emotional labour? The reason why me and my clients sign high ticket packages is because we view emotional labour as significant, important, and valuable.
Second, to charge 4-figures for coaching means you are clear on your impossible result. This is a concept I coined recently that definitely spun my clients out - but it’s SO GOOD. It is the idea that if you had a perfect, soulmate client, and you were the highest version of yourself, what result would you help them achieve? If you were making mad money in your business and you had clients flocking in, what would you be saying you can help them achieve while working with you? Most of you won’t even let yourself go there, because it scares the shit out of you to promise any kind of result to someone. But this is because you’re afraid of what you’ll make it mean and what you’ll do to yourself if someone doesn’t get the result you promised.
One of my clients was hashing out this fear with me because she and a couple other business friends were in a group where they didn’t get the result the coach promised. This manifested by way of judgment for my client, but what it really was was fear of not being able to deliver for her clients. This affected her sales and affected the way she was showing up, all from fear of some clients not getting the result. It had her stuck in inaction.
The impossible result is an opportunity for you to get innovative and creative - for you to see where you can improve and do better. And it is contingent upon the belief that you’re good enough and that you’re NOT a fraud. The impossible result is going to be impossible to get clear on when you’re secretly afraid you’re just a bad coach and will never amount to anything and what if you actually are scamming people? This is where the work to overcome that imposter syndrome comes in, so you can get extremely clear on the process and the results you can provide for your clients. Clarity helps you sign clients.
This leads me to the third way to help you believe you can sign 4-figure clients, which is devoting time to creating a process that will lead your clients to the impossible result. Most people do not sit down and do this because they are so afraid of feeling like they can’t come up with anything, and therefore feeling like a fraud.
A little secret for you - so much of your procrastination and resistance to doing things comes from imposter syndrome and the fear of how you’ll feel if you can’t come up with original ideas and content. So of course it’s hard for you to believe you can charge 4-figures for your coaching, because in your mind, your coaching doesn’t feel worth 4-figures. But when you come up with a 3, a 5, a 10 step process, lay it all out, add in your expertise, your knowledge, how you can uniquely help them - your brain can clearly see the time, effort, and work you’re putting into your clients. Especially adding in the fact that you’re meeting weekly, you’re providing M-F messaging access. Allow yourself to go to all the places why this support from you is invaluable.
And lastly, we think we’re the main characters right? And we are…. on our own journeys. But to your clients, you are a supporting actor. You don’t need to put yourself on this pedestal of “I need to help my clients achieve all the results in the world to be worthy”. You are there to solve a specific problem for your client, and that’s what they’re paying you for.
Being too vague on how you help them will hurt your marketing and your sales, because you’ll think “I need to cover everything and be everything to my client;” but they want you to solve the problem they can’t solve on their own. The efficiency, speed, and devoted time spent on solving their problem is worthy of being compensated for. But they are the main character of their lives, and they are not looking to you to solve all their problems and to shoulder all of the responsibility of making things happen for them.
One more thing actually - the value of your service does not change based on who’s looking at it. Meaning, if your family or friends or work colleagues are raising their eyebrows at your pricing or even what you invest into coaching yourself. Everyone is always looking through their own lens. They are always seeing things from their perspective, and there are a lot of spectators to your business. But if it is not helping you, if it’s keeping you small, if it’s causing you to question yourself and overthink your prices - do not solicit advice from people who don’t understand.
I remember in 2020, my dad, who’s an entrepreneur as well, tried to tell me to give these massive discounts to clients, and also said that a goal of $100K was “lofty.” That’s when I stopped telling him so many details about my coaching packages. It didn’t help me to go into Value Village and try to convince the customers there to shop at Gucci. Be mindful of what you consume and if it’s helping or hurting your thoughts about the price of your services.
Bottom line - you need to redefine how you value your services, and of course, that starts with how you value yourself. Believing in charging 4-figures is a decision, just like it’s a decision to buy a couch or an ice cream cone. You decide, and then you figure out how to continue choosing that decision, over and over again, everyday, from the belief that your services are worthy of the amount you charge.
Work with me in 1:1 coaching if you’re craving support to overcome imposter syndrome, believe in the value of your work and how it can change someone’s life, and sign 4-figure coaching clients. Apply for 3 months of 1:1 coaching HERE.
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