Have you been challenged with maintaining and standing your ground on price as an entrepreneur/freelancer? Running into too many people who don’t have the money you’re charging? Finding yourself too easily caving in, and thus feeling bitter about selling yourself short?

Don’t feel bad — every service-based entrepreneur goes through this.

Be excited, too — in today’s episode I share mental and tactical strategies to dissolve this issue.

Ready to hear yourself on the Hot Seat? Apply to be the next contestant at DreAllDay.com/Hot.


Today’s show is brought to you by Ask Yourself A Better Question. Learn more at https://dreallday.com/ask/

2:43 Introduction to today’s hot seat

4:18 Today’s guest: Jasmine, a 24 year old recent college graduate and self-employed graphic designer with a passion for acting

4:26 She needs help to figure out what to focus on – acting classes or her graphic design business

4:43 Jasmine’s goal is to become a successful director, actor, and entrepreneur

7:52 What is the purpose of doing acting and design

8:27 Graphic design is paying the bills for acting

9:09 Her real passion is acting, but the time she is putting in graphic design is taking time away from acting

11:23 Dre shares his early career working in Footlocker, a supermarket, and at a gym while trying to be a professional basketball player

11:50 You do not have to hold yourself to the standard of doing just one thing

13:07 Define what “up and running: looks like – steady income with a storefront

14:29 What Jasmine needs is to quantify how her business should grow, figure out the gap, and how that gap gets closed

17:34 According to Jasmine, she needs $4,000 in revenue from her design business so she can devote 40 hours a week to acting

18:17 Dre drills down the process to see why she is not getting the amount she feel is her worth

21:55 The biggest obstacle to stand firm on her price – accepting that she is worth that much

22:24 Her business is like a step on a ladder. Design is her money skill, a step so she can do what she really wants to do

23:17 Dre shows Jasmine how she would feel standing her ground on pricing

24:51 Dre gives a powerful example on standing your ground on pricing through shopping for clothes

25:57 A truth every service based business will face – “Everybody cries broke”

26:59 It’s alright that everybody can’t afford you

27:23 You should understand the value of what you are offering

28:34 Jasmine’s sales process and where it goes south

29:56 Breaking it all down

31:45 3 questions to ask clients – the best ammunition as a salesperson

35:54 Remember, you are the expert. Clients may think they know what they need, but you are the expert, you should be their guide

36:45 You are guiding them from point a to point sold when you ask them questions where they articulate their needs

38:08 The real reason entrepreneurs get her services

39:37 A role-playing sales exercise

42:19 Keep asking clients why it matters to them so they get to the core reason/motivation they do what they do, then show them what you can do for them

44:04 The key thing when selling is to have the posture to stand firm on your price

44:45 What you accept is what people will see you as

45:55 Selling is about asking questions and listening

48:04 In selling, your #1 priority is yourself. Value yourself based on what you are bringing to the table, not trying to fit in a budget

50:04 You can start looking for your ideal clients who are willing to pay

52:12 Business is an exchange of resources between people, the variable is the value we exchange it for