Tips To Price Your Offer With Confidence
We’ve all heard the advice to charge what you’re worth, and we’ve all looked at competitors sites to try to figure out what price works best, but there is a more effective way to determine the cost of your offer and that's where business coach, Lara Wellman, comes in. She shares her best tips for pricing your offer so that making sales feels less complicated and never gross.
In this episode, we talked about...
- how to feel comfortable with sales and pricing
- the best way to price your offer
- why you should start with goals when pricing
- when should you change your prices
- Lara's best tips to price with confidence
...and much, much more
Things mentioned in this episode
Connect with Lara Wellman at https://www.thebiz.studio
Learn more about Lara Wellman
Lara Wellman is a Certified Business Coach who believes small business owners can make more money, love the work they do and still have time to enjoy their lives!
Through coaching, group programs, workshops and events, she helps business owners get the clarity they need to take the right action for them and their business.
Read the full transcript so you don't miss a thing
Sara: Hey there launchers. Welcome back. It may surprise you to hear this. But in my experience, there's one thing that trips most people up in launching, and it's not actually the tech. Nope. The question that comes up over and over again with my done for you copy clients or members of launch playbook club is actually what should they charge? Because we've all heard that advice to charge what you're worth. And we've all looked at competitor sites to try to figure out what works best. But there's a more effective way to determine the cost of your offer.
You're listening to the launch playbook podcast, the weekly podcast for service based business owners to discover the starts, stops and tools to transformation that go into launching their online offers. I'm your host, Sara Vartanian. And if you want to launch your ideas into the world faster, with more success and less burnout. Well, friend, consider this show your secret playbook to get you there.
Today, I'm super excited to welcome Laura Wellman, a business coach who believes that making more sales doesn't have to be complicated, feel gross or make you freeze.
Hey, welcome.
Lara: Hi!
Sara: I'm so glad that you've joined us today, will you go ahead and give us a little intro and tell us a bit more about what you do?
Lara: Sure thing. So my name is Lana, and I am a business coach. My business is called the biz studio. And I have been an entrepreneur for almost 15 years. And throughout that time, I've had a bunch of different businesses, including online store, and I did social media marketing, consulting, and now I'm a business coach. And so throughout my years of experience, I've had a lot of conversations with business owners, and I love helping support them figure out how to make it feel easier, less complicated, bliss, stressful, so they can actually enjoy this business that they started and still make money and have time for life.
Sara: I love that so much. And I want to say before we get into this, Laura, I remember when I like five or six years ago, I guess it was now I worked with you a little bit for some business coaching. And I was on a leave from teaching. And I remember that you helped me figure out what I would need to do to actually make being full time my business permanent, like actually continued to stay off year after year, and officially quit. And you helped me figure out, like what my pricing should be and how I should look at my offers and pricing in order to let's say at least first replace my salary because that was my biggest first issue, right? Like the of the hurdle. And so that was, you know, a good six years ago, I guess now and I you know, as you know, I've I've been doing this since then, and I had never went back. So it helped for sure. And I'm excited to dig into some of those conversations knew that we had today.
Lara: That's awesome. I love hearing about that. And I mean, that's essentially the launch pad of where we're gonna go into this is that making enough money to make your business feel like it's worth doing? And that you can actually do it confidently is the key. And we kind of accidentally, like, go around that part sometimes.
Sara: Yeah. What wouldn't you say that we actually go around that part tell like, tells me a little more about that.
Lara: I think a lot of us try to figure out what we should sell things on based solely on what do we think somebody will pay for it? What do we think somebody will think this is worth. And while that's great, first of all, you you don't actually know that. And secondly, it needs to add up to the amount of money you need to make. So if you are deciding to sell something for $20, but you want to make $10,000 a month, like that's a lot of $20. And if you're wondering why you're so stressed out trying to make it all happen, it's because you're trying to sell so many things like you need to make sure that when you're thinking about what you're going to sell, and how much you want to need to or trying to make in your business, you want to make sure that you're focusing on the things that are going to get you there without it feeling terrible all the time.
Sara: So that brings up a question of how do we use our goals to fit into our sales plans? And like I guess which comes first? The chicken or the egg? Right? Like, is it your goals or your sales plans, your and your pricing goals?
Lara: It's your goals? Absolutely. And for me, so I I do a lot of planning with my clients and and I come into it from the place of like, a planning, right? So like, I personally feel very much like Oh, leave me alone, I just want to do what I want to do. Okay, that is me my brain all the time. However, if you don't have a general destination of where you're trying to go, if you don't have a clear idea of what you're trying to create, and you're just trying to like crash fingers and hope you get there, it's a lot harder to get there. And so knowing what your goals are and making sure that those goals align with what you your personal goals are like what do you want your life to look like? What are you trying to create? And then what are the goals in your business that are going to help you do all of that like that is the first step to making sure that when you're deciding things On a day to day basis in your business, they're actually going to get you towards that thing you want. And not that you're just hoping you're going to become successful that you're hoping you're going to make enough money that eventually you'll be able to create something life wise and business wise, that feels good. And I think a lot of people do that. They're like, if I can just get this to work, if I just hustled hard, and figure this out, and things get successful, then I'll be able to create that life in business that I love. If you don't build it to fit into that life in business that you want, you may end up having this hugely successful thing that doesn't fit in with the life you want. Or you may just feel like you're stumbling constantly.
Sara: Oh, my gosh, I hear that. I'm just I just had this flashback to when I was doing social media management two years ago. And I had grown something, you know, that was compensated me well, but was taking all of my time, right, like social media is doesn't stop there, the month after month content creation and like the going on and engaging and like weeknights, and weekends, it was not what I had thought it would be when I left teaching. So there was this time that I had to reflect back on what I had actually one of my goals and change my business to make that happen. I'm sure that you see that a lot with your coaching clients.
Lara: Yeah, there's certainly two big sort of categories of people that I work with the ones who are trying to get more business and really get clear on what they're doing and build that up. But also the ones who build really fast. They're the ones who often are like, I don't even know how this got this big, like if it's happened to me by accident, and they're overwhelmed. And they don't know how to like, they're like, I feel terrible saying this, but I have too much business. Right. And so that's not everybody, but that is equally an issue. If you are working constantly, and you're on the verge of burnout. And you kind of you know that feeling I don't know, I that's when I would get sometimes if I was like, what before I was more comfortable with public speaking, you'd be like maybe if I got in like a small car accident. And so I really had a justified reason to not do this. No event like, and that's super hurt, right? But like, you know, like that feeling where you're like, I just wish I had some kind of thing happened. So I could stop for a minute, because that's how overwhelmed I am. I meet a lot of business owners who get to that place too. And they don't know what to do about it. And so both of those things are struggles.
Sara: And so when we're figuring out our goals, how often should we be looking at them and setting those goals?
Lara: I think if you set goals that are too big and too long, then it feels like you're not sure if you've met them. You're not sure like it just feels like you don't get to like site check. I did it right. Like they they're like kind of like, make more money, right? It's very vague. And so I think that being able to look at your goals and really ask yourself what your priorities are on a quarterly basis, like looking at it every three months and being like, is this what I want to focus on right now? Is this what I think is going to help my business feel good, and I have this whole thing, like goals and actions are the same. And a lot of people think their goals are actually actions, right? They're like, I want to create a launching sequence. And that's not a goal, that's an action that's going to help you get to what right, so it's making sure that when you understand what you're building his goals that you know that they're meaningful enough, you're gonna stay excited about them that you're gonna be like, Yeah, it's like, you really want to do that. Not like, I have to do that thing.
Sara: Yeah. So if someone had a goal, like, make six figures, with her with her group offer, what would be some action items that would go with it. So we can just differentiate a little bit here?
Lara: Well, for one, I think makes six figures like why, like, understanding beyond just like, there's a number I picked out of a hat because I've heard having a six figure business is what would make me feel like I was a successful business. Like, why do you want to make six figures is part of that. And then you want to know what you like doing. And you want to know what you have the capacity to do to then figure out what you're going to sell to make that amount. And knowing what you're going to sell to add up to that amount is, is part of the process. So again, if it's six figures, and you're like, fingers crossed, you don't know what you're going to sell, that's gonna add up so you don't know what to market you don't want to focus on. It's all just like, I don't know why this isn't happening. But it's because you're not leading people to the place where they're going to buy the thing that's going to add up to the thing you want, right like knowing what that is clearly enough so that it doesn't feel scary, overwhelming, impossible. And that you truly believe it can happen is big, believing in it like that internal like I believe this is possible. I believe that people are going to get great value when they buy this stuff for me when I'm making more than six figures. It's going to feel awesome for me but my clients are getting great results. All of that sort belief and enthusiasm can really help too.
Sara: So we should we really need to tap into all of that you said to set our goals. And and also to make the actions.
Lara: Yeah, I think it's important to not just think of yourself as separate from the goals as yourself as separate from the action like what's gonna feel good. What do you believe in? What do you believe your clients need? What do you believe they're going to get the most value out of? Again, if we go back to that whole, you know, you make up the price based on what you think people are going to pay. Sometimes people will offer like, maybe they'd have things that they sell, that are higher priced, but they'll start with the lower price thing, because they think somebody will say yes to that. That's not really what they believe, is the best solution for them. So the fear of getting a no and not offering, the true solution is just talking us out of sales.
Sara: And so this fear of the No, where do you think it comes from? And like, what can we do? Just like questions for you here?
Lara: Oh, yes. Well, there's a bunch of pieces of it. It's fear of rejection is number one, right? It's fear of like somebody saying, I can't believe you're charging. And you feeling like you have to somehow justify it, and being like, Oh, I know, it's a lot of money. And if you think it's a lot of money, this is key. If you think it's a lot of money, and you tell somebody, how much it costs. And I they can tell that you think it's a lot of money, that does not make them feel really confident that the price is right. And so you need to believe that what you're charging is valuable, like they're getting value out of it. So that part of it, you don't want to be rejected. You don't want people to think like, you don't want them to say no. So I'm going to go on a slight tangent here. This is the same thing when you say to people, and Sarah, I'm sure that when you're having conversations with clients and potential clients, this comes up, like who are you targeting? Right? And if they're like, just anybody who wants to buy this thing, and you're like, No, like, we want to get specific. And the fear is that if you get too specific, you're losing out on all the people who are in that specific target. And that's simply not true, right? Because when nobody thinks you're talking to them, nobody's paying attention. And if a smaller group of people really think they're talking, you're talking to them, they're gonna pay attention. So when you think that what your charging is going to make somebody feel like, I am not going to pay that, and therefore they're going to go away, you're discounting all the people who will pay it. And there are people who won't pay it. Right that that is true. There are people who no matter what you charging to think like, ooh, that's too much. But it's like, that's too much for me right now, based on what my priorities are. They just don't say that second part, it doesn't mean it's actually too much. So you're afraid of somebody saying no, and that meaning your pricing is wrong. But there are some people, I guarantee it will say yes, but if you're worried that every no means you were wrong, that really gets into your confidence about your pricing, and might make you discount your pricing or not increase your pricing all the things, whereas in some cases, the answer is increasing your prices. Right? Like I know that this happens. And it's like a thing you hear said, and it's true. Like sometimes the solution to not making any sales is to make your thing more expensive.
Sara: Right, you and I have actually had this conversation before a little bit like privately, how do we know? Okay, so many questions here? How do we know when the solution is to raise our price? And how do we know? If actually we are? Like, let's see, Is there is there like a time wherever charging too much? And that is actually true? How do we figure out those?
Lara: Well, I think part of it is making sure. I mean, coming back to that niche audience do Who are you talking to? What is their problem? are you solving that problem? And is it a thing that is valuable enough for people to pay for? Like, that is an important piece of this? Because if I'm trying to sell something to somebody who doesn't really want it, they're gonna be like, well, that's a lot of money for that. And like, Yeah, but you don't even like, really, it's because they don't really understand. There's always somebody who's gonna think you're too expensive. And there's somebody else out there who's probably like, wow, that's cheap, right? Like, there's no, quote unquote, right answer, but that's not really your question. No, well.
Sara: I mean, it's one of those like, it depends, right situations, I don't know, we all hate and in marketing in coaching, like, well, it depends on the situation, but it's good to think about, is there is there a time when we maybe are incorrect or incorrect with our higher pricing, let's say, and how do we recognize those signs?
Lara: Right? If if the people that you really want to work with are all saying no, then it might be a problem, right? Like if they're all saying No, and it's, I mean, you want it to like again, this is like such a funny little place. Like I like to say you want your pricing to be probably a little uncomfortable, but you also don't want to think it's wrong when you say a price in our life. That isn't ridiculous price. Like, that's probably too much. And sometimes I see coaches and advice that really are like, make it super, super, super high. And I can tell the people who are trying to charge it feel uncomfortable with it like not just a little bit like, Oh, I feel nervous saying that price for the first time. It's like, more, like, I've gone beyond that. So you have to feel good about it, you have to believe that your selling is worth that thing. And you want to have conversations with people. But the other thing is, it's okay to get some nose. Right. So let's say you increase your pricing. And some people start saying no. And before everybody was saying, yes, that's okay. Because the higher pricing is compensating for the nobles, right? Like, like, it's okay that like when I was talking about my people who are overcapacity? Like, what if people start taking notes? Like right now you have so many people, who can't breathe? You know, start needing some people to say, No, it's okay. And there are some people who were still happily willing to say yes. So it's that balance of what is it that you need to make? What is it that you feel is the value of it? How is your time out? Is your capacity? And how do you blend all of those things together to have something that you're offering feels good to them? And to you and to your bottom line?
Sara: So how would folks go about figuring out that price? Like other than looking at the competitors, and pricing based on I'm going to say air quotes here are worth? I know, you're saying we have to believe it, but how do we figure out what that value is to put that first number on an offer?
Lara: Yeah, and again, it depends a part of it is so I think looking at what other people are charging as a starting place is a great way to do it, looking at what you want to be making, and like, what you have capacity for and then figuring out how you put all that together and like race if I want to make this much money, and I want to work with this many people and it's going to take this much time. Does that feel like a fair price? So that's part of it. And then like it really is, it's having conversations, it's testing things? It's, there's never just one answer, which is always going to come back to you. But you need to feel like I'm going to be making enough money. And I've created something that people are going to have value from so like, can you think of maybe an example where people get stuck.
Sara: I would say when they are coming up with their group program like so usually, I often work with service based business owners who are taking their one to one service and launching target group program. So a group program sort of to incapacitate the whole course thing, because it's always the life component. So it's that pricing, they're like, What would people charge and they tend to air on, I would say, the low end overall, because there is like that nervousness about people buying and I hear that come up a lot. Like, I don't know, if anyone's actually going to buy this, will they purchase it? Will they not? So they tend to often set like the first, let's say a few times that they launched, or in the like the 297 to 497 range, whereas some of their, let's say competitors, maybe are charging 997 and up, let's just call it or even like, you know, 1997.
So it's in that early stages where they're just not sure. And I think what I see is that there's, it's like they've because they're new at creating this program. They feel like they're new in business, we're actually they've taken all that one to one stuff that they know how to do. And they proven in sold for 1000s of dollars, and have now just packaged that like framework of theirs, let's say into this group offer. So it's not like they're starting new, they're not a newbie. They're just new, this is just a new way of delivering, right? But there's becomes a disconnect between what they price the one to one with what they priced in that group offer, like, that's where I see it fall down often?
Lara: And are they confidently pricing their one on one high enough so that the group is still high enough, but seems like a better option or a good option. Right? So that's that's also the thing. So if you say to me, there's a group program out there for buy competitor, that's 1997. But they're charging 1499 for one on one, obviously like jumping to more than what they're selling for one on one becomes a struggle. Like I think that that's part of the situation that happens, right? When you're having a group on a free, how do you make it seem full of value, and have some way for you to have some savings of time and make it kind of more appealing than the one on one like is the price difference big enough? Is it also when they're pricing the group program that their one on one pricing needs to go up like that, there's that balance of all the things you don't want your group to be more expensive than your one on one. So you can get stuck in this loop. Like it needs to be a really good discount compared to one on one. But really, I want people in the group. But when people look at these prices, they're gonna think the one on one is the better deal like you need to balance all of those pieces. Does that make sense? Yeah. So it sounds like we actually want our one to one more often to go up so that if we're essentially we're trying to filter people into the group programs The group problem becomes like the better deal, let's call it is that often that's, that's the offer, right? So for me, I have a group coaching program, and I have one on one coaching. And if you want to work with me one on one for six months, it's $10,000.
But if you want to work with me, in the group, you're looking at, like $3,000. And even for the level where you have some access to me, so the people really are like, no, no, what I want is to work one on one with you and get full support from you. I don't want a group because there are going to be those people, for sure, I'm like to, it's great, I have an option for you. It's working with me one on one, it's $10,000. For others that are like, if that's not in their price range, maybe they want it one on one, but it's not in their price range. Some people think they don't want to group, even though I know a group is really great for them. And so when given the options, they're like, Okay, well, I would really like to work with you, I would like to come into your group, with that extra support from you. And like when you compare the prices, it feels like a good option. The group has one on one support at that level. But the rest of it is me being able to do everything in support of many at once. And so that's like that scaling option. But there's a big price difference so that when people are looking at their budget, and they're deciding, what do I have the budget for? What do I feel is going to help me get the most out of this? What do I feel really good about spending, they have options, number one, and they can see the difference in value for what I'm selling. But if my one on one for six months was 4500? They'd be like, Oh, well, for a little bit more thing. I'm just gonna go with that.
Sara: Yeah. So it sounds like a lot of the the way to look at pricing is anchored in what else we have on top, and it's back down to the what do you have capacity for?
Lara: What do you enjoy doing? What do you think your clients are going to get value out of not everybody needs a group program, not everybody needs, you know, that online course or whatever it is, some people don't. But if you are like I am at capacity with my one on one work, or I cannot see a way to make the amount of money I want to make in the time I have available to work with people one on one, this is that way to start making things more efficient. Having a way to do some things with everybody at once. And allowing some people to work with you who maybe previously couldn't because your price was out of their reach. Right? So it's, it's all these things. But again, you have to do that eye math of like, what do I want to be making, how's it gonna add up to things because you don't want to, I don't know, sell something for $200 297 and then get three people in and be like now making less money than I was before the game needs to make sense for you. So many people will say, you know, even for the amount of time you're spending on whatever the group is, you want that. So this is one of those possible ways to think of your mat. It's your question from earlier. But let's say just for the time you're spending, so it's a group program. So for the time you're spending, how many people or how much money do I need to make to feel good about that time. And then at that price, that amount that you're making be divided by two or three people. So I am making the amount that is going to feel like the minimum I need to make from two or three people. And then everything else is the gravy. But if you're trying to make it so that it's like 100 people making 100 the price. Again, that's where you get to the like now I didn't sell enough now it feels gross now, though. So you want to know that like two or three people is covering your time and everything else is just adding up making better.
Sara: That makes a lot of sense. I know you're saying that we have to like we want to look at our goals and what we what we need to make. And that helps with our pricing. This episode of the launch playbook podcast is brought to you by my free launch maps, your complete step by step map of all your launch assets. So you know exactly what messaging notes to hit, and when to share each piece of copy. Because I know that you have signed up for many freebies over the years only to be disappointed with the Canva. PDF there are they gave you any info. But I promise you the launch maps aren't that when I showed these to my OBM she literally walked off the screen that I was giving away this for free. This is the exact launch Map Template I use for every single one of my one on one clients and inside to be able to personalize tweak and repeat a strategy for your messaging for each and every launch from pre launch to post. Go and get your free launch map at WWW dot Sara vartanian.com/launch-map. So do you recommend that people start at the ideal price that they want, let's say out of the gate or is it something that they build towards?
Lara: I think it's something that you can build towards and I think it's an Important to know like nothing is permanent. I think that in all things, we sometimes get stuck in that right? Like, oh, I pick the thing. And now it's that forever, like, you can pick it and sell it one time for that price. And the next time it's going to be more you can you can get a beauty business that stuff. And so I play around with my pricing for sure. And like you can, you can have discounts, you can have bonuses, like you can play around with all the things to make it feel good. You just don't want to start super, super low, because you think nobody will pay more than that. And that's that whole thing where, so when I said sometimes you need to increase your pricing. That's because sometimes when something is too low, you're like, that's like really inexpensive. It must not be very good, right? You're like, Oh, if I bought this thing is it like buying the wish version? It's not going to be good. And that's often not true. The business owners that I know, like, what you are all creating is amazing. But if I'm going to be like, Okay, I'm going to invest in what ready to invest in something good, right? I'm ready to invest in myself, I'm ready to invest in my business. And then or, I mean, you know, I'm ready to invest in something, a life coach, I'm ready to invest in something to help my kids like, whatever it is, yes, there are some people who are always going to look for the cheapest person, but sometimes you'd be like, Okay, so all things considered, I'm going to pick the more expensive one because they must be better. Also not true. But like we do that about pricing. So if you go too cheap, too inexpensive, sometimes that can be just as much of a problem.
Sara: Definitely. And, you know, if you remember this conversation that you and I had, this is offline. But when I first launched the launch playbook club, I started it at $47 a month, or 447 for the year. And then there was a VIP, so one to one time with me offer for $2,000. And I sold one of the $47 a month, and I sold five of the VIP works like and it wasn't until I turned up my price to 97. It was like then it was 37 a month. Now it's like I think it's 167 a month, this equal payments over a year. But it wasn't until I was turning up my price where people started coming in automatically, like just like off the sales page. So when I was sitting at 47, you know, I was talking about it, nobody was coming in the person who had bought had been like a previous client who wanted some more support. And then until I moved 97, that's when I started seeing like people like joining like we know, one or two times a month, people would sign up and join. And then as I raised it again, I had some more people join. So it's really interesting how like, like what you said, like the perception of it being like, why is it that price? Because I mean, I knew that my offer was great. Like it was like all the lunch copy templates that you want, and like weekly launch copy coaching, right, I knew that was like, solidly worth more than 447. A year, but I was trying to make it accessible. But I think at that time I had realized it's more of a red flag, right? It's like, Well, why is it that price? Like? Is it not gonna be very good, I can be very helpful. And so just I had some first hand experience with that, and I want to share that story.
Lara: Yeah, I mean, and that's, that's the perfect example. People are like, well, but is it good then? Right? And you're like, Okay, no, it must be good. If it cost that much. Again, this is based entirely nothing, because you could charge less, you could charge more, whatever it is, like, there's always somebody charging less than there's always charging more. And that is just true. And there are people who will think that what you're charging is too much, and somebody will think you're charging too little. That is always true. That is true. When I was running events, it's, it's always been true. And so what if you just allowed yourself to be like, this is a really good thing, like this thing I'm selling with gets really full of value. And again, like we're not, at least the people that I work with, we are not very good at being like, I am awesome, right? Like that whole, like embodying confidence thing. We don't want to seem too bold, or to brag here to like cocky, or whatever it is. That being said, people want to hire from people who are like, I know what I'm doing. And so be like, This is really good. This is really good. I'm gonna tell you why it's really good. It's really good. Because it's going to help you figure out all these things, all the things you haven't been doing, right? I've seen your templates error, if you can take out the stress of a blank page, and not knowing what to say to make copy decent, and not knowing what to say to actually make the offer without feeling squicky about it. If you take out not only the fact that I don't know what to say, and you're going to give me a template to start from, but it's actually built to do its job. And I can do it really quite quickly, right because I again, I've used some of your templates so I can write an email in an hour that I would have spent like months avoiding because I didn't know what to say. Not only is it worth like the time like it's like now it's done. Yeah, like that is helping people that is worth a lot more than $167. So when you can say that price, and be like, let me tell you why it's awesome. People are like, they're gonna lean in and be like, Oh, okay. But if you're like, I don't know if people will pay hundreds $7. And then you're like, So, six $7. And it's got a bunch of templates. And like, there's some calls and like, you end up being like, here are the things but like, you can't like confidently be like, it's super worth it. Because you're gonna come out with content that works, that you could actually use it with your audience and feels good. Like, that's the benefit. And when you can confidently tell people that, like it doesn't really have anything to do with the price, ultimately. But we are so stuck on thinking it's about the price.
Sara: I love that. What you're saying there? Yeah, I think the more we leaned into those benefits and talking about them, then the more confident we are. And then we have to but like I think as you said, we have to believe in those benefits, and know them to be true, right? Because that's how we can show up and feel really good about what we're saying and not feel yucky. Like we're being the yucky know, stereotypical, like used car salesman person like you around the law harassing you around something like we can feel really good about, like, yeah, you want it sure here. So you have quarterly planning days, and I've been lucky enough to be at one of them. And it was so great, because you looked at goals. And I love that you do these things quarterly because you're again, like, again, we lead with the goals. So gives you a chance to change them. Tell us a little bit more about what brought in these quarterly planning days. And why you recommend something like that for any business owner.
Lara: I've been doing the planning days for a long time now I think six years, I've done them in person, I've done them online of gentlemen, all kinds of different ways. And, you know, people were like, wow, I really have a lot more clarity on what to do next. And I also know that again, I was saying before, I'm not that I'm not very good at planning. I don't like it. It's very, you might met at a kind of a planning workshop type of event, I think years ago. And I I remember that event, because at the time, one of the questions was kind of like, how far out can you see your business? How many years out? And at that moment, I was like, six months? Right? Why do you pressuring me to know what I want? In five years?
Sara: I didn't know that three years? Like, I do not know. What get me through the next three?
Lara: Three weeks? I don't know. I don't know. Right? And so, I think that that, again, like I was saying, like, it's good to have a bigger, longer goal if you're ready for that. But just like what am I doing for the next three months? And why does that matter? What am I focusing on? Because it can change? Right? what your goals are, sometimes my goals are around building my visibility and having people know what I do. And sometimes my goals are filling my group programs and, you know, finding ways to really support them. And sometimes it's more I mean, I have more than one goal, but like really where, where's the focus of where I want to put my energy and why, why. And I think looking at that regularly helps take the pressure off, like and now I have decided what I'm doing for the next year. Now I have to like, keep checking in and being like, Am I on track versus like, the goal is for a quarter. It's not hard, and sometimes a big thing. And like, Oops, I spent a whole year and I didn't do any of the things I meant to do because I got off track. Keep checking in with yourself. Because things can change. Because you can decide I want to do something entirely different than I thought I wanted to do six months ago. And that's okay. But we don't stop and think about it. Because we get caught up in the running of our business in the putting out the fires in the replying to people in you know, like, you get so busy that you don't spend any time thinking like, do I even like doing this? Yeah. And so stopping and like when I have clients who come to like every single day, every quarter, right people who come at least once or twice a year and have for six years? Because they're really clear that stopping and spending the time committing to thinking about their business is a valuable exercise. What do I want to keep doing? What's been working? Why am I so stuck on thinking I need to do XYZ? When in the past that's never who has ever gotten a sale? We get stuck in these like, this is what I should do. This is what I have to do. And we don't even stop and be like, but how did I get success like to the successes I've gotten and what have gone well, that is true. Like I do this with my clients all the time. On a regular basis. What has gone well, we forget to acknowledge what we've done well, because we're so busy trying to do all the things we haven't gotten yet. And we have a million things we haven't done yet because we're business owners. That's the way our brains work. We're like we have a million ideas or to do lists are miles and miles long, but they're never gonna not be. That's how we are as people. So we need to be able to go through that to do list, prioritize what's actually getting us to our goals, know that we can change that later, and celebrate what we've actually accomplished instead of spending all our time thinking, I suck, because I still have a million things to do.
Sara: Yes. Oh, my gosh, I love that you called out that we need to take that time to celebrate. I just see it so often. And I felt with myself and I and I have really tried to check in and put some different things in place. Like, when I commerce thing, something that I wanted to do that was like, let's say big or the bigger ends, like after a launch, for example, taking a few days off, not just be like, Okay, great. And next, right, that doesn't always have to be like, check in next, like I'm allowed to breathe, to celebrate, to take it in, to kind of reassess your right so often business owners were like, just trying to like frantically get through that checklist of all that stuff. We don't take that time to breathe and celebrate and acknowledge, like the fact that you know what, we did some really damn good work here. We hit whatever goals or we you know, accomplish something we wanted, setting up our business for our life, we're just moving on. So I love that about your planning day that it creates an opportunity for people to like, reflect on what they wanted, like, you know, what they have done, and also where they want to go. I went when I went to a recent sunny day, I really I loved that, because I hadn't spending some time on my own working on my 2022 calendar and what I wanted to do, when I came here day, I actually afterward shifted some things on there, because you kept coming back to the goals, right? Like, what does he want? And how do you want your life to be. And I realized that I had put things on that calendar that weren't actually going to lead me to the life goals I wanted, right, they were more around like, things I thought I should be doing necessarily, right. Or things may be like, I had kind of what I had wanted to do, but they didn't actually connect to the big picture. And what I wanted, like, life as a business owner be like, so I really appreciate it you're planning day, because it was definitely gut check. And, and like I went back to my team, I was like, we're taking this off for you. This doesn't fit in anymore, but we're gonna like ramp up the other thing, right. So really appreciate that time. And I love the idea of quarterly because man, we do get on to these, like different things we should we think we should be doing or things that aren't working. And as opposed to going like six months down that pathway. Like let's do it. Let's go three months down to reflect.
Lara: Yeah, and then ask ourselves if we even like the thing we started doing. And I think that the whole hustle harder mentality, which is certainly what I see in the business world a lot is, is that one, that means that we don't get to stop and celebrate and just like quiet like some of my clients, their goals are just to only work three days a week, like that's the goal. It's not to make more money, it's to make the same amount of money, but find a way to do it in three days a week, so that you have time for yourself, imagine that it's time for you to do nothing and to just enjoy the life that you have. And to celebrate that we don't always have to hustle harder, work harder, do more to be valuable human beings. But that is sort of going down another tangent in a conversation I could go on. But I think it's really important to remember that our value isn't based on the amount of hours that we work. And sometimes we get so stuck thinking we have to work harder and do more that we can't just see what it is we actually want and the simplest ways to do that.
Sara: Definitely. So Lara, to sum this up our conversation, we covered a lot here. Would you say when we're coming up with our sales prices? We should do in our goals? And believe in them? Do you say? Would that be like a summary of it? Or is there some other way that you feel we could sum up? You know, wrap sort of wrap this up into brown in the end?
Lara: Yeah. So number one is knowing what you actually want to make? And like why I think you need to know that number. So that you feel like you're not just like randomly saying things because you're supposed to or because you think that's what's next. Right? So what does that money for? How much am I trying to make? Why like being really clear on that, knowing what it is that you love to do, and how you can give your clients value. I think being really clear on that is important. And then starting to figure out oh, and knowing what your capacity is right, knowing how much you want to be working. That might not be doable right away. You might not be able to go to like working three days a week right off the bat. If you know that the goal is to not just get like I've had people say to me like okay, well so I'm going to get 31 on one clients and I'd be like, Oh, that's exhausting. They're like no, no, I can fit into my calendar. Like I believe you can fit it into your calendar but like, personally like your brain, can your brain do it? I don't care how many hours you have available. Can your brain carry all of that low? Right? You need to know what your capacity is to support people and then start to do the math on what you're going to Sell within that time frame to reach your goals. And if you cannot find a way to make those numbers, Adam pricing might need to change ways that you're doing things might need to change. And that then that becomes part of what you need to figure out next is like this, this model right now, the only way to make the money amount of money that I said I wanted to make is to like, work 80 hours a week, and I do not want to do that. That means something needs to change. Is it a new product is new packages is it pricing changes, I don't know what it is. But when you can see that disconnect, that it doesn't feel good to try to add up to the numbers you want in the amount of time and capacity you have, then that's when you start to change things.
Sara: Thank you. That's amazing. So I was really like to tie up the end with like, Okay, if we just like sum this up next steps of what it would be and you get to us. So thank you so much. You're welcome, Laura, you have a free on demand video training all around sales. Tell us a little bit about it and where we can find it.
Lara: Yes, so you can come but first I'll tell you about it. So it is all around that idea that I want to keep things simple. So it's not super long. I think it's like an ish minutes. But it's all of my best tips on how to feel a little bit better about sales. What are the things that you might be doing that are holding you back? How can you feel good and confident telling people what you sell? How can you because if you don't feel comfortable with the sales conversations, that's going to impact how much you make, which is going to impact how you feel about everything. So I share my best tips in this quick video. There's quick, simple, actionable, which are my favorite things, tips, any if you come to my website at the biz dot studio, and I'll give you a direct link to it. But there it will pop up there, you can grab that for free.
Sara: Amazing and we will have all the ways to find Laura and her free video training and all of it her Planning Day in her coaching on the show notes. So thank you so much for joining us today.
Lara: Thank you for having me. I always enjoy chatting with you.
Sara: Until next time launchers. Happy launching.
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