Transcripts
Welcome to Live With The Pricing Lady.
Speaker:I'm Janene, your hostess.
Speaker:This show is all about helping you build a sustainably profitable
Speaker:business while making an unbelievable impact on your world.
Speaker:Learn from my 20 years of experience and from my guests as we discuss their pricing
Speaker:challenges, failures, and successes.
Speaker:Pricing is a way of being or behaving in your business.
Speaker:My mission is to help you confidently charge for the value you deliver.
Speaker:Pricing is either hurting or helping your business.
Speaker:Let's make sure it's helping you reach your dreams.
Speaker:In this episode of Live with The Pricing Lady, I sit down with
Speaker:Shannon Tacheny brand strategist and owner of feather blue studios.
Speaker:Shannon has priced so many different things over her entrepreneurial career.
Speaker:And she's sitting down to share with us her journey and what that
Speaker:meant for her over the years.
Speaker:I found this episode absolutely inspiring, and I hope you will too.
Speaker:So sit back, relax and enjoy the episode.
Speaker:Welcome to today's guest Shannon Tacheny.
Speaker:Hi, Shannon.
Speaker:Hi, Janene.
Speaker:So happy to be here.
Speaker:Thanks for having me.
Speaker:I'm super excited to have this conversation with you.
Speaker:Shannon, why don't we start with where you're joining us from today?
Speaker:I'm in Minnesota in the United States.
Speaker:Excellent.
Speaker:I'm near Minneapolis, Saint Paul area.
Speaker:What would you call your superpower?
Speaker:You know I think that My superpower is taking what people have in
Speaker:their business, like what women have to give and connecting it to
Speaker:the person who needs to find them.
Speaker:So I do that mostly through like, you know, brand strategy, messaging
Speaker:design, but it's like this instant, what, what can I pull out from you
Speaker:that can connect you to what the person needs to hear to find you?
Speaker:And I just feel like it's a combination of empathy and communication skills.
Speaker:That's kind of where I thrive.
Speaker:Oh, that's really, that's so wonderful.
Speaker:I can imagine that with your clients, that makes a huge difference to them because I
Speaker:mean, quite frankly, that's what for most people who are starting businesses, you
Speaker:know, that's sort of part of the element that they're missing is that connection.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:And we all need an outside person I think to help us See what we
Speaker:really have to bring to the table.
Speaker:Yeah, it's hard to, you know, see the forest through the tree, so to speak.
Speaker:So, you get a different perspective when somebody else is looking at it.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:So Janene, what is one interesting thing that most people don't know about
Speaker:you that you'd like to share with us?
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:I was telling you earlier that I lived in Paris for six weeks.
Speaker:This was kind of like during college years.
Speaker:And, I had been studying communications and graphic design and marketing.
Speaker:I had always wanted to go to Paris and I found a way to take
Speaker:a photography class there that I needed for my graphic design minor.
Speaker:And so I signed up for this class and like, wonder upon wonder, somebody
Speaker:from my school who, my boyfriend at the time knew was going to.
Speaker:So it was this great experience.
Speaker:We got to go to Paris and live there for six weeks.
Speaker:The funny part is that we walked by the Eiffel Tower literally every
Speaker:day on the way to our class, but we never ever went to the top.
Speaker:So I just find it very ironic.
Speaker:We went all the way to Paris.
Speaker:We did a lot of amazing things, but here we are in this space and never
Speaker:went to the top of the Eiffel Tower.
Speaker:We'll go
Speaker:back and do it.
Speaker:But
Speaker:we'll say, have you been back and did you do it?
Speaker:Not yet!
Speaker:Uh oh!
Speaker:No, and my husband really wants to hit Italy, so I feel like if we go to Europe
Speaker:again, we'll hit Italy, and maybe I can do a little side tour, you know, of France.
Speaker:You can stop by and say hi to me, because I'm right in between the two!
Speaker:That would be marvelous!
Speaker:Cool, excellent.
Speaker:So, yeah, so I guess there's definitely something on your to do list there.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Okay, Shannon, why don't you share with us about what you, what led you
Speaker:to starting your own business and how that process was like for you?
Speaker:Yeah, well, I mean, as somebody who's had sort of multiple businesses along a
Speaker:journey, I think for me, quite honestly, starting as an entrepreneur, really
Speaker:young, like right out of college.
Speaker:It was just a gut instinct and a drive.
Speaker:I mean, I don't think I recognized that, you know, at the time, you
Speaker:know, you're in college and you're on the path to get the career role.
Speaker:And, you know, here I was thinking I was going to go into advertising.
Speaker:So I'm like, well, I need to work more on my portfolio before I can get a job and
Speaker:learn some new programs and these things.
Speaker:And so.
Speaker:You know, you kind of, put the brake on the actual like full time job thing,
Speaker:but really I think it's cause I just had my heart to do all these things.
Speaker:Right.
Speaker:So, I started designing handbags and jewelry was my very original
Speaker:business that was kind of on my heart in college and that I just kind of
Speaker:dove into and I was able to work.
Speaker:for a part time, worked part time for a jewelry artist at the time
Speaker:who had a really thriving business.
Speaker:She still does.
Speaker:And you know, was able to sell retail and wholesale.
Speaker:And that helped me go like, Oh, this small business thing is like doable.
Speaker:Like, and now I understand things like for instance, pricing, like
Speaker:how the heck do you price anything?
Speaker:How do you, you know, find wholesalers?
Speaker:How do you find people to buy?
Speaker:And I think that probably the combination of this natural drive,
Speaker:which I mean, I had a store out of my bedroom when I was eight.
Speaker:Okay.
Speaker:All my summer plans involved around like garage sales and bike washes and
Speaker:carnivals in the neighborhood so that we could, it was just in me, this spirit.
Speaker:and so that's probably what really, drove me to start was just this initiative
Speaker:that was inside me, but then being able to see somebody else demonstrate
Speaker:that you can run a small business was probably what kept me on the path, right?
Speaker:So I transitioned through the years after that, but I think
Speaker:that was sort of the initial drop.
Speaker:Did you come from a family of entrepreneurs?
Speaker:You know, my mom, I have three sisters.
Speaker:There's four of us girls.
Speaker:My mom did run a business at home.
Speaker:I think it was more out of necessity than drive.
Speaker:You know, it was more like, this is the skill I learned.
Speaker:I learned how to type so I can, you know, have this kind of.
Speaker:Business at home.
Speaker:But I think she had a little bit of an independent spirit too.
Speaker:And
Speaker:I do love how this does run in the family.
Speaker:I look back to like my great grandpa who I just heard stories about.
Speaker:He was always kind of like chasing the next idea and buying the next business
Speaker:and moving the family to the next thing.
Speaker:And even though I never met him, I always think, Oh, I get that spirit.
Speaker:Like I have that entrepreneurial spirit in me.
Speaker:Right, so you came out of the womb.
Speaker:Sold!
Speaker:I think so.
Speaker:You know, I wish people would have recognized that in me
Speaker:earlier and poured into me like, Hey, here's where you're gifted.
Speaker:I can see this path being good for you.
Speaker:A lot of times we just have to figure that out for ourselves.
Speaker:I think that's normal.
Speaker:But now I can look at like my children and be like, what do you have in you?
Speaker:Let's help you pull it out so that you can get to live a life of joy along
Speaker:the journey you were created to be on.
Speaker:So
Speaker:that's your superpower.
Speaker:That's yeah.
Speaker:Also helping a lot of people at a young age, love seeing
Speaker:people's gifts and bringing, like elevating those gifts for them.
Speaker:Shannon, when you started that first business doing the jewelry and handbags,
Speaker:I think you said the first time you had to like set a price and tell people what
Speaker:the price was, what was that like for you?
Speaker:Yeah, I mean, I've been thinking about like how so many things
Speaker:go into setting a price, right?
Speaker:And especially when you first start and especially when something
Speaker:is personal to you, a lot of it is just, I want to do this.
Speaker:What will people pay for it?
Speaker:If they won't pay this for it, then I'm being rejected in some way, shape or form.
Speaker:Right.
Speaker:I think That, that can be in the early cycle and also that can
Speaker:like recycle through the journey of your business because it's
Speaker:attached to our confidence a lot.
Speaker:I will say, I think that going into that first business, because I actually set
Speaker:my handbag prices fairly High end at the time, and I did take into account
Speaker:definitely the products and the materials.
Speaker:And I was thinking about the marketplace, like where do
Speaker:these fall into the marketplace?
Speaker:I think at that point in time, I wasn't taking into account as much of my time.
Speaker:And that was probably a factor there.
Speaker:But I did, I mean, I look back and I go, well, I had a little bit of guts to say
Speaker:that these belonged at this price point.
Speaker:And at that point was able to sell them like on a small level at boutiques
Speaker:and at art fairs and things like that.
Speaker:Custom work for like bridesmaids and stuff.
Speaker:So I had some success at it.
Speaker:I didn't really.
Speaker:and I didn't do that business very long because we ended up moving and I had
Speaker:gotten married young, we were moving and we were having a baby And so it
Speaker:just kind of naturally dropped off.
Speaker:but it's funny because then I look at other businesses or other focuses
Speaker:down the line and think sometimes you go backwards in your pricing.
Speaker:Sometimes you go backwards in your confidence and.
Speaker:Yeah, there's just a lot of psychological elements that go along
Speaker:with pricing, which you well know.
Speaker:Yeah, absolutely.
Speaker:There are.
Speaker:So one of the things that we had spoken about is that you've
Speaker:priced lots of different things.
Speaker:So you, you left your jewelry and handbag business.
Speaker:And then where did you go and how did that shift your, your thinking
Speaker:or your approach to pricing?
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:So, lo and behold, since I had taken that one class in Paris, studying photography,
Speaker:I had bought a camera at the time.
Speaker:And even during that time I was doing handbags and jewelry.
Speaker:I was doing like a tiny bit of freelance photography kind of for fun, right?
Speaker:Like people knew.
Speaker:You know, that you had a camera and you got referred to some random kids
Speaker:and started experimenting, right?
Speaker:So a few years down the line, you know, my family and I moved from Minneapolis
Speaker:area to St. Louis area in Missouri.
Speaker:My husband had got promoted there.
Speaker:I had a baby there, did all sorts of really cool, creative things, mostly
Speaker:volunteer, back a couple of years later.
Speaker:And ironically into the same house because we had rented it and we had remodeled it.
Speaker:And so we're moving back in and I said, Hey, here I am now with
Speaker:like an almost two year old.
Speaker:What do I want my career path to look like?
Speaker:Like I had this drive still.
Speaker:But I also knew that I loved being a mom.
Speaker:I wanted to find this balance.
Speaker:And so we continued to remodel the house and we put in a photography
Speaker:studio in the basement of that home.
Speaker:And then I went on to run a photography studio for about 10 years at that point.
Speaker:So then it became a big pricing journey.
Speaker:Pricing the
Speaker:house
Speaker:is very interesting because it's both a service and it's product, right?
Speaker:You're selling prints or you're selling digital images.
Speaker:Wow.
Speaker:I mean, we were at the beginning of the digital images versus the print stage
Speaker:and, the mental approach to how a digital image might not be as valuable as a print,
Speaker:but really was more valuable because
Speaker:it was
Speaker:telling your negative to somebody, right?
Speaker:Like all the potential that became a lot of what was being talked about in industry
Speaker:and a lot of what I had to process.
Speaker:So I think that I was lucky to start in that industry when
Speaker:prints were still the standard.
Speaker:Help me place the value on not just the session, but then you
Speaker:choosing these images afterwards.
Speaker:And so there was that, that was helpful going in at the same time.
Speaker:I remember getting like my first, like somebody wrote me a check for
Speaker:101 and 50 cents or something for her, order of her children's pictures.
Speaker:And I thought, Oh my gosh, I'm making it like 100
Speaker:to do what I love to do.
Speaker:Like it's happening.
Speaker:And.
Speaker:Looking back, I very much did not account for time.
Speaker:I think that's probably been one of my default
Speaker:trends.
Speaker:I can definitely price for product.
Speaker:I can maybe even price for value and marketplace, but your time, because
Speaker:you just want to do it and you underestimate how long it takes and,
Speaker:you know, that can be okay, but if you're trying to make a living over
Speaker:the course of a year and you only have so much hours to put into something,
Speaker:you
Speaker:have to factor in that element and then you have to factor in like.
Speaker:Am I worthy as an artist, right?
Speaker:This is the emotional end of it, to ask people to pay this much.
Speaker:Do I have enough experience?
Speaker:And so definitely I started underpricing in the photography industry.
Speaker:Definitely priced, repriced probably every other year or
Speaker:more, like rethinking the pricing.
Speaker:I mean, it's like constantly very complex because you're pricing this service.
Speaker:And then you're pricing these.
Speaker:Do you buy these things separately?
Speaker:Do you have a package?
Speaker:Do you put it all in one big package?
Speaker:I mean, there was so many decisions, complex decisions around photography
Speaker:as an industry period, but it did force me to really think about how I do this.
Speaker:And by the end really massively changed in my money mindset.
Speaker:And even that's where like, now that I'm a brand strategist and a business mentor
Speaker:for women, I can say, I also understand how I started out like I want to be for
Speaker:everybody and got to the point where like, no, I need to have a singular brand
Speaker:that draws exactly the right client I want who's willing to pay what I need
Speaker:to get paid to just stay in business.
Speaker:Right.
Speaker:And so all of that really goes hand in hand.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:I've worked with quite a few photographers and, I've seen one, the struggle that
Speaker:they have with pricing, also the criticism that they get sometimes from people about
Speaker:their pricing, which I find incredibly,
Speaker:hmm, what's the right adjective?
Speaker:, Mean at times.
Speaker:Yeah,, the, the feedback that people get about their pricing structure,
Speaker:especially when they try to adjust it, so that it's something that
Speaker:they can make a business from.
Speaker:I had a guest on the show a few years back, a Maria Ramanatha.
Speaker:She's also in photography, or had part of her business was photography related.
Speaker:She shared with us a story how it took her like three times to at least three
Speaker:times of changing her prices until she was actually attracting the kind of customers
Speaker:that she wanted to be working with.
Speaker:And that, you know, being underpriced brought her customers
Speaker:who didn't value her service, didn't value what she was offering.
Speaker:And, and so she ended up, you know, with these low prices, she
Speaker:just attracted the wrong people.
Speaker:I think that's a really important, point.
Speaker:for people to, to reflect upon.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:I mean, really as a brand strategist, I can say that your pricing is part of your
Speaker:brand because it is one of the elements you are giving off that's going to
Speaker:attract or deter the right person for you.
Speaker:So really knowing who you want to work with and where you want to fit
Speaker:in the marketplace is super important for both your brand and your pricing.
Speaker:I do want to just speak to that thing about like people's
Speaker:perceptions of pricing though.
Speaker:And I. I think you're right in the photography industry.
Speaker:It's been extra hard to like prove that this is how much something is worth
Speaker:because we live in a digital era, wherever we can take a snapshot on their camera.
Speaker:And I think that initially it can feel very like hurtful as
Speaker:you try to raise your prices.
Speaker:And as you try to, see the value people have of something, and that's
Speaker:probably true in other industries.
Speaker:So what I want to share is that I think as a business owner, we can make the
Speaker:mental shift to say, it's not their fault for being naive about pricing.
Speaker:It's my fault.
Speaker:Now, I don't want to induce guilt here, right?
Speaker:But my responsibility to
Speaker:educate why this has value and educating why something has value
Speaker:is a really big part of marketing.
Speaker:And so we can see that's just a regular piece of the marketing puzzle that I no
Speaker:longer have to feel bad when somebody.
Speaker:Perceive something as low value than it is.
Speaker:I have to say, Oh, that is an eye opening conversation to help
Speaker:me be a better CEO and marketer.
Speaker:And now I know what to put into my messaging to help people come into
Speaker:this conversation on pricing with the right perception right away.
Speaker:So hopefully that like makes people feel better about it.
Speaker:I know it has for me.
Speaker:It's really important to establish the value.
Speaker:And I go back to this example all the time.
Speaker:It's one of my very favorite examples of, you know, putting
Speaker:that value stake in the ground.
Speaker:It was also a photographer and on his, I don't remember his name.
Speaker:I'm sorry if you overhear this and you know who you are and
Speaker:I don't remember your name,
Speaker:but on his website, on his pricing page, it says, Yep.
Speaker:It's going to cost you at least 2, 000 for me to photograph your wedding.
Speaker:Are you okay with that?
Speaker:And I said, yes.
Speaker:It said, you know, book a call with me.
Speaker:No, here's the link to Craigslist.
Speaker:Which is like a really beautiful way to establish value and help people
Speaker:understand, you know, how at least they perceive value and to steer people
Speaker:who weren't willing or able to pay that, you know, in another direction.
Speaker:So, I think that's a really important aspect.
Speaker:So Shannon, I'd like to shift into the business that you have now and some of
Speaker:the learnings that you've had in pricing, either your own experience or what you've
Speaker:seen with clients and what you do now.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Well, so now as.
Speaker:I mean, I started, I shifted from my photography studio to a full service
Speaker:marketing firm, which felt very comfortable to me at the time because I
Speaker:was still selling tangible things, right?
Speaker:So I recognized that, you know, while I loved my photography business and my
Speaker:clients, I wasn't using all of me, which is part of what I now like help people do.
Speaker:Right.
Speaker:I was really missing the marketing elements and the brand elements that,
Speaker:and the writing that I was really loving in my photography business, and I'd kind
Speaker:of mastered the photography part and it didn't feel like as much of a challenge.
Speaker:And I thought, I need to just.
Speaker:Go into the full me.
Speaker:And that was
Speaker:of course an identity shift too, not just like a brand shift, right?
Speaker:Like I'm a photographer and now I'm suddenly saying I'm a brand
Speaker:strategist, I'm a marketing strategist.
Speaker:So we won't go into that.
Speaker:But if anybody's in that, know that we feel you because You're giving yourself
Speaker:a promotion or you're a new job and you have to be the one to identify it.
Speaker:So I move in first to this marketing, you know, firm type model where I can
Speaker:say, Hey, we will do this for you and you can pay this much for a package.
Speaker:And by then I was much more adept at like going, okay, I can't do this unless.
Speaker:I guess it's going to be worth my time.
Speaker:There was still definitely some struggle around value.
Speaker:Like am I definitely going to give them, I'm new to this thing, even
Speaker:though I'm experienced and I've been doing stuff like this for years.
Speaker:So there was some struggle in the value and I think then the biggest
Speaker:though, thing I learned about pricing during that stage was, Every
Speaker:project I was doing was individual.
Speaker:So if you need, you know, a website and Facebook ads and a marketing funnel
Speaker:and a logo, and you need, you know, social media graphics and whatnot, I'm
Speaker:starting from scratch with each project.
Speaker:And so, yes, I might be pricing at a level that is You know, reasonable
Speaker:for my business, reasonable for you.
Speaker:But the project management part was tricky because you're changing
Speaker:mental hats every time you're making different contractors for each one.
Speaker:And, and I realized that that didn't feel good and that if I was going to do it
Speaker:that way, I definitely was going to have to price more to hire a project manager.
Speaker:Right.
Speaker:So then I went kind of from that, that stage, excuse me.
Speaker:into a shift to I'm really seeing women have a lot of success when I
Speaker:just coach them around how to do this.
Speaker:And a lot of these women's struggles isn't that they need
Speaker:a new logo or a new website.
Speaker:It's that they need the confidence to, you know, step into whatever
Speaker:is that next thing for them.
Speaker:Then they need somebody to help them pull out the words to define it.
Speaker:Then they need the online presence to bring that, right.
Speaker:And so to back up and give them this freedom to like
Speaker:strategize who you really are.
Speaker:What you and your company bring to the table and how we need to communicate that.
Speaker:Then I was leaning in towards like coaching and mentoring, and
Speaker:that becomes a whole new pricing issue, because you're straight up
Speaker:pricing for what the transformation you're bringing, not the hours.
Speaker:I'm not right.
Speaker:And so then I really had to establish, Hey, where do I
Speaker:fit into the marketplace here?
Speaker:And again, for people pivoting their business, the confidence
Speaker:again, like, yes, I'm a quick to
Speaker:do
Speaker:this, but I just transitioned again.
Speaker:I feel like a newbie in a marketplace.
Speaker:Even though I have, you know, almost 20 years of experience
Speaker:in the business place, right?
Speaker:So, that all goes into it.
Speaker:But I think for me, where I've gotten to now, like just straight up having been
Speaker:in business for over 15 years, it has to be this balance of First of all, how much
Speaker:money do I just straight up need to make?
Speaker:Right?
Speaker:I'm purpose driven.
Speaker:I want to help people.
Speaker:I want to see everybody get the transformation they want, but I
Speaker:can't just run myself ragged, right?
Speaker:Or I can't not be able to pay my bills.
Speaker:So straight up at the end of the day, how much money do I need to make in a year?
Speaker:How many hours do I actually have to give?
Speaker:To a client, to clients, right.
Speaker:Versus how many hours go to other things in my business, administration,
Speaker:marketing, behind the scenes stuff, right.
Speaker:How many hours do I want to work a week?
Speaker:Let's just take my actual whole life picture into consideration here and then
Speaker:go, okay, here's how much time I have to put into actual clients and here's
Speaker:how much money I need to make, like minimum to like my high goal, right.
Speaker:And then work backwards and say, what is the absolute minimum I can price a client
Speaker:at to hit that, and then taking that number and going, here's the reality check
Speaker:and then factoring in the other elements.
Speaker:Like, okay, where do I want to be in the marketplace?
Speaker:How do I want to be perceived?
Speaker:What does my client have to pay?
Speaker:Because somebody who is, for instance, starting a business is in a
Speaker:different spot to invest in somebody.
Speaker:You know, transitioning a business, even if the value you bring us the same.
Speaker:And so it's okay if you price it.
Speaker:Probably different in those two phases, right?
Speaker:The value.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:And that's totally okay.
Speaker:Right.
Speaker:You just have to decide who you really want to serve and then go, if this
Speaker:is the person I really want to work with, where does this element of what
Speaker:I need to get paid meet what, where they are expecting to pay something in
Speaker:the marketplace, that's fair for them.
Speaker:Right.
Speaker:And then kind of maybe accounting for all the little extras that might kick
Speaker:in above and beyond them too, right?
Speaker:So a little, little wiggle room because it's very easy for us
Speaker:to just inch our way up and not allow for the wiggle room as well.
Speaker:And so I think some combination of that is now where I approach pricing.
Speaker:And it's much more based on the transformation that I'm
Speaker:going to get from somebody.
Speaker:and the investment it is for them than it is on hours or expectations or things like
Speaker:that.
Speaker:I'm so glad you brought up the wiggle room.
Speaker:And I mean, there's a lot of different contexts in which, which we can
Speaker:talk about this, but actually having this conversation earlier today with
Speaker:someone, you know, if you, let's say you, you offer, 500 whatever
Speaker:us dollars, Franks, whatever, you know, doesn't matter for 500, right?
Speaker:But then you decide you want to offer an early bird special, so then you're selling
Speaker:it less than 500 and then, you know, some coaching organization approaches
Speaker:you and say, Hey, we'd love to have this course on offer for our people.
Speaker:Are you willing to offer it, you know for us at 30 percent discount because we can
Speaker:bring you so many and then all of a sudden You know, it starts whittling away and
Speaker:then if you take payments by Stripe, they take 3 percent And if you have the course
Speaker:on a course platform, they may take, you know, 10 or 20 percent The wiggle room,
Speaker:you know, depending on the strategy that you have and how you're, you know, Putting
Speaker:that course or that program or whatever it is out there is a really important
Speaker:part of where you set your prices.
Speaker:Yes, I really, it's really good I think for you to emphasize
Speaker:that and I'm sure you have more experience than anybody with that.
Speaker:But it is definitely something we as entrepreneurs tend to not include
Speaker:that margin, the margin in our time and the margin in our finances.
Speaker:And I think that's where it gets most of us in trouble because we just
Speaker:genuinely want to do what we love to do.
Speaker:And so we just try to make it as accessible as possible.
Speaker:And that we forget along the way that we are just wearing ourselves out by not
Speaker:having this financial or time wiggle room.
Speaker:And, and sometimes you just need somebody to speak that into you too, right?
Speaker:Like, Hey, you have all this expertise.
Speaker:You're allowed to have a little break in your day.
Speaker:You're allowed to have a little vacation.
Speaker:You're, you know, like we're all
Speaker:allowed, you know, actually I would even all say more than allowed, but it's.
Speaker:It's, it's right to have financial independence and security, right?
Speaker:Wise.
Speaker:It's wise to
Speaker:have this wiggle room.
Speaker:It's wise as well.
Speaker:Yes,
Speaker:certainly.
Speaker:But it, you know, it's really, in my opinion, it's something
Speaker:everybody in, you know, in a sense should be entitled to almost.
Speaker:You know, because it's so important to just everything
Speaker:else in, in your, in your life.
Speaker:Okay, Shannon.
Speaker:So.
Speaker:I have two more questions before we start wrapping it up.
Speaker:So as you've gone through and you've, you know, had all these sort of evolutions
Speaker:in your own pricing journey, what's been the difficult, most difficult thing
Speaker:that you faced in terms of pricing?
Speaker:I think probably when we go back to that part where people undervalue you.
Speaker:Before you get to the mindset and the confidence level that you
Speaker:don't have to take that personally.
Speaker:I think
Speaker:when you're in that stage, that hits you very hard.
Speaker:Right.
Speaker:I will share one quick story.
Speaker:It's kind of later on in my photography business and I'm sitting across from
Speaker:the desk with a woman who's going to buy pictures for her children.
Speaker:And you know, she's always talking about the budget at this point.
Speaker:I mean, my photography was, you know, more towards the higher end part, not.
Speaker:Maybe all the way, but I felt good about the prices, right?
Speaker:And, but you're still feeling bad because the person's talking about, you know,
Speaker:maybe they can't afford this and whatever.
Speaker:And she'd been a client for a few years, so I knew her pretty well.
Speaker:And, you know, I, I'm, I can't remember if I was either like about
Speaker:to offer her an extra discount or we were kind of narrowing down what
Speaker:she was going to buy to eliminate.
Speaker:And then she starts talking about this designer handbag she just bought.
Speaker:And it was this eye opening moment.
Speaker:And I didn't feel bad and I didn't feel mad.
Speaker:I thought this is my fault because she values that designer handbag more than
Speaker:she values these pictures of her family.
Speaker:And that means I have not done a good enough job marketing the value of this.
Speaker:So I think in one hand, it was, it was good that I was a very healthy
Speaker:mindset place to recognize that.
Speaker:But definitely, you know, when we as solopreneurs, many of us, some
Speaker:of us have small teams, right?
Speaker:I felt like.
Speaker:It's personal.
Speaker:What you do is personal.
Speaker:And to have to face what other people think about that, it can be hard.
Speaker:So learning to let go of that partially, really stand firm and
Speaker:know that in order for me to have the joy fueled, purpose driven business
Speaker:I want to have, I need to work with people who value me and appreciate me.
Speaker:And so do my clients, right?
Speaker:But I think that since it is personal, that can be one of the biggest struggles.
Speaker:I love that story.
Speaker:So my story, similar story, was a vacation to Jamaica.
Speaker:That was, that was what came up during the conversation.
Speaker:You may be like, wait a minute here.
Speaker:Yes, you have enough money for that vacation to Jamaica.
Speaker:I think you can handle this.
Speaker:But it's what people value, right?
Speaker:And it is such a good reminder.
Speaker:I mean, I think people need to hear this.
Speaker:People want to buy things.
Speaker:People want to buy things they care about.
Speaker:People want to spend money.
Speaker:You just have to give them a reason for your thing to be the thing they want to
Speaker:spend the money on or save the money for.
Speaker:You need to entice them and give them the time to build up because people
Speaker:don't make a sale right away either.
Speaker:They think about things, they dream about it, they reflect on it, and there's also
Speaker:this sense too that if I get rejected right away, Oh no, my prices are too high.
Speaker:Well, maybe that person just needs the time.
Speaker:To like save up or dream big about it or recognize that it's now like the priority.
Speaker:So I think it's good for people to hear that.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:I think that's really important.
Speaker:Thank you so much for sharing that.
Speaker:So now we just talked about, you know, what was a big challenge.
Speaker:I'm curious, what's something that you felt that was a real success when
Speaker:it came to pricing in your business?
Speaker:I think that anytime you price, whatever you have at your highest price that you
Speaker:feel like is Too good to be true, and then somebody spends the money on it.
Speaker:And then you go, oh, I guess I could go up again from here.
Speaker:And you start to recognize that.
Speaker:There aren't necessarily limits.
Speaker:And I don't mean that meaning like we're always just trying to like raise
Speaker:our prices and price the highest thing ever, but I think there's freedom
Speaker:and recognizing that what I cannot imagine right now that somebody might
Speaker:pay for a product or service, right.
Speaker:Is something that I, my business could get to.
Speaker:And you know, our imaginations can only imagine what they know is the truth.
Speaker:Right.
Speaker:And so to, to have that eye opening ability to go, Hey, I'm going to I
Speaker:mean, I say I've priced things from, from 15 to like 9, 000 packages.
Speaker:Right.
Speaker:I've sold all those levels.
Speaker:So, to go, Hey, somebody just paid me this much for something.
Speaker:Oh, I guess maybe in the future.
Speaker:Right.
Speaker:It's something that has, and it's just really freeing.
Speaker:And it doesn't like necessarily fix all your pricing and money problems
Speaker:right away, but it does make you feel like you have some good mindset around
Speaker:the area of pricing and opportunity and kind of like being a really
Speaker:stepping into the visionary CEO role.
Speaker:Where does my business fit in the market?
Speaker:And what can I do for the world?
Speaker:Right.
Speaker:Oh, I love that.
Speaker:I love that.
Speaker:It brought to mind for me.
Speaker:Oh, what was her name?
Speaker:Marie Kondo and the Spark of Joy.
Speaker:Oh, we have Spark of Joy moments for my clients.
Speaker:That's a big deal.
Speaker:Because I mean, business building is a journey.
Speaker:You aren't just trying to hit a goal in the end.
Speaker:I mean, yes, you think you are, but you're living your life along the way.
Speaker:You need to celebrate and have Spark of Joy moments.
Speaker:Enjoy the journey.
Speaker:Like as you get to whatever it is that next goal, you're gonna
Speaker:have another goal after that.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:I think we found the hashtag for this episode.
Speaker:Okay.
Speaker:So why don't we start wrapping it up?
Speaker:I'm curious if there's one thing that you want people to remember
Speaker:from this episode or that you think it's important for them to remember.
Speaker:What would that be?
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:I mean, it's really easy to say, don't worry about what people think,
Speaker:because the truth is we all worry about people think whether that's
Speaker:our brand or our pricing or whatever.
Speaker:But I think to start your pricing and start your brand around,
Speaker:what really do I want to create?
Speaker:If I could have the perfect business that makes me feel the most freedom and joy,
Speaker:and like I'm bringing the most purpose and impact to the world through what I
Speaker:do, what would that look like on paper?
Speaker:Like, what would it be priced at?
Speaker:What would you do?
Speaker:What would you not do?
Speaker:Right?
Speaker:What freedoms would you have?
Speaker:What would you let go of?
Speaker:Give yourself permission to just go all out.
Speaker:Nobody has to see it.
Speaker:I think we sometimes won't even go there because we're so busy worrying about what
Speaker:people will think along with what we want.
Speaker:And we're always kind of trying to cut the difference.
Speaker:And it doesn't mean you don't think about the market or the people you do, but give
Speaker:yourself permission to start with what would I love this to look like for me.
Speaker:What would I love to do?
Speaker:What would I like my brand elements to be?
Speaker:How much do I want to show up online?
Speaker:Where do I want to fit in the marketplace?
Speaker:All those things.
Speaker:And
Speaker:then secondarily fit the other things in.
Speaker:Just give yourself permission to dream really big.
Speaker:No, I love that.
Speaker:Thank you so much.
Speaker:Okay.
Speaker:Two more questions.
Speaker:So is there a book, a tool, a podcast, something that you're
Speaker:really excited about right now that you'd like to share with us?
Speaker:And if so, what?
Speaker:Oh yeah.
Speaker:Okay.
Speaker:So my favorite thing right now, I was thinking about, right now versus
Speaker:like in the past, I read a lot.
Speaker:I love to learn.
Speaker:But right now I have been reading, 10X is easier than 2X is the name of the book.
Speaker:It's kind of a combination of the guy who's run the business strategic
Speaker:coach for like 30 or 40 years.
Speaker:So he's a little bit older.
Speaker:And then this other guy who has been a writer and like a psychology
Speaker:and human expert has come in and kind of co written them with him.
Speaker:but this concept that.
Speaker:It's kind of that margin part.
Speaker:Sometimes we think that just a little bit more up is going to be easier.
Speaker:It's easier to get double my business.
Speaker:It's easier to just get a little edge up when sometimes actually like going
Speaker:way beyond what you think is easier, because in the process you create so much
Speaker:more time, freedom, creative freedom.
Speaker:The ability to.
Speaker:to think and be visionary, to solve more problems well.
Speaker:and I just, it's a very freeing book.
Speaker:So I would encourage people to find that one.
Speaker:Super.
Speaker:So we'll put a link to that in the show notes as well for everyone.
Speaker:Thank you.
Speaker:My last question is if people would like to find out more about you,
Speaker:connect with you or work with you, where should they reach out to do that?
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:So, I'm just basically everywhere at Feather Blue Studios, but you can find
Speaker:me on Instagram at Feather Blue Studios.
Speaker:Same thing for my website and Facebook.
Speaker:So, yeah.
Speaker:Great.
Speaker:So we'll put all those links in the show notes as well.
Speaker:So people can get to you easily or find you connect with you easily.
Speaker:Let's put it that way.
Speaker:Shannon, thank you so much for coming on the show today.
Speaker:It's been such an inspiring conversation.
Speaker:Thank you so much.
Speaker:It's always a pleasure to talk to you.
Speaker:And just what you do is important to the world.
Speaker:You bring so much value, Janene.
Speaker:So thank you for having me.
Speaker:Thank you for listening to this episode of Live with The Pricing Lady, the podcast.
Speaker:If you enjoyed the episode, rate, review, and subscribe to it, then share
Speaker:it with your friends and colleagues.
Speaker:I love hearing back from you listeners.
Speaker:If you've got comments, questions, or topic ideas, go on over to thepricinglady.
Speaker:com and contact me there.
Speaker:Not sure where to start when it comes to improving pricing and profits?
Speaker:At ThePricingLady.
Speaker:com you can download a copy of my Self Assessment Pricing Scorecard.
Speaker:Find out where it's going well and where you can begin improving.
Speaker:Or just simply book a discovery call with me.
Speaker:There we can discuss what's up with pricing in your business and
Speaker:how I might be able to help you.
Speaker:Thanks once again for joining.
Speaker:Remember, pricing can hurt or help your business.
Speaker:Let's make sure it's helping you reach your dreams.
Speaker:See you next time and as always, enjoy pricing.