Building Your Brand Through Pricing: Expert Insights from Ivy Malik

~so ~I want people to. Not feel ~like they're undervalued and they're already ~undervalued. We don't need more people ~telling, ~telling them to stay small, ~stay low, ~stay undercharging. ~Because ~even if you tell someone to charge more, they're just gonna charge a little ~bit ~more, ~like ~a hundred more, 500 more.

~I think it's because ~it's taught in school ~to be ~this way. ~Like if we think about how. Like ~what gets cut first? ~What is optional? ~Arts, music, drama. ~You can do it if you want, but you have to choose one of them. You can't do it all. ~What do you have to do? Science, English, ~because you have to be able to speak, or the language of the country that you're listening in ~maths, these are the valued topics.

I'm like, no, that's not what you're doing. ~Or like, I've seen other people like this is, ~I've seen this with ~sort of ~social media, ~you know, ~where someone's. Grown a ~really ~large ~social media ~account ~and ~you can see the strategy ~in it, even if they haven't, ~even if they haven't given it ~as ~much thought ~as they think they have.~

~I'm like, okay, well that's the beginning journey, so. You've got to ~ compare yourself and your price to that level and ~then ~decide. Am I wanting to charge more or not? I'm gonna say something ~kind of ~controversial in a second.

And they'll buy, but they're not good. You've probably got 20 years more experience than the other person, and all you're doing is being resentful that other people worse than you are getting the jobs. Confidence is such an important thing, and confidence you'll gain that by doing things because you have to do things in order to know that you can do it, ~because you can probably do it.~

but ~what I, ~what I will say is examine your price story. What is it that, what is it that's holding you back from ~pricing more, ~charging more, or setting the price ~that ~you want? ~And this is where I go into how I actually want you to price. I, I believe that ~everyone is allowed to price what they want. Even those who don't know what they're doing, ~like ~that's on them. But I spoke about integrity before and I think integrity is really important. You have your values, what are they? Know them and ~then ~ask ~yourself, ~if I charge what I want, is that in integrity with my values? ~I dunno if I'm using integrity, right? Is it in integrity?~

If you want, let's just take an example. If you have a branding project, which is. Something you want to charge 10 K for because you know how much effort you put in. You know that all your clients are happy and you know that it's going to be wonderful for the client. You're going to be able to do everything that they need, but you don't feel like you can or are allowed to, ~and ~you charge 5K instead.

Knowing ~that ~you can do it, and it's ~just ~easier to sell, especially when sharing the price. ~I find that ~people struggle saying, ~oh yeah, ~that'll be 10,000 pounds. They'll ~just ~say ~like, oh yeah, um, yeah, ~I'll send you the proposal, and ~then ~you haven't discussed price on the ~sales ~call. ~And then ~it's ~so ~difficult to sell ~when you are ~higher ticket or higher value.

Now, I'm not saying there aren't people out there in that position who would. Pay 10 K, but on the most part, they don't tend to have the budget for that ~sort of ~amount. I'm ~actually like totally happy with that and I, I feel really ~happy with the prices ~that ~I'm charging, but they are on the lower end. ~Um, and ~ I've ~sort of ~structured my business in a way that I have diversified and I almost ~like ~subsidize so that I can work with that ~really ~specific group of clients ~that ~I love working with.

So I always start there and if you tell me ~that each and ~every person you've spoken to. You've said ~to them, oh, ~it's going to be 10,000, and they say,~ well,~ I can't afford it. Then ~I'm like, okay, ~I believe you, you've clearly, these people can't, most of the time we make an assumption that a solopreneur cannot afford a higher price.

I said accounts, but let's change the language. Who made you responsible for the money They have. We don't know what the other person has. They could be so rich and they're just like, I wanna drop money on this right now. They could have no money whatsoever. They're like, I'm just scraping all the money I have so I can work with Liz.

I get this price point. I'm still going to book a call maybe at the edge of my comfort zone or whatever. Now if you don't put your price up, you get the opportunity to ~actually ~show the value. You get the opportunity to have a conversation. They may not have the money. They may have the money. ~You can obviously do things before, but as I said, ~people can squeeze through the qualifying process.

Maybe we can go off on a little side tangent and discuss that if that's okay, because ~I think, ~I think that's really interesting. I actually did a post recently ~on social media, which was like, if you are. Um, I'm sharing all this content ~about turning 40, so ~it's like ~if you are under 40, ask a question about running your business.

~So ~I ~just ~ resized it ~and I ~put it up on Instagram so that's the first time in a long time that I've ~just very sort of traditionally ~shared like, here's a project I worked on. ~You know, here it is. And ~it's had the most engagement ~that I've had on a post ~in ages. ~So ~that ~is where the ~action has given me ~the ~confidence.

~I think probably ~it would ~give me a ~knock ~to ~my confidence and then I would process it with a friend. ~Where I would sort of, I think the, the, what ~I would ~try and do is ~unpick whether that person was someone whose opinion I was interested in hearing. So ~like, ~for example, when I have had comments online, it's usually been from, ~you know, ~like a ~complete ~stranger who's not doing what I do, ~who's ~not sharing their work, ~you know, ~who's not showing up in the way that I am.

This is like therapy ~now. I think basically ~I have certain stories ~that ~I tell myself ~in my head ~that I've ~almost like ~given too much weight to, and ~so ~then I ~would ~let it knock me because it ~almost like ~ confirms this negative story ~that I'm telling myself.~ Now I understand that. So that's one way you unravel ~the, ~the foundational story ~that is, ~that is based on an untruth and ~then ~that eliminates that. But then there's another way.

. But you can control what you think about it. And if we can change the trajectory of the response from the circumstance, then we can change the whole results. ~So ~you can think, ~oh, that ~that person said something negative. I feel ~that ~they didn't need to do that, but I'm okay and the action is I'm not going to do anything.

And so there's almost like this assumption that people are gonna say loads of negative things, maybe because I've seen it happen elsewhere, but I'm almost. I'm, ~uh, ~it is the same with the pricing where I'm assuming they can't afford it. I'm assuming someone's gonna say something negative and then behaving based on that instead of ~based on ~the actual facts ~that I've collected.~

I'm still, you're not listening to me. ~You're not, I, I feel this. I'm legitimate. So ~inside ~you, ~you're fighting with yourself. Allow yourself to feel it freely, ~go through the whole thing, but then ~ after that timer goes, ~you have to ~release it. ~You're like, I have felt this. I get it. ~I see you. If it's an inner child thing, I see you.

And I think that's it, isn't it? So often we have such a sort of over the top negative,~ like,~ I don't even ~think I ~think about this ~sort of thing. That ~consciously, but we tell ourselves this story of this awful thing that's gonna happen ~if we do something. ~And actually when we logically play it out, ~you know, ~like you asked me, well what's gonna happen if someone says ~something negatively?~

were doing a sales training inside my coaching program, and they were selling to me, and they did not hear,~ I,~ I pretended, ~uh, ~with a need. ~It was, ~it was not a business need. And I pretended to, ~um, ~I pretended ~to need, was it food?~

~And ~if they say, oh my gosh, 10 K is too much. I was really hoping it'd be around. Six K. They might have needed it to be a three K, but ~you've, ~you've already anchored them a 10. There's no way they're going to go lower. They're going to go on their highest budget at six. Now it's up to you to decide whether you want to go lower or not.

And I think like so often people are like put off the, even the idea of a sales call because they've got this idea ~in their head ~of, ~you know, like ~someone being really aggressive. ~You know, like trying to sell effectively, ~trying to sell ~you ~something ~that ~you don't need ~really aggressively and pushy.~