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Understanding the Customer Journey (How to Charge More for Your Work, Pt. 2)

Understanding Your Customers’ Journey is part 2 (of 3) of my How to Charge More for Your Work series. (Part 1 is here.)

Today, we’re going to work on understanding your customer’s journey as it relates to finding you and buying your services. But please note, this same ideology can be used to attract an audience to a product, book, etc. too.

This is the part of marketing that a lot of people only scratch the surface of and it shows. Even big agencies make the mistake sometimes of creating a demographic profile of customers, without exploring the psychographic profile. One of the most glaring examples (to me anyway) is the Simple Truth ad campaign tagline, “Proud of what’s NOT in our food.”

Simple truth ad

Okay, so we get what they’re trying to say right? That their food has good ingredients. But what they’re actually saying with that statement detracts from what they’re trying to sell. They’re proud of the ingredients that aren’t in their food? Huh?

I don’t know about you, but I consider myself in their general demographic–middle-class, health-conscious, prefer natural, whole foods, and also don’t want to break the budget. However, when I see a statement like that I think several things:

  • Do they have anyone who oversees their copyrighting?
  • If they pay this little attention to how they phrase their ads, do they actually even know what’s in their food?
  • Even if this was phrased better, they’re not really telling me anything of value, or how this would actually impact my life. aka why I should care.
  • It’s only memorable for the wrong reasons. (I couldn’t even remember the name of the brand when I went hunting to find the tagline online).

I think if they had taken a little more time to ask themselves the following questions, they’d have a much more successful campaign:

  1. Identify who their IDEAL customer is (demographic & psychographics)
  2. Understand what problem they are solving for them and how it affects their customers on an emotional level.
  3. Delineate how customers go about purchasing: Understand what decisions they typically have to make along the way.

These are exactly the concepts you’re going to explore for your own services. And then in the next step, we’re going to figure out how to use this information to create valuable opportunities to sell your service (for mo’ money), so hang tight and do this important work.

Here’s the practical breakdown of your Workbook (download here):

1. Identify who your IDEAL customer is (demographic & psychographics)
You’re going to write down the following.

  • Describe your Ideal Customer
  • Their personal values
  • What’s most important to them in terms of your service
  • Their budget (remember this is going to be based on what you WANT to charge)
  • What personal traits they have
  • What kind of attitude they have with working with a service provider

2. Understand the problem you are solving for them and how it affects your customers on an emotional level.

  • What problem THEY think you’re solving
  • What problem YOU are actually solving
  • What THEY desire
  • What THEY actually need in order to fulfill said desire

3. Parse out how customers go about BUYING: Understand what decisions they typically have to make along the way.

Let’s take a look at what they must decide as they go along their journey to buying your service:

  • How do they find you in the first place?
  • How they currently find you
  • Other ways you’d like them to find you
  • Do they like your work (visual, written, etc.)?
  • Research: Do they look at the competition? If so, what do they compare?
  • Research: Do they need to be educated in order to understand WHY to buy your service?
  • Research: Will they understand the value of your offering?
  • If they choose you, what will it say about them?
  • Can they afford it? Or are they willing to pay for it?
  • What is the step-by-step purchase process? How does this compare to others? And how big of a factor is it in their decision?

As you go about answering these questions, you’ll want to rate how important each step is to the process. For instance, if they currently find you in two ways: referrals and via social media, which one has a bigger impact? Rate accordingly (see the downloadable workbook).

I hope this helps! Again, for reference, here’s Step 1 of How to Charge More for Your Work; you can access it on my blog.

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How To Charge More For Your Work

How to Charge More for Your Work

Do you ever see people who are doing “the same thing” as you, but somehow are living out a much more successful lifestyle? They seem less stressed. They charge more for their services, or products, and sell more of them too. How are they charging more for their work AND selling more? What the heck?

I’m willing to bet that there’s a good chance you’re undercharging for your products or services. Why? Well, most people on my email list are women, for starters. And in general it seems that women tend to undervalue their work and according to a recent study are more likely to accept less money than men.

Add on to that the ambiguity and variation of hourly rates plus competition, and I’d say a vast majority of female creatives don’t make as much money as they’d prefer.

Here’s how to charge more for your creative work.

A couple years ago, I found that one of the biggest reasons I wasn’t making the kind of money I wanted to be is that I was undercharging without realizing it. I’d like to share some of those concepts with you today.

There are various ways to increase your income, of course. But this week I’d like to give you a practical roadmap on how to increase what you charge for your services. While your approach may be different depending on whether you sell a service or product or both, the basic principles of how to set pricing are very similar. And once you know the formula, it gets a lot easier.

In order to be able to charge more, you’ll need to figure out 3 Things:

Step 1: Get to Know Your Numbers. Figure out what you want to make hourly and how much work/supplies/etc. cuts into your profits.

Step 2: Map the Customer Journey. You need to understand not only the problems you’re solving, but what psychological journey your customers go on when they decipher whether they should buy from you. To map this engagement with your digital products, utilizing the services of marketing analytics companies could provide a great deal of insight.

Step 3: Match it Up. Taking a look at your numbers as well as your customer’s journey will help you figure out the best way to frame and communicate your value, in a way that makes it irresistible to your customers.

So, let’s get started with Step 1 this week. Next week I’ll give you Step 2, and then Step 3, the following week.

Getting to Know Your Numbers.

If you’re anything like me, you have this love-hate relationship with your financials. It’s great when the money’s rolling in, but do you ever want to bury your head in the sand when you know things are tight and the bills continue to come in? I get it.

The good news is that you can get as detailed or as simple as you’d like with this exercise. I’m not forcing you to do a full year’s accounting here. However of course, the more detailed you get, the more accurate and tangible your plans will be. Just sayin’.

Let’s do this! And remember, this is a purely self-centered exercise (but in a good way). So suspend your disbelief about whether or not you’ll actually be able to charge these numbers. For now, DREAM BIG.

Part 1: How much do you want to make per hour of work? And how many hours per week do you want to work?

Again, you could do a full budget for your ideal life and break down the numbers, or you could just name a number that sounds good. It’s up to you here. But for the sake of working with a good ol’ round number, let’s say you want to make $100/hr. And then let’s say you want to work 30 hours per week.

So that’s, $100/hr x 30 hrs = $3,000/week (gross)

Part 2: Calculate how many hours your projects usually take to complete (by line item).

So let’s say you draw children’s portraits from photos. You know that the average portrait takes ~4 hours to finish drawing. But are you also calculating in the time it takes to talk to the client, get the digital photo, and frame the portrait? Be sure to list each and EVERY step of your process for your services and/or product making.

Using our portrait-maker model, here’s how it would look.

Initial phone call with client: .25 hours

Emails back and forth to decide on photo: 1 hr

Drawing time: 4 hours

Finishing & Framing time: .5 hours

Total hours per portrait: 5.75 hours

So, right there, even if you used to charge $100 hour for the usual 4 hours to draw, you’ve now realized if you truly want to make $100/hour you’ll need to charge $575 flat rate, or charge hourly and include those other admin tasks in your fee.

Part 3: What other expenses do you incur that might eat up your profit?

Maybe you have to keep software subscriptions up, or replace pens, pencils, paint, pay for website hosting, or credit card processing fees, or keep upon on some type of certification. List those out like this:

Expense Purpose Cost Frequency

Pencils sketching $10 monthly

Frames framing portraits $35 per project

Next, break this down by weekly, or monthly expense so you have a clearer picture of how it cuts in to your profits.

Part 4: Reassess for Reality. Then settle on a number.

Now that you know your hourly rate, how many hours you want to work, how much time it actually takes to do your work, and what other expenses may cut into your profit, how is that original hourly rate working out for ya? Is it enough? Too much?

Don’t worry right now about whether you deserve to make this much or not, we’ll tackle quantifying value later, but for now, settle on a target number here.

Hourly Rate + Weekly paid hours = Weekly projected revenue (gross)

Deduct weekly expenses (or average weekly expenses broken down from Step 4).

Weekly projected revenue – weekly expenses = weekly income

Now obviously, it’s also best to calculate in taxes (sales and/or income, where applicable) but at a minimum do the above breakdowns.

If these numbers look good you’re done for the week. If not, go back through and recalculate to get to a number that feels equitable for what you’re providing.

In my second installment of How to Charge More for Your Work, we’ll take a closer look at what your customers want and what kind of psychological journey they go on before buying and you’ll begin to see new opportunities arise. Read that post here.

If you have any questions on this week’s action items, feel free post a comment below and I’ll respond.

This post comes from my email newsletter. If you’d like to get in on the weekly tips on how to build your dreams, join us below.
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4 Big Takeaways from Alt Summit 2019

I just got back from nearly a full week in Palm Springs and boy let me tell ya, I feel like a new woman. Or maybe more like the same woman, but more deeply grounded in my mission and power. Whew, it literally sat down this morning and listed all of the factors that led to this glorious feeling: 85 degree weather, AMAZING powerful, motivated women everywhere, connecting with friends, teaching what I know and helping other women grab ahold of their clarity and power, a swanky hotel room to myself, a cool Palm Springs vibe, etc.

If you’ve known me for a bit, you know the past six months have kind of been a gauntlet of devastating personal losses: a big breakup, my son’s accident, my mother’s sickness and then death, along with multiple other life plan disruptions. It’s been a daily struggle to stay motivated like I normally would. Grief is a vicious all-encompassing bitch, who tears away everything that doesn’t matter, but damned if she isn’t also a mind-blowing teacher. Anyway, this week I felt a break from that grief chokehold. Or maybe, like I was finally embracing her and beginning to learn what I need from her.

In any case, I feel like a better version of myself. There was this peace and power all week. And a deep sense of fulfillment.

But enough about me, what I want to share are the biggest takeaways that kept coming up over and over throughout the week, in nearly every conversation I had with these badass creative, entrepreneurial women.

My Takeaways from Alt Summit 2019:

1. We’re sick of the bullshit. 

We want authentic women leaders who own their gifts and share them without shame, but also reveal their struggles and real life hurdles too.

2. Magic happens when we lean in to our dreams.

If we create intentions based on what we know we want to do, or feel called to do (even if that’s super vague, like when all I knew I wanted to do was be a speaker and author who inspires people), AND take action (even if that’s minor action like just thinking more about it), magic begins to happen. The universe fucking delivers, people. Now sometimes it delivers amazingness and sometimes it delivers hardship to test your resolve, but things will happen. But either way, it’s better than the comfort zone mediocrity that most of us live in on the day-to-day.

3. Bigger, better things are waiting for you.

If we let go of small thinking, and own #2 above, we accomplish and are given opportunities bigger than we could have even thought possible. Case in point: I set a goal last year to be able to attend this conference, instead I spoke, and attended for free.

4. You have these dreams for a reason. 

I want to shout this from rooftops. You were born to do this (or these) things. Stop wondering. I’m fucking telling you. As someone who is done exactly what she’s meant to do this past week–even though it took me years to get here–I’m telling you that you were born with these heartsongs for a reason. No one on this earth can do what YOU were put here to do. So step into that and you’ll be amazed what happens.

Folks, I wish I could do a Spock mindmeld with you right now and impart the wisdom, power surge, and fulfillment I experienced this week at Alt Summit, but trickling it out in words like this will have to suffice for now.

BTW, these were my two most popular business cards this week (I had 7 different designs):

You’re not a brand. You’re a fucking legend.

You have this dream for a reason.

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The Magic Mindset to Selling Without Feeling Sleazy

Those words “sales” and “marketing” have often felt icky to me. Marketing definitely has a stigma caused by the incessant, bludgeoning advertising and empty promises that assail our modern lives.

And sales? For me it’s often had a sleazy, even traumatic feel; but hey, my ex husband was a salesman, so what can I say?

Among other reasons, that’s why I’ve gravitated to branding, because it’s more about relationships, being authentic, and having clarity. But the thing is, there’s always going to be a time when you have to “sell” or “market” yourself your your work.

I think for a lot of us creative types, there’s a disconnect between the heart and soul we put into our work and being able to package it up in such a way that it sells. But in whatever form it is, we must sell if we want to help people understand why they need our product/book/service/writing/art.

selling without feeling sleazy

Mindset Shift

So if we want to get better at selling our stuff, we’re going to need to make some changes. And like most epic changes, it’s more about mindset than a to do list to check off.

There’s no magic cure, no “just do these 5 things” formula to make you a rich artist. Dangit! With the mountains of information online, there are so many ideas and methods and formulas and systems, how do you know which ones are right for you?

After over fifteen years of making my living creatively—except (full-disclosure) a few years when shit hit the fan and I had to take other jobs—I’m still learning new methods. And I think that’s a good thing.

What I know (and have learned the hard way) is that it takes more than just actions to get results. It’s the quality of those actions, paired with a mindset shift that makes all the difference.

For instance, when I first started submitting my writing for publication I submitted exclusively to literary magazines and contests. My rationale was that if I wanted to build my career the fastest way, it would be through accolades.

Over time, and spending money on submission fees, only to get rejections (mostly), I realized that accolades weren’t as important to me as writing that reached people and discussed the kinds of issues I cared about. I wanted to change the world (still do, and I don’t care if anyone things that’s silly).

That’s why I love writing in the first place! Duh!

One kind comment or email from a reader who felt moved by what I wrote was worth more to me than an award. So I shifted gears and began pitching to more widely read publications, ones that got back to me more quickly, actually paid, and didn’t cost a dime to submit to. I also stopped submitting quite as much and poured more energy into the actual writing itself.

Of course, I’m not saying that you shouldn’t seek awards, literary journal publication, or apply for residencies, retreats, fellowships and the like. You totally should if that’s what you want! I applaud and respect that so much. And I’m not saying I never would again.

But regardless of where you decide to pitch your work or display it in the world, it’s of the utmost importance to get your mindset in a productive space. Otherwise you’re working against yourself. 

There’s a saying from the Bible I’m going to drop right here, it’s one that still resonates for me:

“What good is it for someone to gain the whole world, yet forfeit their soul?” Mark 8:36

To me this means you can drive and muscle your way to success; you can do all of the things to get the awards or the money, but unless that “success” is the kind you really want, what’s the point?

And this is, I think, where most creatives and artists get hung up when it comes to sales and marketing. They feel like “promoting” their work is a greasy business of losing their souls.

I assure you, it doesn’t have to be. It is simply another psychological tool to communicate. Yes, this tool has been abused like a Mofo, but you can still take the higher ground while selling and marketing.

You can both keep your soul and be successful. 😉 Pinky promise.

Being Realistic

As someone who fights depression, I can tell you that some of my business and creative failures have been the fallout of me just plain not being able to get my head in the right space in those moments. It’s taken a while for me to be able to admit that, by the way. If you struggle with a mental illness, or a disability, or a physical illness, or whatever may plague you, be kind to yourself.

And by “be kind to yourself” I mean both in the sense that you should cut yourself some slack because it is legitimately harder for you to just operate at “normal” but also that it’s important to do the things that will help you too. Like the things that help you exist in a healthy headspace.

For instance: get sleep, ask for help, take breaks, set more realistic goals, get more in tune with what’s truly important to you, kick negative people out of your life, etc.

You know, treat yourself like you would someone you love.

Why

Why am I blathering about all of this? I swear, I’m bringing it back around. What I’m going to say next though, isn’t always fun to hear. And it’s definitely easier to say than to do…

You must believe in your work, even if no one else might. 

Crazy, right? But this is the mindset key to being able to sell your work, or market it effectively. If you doubt your value, or the value of your work, it is harder to get others see it.

Now of course, when you’re in the thick of self-doubt, or impostor syndrome, or jealousy, or whatever, it’s going to be fucking hard to keep the faith.

I’m going to go ahead and drop another bit of wisdom on ya, one that comes from a loving woman whose definition of success was not financial but oh so applicable:

“Be faithful in small things because it is in them that your strength lies.”

—Mother Theresa

If I’m struggling with wondering how I’m going to reach my goals, the quickest way back to believing in my work again—even if it’s being rejected, or barely read, or seen—is to go back to the WHY of it.

Am I being faithful to the work I want to do? Even if that just means today? Or this week?

If not, if I’m getting lost in the outward manifestations of success, I’m losing touch with my mission and vision on this planet.

And guess what? Then I’m losing ground everywhere.

My version of success looks very different than Mother Theresa’s, because I want to make a difference and make money too. My eyes are on both.​

And that’s okay! It’s okay to want both. Contrary to my formerly limiting beliefs, you can be a good person and rich too. In fact, the world could use more of those GoodRichKids.

Check-In

The next time you’re feeling queasy about pitching your work or selling your thing, I want you to check-in with yourself:

Am I doing the work I believe in?

Why is this important? Isn’t that worth something?

How can I demonstrate that importance to others?

Take some time today to think about why you do what you do. What’s the impetus? What drives you? What makes your work worthwhile?

Entertain ideas that might seem silly or braggadocious. Write them down, read them up, swirl them around in your brainpan and try out how it feels to believe these things about yourself and your work.

Of course I’ll have more branding, marketing, and sales tools for you down the line, but this is the foundation, friend.

This is how you become unstoppable. Even when the dark times come. Even when you’re on top of the world.

Let me know how it goes. I’d love to hear.

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Why Branding is So Important for Writers and Creatives

One of the most common questions I get from writers and creatives is, “how can branding help me?” There are so many ways, but for brevity’s sake let’s just look at these few. But first, remember that great personal branding is all about knowing yourself so you can go kick ass at whatever it is you love!

If you’re unsure of exactly what the hell a brand is, you’re not alone. Read this post first to get the quick definition (& how it’s different than platform, or marketing).

If you DO know what a brand really is, read on.

Clarity = Powa! (aka Power)

Branding makes your life easier. Imagine you have a clear vision of where you want to go, what makes you strong, what values you hold dear, and clarity as to just who you are.

Suddenly making decisions like whether to take that job, or make that video, or write that book become easier. I’m not saying it’s magic, but it does give you more powa to make decisions.

Unlike what you may have thought before, your brand doesn’t pigeon-hole you, it frees you to be your most authentic self while pursuing the goals you truly care about.

Email Newsletters, ads, sales funnels, etc. are pointless without mindset.

Have you ever felt overwhelmed with the sheer quantity and pace of marketing? Really, who has time to do all of the things that everyone says you should do to promote yourself? We have to pick and choose what we’ll try and how we’ll market ourselves–but those are just actions, to do list items. If we want to succeed we have to change our mindset.

I’ve been working in branding and marketing for many years, but it wasn’t until recently that I realized just how key mindset is.

When you’re down in the trenches promoting yourself or your work it doesn’t always feel refreshing or inspiring. It’s easy to lose sight of why you’re doing it in the first place. That’s where branding shines. If you’ve created a cohesive brand and branding strategy, it’s easier to go back and remind yourself of your WHY (why you’re doing all this anyway).

But there’s one more thing.

Brand strategy also takes you in depth into who your ideal market is and once you have a more intuitive and structured insight to who the people are who love your work (what they desire, and where they are) all of your efforts become more effective as well.

Marketing without first taking the time to figure out your brand strategy is like throwing darts into a lake, hoping to catch a fish.

Achievement isn’t as satisfying if you don’t know who you really are and what you really want.

We’ve all seen it before, people at the pinnacle of their careers who end up having a mental breakdown, or worse. And instinctively we know that many times this is do to overwhelm at a life that was reeling from fame and fortune. I’m no celebrity or billionaire, but I’m willing to bet self knowledge and mental healthcare could have prevented these tragic reactions to “success.”

When you are no longer in a low-key existential crisis all the time, you suddenly have the strength and clarity to do the things you never imagined you could.

Like creating the kind of art you feel born to create, for instance. Good brand development helps empowers you to do this.

You have a brand, whether you want one or not.

Think about the ridiculously successful writers and creatives you know of–they all have a personal brand, or what some might call a personal philosophy.

You understand quickly who they are and what they’re all about. You then use that knowledge to decide whether or not they are for you. Your audience deserves the same.

Regardless of whether you’re consciously creating a brand strategy, or just doing your random thang, people are watching. They are deciding whether or not you and your work fit into their lives. If you want to be successful you must make it easy to understand just what you’re all about.

What drives you? What do you want to do in this life of yours? How do you want to be perceived?

Chances are, you will not achieve the kind of success you want, unless you get super clear about who you truly are and what you offer the world.

The Secret Sauce is you.

When I set out to become a legit writer I was very confused about how to brand myself. After all I wrote in different genres and my day job was in marketing, design, and branding for business. For months I struggled with just what I wanted to do.

Then one day I attended a local TedX talk on personal branding. The speaker said something that  shifted everything for me. Paraphrased it was this:

When it comes to personal branding, what you do for a living doesn’t matter as much as who you are.

Let that sink in for a moment.

How you move about the world, your values, your desires, your professionalism, the way you do things is most important. Whether you change careers or genres it doesn’t matter if you’ve build a solid brand based on WHO you are.

This is what helps personal brands like Elizabeth Gilbert or Shonda Rhimes skip from genre or format without losing their fan base. People want to engage with other people. Sure they may be initially attracted to your writing or art, or songs, or whatever you’re making, but they will STAY because WHO you are comes through and resonates with them.

Invest in self-knowledge

This is why I do what I do. See, I believe we have the opportunity to make the world a better place and we all have our parts to play. Writers and creatives are needed more than ever. And yet writers and creatives tend to doubt themselves more than most. Our culture has placed more value on money than beauty, but I know we can have both. I refuse to follow the starving artist philosophy.

It’s the arts that makes us human, settles us, informs us, ignites us, and helps us remember that there is more to life than mere survival.

I’m on a mission to help creative people step into their authentic selves, even if that self is a work-in-progress–spoiler: we are all works-in-progress–and gain the clarity they need to live the life and do the work they feel pulled to do.

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Make Money from Your Art: The Ethos of the Starving Artist

artist sitting on the street with paintings behindThere’s this unspoken longsuffering ethos in the literary world that writers must suffer for their craft, always look at their work as inadequate; and be relentless in their pursuit of the grand art of it all. And the ultimate reward for this holy work? Being a part of a literary elite culture of back-patting and back-stabbing.

I’m calling bullshit.

Of course this rationale is also prevalent in the art world at large. When I was a child with a natural penchant for drawing and art, I was told at every turn how I could never make money with art. So I gave it up for a long while and became a preschool teacher (another high paying option, ha!).

As an adult writing student, most of my writing teachers encouraged us to submit to literary journals with readerships of hundreds and maybe thousands. It was rare that we’d talk about writing for a big commercial publication with readership in the millions.

The self-publishing deluge and mass of crappily written books out there would seem to support this higher literary calling mentality. But I can’t help but wonder why we writers must choose between these extremes. Isn’t there some middle-ground?

Look, I truly do believe that being critical of one’s own work is a great way to improve. It’s essential. And the relentless pursuit of art for art’s sake is worthwhile. But I would guess that many of us want to not only share our writing, but share it with the widest audience possible. So that tired writer narrative doesn’t serve us so well in the real world.

If all you want is to be in the great literary journals and perhaps be looked back upon as a literary genius of your time, that’s awesome. There’s no shame in that. Again, the world needs this high art  writing. I’m not saying I don’t want to be published in literary journals. I do, for sure (though I’m no literary genius).

But can we be honest in saying hardly anyone actually reads these literary journals? Many of them don’t even pay their writers and have six-month long acceptance cycles.

Can we stop holding this up as the ultimate in writerhood?

If I’m trying to sell a book–a book that I’d like to be commercially successful and of literary quality–it seems more likely to get a better deal if I’ve been published in the New York Times and O magazine, not just literary journals.

I don’t want to sacrifice quality, but if I’m going to spend my time honing my writing, doesn’t it make sense to get some commercial success out of it as well?

I want my writing to change minds now, and as controversial as it might be to say, I would love to have bestseller (let’s all stop pretending we don’t want this), and to someday support myself with my art (gasp). Maybe you do too.

I think the relentless self-bashing, pining for awards to give us  a sense of worth, and comparing ourselves to each other, does not serve our art, or each other.

I know it’s not popular to say, but I’m rejecting the idea that writers should be self-loathing, humble-braggers who are content with a hand-to-mouth existence in pursuit of their higher calling.

This is one of the reasons I am involved with BinderCon, because attending their LA conference was the first time I ever felt like I could actually do this writing thing and maybe even make some money at it.

Anyway, that’s my rant. Keep on going with your art/calling/passion/project/business! I hope this encourages you to make your own path, the one that suits your life.