How to Double Your Rates (And Have People Actually Pay Them!)

Jaclyn Mellone

Welcome to Go-To Gal episode number 180. As always, I’m your host, Jaclyn Mellone. And today, we’re talking about doubling your rates. Now, if you are hanging out in this online business, online marketing space, you likely have seen a lot of people preaching, demanding aggressively, shouting at you to tell your rates and you double your rates and double them again.

I’d be like, oh, it is. It’s got that energy right to it or it’s like, everybody double their rates and it’s like, okay, well, that sounds good, but how do we actually do this? There’s a lot that goes into doubling your rates. Do I exactly do what I’m doing and just double my rates? Can I charge that much?

There’s a lot of mindsets that goes into it. Are we shifting our offers? How do we get our mindset in alignment with that offer? What exactly does it take to do that, to implement that strategy of doubling our rates? Listen, I think you probably should double your rates. So that’s very blanket advice and I don’t know the last time you’ve raised your rates or what you’re charging or even what industry you’re in.

Right? So that may or may not be the best advice for you, but likely it is time for you to raise your rates. And I wanted to take the time to really unpack the strategy of doubling your rates, quadrupling your rates, or maybe just raising them a little bit. However, you’re going to do it. There’s a strategy.

There is a way, there are things to consider, to take into consideration for you to actually implement this. And I wanted to break it down for you, tell you this process. So you can start to wrap your head around actually implementing it and not just feeling guilty the next time you hear someone preaching about it, that you haven’t done that yet.

So that is exactly what today’s episode is all about. Now, to give you a little peek behind the scenes, today’s episode is much shorter than our normal episodes. It is also, I think we could classify this as a solo episode. It’s just me. You’re not going to hear anybody else, but the recording. So typically when I would do a solo, just like I’m talking to you now, I would just keep talking and go on a rant about something.

Or I don’t know. I have a couple of notes on a post-it note and just go off on a topic. Well, this is a little bit different because this is actually a video. So it’s funny where I normally don’t do it like this. We normally record with a video for podcasts and repurpose into video, but this was actually recorded as a video for video.

And we’re pulling a piece of it for the podcast and for IGTV and we put it on Instagram and I’m like, you know what? I feel like some of these IGTVs that we’re putting on Instagram, would make really good podcast episodes. They’re just super short. So I don’t know we’re posting it this week as the podcasts.

Maybe we’ll do them in future weeks as bonus episodes. 

Let me know. Do you like these short episodes?

Would you appreciate that pace of maybe having sometimes longer form content and sometimes shorter form content? I opened to add one to the week. I don’t know come on Instagram and let me know what you think.

But today’s episode is pretty short because of that. And I wanted to just give you a little bit of context of how we did it because you know, I like to keep you in the loop. And also I think the video itself is only three minutes long. You know, we’ll beef up the episode a little bit. So it’s not a five-minute episode, at least speaking.

I don’t know, take a Walker full of the little little laundry together before the episode is over. However, it is your multitasking during this time. Okay, something that I have really struggled with that you may have heard me talk about from time to time. I definitely talked more about the recent episode with Meg Casebolt where we talked about scaring… Scaring – it’s probably appropriate of a word. But scaling was the word I was trying to say where we talked about scaling our personal brands and some of the struggles that we’ve come up against and strategy is that we’ve been doing. So, one of the things that I have really struggled with is writing. It is just copied in general.

It’s like this is a blessing and a curse. I’m actually pretty good at writing and writing copy, writing content. I’m pretty good. Now, it’s not that just because I’m good at it doesn’t mean it’s easy for me now when it flows, it flows, but it’s really, it’s been really hard for me to get it to flow even before I could blame this on COVID.

I could just add it to the list, but I’ve always struggled with writing. I’ve always struggled with calming, like quieting my brain enough to sit down and focus and get in that flow state to write. Now, when the idea comes, I can just sit down and write a whole email or a whole post in a few minutes. Right. It’ll just pour out of me.

But when I don’t have that inspiration to sit down with that blinking cursor and try to like pull it up out of me, like it just doesn’t, it doesn’t come. It’s one of the things I struggle with the most. And because I’m good at writing, it makes an awful writer. If I sucked at writing, it would be easier to outsource it.

But I have this standard for myself. It’s already get in my way, but then when try to hire other people, well, it’s like, it either doesn’t sound like me or it’s just not right. It came out a million problems. I’ve really struggled with outsourcing the writing, especially for emails, sales, social, all the things.

It’s just the biggest block. So one of the ways I’ve decided to get around this is to do more video and more audio because then we don’t have to rely as much on the copy, right. Or we can then be taking that content and turning it into written copy because we were starting with the audio with a podcast, right.

Our systems for repurposing the podcast are incredible. We have this down to a tee. It’s just the rest of the content that we’re still trying to figure out the best way to do it. So it’s like, okay, well we know if we have this piece of longer content that we do for the podcast and we have all this, you know, the team and the systems and processes in place to just take this and repurpose and run them.

How can we leverage that? Right. And apply it to, to a different way for us to be creating contents. That’s really been the inspiration for us doing this. So essentially, what we’ve found is that I work best with someone else. Maybe that’s the coach and coach in me. I don’t know the extrovert in me, all of the things, but it’s just easier for me when someone’s asking me a question for me to answer it than for me to sit here by myself and come up with things I want to talk about.

So I’ll get on with a team. We’ll record a video, the last minute questions, I’ll answer them. And then, we’ll take that and edit it into a bunch of different pieces of content and create some written content, some interactive story content, video content. And hey, now, we’re going to try airing it on the podcast with a mini episode.

So that’s what you’re going to hear today. I want to just take the second to give you some context of what this is. We’re really trying to boil down. What are some of those tips that I have that are maybe hidden in bigger pieces of content or that only my private clients or group coaching clients or students of different programs have had access to over the years, that we could start to share with you to help you grow your business and really become that Go-To Gal.

You’re going to be seeing a little bit more of these. We’re going to sprinkle them in this week. It’s going to be the episode and future weeks. Probably will be a bonus episode, but I don’t know. We’ll see. So here it is. This is breaking down how you can double your rates. So this is Jaclyn Mellone.

I’m like, do I introduce myself? No, that’s awkward. All right. So let’s get to it. Here is your episode for today on how to double your rates. 

 A lot of people online are like “Double your rates, double your rates!” And just like very quick to be like, everybody needs to double their rates and I say probably could and should double your rates, but why haven’t you?

Right. And what comes up for you when you hear that? When you hear me or someone else say double your rates or raise your rates, maybe not even doubling, maybe even just adding a little bit, it feels like it’s too much. So let’s unpack that what’s going on. Cause we can talk about strategy and we’re going to talk about strategy, but before we get there, we need to figure out what’s going on up here.

That’s holding you back because it’s not just a strategy. I like to look at this from two angles. So the person who’s going. To hire you, whether they’re going to be paying lower rates or higher rates, this is what’s going to happen in their head, right? When somebody goes to hire you or to invest in your program or service or course, whatever it is, they’re going to evaluate it consciously or unconsciously based off of three main criteria.

One, do they believe that you – do they have that trust in you and do they believe that you can help them? Do they have that belief and trust in your process? Your process can work for them. And three, do they have that belief in trust in themselves that they’re going to be able to show up and get that result or that their businesses at that level to have this and benefit from it?

Right? So they’re running through this. Okay. Like, do I trust you? Do I trust the process? And do I trust myself in this? Now, when it comes to you presenting these rates, it’s the same thing, but it’s the flip side of that, right? So backwards. It’s do you believe that you can be charging that much? Do you believe that someone else is going to charge that much?

And do you believe that, that thing that you’re selling, do you believe that your service, your offer is worth that much or can have that much value attached to it? When you’re looking at reevaluating your own offers your own rates. When you’re thinking about actually putting this into action. Okay, we’re going to double your rates.

What’s that going to lead to? When you think about that, one, do you, as a person, as an expert, feel confident in charging those rates? Do you believe that your ideal client, that there’s an audience who’s going to pay those rates? And lastly, your offer, do you believe that the way that offers is positioned and is in alignment with how much you want to charge for it?

Does the offer match the value? So when you take the time to work that out first, you’re positioning yourself and your offer to be that mirror for your clients. Now, You can’t help them with that third one. Well, maybe you can help them a little bit through your content, but they have to be able to trust themselves before they hire you.

But in terms of them seeing in you, that they can trust you and that they can trust your process, your offer, how you’re going to get them, those results. That’s going to be key. So if you work on getting yourself in alignment first, you’re going to easily attract and convert those right clients that are willing to pay those high rates.

Can I just say, thank you so much for listening? I don’t think I can say it enough, but I love that you are here. If you enjoy today’s episode, or if you’ve been getting value from this podcast, Could you do me a quick favor? Head on over to iTunes and leave a rating and review. When you leave a rating and review, it basically tells iTunes that they need to spread the word and tell more people about this podcast and I am on a mission to get the word out. I’m so grateful for your support. We want to make sure to shout you out too. So if you do leave a rating review, keep your eyes and ears open. We will be at either shouting out in the podcast or on Instagram stories.