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#27 Annemarie Cross.  ....'Great! This is How I can Get Paid What I am Worth!'
Annemarie is a money, marketing and mindset business coach who supports purpose-driven women entrepreneurs who struggle with their marketing and getting new clients, and who feel undervalued and underpaid.
Do you worry if you are getting paid what you worth?  Do you understand why it could possibly be like that?  Do you know how to overcome this issue? Annemarie Cross, Money, Marketing and Mindset Business Coach can help. Annemarie has figured out the formula to get paid what we are worth.  You have to listen to this.  Stop Self sabotaging yourself and get a pen and paper because this was an eye opening podcast this was.  Lots of 'Take aways' from this one, with a lot of head bobbing as I could see what Annemarie was saying.  I have more clarity now about a few areas I need to change in my life and in my work.  Who knew, a money mindset could impact us so profoundly!  Even if you don't have clients and you 'self sabotage' yourself when it comes to your relationship to money this episode will help.  Its AWESOME!!! 

Annemarie says.....
 ..  It's not often around pricing but more around value and whether we have tapped into the value proposition, the needs and the outcome that are ideal client want because once we get that formula right,  our ideal client can really resonate with us.

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Inside this Episode
Below is  a brief on the answers to the questions but they are answered in greater detail on the podcast.

  • Question 1: Tell us a little bit about yourself? Annemarie primarily works with coaches and consultants and service based business women.  She work with women who have tended to struggle with marketing themselves and knowing how to get out there and introduce themselves right through to having conversations with prospective clients and getting people to invest in their services.  She helps them get clients to say,  'yes I want to invest in your services'.   She help them to identify their unique inner brilliance which she calls 'a signature brand'. She helps them express their signature brand online, in articles and in podcasts and help position themselves as credible experts and attract high ideal Clients who pay them what they're worth so that they can grow their coaching or consulting practice.  So alot of work is done aroun branding and marketing and a lot of the work is done around the money mindset.
  • Question 2: What are the core characteristics of someone not getting paid and what are these fears? Annemarie says, 'I think in all of the years I've been studying and in my own personal journey it all centres around self worth, what do we believe we are worth particularly when we are out there in the marketplace.  This is very prevalent in business and entrepreneurship but also when we look at executives and professionals in the workplace, we all do we believe we are worth something when we negotiate for our salary or when we negotiate with with our bosses or we negotiate with a prospective client and often it is because that level of self worth is lacking and really needs to be looking.  Some of the fears are we will often judge ourselves and what other people are doing and we don't believe we are good enough I have spoken to many women and they will look at a job description and if they can only do eight  of the ten descriptions they take themselves out of the running because they can't do the other two whereas whereas an man will say I can do that and they have no hesitation in putting themselves forward. 
  • More fears that support not getting paid what they're worth is the fear of rejection, for instance if you're having a conversation with an ideal client and you put your heart and soul into the conversation and you really want to support them and then they say no, you feel personally rejected, they are not not just saying no to your programme they are saying no to you.  Another fear and if we put ourselves out there and charge what we are worth some people might think 'who does she think she is' charging that and that again is nothing to you, it's the client and there is also not being liked if we put ourselves out there, we put ourselves message out there, our programme, our product out there and we do try to charge what we are worth then what happens is we might get feedback that could be negative.
  • Question 3: How do we get over those fears? Do we just say ok, that's it or is there a process to letting go. I wish that it was that easy because logically we would say 'it is ridiculous' and we would not do that anymore and we would release it but a lot of it is our money stories and the money stories that we tell ourselves even in adulthood often have something to do with when we were children and what were the event. For example How often was money spoken about or how was money handled, and the things that happened when we were young.  Are there things that things that happened when we were young that are now causing us to now unfortunately had to have these money mindset belief. However to be able to move on and release these fears often will take that little bit of time in self exploration because our beliefs are who we are at our core, our beliefs determine our thoughts and feelings and thoughts, our feelings and thoughts determin our actions and our actions determine our outcomes. For some people depending on how they grew up around money and how money was managed and in some instances mismanaged money is so deeply embedded in our psyche that we could still continue to carry this cylce around in our adulthood that it can take a little bit of time to release. For some of us we reject how are parents managed money and try and do the opposite but unfortunately we can end up living that cycle but I think self-awareness is a huge step forward because how many people do you know that complain about money, the complain they aren't getting paid what they're worth and they don't realise that unfortunately where they are is the result of the actions, their beliefs, their money stories and the money mindset that they have. Once we realise that it's like right now we can then investigate and do some self exploration and start to change and make better choices. We should celebrate self-awareness towards changing your relationship with money.
    Question 4: How important is understanding your brand and your target audience to getting paid what you are worth? 
    Annemarie says, .'I think that has so much to do with getting paid what we are worth. Our brand is so much deeper than what people see on our website, on our flyers on our brochures, our signature brand really is the emotion and experience that prospective clients and clients experience when they work with us when they are investing in us and when they read our content or listen to our podcast.  I think that's one of the key problems that often is stopping people from being paid what they are worth  as they are trying to be too many people and so if you can clearly define your ideal client and your ideal target audience you will instinctively know the problems they are struggling with, you know what keeps them up at night, you know how they talk about over coffee with their girlfriends.  If you can incorporate that into the language that you use, into the message that you portray when your marketing, they are going to connect instantly with you because they are going read your content and understand that you 'get them'.  If you can connect with them at that level then your prospective clients are far more likely to invest in you and step forward in your programmes.  If we have not clearly defined our brand and we're not turning up consistently online and off-line then the way we portray our message we can land up creating an 'off brand' message which isn't very strong and we are not showing ourselves as someone who who is worthy of being invested in.  Unfortunately there are so many gifted and coaches and consultants out there who really care and support their clients  but unfortunately because they haven't taken the time to really define the signature brand  (their inner brilliance) and be able to bring it out then their clients are also struggling to understand what they do.  
    How does that connect to getting paid what you're worth? If you didn't have a clear signature brand, you are not defining your marketing message which is not speaking clearly to ideal clients.  Unfortunately your clients and prosphects will not understand that you have a solution for them so you're not going to get paid what you are worth.  Speaking with Keith Keller the other day  and one of his clients suggested he should reduce his prices and Keith Keller said no because if you reduce your prices it shows that you are not worthy of investing in and that is not the place where you want to be so it has everything to do with being paid what you're worth.
  • Question 5: What Questions should we be asking ourselves to create more clients and money aswell as create more value for our clients? I think what we really need to do is think clearly about who we are and what our unique offering is, what are our skill set is and how you can really support people because if you are not clear about what differentiates yourself it's going to be very hard for you to stand out above all the other people who are trying to grab the attention of your ideal audience.  Ask yourself what makes you unique and how you are different, what can I bring to a client relationship that someone else cant, what is the experience that I have to offer, all of that is really important and then asking ourselves who is your client and what are they struggling with and what are the solutions that they are looking for, what are the outcomes they really want and et very very clear about that, then that allows you to put together a marketing message that is going to speak to the needs of the ideal client get the point where the client says I need to work with you.  For example I remembered last year last year I was on conference call with four other people and we had to share our introduction, and after I had after I had given mine there was silence and one by one the these women said that 'I have to work with you' and that is what you want. When you speak about the work that you do and how you can support your ideal client and he or she is in the room then that is the response that you need and if you're not getting that kind of response and you need to step back and get clear about your message.  Would you not rather introduce yourself at a networking event and have five people come up to you and say we need to talk instead of leaving the room and nobody coming up to you?  That doesn't really give you a sense of value and it has nothing to do with self worth we were it just how you are communicating your brand.

  • Question 6: Do you think we should also be looking at our competitors? Annemarie says has a Yes and No answer for this question.  Yes because when we are looking at how we can differentiate ourselves is there something that you can do that you can bring to the relationship that is something unique, a unique experience that you have or even a unique characteristic that can really differentiate you so in that instance yes where Anne-Marie cautions people to investigate what their competitors are doing is if we tend to get ourselves get stuck in competitor comparison syndrome and that is when we look at what everyone else is doing and we think oh my goodness how am I ever going to compete with that. We need to remind ourselves where these are the people (competitors) are in their business, it may have taken them years to get to that level and we always see the best of who they are and we don't necessarily see the tears and sleepless nights so we need to be very mindful of that.  I heard a story once where someone tried to undercut on pricing and thought I'm going to get that client and if I reduce my price then I will get the client, however, that prospective client did not step into his program and then a couple of weeks later he went to an event and that ideal client was there as well and she landed up investing in a program that was four times the value that he was going to offer in his program and that was a huge wake-up call for him. It's not often around pricing but more around value and whether we have tapped into the value proposition, the need and the outcome that are ideal client wants because once we get that formula right, our ideal client can really resonate with us.  Pricing often isn't always the case, don't try and build your business and on pricing it is not really a good place to be and the foundation of way you want to be and be paid what you are worth.
  • Question 7: How do we deal with the scenario when we feel that our prices are too low for the value we are giving.  Annemarie says, I think if we do feel that our pricing is too low and we feel undervalued then there are a couple of things we do need to consider particularly if we are looking to progress your business.  I think what is really important is that we need to get clear about the value that we offer and be able to express that value outcomes and solutions in the language that we know that are ideal client is going to understand and invest in, that is really important because we are going to have to have those conversations with existing clients so for example when it's time to renew contract you aren't going to be THIS level of program and this may see an increase in price so you need to be so clear and position it as outcomes and solutions instead of features of the program. For example, how to double your income through having great negotiation skills, How to be one of the top five candidates for your ideal role, these are all outcomes instead of the features which could be 3 coaching calls which are 45 minutes each and then answer some questionnaires. You see when you see the difference between the outcomes and features you know you feel you want to be there and want to get started.  Something else you really need to do is you need to confirm that you are going to make that shift and a lot of times is it is around our mindset that you are no longer going to offer your services at that particular price because you are going to come up against people that will complain and you need to make that decision that from now on these are my programs and this is my investment levels and if this means you need to let go of some of your existing clients then make a commitment to yourself that that is okay and those clients that you are currently working with are not ready to up themselves and you are ready to up level yourself. That's ok, let them ok because that is opening up space for you to then allow other clients that are really serious about generating results to step in.
  • Question 8. Do you think people should put their prices on their website or not? I think that depends, if it is a home study program and something that someone can invest in  and work through from home through then absolutely put your price on the website and that will be residual income for you and people can invest in it and continue working with it and work through it because it's going to be delivered to them by email.  If they are higher-level program, I would generally tend to say no because of the money mindset that that your ideal client may have and they may take themselves out of the of the running because they think they can't afford or they can't pay for that level of coaching. So ideally you need to have a conversation with that ideal client to see if that is someone that you want to accept and work closely with so I think again it depends if it's a high-level program I would tend not to put prices up there and rather have a conversation first which is more of a screening call which you decide if this is someone you want to work with or not and if there is opportunity to work for lower end programs e-books home study courses that kind of thing I would certainly put the price or prices up as well as ways they can have access to the program I would put prices up.
  • Question 9: What would be the top three ingredients to charging what you are worth? I think first and foremost we really need to value our self-worth, if we don't value our strengths, our gifts, our programs or packages, if we don't value them how on earth is someone else going to value them, how on earth do we expect our ideal client to value them because it's going to be difficult for us to confidently have that sales conversation and state our price and that can really impact so get very clear about your understanding your value. 2) I think we need to be clear on the benefits that our ideal client is going to achieve, that needs to be clear in your in your mind, in the conversations that you have with your ideal clients and it needs to be clear in your marketing messages on your website, on your brochures.  As I mentioned earlier don't focus on the features of the program but the benefits what is someone going to walk away with it through investing in your programs.  3) Be very clear on the outcome that our clients are going to achieve because so often we focus on the features of the program but when we start to talk about the benefits and the outcomes then our clients can I get very excited and some of the benefits may be, short on time or something that they're struggling with for a long long time and no longer having that challenge or that problem and now they have access to that expertise to save time make it more streamlined and more effective where the outcome is having a job that I love doubling or tripling their income. Getting clear about what you are looking for, your program can then be developed into supporting your client and achieveing that. To the point where you have such great outcomes and achievements with the clients like Testimonials and things, that you will find that you will start to attract people.
  • Question 9:  Tell us a little bit about your Money Mind Set Programme? Annemarie says, 'She has a couple of different money mindset programs and what they do is they identify very clearly what is there Money stories and what are your beliefs you have around money, your relationship with money and how that is now impacting and affecting the amount of money that flows into your world but also stays in your world because Anne-Marie knows from working with some clients who generate great money yet the minute they start saving money something happens, for example their fridge breakdowns or all the car has a huge repair bill so there are certain ways we can self sabotage ourselves.  So when we self sabotage ourselves we can continue to repeat the same cycles over and over again so it's very important to take some time to identify those money stories.  Now once we identify those money stories we can then implement some steps to support ourselves and changing our mindset and doing it in such a way that it are has a lasting mindset change rather than changing something and then a couple of weeks down the line we are back to reliving that same cycle so those are the kind of programs that I work with I help them identify their money mindset and changing mindsets for lasting results.
 
Show Notes
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Annemarie Cross Bio

Annemarie Cross is a Money, Marketing and Mindset Business Coach who supports purpose-driven women entrepreneurs who struggle with their marketing and getting new clients, and who feel undervalued and underpaid - by helping them to create meaningful marketing messages that attracts new clients who pay them what they are worth so they can double or triple their results and finally build the business and life of their dreams.

She also helps them transform their hours-for-dollars services into lucrative information products and programs.

Annemarie is also the Co-Founder of CoachesConnectionAcademy.com – THE Business Building Community & Membership Program Globally for Coaches and Ambitious Entrepreneurs to Connect, Learn and Grow Thriving Businesses.
 

More Great Expat Entrepreneurial conversations HERE

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