Are you being too hard on yourself or are you making excuses?

January 5, 2016
| Archive, Pep Talks for Side Hustlers Podcast

Shannon Mattern is a pricing expert and creator of The Package Matrix™ Method that helps freelancers, fractional execs, consultants, agencies and service providers stop undercharging, overdelivering and overworking by using pricing, proposal and sales strategies backed by behavioral economics and sales psychology.

I texted a friend yesterday complaining about how bad I felt about myself after eating disgustingly over the holidays and she replied that I am way too hard on myself.

“No, I’m not,” I thought. “If I’m not going to be hard on myself then who will?” None of my friends will slap my hand and say put down the beer and the cheese!!

But then I got to thinking about it, and I am really hard on myself. Over the past year, I’ve started a business and built a really respectable number of clients – and it’s doing nothing but growing! I also quit drinking Diet Coke. I started waking up really early to exercise. I’ve started meditating, and drinking more water. I’ve built all of these really healthy habits that I don’t even acknowledge because I’m only focusing on what I’m not doing that I want to be doing!

When I decide not to work out because I want to spend time answering emails, I tell myself that I’m making excuses to not focus on my health because I’m so busy focusing on my business. And I beat myself up even more by thinking, “I work full time and then have this business, how is there ever going to be time for health?” Total excuse!!

I haven’t focused on all the good things that I’ve done, taken stock of it, and appreciated how far I’ve come. There is a difference between being too hard on yourself and making excuses!!

I feel like I am starting to find that happy medium. I tell myself now, “If it pops into your head, do it now, just do it.” If I’m thinking about doing it, I must really want to do it, right??

Don’t make an excuse not to do something and then beat yourself up about it later. That is such a waste of time and energy. I’m trying to be so much more conscious of that every single day.

If I think, “Gosh, I really should work out…” then I just need to get off my butt and go work out. The emails will get answered. No is going to come bang on my door because I spent a half hour working out before I answered their email.

I’m looking forward to getting a handle on my health in 2016. I’ve had such amazing results with small, consistent actions every single day in my business – when I apply that same dedication to my health I’ll see results – especially when I stop beating myself up about the choices that I made yesterday.

Tell me in the comments below: Are you too hard on yourself, or are you making excuses?

Pricing, Proposal & Sales Strategy For Freelancers, Fractional Execs & Consultants

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Pricing Strategy for Service Providers & Consultants

If you sell your expertise and hands-on implementation, deliver solid work and have happy clients – but you’re maxed out and feel like you’ve hit an income ceiling, this show is for you.

Each short episode breaks down how pricing psychology and proposal strategy influence prospects’ decision-making and helps you rethink everything you thought you knew about how much you can really charge for your services and expertise.

THE PACKAGE MATRIX™ METHOD

The Package Matrix™ Method is a pricing framework built on behavioral economics, sales psychology and a decade of results. It strategically designs a value-based decision for your clients, so you stop pricing based on what you think they can afford and start pricing based on the value they can create by working with you.

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If you’re a business coach or consultant who’s an expert at helping your clients grow their businesses and reach their goals – but you don’t have a strategic pricing and sales framework to help your clients confidently close more proposals at higher prices (without working harder), our Anchor High™ Certification program might just be the missing piece of your coaching methodology.

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ABOUT SHANNON MATTERN

Shannon Mattern is a pricing expert who helps Freelancers, Fractional Execs, Consultants and Creative & Professional Service Providers stop undercharging, overdelivering and overworking by using pricing, proposal and sales strategies backed by behavioral economics and sales psychology.

She helps other business coaches and consultants integrate her pricing and sales methodologies into their coaching, group programs and consultancies so they can help their clients make more without burning out.

She’s also the founder of Web Designer Academy, where she has spent a decade helping women web designers move from undercharging to premium pricing, and where she developed the offer framework now used by service providers across industries.

Topics

Pricing

Marketing

90 DAY REVENUE ROADMAP

Increase your income without rebranding, niching down or adding more services or skills.

Pricing Education for Business Coaches & Consultants

About Package Matrix™

The Package Matrix™ is an offer framework developed by Shannon Mattern, built on the premise that most service provider pricing failures are decision architecture failures. It structures any service offering into options mapped to pricing paradigms (investment-minded, hustle/hybrid-minded, and expense-minded) so clients make an empowered choice and providers earn more without over-delivering.

Pricing Education for Business Coaches & Consultants

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How business coaches and consultants who work with freelancers, consultants, agencies and other types of service providers can help their clients create better outcomes faster when they help their clients apply proven principles of behavioral economics – the brain science behind why people buy or don’t buy – to pricing and sales strategy and stop treating the symptom of undercharging as a confidence or credibility problem.

Pricing Education for Business Coaches & Consultants

Shannon’s Story: The Origin of The Package Matrix™ Method

It’s not about about how much you’re charging – it’s about how you’re making the offer. If you’re struggling with undercharging, overdelivering, overworking, trying to justify prices, trying to compete with other freelancers in the industry and stand out in a saturated market – I’ve been in your shoes, and that’s why I created The Package Matrix™ Method.

Anchor High Podcast

Why You Don’t Need a Portfolio to Charge Premium Prices

You don’t need a portfolio, case studies or thought leadership to charge premium prices. You prove you’re the right fit in the consultation itself, through the questions you ask, and with a paid discovery step that shows the client exactly what you’ll do for them. We’ve helped clients 3x their prices by changing nothing but how they do their proposals, and by charging for the level of service they actually deliver.