[Transcript starts at 0:40]
Hello, hello, hello. My podcast people and thank you for joining me for a very hot episode of my favorite podcast. Now, when I say hot, I don't mean sexual. It is literally temperature wise. Very hot in here and I got the lights on. If you're watching the video, you can see some of the reflection in my glasses.
It is what it is. The only downside to me, in my opinion, of summer we're entering summer is the light. The sun has changed, right? 'cause the earth is, has, is rotating. Uh, and so the lighting throughout the day. It's not the same as it usually is, and that means that when I go to record, if it's later, the lighting's bad.
I gotta close the window so I'm not back lit and I gotta use these other lights. I know this is a long intro part, but I like talking about this stuff. Uh, either way, the lighting changes, the window's closed. It's very warm. The sun is beating in on me, but we're gonna do it for you, for the people and 'cause I love this shit.
So if you're listening, tuning in, watching this when it drops, it is Monday, May 26th. Welcome to the last week of May. I'm very late, uh, in saying this, but I realized that I never said Happy Mother's Day. So Happy Mother Mother's Day was on the 11th. I record the podcast early, you know, a week early. I'd only looked at the date before and said either way's, a Sunday and the whole thing.
All that to say, moms will forever be number one In my book. You are the unsung heroes, the unsung superheroes that keep this world going. So if you're listening to this and you're a mom of any kind, whatever that means, thank you for all that you do. You deserve. To be celebrated every day. So today we're talking about, uh, sharing my thoughts on this idea of charging your worth.
You already know, I fucking hate that phrase. Um, but my thoughts are honestly pretty simple on it. Um, but first, some life and business updates. So life updates, uh, Dr. Chyna Oai. A K auc. She came to stay with us last week. We'll drop that episode. She's, we didn't do an episode last week, but I have brought her on in the past.
So we will drop that episode. Thank you, Courtney. Thank you Joe. Um, but she came to stay with us just as like a little getaway and it was the best. Uh, she called me and not long ago and was like, Hey, I think I'm be, I'm gonna be in la. And I was like, come stay with us. Um, it was the best and she's just one of the best and dopest humans that I know.
And that was great as always. It's, you know, I say this a lot, but it's really great and it means a lot to both, you know, Lex and myself, to be able to have the space to host people and to be able to share our routine with people. And uc is the best guest. And like, you know, she rented a car, she had some stuff to do, and it was just like.
The best, um, second life update. My sister Cecilia CIA Stevens, uh, she turned 30. So if you're listening to this, watching this chemo, happy birthday. Well, right now, belated birthday to you. Wow, my glasses are so dirty. Um. Next update. I started week one of the tweaks to my lifting program. Uh, y'all know that y'all know that I bought that program from Aaron Stryker.
Uh, we can link that again. Uh, I did the full 10 weeks and fucking loved it. Learned a ton. I understand the programming of the intensity techniques now, and I definitely made gains. Can you see my arms? Yeah. Look at that. Uh, I definitely made gains. Um, so now I'm tailoring this next cycle to what I really wanna focus on.
I'm keeping that same frequency though, which is really cool. Just five days a week. Like I would've never done that on my own. I was just like, I paid for this thing. I'm gonna do it, and, you know, be a scientist. And so I'm gonna keep it. I've been able to make it work and it's been really helpful for volleyball, so I'm gonna keep it.
Um, I also added in PIOs on the two leg days as like kind of a warmup. Um, if you're wanting to learn anything about plyometrics. Learn from the guy himself. That's my boy. Matt McKinnis Watson. Brought him on the podcast before. We will link that episode as well. And his, his socials. Thank you Courtney.
Thank you Jojo. Um, also I'll do this for about 10 weeks and then I'll go from there. Maybe I will do Aaron's program, his part two program. Maybe I'll tweak again based on where I'm at, what I want. I don't know. We'll see. But very happy with it. Uh, last life update. The weather's been great. I started off, started off this episode saying how hot I am.
Right. I'm melting because it's been super warm. Um, not so much may gray, which is nice. 'cause then there's, people are not fucking complaining about it, even what happens every year. Um, but it's just been really good weather. So those are the life updates, the work updates, the podcast workshop went well and by well, I mean, awesome.
Uh, the main feedback was that folks saw that starting a podcast and running a podcast wasn't nearly as complex or daunting as they thought. It felt really doable to start a podcast and I was like, fuck yeah. Winning. Uh, the recording is not for sale. I, I will probably, what I really wanna do is rerecord it, um, and then put it up as individuals modules for like, an actual course as opposed to just selling a recording.
'cause when you set the recording, like I talk a lot, uh, obviously I talk a lot, but I also like, I'm very involved with the chat and going back and forth with which, when you're watching as a recording, it's just not as good of an experience in my opinion. Um. And I can cut a lot of the time out with that.
So I will probably do that at some point, maybe. Um, but either way, I'm super happy with it. So yes, that's that, uh, I told you I would update you on that. And so I have, I'm continuing to hang out a ton with, uh, chat GPT. It's my homie. Um, and it's looking more and more like my next offering. Will be something with ai.
What exactly? Literally no clue. Literally no clue with something with it, because it's what I do. Right. I deep dive, I quote unquote, you know, ma, look to master something as much as it can be mastered and then teach others what I know through my lens, you know, with my values. So if that's something that's interesting, sounds interesting to you.
Um, because I've, I've put this out there to my mafia. I put it on socials and people are like actually like. That sounds cool. If that's something that sounds interesting to you. I also made an interest list for this. I don't know what this thing is gonna be, when it's gonna be, or if it is actually going to be anything, but if you're like, Hey, I wanna be in the know.
If you do decide to do something, join the interest list. Right? There's no obligation to buy anything if I do actually launch anything. No obligation to sign up for anything. Just. You know, if I, if I launch the program, you don't have to sign up for it, it's just gonna guarantee that you don't miss out on any details.
So, uh, we'll put that link in the show notes. Thank you, jojo. Thank you, Courtney. How much will it cost? No idea. 'cause I don't even know what it's gonna be. I. But that is a perfect segue into today's topic, which is my thoughts on charging your worth. Now, this is a line that gets thrown around and used so often, and it makes me roll my eyes just like I am gonna get dizzy and fall down.
Like I'm rolling my eyes so hard at this. What does it even mean? Right? Like, come on. What does that phrase even mean? I think perhaps it's well intentioned and the origin is well intentioned. I have no idea 'cause I didn't like the time to look up where it came from, nor do I necessarily believe that we'd like have a correct like origin story there.
But, um, I'm willing to give it the benefit of the doubt now, however, where it seems to be used the most is kind of like in this Bob Wow Boss babe context, where people want their clients to charge more so they can justify and feel good about their own prices. Here's what it comes down to me, and this is something that.
Was largely distilled and presented to me by James Olivia Chu Hillman. We will link those, show those episodes or that episode in the show notes. Thank you, Courtney. Jojo, instead of this whole charge you're worth, let's just charge how much you need. That's it. Charge how much you need, like let's get objective and clinical with things.
So I'm gonna start discussing this concept from the perspective of the solopreneur slash self-employed person because. In that case, you're the one that's setting the rates and the prices, right? So when it comes to pricing, realistically, the only thing that introduces objectivity into your prices are your own rates, namely your own hourly, one-on-one rate, right?
It's an anchor and a reference point that introduces this objectivity, right? One hour. With me, one-on-one of my time costs x, therefore this problem, wow, this program is X hours of my time, but maybe that time is shared or not. And so we can start to see how we can introduce objective value into this, right?
It's 12 hours of, of shared, of my time, so I, I can base a pricing off of that. It has one-on-one calls so I can base pricing off of that. Very simple math, right? What should your hourly rate be? I don't know. I mean, yes, definitely look at what the market is holding and then look at what you need right now.
When we're think talking about how much you need. I wanna talk about it, uh, in two parts here. And the first part is, how much do you need to charge in order to feel good about the exchange, right? In order to feel good about doing that job and not be salty about it. And then the second part is how much do you need in order to leave?
Ideally one person, one project, one offer isn't floating your entire cost of living. But if that is the case where it's something that's like, maybe like you're like a personal assistant to someone and like that's what your job is, then yeah, you gotta do the math of like, how much do you need in order to live and, and charge accordingly.
But if that's you don't have just one thing, then like we. Don't need to be like, okay, this one project has to be able to sustain my, my, my, my living. Right? It's just adding up all of these things and we just start to see, okay, well, like my one-on-ones bringing majority of my income, and then I had these other, you know, these workshops that I run every now and then I have a DIY projects, things like that.
I, but, but, and then looking at that by kind of that like, uh, cornucopia of offerings that you have, we're really gonna lean on that first part there, which is how much do you need? To charge in order to feel good about the exchange for each of those things. Right? One of the things that I mentioned earlier, right?
This is when I was talking about how like this is what I do, that I learn things and then I teach them, is that I teach these things through my lens and through my values. To that end, when I'm talking about pricing. And how much you need in order to feel good about the exchange, not feel salty about the work.
There is this underlying un wow, this I, that's actually what I wanna say. There is this underlying understanding that that discussion is through the lens of knowing your enough, not you are enough, but knowing what your enough is, right? That enough, that number, that amount, that value, that is personal and individual, but it's still super important and really helpful to identify.
Right. This ties into the, into the idea. Shout out to my guy Jesse Roar for this, that the opposite of scarcity isn't abundance. It's enough, right? Like you're not gonna charge $10 million for this thing that you'd be happy and content re receiving $500 for, because we know what our enough is, right? So just a little bit more on this, this, uh, you know, idea of setting prices through the lens of enough.
If the starting point for your coming up with numbers is, how much do I need to make? Right? Then we can reverse how much do I need? Right? We can reverse engineer that and what we can reverse engineer what the offer needs to be based on your audience size and the demand factors, meaning stick with me. If you have a big audience and you know that you have high volume, a lot of people will buy this thing.
Then, you know you can go lower cost. Right? 'cause if we're like, I wanna make whatever, $10,000, but you have 10,000 people that you know will buy something, like you could make an offer that's $1. You don't have to make this super expensive thing, right? Big audience, high volume, low cost, smaller offer if you want.
And with that lower cost offer, that means if we're introducing objectivity as based on one on your one-on-one hourly rate, that means that. Uh, this offer at a super low price is gonna have few, if any touch points with you, right? 'cause we are anchoring it with that price, with that one-on-one hourly rate.
If you have a small audience, or there's small demand for this thing, even for a big audience, we have small demand. Then if you're like, Hey, I wanna make $10,000, then likely the cost of the offer needs to be higher, which means that the offer itself needs to have more touch points with you, right? Because we said the only thing that anchors it in an objective number.
Is your one-on-one hourly rate, and if you're like, this thing has to cost $10,000, well then to me, based on my values, right, you need to give $10,000 worth of your time. Very simple. 'cause you're go, if you're like, Hey, I'm gonna sell one of them, right? Notice I did not say for either example that you should put more stuff in it.
More stuff doesn't mean more expensive, doesn't mean more valuable. Like think about a garage sale, like there's sentimental value to each of these things that the person is selling, but the, you know, to, for the owner, but to the buyer, it's just more stuff. Right. It's all subjective and relative. The objective value that we have here is anchored in your hourly one-on-one rate.
How much access do they have to you? Why? Because that guarantees, it's the closest thing you have to guaranteeing an outcome, right? That is why we tie it into your one-on-one hourly rate, right? People are paying for solutions to problem. Right? I learned that from Danny Matea. I say it all the time. This is why a done for you service is the, you know, the most expensive service.
'cause it's, it was basically a guarantee that this thing will get done. You're doing it for me. A done with you service. That's the next level of guarantee. A do it yourself service. You're like, there's no guarantee that it's gonna get done. 'cause I'm on my own right. It has the least amount of access to you.
The person who knows all this shit. So the highest price point is based on how much access they have to you, and if they have all the access because you're doing the thing for them, man, that's the highest rate. Makes sense In terms of valuing something, how much something, excuse me. How much someone values something is anchored in what it means to them, right?
If it solves a very specific problem that I have, that I need, really need a solution for. It maybe. Maybe it's priceless, right? It becomes worth way more to me, right? So we start to see that there's just way too much subjectivity and variability there when we're like, dude, you are worth, how much is it worth to you?
No. Just anchor it in your hourly rate. Very simple. Very gonna look to introduce math here. So don't charge your worth, charge what you need and come at that with the understanding that the opposite of scarcity. Isn't abundance, it's enough. The last thing I wanna discuss here is perhaps more so for the, the other group of folks, which is folks who work for somebody else.
Um, but it also applies to all of us in that we all live in this society and we're not fucking billionaires. Okay? So I was buying a toothbrush today, uh, for my night guard. Yes, I have night guard because apparently I rang the shit outta my teeth and my dentist, what do they like, was like, Hey, maybe do this.
So it's like, it looks like a one of those Invisalign. Things. And so the way that you clean it is actually with soap and water and toothbrush. And I was like, I would like to, they were like, don't use your current toothbrush because, well, you don't put soap and water on that. But, uh, the toothpaste, like residue, like makes the, um, Invisalign like tray thing.
It makes it like not, I don't know, makes it cloudy or something. It messes it up, right? So either way, I need to get one to go get a toothbrush. The place I went, uh, it's like this discount store because I was like, I just need a single toothbrush. Um, there was a guy next to me and he wanted like this gel shoe insert thing.
Um, but the gel shoe insert thing was one of those items that you have to ask like a store worker for, for assistance. Um, and they need to like unlock it from like the slider thing that it's hanging on and then they bring it up to the front to the register for you and you get it when you check out. And he was totally fine with that.
Um, but there was definitely an exchange that happened and he was just like, oh my gosh, I forgot. It's one of those things. And then like, that's so sad. And you know, it's sad that that's the reality of things. And for what it's worth, just as a side note here, again, he didn't have like a problem with it and he, he, we were at a discount store, but the dude definitely wasn't poor.
'cause he brought up that the same thing happened at another store the other day when he was buying caviar, though he couldn't remember the name of caviar, but either way he was like. Oh, that had to happen there too. And one of the workers, the worker that actually helped him and unlocked the thing, he just, the worker just kept saying, it's because there are no punishments.
It's because there's no repercussions. And I was just like, I mean, right. The bigger issue is that we live in a society with such income and wealth inequality that stealing is even like a necessary or desirable thing. Right. And before you hit me with the, well, no one wants to work. Although I know, I know that no one in my audience would hit me with that, but.
Either way before someone theoretically hits me with that, well, no one wants to work, right? You listening to this and saying that wouldn't want to make minimum work, make, make minimum wage, just in general, right? But you wouldn't wanna make minimum wage for physical labor and, and dealing with annoying people either, right?
The fact that, that the fact here is that minimum wage is too low. Because living is too high, right? And before you say, well, you know, I make X dollars and only you know, I do X and only make Y dollars, so that person shouldn't be making more than me. This is the point I'm trying to make. Is that you, you too should be making more.
Everybody should be making more, right? This is one of those rising tide raises all ships kind of deals here, right? The woman who was saying the problem is that there is no punishment. It's such an example of like that Spider-Man meme where they're like all just pointing at each other. It's all just a bunch of fucking poor people.
That's us pointing at each other, right? Or we need to be pointing upwards, right? It's less of the poor people are the problem, attitude, and more realizing we're all fucking poor and we need to be fighting against the corporations and billionaires and actually truly rich people who have no idea what enough actually looks like, right?
They got no fucking clue. Hoarding is hoarding, is hoarding, is hoarding. We demonize it when it's newspapers and magazines, and then we idolize it when it's money Problem. Right. I'm getting worked up. It's very hot in here, so I'm gonna wrap it up there. All that to say don't charge your worth, charge what you need and come at it with the understanding and the lens that the opposite of scarcity isn't abundance.
It's enough. Alright, all I got for you. Super grateful that you listened to me, ranted in the heat over here. Questions, comments, concerns, thoughts, additions, subtract anything. My dm, shoot me a text. 3 1 0 7 3 7 2 3 4 5. It will be green, but it will be me. It's my sideline. Alright, gonna wrap it up there as always, endlessly appreciative for every single one of you.
Until next time, friends, maestro out.
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