No one will ever pay you what you're worth.
And you control their thinking,
(Laughter)
clearly defining and communicating your value are essential
to being paid well for your excellence.
Anyone here want to be paid well?
then this talk is for everyone.
It's got universal applicability.
It's true if you're a business owner, if you're an employee,
It's true if you're a man or a woman.
Now, I approach this today through the lens of the woman business owner,
because in my work I've observed that women underprice more so than men.
The gender wage gap is a well-traveled narrative in this country.
According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics,
a woman employee earns just 83 cents for every dollar a man earns.
is that this trend continues even into the entrepreneurial sphere.
A woman business owner earns just 80 cents for every dollar a man earns.
In my work, I've often heard women express
that they're uncomfortable communicating their value,
especially early on in business ownership.
"I don't like to toot my own horn."
"I'd rather let the work speak for itself."
"I don't like to sing my own praises."
I hear very different narratives in working with male business owners,
and I think this difference is costing women 20 cents on the dollar.
I'd like to tell you the story of a consulting firm
that helps their clients dramatically improve their profitability.
After my first year in business, I saw the profit increases
that my clients were realizing in working with me,
and I realized that I needed to reevaluate my pricing.
I was really underpriced relative to the value I was delivering.
It's hard for me to admit to you, because I'm a pricing consultant.
(Laughter)
I help companies price for value.
But nonetheless, it's what I saw,
and so I sat down to evaluate my pricing, evaluate my value,
and I did that by asking key value questions.
What are my clients' needs and how do I meet them?
What is my unique skill set that makes me better qualified to serve my clients?
What do I do that no one else does?
What problems do I solve for clients?
and defined the value that my clients get from working with me,
calculated their return on investment,
and what I saw was that I needed to double my price,
Now, I confess to you, this terrified me.
I'm supposed to be the expert in this, but I'm not cured.
I was convinced the value was there,
and I was still scared out of my wits.
What if nobody would pay me that?
What if clients said, "That's ridiculous.
Not my work, mind you, but me.
I'm the mother of two beautiful little girls who depend upon me.
But I know how to take my own medicine,
the medicine that I prescribe to my clients.
I prepared the proposals with the new higher pricing
and refer me and recommend me, and I'm still here.
because doubts and fears are natural and normal.
But they don't define our value,
and they shouldn't limit our earning potential.
I'd like to share another story,
about a woman who learned to communicate her value
She runs a successful web development company
When she first started her firm and for several years thereafter,
she would say, "I have a little web design company."
She'd actually use those words with clients.
"I have a little web design company."
In this and in many other small ways,
she was diminishing her company in the eyes of prospects and clients,
It was really impacting her ability to earn what she was worth.
I believe her language and her style
communicated that she didn't believe
In her own words, she was practically giving her services away.
to take responsibility for communicating value to clients
a voice that's authentic and true to you.
Don't try to channel your sister-in-law just because she's a great salesperson
or your neighbor who tells a great joke if that's not who you are.
Give up this notion that it's tooting your own horn.
Make it about the other party.
Focus on serving and adding value, and it won't feel like bragging.
What do you love about what you do?
What excites you about the work that you do?
If you connect with that, communicating your value will come naturally.
So she embraced her natural style,
found her voice and changed her message.
For one thing, she stopped calling herself a little web design company.
She really found a lot of strength and power in communicating her message.
She's now charging three times as much for web design,
She told me about a recent meeting
with a gruff and sometimes difficult client
who had called a meeting questioning progress on search engine optimization.
that would have been a really intimidating meeting for her,
but her mindset was different.
She said, she prepared the information, sat down with the client,
said this isn't about me, it's not personal,
She took them through the data, through the numbers,
laid out the trends and the progress in her own voice and in her own way,
but very directly said, "Here's what we've done for you."
The client sat up and took notice, and said, "OK, I got it."
And she said in describing that meeting,
"I didn't feel scared or panicky
Instead I feel like, 'OK, I got this.
I know what I'm doing. I'm confident.'"
Being properly valued is so important.
that the implications range far beyond just finances
into the realm of self-respect and self-confidence.
Today I've told two stories, one about defining our value
and the other about communicating our value,
and these are the two elements to realizing our full earning potential.
And if you're sitting in the audience today
and you're not being paid what you're worth,
I'd like to welcome you into this equation.
Just imagine what life could be like,
how much more we could give back,
how much more we could plan for the future,
how validated and respected we would feel
if we could earn our full potential,
No one will ever pay you what you're worth.
They'll only ever pay you what they think you're worth,
and you control their thinking.
(Applause)