STP 143 | What Should I Offer—and What Should I Charge Beyond 1:1 Sessions?
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[00:00:00]
[00:00:05] James Marland: Businesses that can't keep the lights on they just stop functioning.
[00:00:09] If your practice or your coaching work can't sustain you, you're eventually gonna have to stop. It's not in your client's best interest for you to be poor. It's not in your best interest for you to be exhausted, and it's certainly not in your client's best interest for you to be poor and exhausted. You can't pour out from an empty bank account.
[00:00:31] You can't give water from an empty cup charging. Well, for real, help lets you stay in the field longer. It lets you care for the people God has already put in your life. This is not greed. This is why stewardship, the business that stays in business can help more people.
[00:00:56] ~There we go. Okay, here we go. Okay. Welcome to the Scaling Therapist podcast. I'm your host, James Marland, and this is the show where we help therapists learn how to turn their wisdom into income flow without burning out.~
[00:00:56] ~Start over.~
[00:00:56] Welcome to the Scaling Therapist Podcast. I'm your host, [00:01:00] James Marland. This is the show where we help therapists learn how to turn their wisdom into income flow without burning out. ~We are in the three pillars of scalable income series.~
[00:01:08] We are in the three pillars of scalable income series. We're going to be talking about clarity, connection, and confidence. Those are the three pillars so far we've settled on clarity. We've talked about clarity on who you serve, your people, and who. Why you are the best person to do it. Clarity on the problem that they want solved.
[00:01:32] That was last episode. Today we're gonna be talking about clarity on your product and your price. In simple terms, this episode is gonna answer two questions, two part questions. What am I actually offering and what do I charge for it?
[00:01:50] Most marketing starts with a product. It skips the people and the problem, it just talks about the solution.
[00:01:58] Most people that are [00:02:00] looking for a solution they're actually first looking for, do you know what my problem is? Do you get me, do you understand where I'm trying to go? They often don't care about or understand your solution in their technical terms, and they don't care how many videos you have.
[00:02:17] what,
[00:02:17] James Marland: what the product is. They just want. They want to know that you understand what their problem is. So we're not gonna do that. You're not gonna do that. You know who you serve, you know what they want. You know the problems they have, you know where they wanna go, you know what they wake up thinking about and what keeps them up at night.
[00:02:38] Therefore, we're gonna connect those pieces to a product and a price that fit you and fit them.
[00:02:48] ~AI is going to have to remove a bunch of dead space. I'm just too, I'm not feeling so good.~
[00:02:48] Clarity on product is really about alignment. You know who your ideal client is, you know who you are and what you bring to the table, the skills you have. The [00:03:00] people you can help the quickest, fastest, best, and you know the specific problem that your people want help with. Therefore, the product is, it's the bridge as I was talking about.
[00:03:12] It's the bridge between those two things. The person, the problem, and your strengths. When all of those line up it just feels natural. The offer is natural. You're not pretending, you're not copying somebody else. You're not manipulating them into buying something they don't need. You're just showing up.
[00:03:32] You're simply saying, I know you. I get you. This is what I can do to help you get to where you want to go.
[00:03:41] ~Have you ever had this thought? Where you see an online product or you see, somebody offering a solution, and you think to yourself, that's not that far different from what I do. In fact, I do the same thing and I don't, I think I can do some of it better. Have you ever had that thought, I think I can do this.~
[00:03:41] ~And then you start comparing yourself to them and you realize.~
[00:03:41] ~Take two.~
[00:03:41] If you're anything like me, when you start doing some research about your product and what you can offer. You start seeing ads for other products and you see other people selling things like very similar to what you offer and you, you start thinking, well, what [00:04:00] they're doing isn't that much different than what I'm doing or what I wanna do.
[00:04:06] One of the, the main differences is though, is they started, they named a product and they, they put a price on it. And you can compare, you can start comparing yourself to be like, oh, they're, I can never be like them. They're so far ahead. Why would somebody choose me? Well, there's good news and bad news.
[00:04:25] The bad news is you're, you are not going to be like them. You're not going to do what they do or have what they have. But the good news is, the good news here is you're not supposed to be like them. You don't need to be like them. The person who will buy from you, the ideal client, if you want to call it that, they, they will be drawn to you, not them, because you have your own mix of experience, your own faith story, your own strengths.
[00:04:58] The goal is not to be like them. [00:05:00] The goal is to be like you. The goal is just not mass appeal. If your product is for everyone, it's usually for no one.
[00:05:10] There's a little story here where I interact with, uh, other. Therapists in the course creation business, and they're always surprised when I am very generous with like, my thoughts, my ideas, and my promotion of their material. They're like, you're not like other people. You know, other people try to like, keep all the pie for themselves and they don't promote other services that are like them.
[00:05:38] And to me it's like, I. We're not though alike, the people that would buy from you and your product creation, course creation services probably wouldn't buy from me because they aligned themselves with who you are and your story. And there was, there was somebody I was talking to that [00:06:00] was, um, uh, she had a connection for, I think it was for like women. They, she wanted to help women create courses because of the kids or other family responsibilities and they couldn't get away. I'm like, I could help those people, but they are more likely going to identify with you and your situation, what you went through. Then my situation and wanting to provide.
[00:06:31] Ease of access for therapy services for people, as well as connecting the right therapist or the right service with the right person. Due to my situation and my family's situation, my story's gonna talk to other people in a way that your story won't, and your story's gonna talk to people. In a way.
[00:06:49] Definitely my story won't connect with them. . ~It's like, in the book, uh, infinite Game or No Leaders Eat Last, or is it the Infinite Game? Shoot. I've read too many books. I think it's the Infinite Game where he talks about how Microsoft and Apple, um, apple was.~
[00:06:52] ~Apple was I'm gonna have to cut this part out.~
[00:06:52] ~How do I save this?~
[00:06:52] ~All right. Cut out the infinite game stuff.~
[00:06:52] My mentality about products and competition is more like the miracle on 34th [00:07:00] Street. Uh, Santa Claus where he wanted his goal was to delight children and to give the gifts that would, that were the best for the family and the kid. And while he still worked for, uh, I think it was Macy's, he sent people to other department stores to get toys.
[00:07:22] I always loved that idea, like he knew hi. His goal was to serve the children and my goal when I support other people or talk about other services that are like mine. Is I want people to find the right service for them. I'm gonna connect with people they won't connect with, and they're gonna connect with people I won't connect with.
[00:07:44] And I feel like there are so many people wanting these types of services that we don't need to fight each other for the, for the best ones, because my best ones are not your best clients. And your best clients are not my best clients. [00:08:00] It's a different mindset. It's the miracle on. It's the Miracle on 34th Street mentality.
[00:08:08] And, um, I just, that's just my philosophy that, that you can serve people better than me who identify with you and I can serve people that don't identify with you. ~Oh man. There's gonna be so much editing in this.~
[00:08:22] ~So we know who we can serve. We know that we can serve them the best and we know what product is that we're going to serve. So let's need, let's, uh, use that for a pricing and product analogy. Let's return to food. 'cause I like food. Think about the last time you went out to eat.~
[00:08:22] So how does this work with creating clarity on product and price? Let's go to a food analogy. You know, I like food. You like food, we all have to eat. I hope it's a great analogy for you. So think about somebody who's hungry for Italian. The hunger is the problem that starts them searching for a solution.
[00:08:45] Now, there are many ways to solve this hunger for Italian food. You have the pizzeria. You have a diner that serves Italian dishes. You have a chain restaurant like Olive Garden, and then you have [00:09:00] the high-end a hundred dollars plate Italian restaurant. ~All of them serve Italian food.~
[00:09:05] All of them serve Italian food. All of them feed the hungry people, but they are not the same experience. ~These exper, ~these restaurants are aimed at different people. They're aimed at people, different needs and different expectations.
[00:09:22] These restaurants do not solve the same problem. They're solving different problems for different clients with different needs.
[00:09:35] For example, if I'm, uh, going on a date with my wife, my lovely wife, Florinda, and we want a nice night out, great atmosphere and great tiramisu, which is her favorite dessert we like going to the Olive Garden. It's pricier than our usual diner meal, but it's also not the a hundred dollars plate meal.
[00:09:56] Because you know what? We are not a hundred [00:10:00] dollars plate people. Olive Garden almost always gets a five star from us. It fits who we are and what we want from that night. Now imagine I tried to pretend I was hungry for ~a hundred dollars plate kind of guy.~
[00:10:13] ~Now imagine I tried to pretend I was ~a hundred dollars plate kind of guy. This would make me feel uncomfortable. I would feel out of place and stiff. I would be thinking about the price. I would be thinking about being judged. ~It just wouldn't be us. ~It just wouldn't be us anymore. Now your products work in similar ways.
[00:10:31] ~If you can only cook dinner a, ~You don't need to be a fancy chef. You need to be at the right restaurant for the right people at the right level.
[00:10:39] ~I didn't say notice. ~I didn't say notice. I didn't say that the diner or the pizzeria was worse, a worse experience~ was worse, a ~than the five star restaurant because you are aiming your product and your price for the people who want to be there. A diner can be a five star experience for the person who's looking for [00:11:00] diner food at the diner price.
[00:11:01] ~It's the same. ~They want a different problem solved than the person who's willing to spend a hundred dollars a plate. Not, neither one of these solutions are better than the other when the right person is experiencing that solution.
[00:11:19] So here's a practical exercise I use in my, my Beyond Fully Booked webinar and in my coaching, and this is based on the Donald Miller book from Coach Builder. You grab a piece of paper. Draw a line down the middle on the left side, right? Problems on the right side, right? Possible products on the left side list.
[00:11:40] Every problem your ideal client has, you just think of. Think about where they're stuck. Where. Where do they spend their time? Where do they spend their money? Where's their emotional energy? Where are they stuck in their relationships? What is their future goals and why are they blocked? And [00:12:00] on the right side, you list every possible way you might be able to help.
[00:12:04] The key idea here is don't overthink it. Write things down like a worksheet, a handout, one hour copilot, a three session package, four week group, six month cohort. Then start drawing lines. Which product could realistically help with each problem? Not in a fan fantasy world where everything goes perfect, but in your real world, in your real experiences with your actual skills, with your actual schedule, you're basically building a menu
[00:12:37] remember, a specific product that solves a specific problem will always be more attractive than a vague well, we'll figure it out as we go.
[00:12:49] So now you might have a product, but let's start talking about price for a second, because I didn't get this right at the beginning. My [00:13:00] first pricing mistake was simple. I devalued what I offered, and I charged way too little. I think my first program was around $200, and at that price, I would've needed to sell hundreds of spots just to make a living.
[00:13:19] Now, this is very common for experts. We undervalue our experiences. We forget, you know, how long it took, how much schooling we went to, the painful mistakes we made, the nights that we spent studying and pouring over things that we wanna teach now. The right people will be grateful to learn from you.~ from you. ~From you.
[00:13:40] The right people will be grateful to learn from you. Not just anyone. Remember, we're not going for mass appeal. We're not trying to be everything to every person for every product.
[00:13:51] I've,
[00:13:51] James Marland: I've talked about this before. It's a boat trip analogy. If you offer a boat trip, no one is going to pay a premium ~tr ~price.
[00:13:58] You're just, it's a, just a trip into [00:14:00] the water. If you offer a boat trip from ~New ~New York to England, then the people who want to go on that specific journey and live near New York are gladly gonna pay more than just a boat trip. So when you're making your product, don't just offer a boat trip to no, offer a specific product that is a clear journey from their crisis to their oasis.
[00:14:22] They're gonna get exactly what they need. They're gonna get the help they need. They're going to be grateful. And they'll pay you for it. That it's not just help a foggy help, like we serve food at the restaurant or we offer boat trips. It's a journey to somewhere people are willing to pay for that.
[00:14:43] People are going to invest in things that get them to where they want to go. Now, in the business setting, people are willing to invest where they see a potential return on investment. If somebody believes that they can make their money back and more, [00:15:00] they will pay more. Now, what if you're selling something outside of business?
[00:15:05] Outside of business, people will pay for meaningful results that impact their life. Things like saving time, reducing frustration, rebuilding relationships, ~help protecting their health, health, ~protecting their health, improving marriage or family life. Gaining a skill that matters to them. Like piano, ~you know, ~gardening guitar, parents will help.
[00:15:27] Parents want to help for their newborn to sleep. People want to learn languages, cook better meals, manage their anxiety. Whatever your niche is, your product needs to create that clear, tangible value. We don't just offer support, we tell them. Where they are going to go, what the oasis they're going to get to.
[00:15:51] What are they wasting their money on? What are they afraid of? What are they insecure about? What's causing them physical pain? What's causing them [00:16:00] emotional pain? The stronger this pain is.
[00:16:03] The clear result you can promise, the easier it is to price your product with confidence.
[00:16:09] ~So I take people who want to earn money.~
[00:16:09] ~So I take therapists from not having any product at all and earning all their money from the time that they spend in their calendar to developing products that can.~
[00:16:09] ~My brain~
[00:16:09] ~had the words, now they're gone. I have such a headache.~
[00:16:09] ~Oh, replace it. Okay.~
[00:16:09] I wanna be clear about this being paid well for what you do helps you continue your mission. Businesses that can't keep the lights on they just stop functioning.
[00:16:22] If your practice or your coaching work can't sustain you, you're eventually gonna have to stop. It's not in your client's best interest for you to be poor. It's not in your best interest for you to be exhausted, and it's certainly not in your client's best interest for you to be poor and exhausted. You can't pour out from an empty bank account.
[00:16:44] You can't give water from an empty cup charging. Well, for real, help lets you stay in the field longer. It lets you care for the people God has already put in your life. This is not greed. This is why [00:17:00] stewardship, the business that stays in business can help more people.
[00:17:04] ~Ugh, these transitions,~
[00:17:04] ~which leads us to, ~which leads us to, I hate selling. You know, many helpers hate selling. Therapists get stuck here. Helpers get stuck here. Ministry~ Ministry leaders get stuck here. Stuck. ~leaders get stuck here because selling kind of feels icky, but selling looks very different. Once you have clarity on your people, their problem and the product, they're not forcing random people into a program.
[00:17:28] You're not manipulating them with slick marketing. You're doing something much simpler, much better. You're just announcing to people that you can help them. You say, I see your problem. I know how to help you. Here's the product that I use to help people. Would you like to join?
[00:17:49] That's not selling or manipulative. That's not pressure. Serving you are serving people by offering your product and the right people are gonna be [00:18:00] so grateful that you decided to step out and offer that product. So let's end with a simple activity. Think What is the one problem that your people talk about the most? That you could turn into a clear product by the end of 2026?
[00:18:19] It's a product that solves a specific problem for a specific person in a specific timeframe for a specific price. You don't need 10 offers. You don't need a funnel or a perfect funnel. You just start with one product that fits who you are, who they are, and what they truly need.
[00:18:42] For example, my flagship product is a six month cohort for therapists. So I help therapists take what they know and who they want to help and turn it into a product that can replace some of their in-person hours with a different income flow stream. It's [00:19:00] simple and it works. I.
[00:19:01] It's what I'm talking about in the podcast. Over six months, we brainstorm the problem that we can solve. Then we create a product that fits their life and values. Then we launch the product in a seal and simple way and learn from the process so that we can launch it again. I also have the 12 month version where we run that process twice because the first product.
[00:19:27] Is often the test version. We need to learn things, and the second product can also be the test version. We're little scientists, but you gotta launch and often you don't launch without the support of a group or a coach. It's not magic, it's just working. Working the steps of the problem with support, accountability, and a group.
[00:19:50] And now if you'd like help thinking through this, I'd love to talk with you. You can check out my Scaling Therapist cohort page. And [00:20:00] there's a link there to set up an appointment with me. There's also gonna be a link in the show notes. There you can see, I can ask you questions about your goals and your resources and who you wanna serve and get, ~get.~
[00:20:12] You started with a plan that whether you work with me or not, you can, uh, have it for when you're ready to work. 'cause people aren't always ready right at the time. If you're curious about what your next steps could like look like and you want more information about income flow with, ~uh, ~less burnout, book that free call.
[00:20:31] There's no pressure, no hard sell. I want you to get started on your mission, whether it's with me this year, in 2026, or with somebody else later at a date.
[00:20:42] I just don't want you to put your, you know, have this great idea to help people and never get it. Never start working on it. That's one of the, the great things I'm fighting against is all these great ideas, dying in desk drawers of therapists who can help a bunch of people.~ I'm your host, James Marland. I want you to remember, you are not meant to live forever on the maxed out, fully booked road. You can build your products that.~
[00:20:59] ~Take two.~
[00:20:59] ~Ending take two. Thanks so much for listening to, ~thanks [00:21:00] for listening to the Scaling Therapist podcast. I want you to walk away with this note. You were not meant to live on this maxed out. Energy drained, fully booked path forever. You can only grind so much. ~You can start building products that serve people and serve your life.~
[00:21:17] You can build products that serve people and serve your life. When you're ready, I'm here to help. We'll see you next time. ~ i. I want to say this clearly, you're not wrong for, okay, so~
[00:21:26] ~I.~
[00:21:26]
