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Money Focused Podcast
Helping ordinary people, become extraordinary with MONEY! Each weekly episode is packed with actionable tips, expert insights, and real-world advice to help you grow financially and take control of your future. Whether you’re just starting out or looking to level up your wealth, you’ve found the perfect place. Get ready to transform your financial journey, one episode at a time!
Money Focused Podcast
EP 72 - How Value Based Pricing Can Transform Your Business
What if using value-based pricing could completely change your business? In this episode, my guest, Melinda Colon, shares how she went from working in corporate America to becoming a successful entrepreneur. We discuss how switching from hourly billing to value-based pricing helped her increase revenue and align better with her clients. This conversation covers the mindset shifts needed for offering high-ticket services, finding clients who share your values, and how having a clear purpose can drive business growth. You'll also learn the importance of communication, staying ahead of competitors, and how flexible business strategies can help you succeed. If you're looking to refine your pricing or thinking about making the leap to entrepreneurship, this episode offers valuable insights to take your business to the next level.
📺 You can watch this episode on Moses The Mentor's YouTube page and don't forget to subscribe: https://youtu.be/IWyUZyVZ9lo
🎯Connect with Melinda Colon @melindacolon_ on Instagram and visit her website melindacolon.com
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Welcome back to the Money Focus Podcast. I'm your host, moses the Mentor, and on today's episode, I'm excited to welcome on the show Ms Melinda Colon. She's here to really change the way you view how to price your products and services. Melinda is a master of high ticket offers or value-based pricing. It has helped businesses win millions of dollars in government contracts. She's also known for her success in turning services into premium experiences that generate incredible results. So if you're ready to make a bigger impact, learn more and have fun doing it, you're in the right place. So let's dive in All right. Thank you so much for joining Money Focus podcast. Really appreciate your time today. Go ahead and just start us off with a little bit about yourself, your career journey and, ultimately, how you started your business. So the floor is yours.
Speaker 2:Thank you so much for having me here, moses, and thank you to your audience. So my career journey began in corporate America, where I spent two decades learning the ins and outs of business, marketing, client management, and what really pushed me to start my own business was the realization that many companies were tapping into their full potential, especially when it came to pricing their services, and I saw businesses underselling themselves, charging for time instead of value and leaving money, a lot of money, on the table, and that's what drove me to build my business and help other entrepreneurs and business owners scale through value-based pricing and strategic marketing entrepreneurs and business owners scale through value-based pricing and strategic marketing.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I mean, that's such a paradigm shift for folks because you know, typically, when we're talking about, you know selling our services, you're thinking of you know hourly, you know saying that you're thinking about a job or something like that. So how did you, you know, come about to really get into this value-based pricing model? I mean, is this something that personally happened in your career or as you transition into entrepreneurship? How did you uncover this model?
Speaker 2:Well, the truth is is that I started my business freelancing after 13 years leading corporate and starting my business in that hourly way and I was like there is no way I can make my corporate salary working hourly. It's just not going to happen. Scaling was impossible. In corporate I was responsible for a lot of strategic building, sales, modeling, so to come into an entrepreneur world where the sky's the limit, I'm like I'm limited. Why am I limited? It was because of hourly pricing, and soon I really put the pieces together and realized that it did not make sense.
Speaker 2:For where I was in my business and in my career, I had already established the skills and talents that I needed and I was already an expert. I just needed to start charging that way because I wasn't focused on the light items of solving one problem. I was solving major multi-million, multi-billion dollar problems for my clients, like many of my clients do, and because of that really made me think about value-based pricing. Whereas hourly is just you're just exchanging a whole lot of time for a little month or competitive pricing, it's the same thing, kind of just chasing the zero right, you're just going down the funnel to zero. In any other pricing model, value-based pricing is fair because it's delivering on the expectation that you're going to transform the person's life in business.
Speaker 1:That definitely sounds great and I'm sure we're going to unpack some strategies and just curious you know what's the market today when it comes to landing? You know high ticket offers, and is it a viable strategy for entrepreneurs to really jump into when it?
Speaker 2:comes to building your business with private clients. That is a name of the game value-based privacy. You hear high ticket offers. You hear that often in the marketplace. Now, it's pretty much the same.
Speaker 2:Right, we're thinking about the end result for that client, opposed to thinking, well, what's the line item I can check off on the list, right? What's the end result that they truly want and they desire? Is it finishing the entire book or is it editing a transcript? Right, a manuscript? There is a difference. So how do you package it? How do you speak their language and how do you deliver on their perceived value? Not your perceived value as a deliverer, as the partner in business, a client's perceived value, a customer's perceived value, even your partner's perceived value like the affiliates. Right? Those are all ways that you can change and shift your perspective on what you deliver to the marketplace. So, if it's not in demand, right, why are we building it? Why are we spending time building something that's not in demand? It goes back to that very famous, simple, you know, phrase is like supply and demand. Right, you supply what's in demand. That is it, and it has to be the foundation of a good, healthy business.
Speaker 1:Just curious. You know what type of mindset does a person have to have? You know that you're really about to go into business and you know take the advice that you provide, as far as you know providing high ticket offers and shying away from traditional pricing models.
Speaker 2:This is where I lose people. Right, Because when I start, I mean I'm a strategist so I can come up with business ideas, marketing strategies that are just like they're advanced, right, and people and people get it right. People who are in that world get it. People who are getting venturing into it. They don't get it because they're struggling with their own perceived value, how they buy into what they do. What they perceive is that they do is valuable, Thinking that, well, I have competition, so I need to stay small. Or well, I'm not good as, or I don't look like, or I don't have a big following. None of that matters to your client, because all that matters is you can deliver transformation. Can you deliver transformation with integrity? Yes, Then you can have the value based rights, you can have a high ticket offer. So the mindset is everything. Everything Like in business is everything.
Speaker 2:When I talk to entrepreneurs who are, you know, in the six figure range because I have a program to help them go from zero to six, six figures they often get. They struggle with that high ticket offer creation because they have told themselves what they're valued at. And, specifically, when you're coming from a nine to five corporate world, whatever, where there's hourly tied to their paycheck and they think, oh well, I'm only worth twenty five dollars an hour, only worth eight dollars an hour. That is not true. That's as much as they can pay you under their business. As an entrepreneur, as a business owner, you are worth way more than that, exponentially more so it's just it's I call it corporate residual. If you're coming from corporate into entrepreneurship, it's like this residual mindset of, I'm afraid, right, Like I'm scared of just about everything to stand out, to speak up, to be a brand, to be different, to say that I'm an expert Someone's going to find me out like just all of those mindset barriers and none of it's true. Like none of it's true. All the client cares about is can you deliver on what you say you're going to deliver?
Speaker 2:And what's really cool is that once you can find someone who is passionate about what they do, oh man, people will just flock to you. They'll just flock to you when you can talk about what they do. Oh man, people will just flock to you. They'll just flock to you when you can talk about what you could do. Or then they just flock to you because they're attracted to your energy, they're attracted to what you bring to the table of the room and it's exciting to them. And so it's really about just changing what we think of ourselves Because we were created perfect. God created us perfectly. We just changing what we think of ourselves Because we were created perfect. God created us perfectly. We just have to believe it for ourselves, Because we're the only ones that don't believe.
Speaker 1:That's deep and that's what can keep people from that abundance that they may be destined for. But if you're just going to stay in that mindset a lot, it's really pretty much you'll stay there pretty much because the mind is going to control everything that you're doing. I think for sure. For me personally, I had a mindset of, hey, I want this to be attainable for everybody. You know, I want everybody to get this knowledge. I want everybody to be able to tap in. And you know, the more and more I've been out here and promoting my services, I realized that you know people that are ready for it, like they have the mindset to really want to grow in real estate or investing. They'll find a way to to pay me.
Speaker 1:But the ones that are really passive and make this rather go to a concert or go to a game. You know that it's funny. You know the prices are too high when it's for a service like mine in some cases, but you can find the money to go to, you know, a Beyonce concert, for example. You see what I'm saying. So the value is there. People can find a way to pay. They just have to. You know, see your value. So, instead of being upset because I'm not going to lie to you. I've had times where I'm like, wow, you know what, you know, why would someone want to support me? I think what I've come to grow to understand is it's just not my client, you know, just not. You know, because this is what it is. You might be a friend of mine, you might be a coworker of mine, you might be family, you know, but that doesn't necessarily mean that you're the right person for me and my business is the right person to pay.
Speaker 2:Right person and the right person at the right time. Sometimes you know it's like you know, so I talk, I'm Christian, I'm a black girl and I like to talk about Jesus every once in a while. Right, Just bringing them to the message. But in the Bible, how many times does God remind us of who he is? Sometimes the sheep still need to hear it over and over and over again in their journey. It may not be the right time yet it might be the seed that's planted, because they have to first just relinquish what they have been believing for so long, subconsciously, so that they can step into a new identity. And that takes time. And every time we see that, when we level up what happens, it takes time. And every time we see that, when we level up what happens, you know relationships are, you know, rocky ground and our way of looking at ourselves is different. And you know, maybe their money is fluctuating up and down, Like just so many things go on and we think this is not the way. No, that is actually the opposite. It is the way in order to get to where you need to go. It is something we have to talk about.
Speaker 2:Faith, right? Whatever you believe in, do you have faith that you can accomplish the thing, or do you want to be a drifter, like Napoleon Hill explains in Thinking Grow Rich right? Do you want to be a drifter? Do you want to go to the concert and, you know, just have all the trips and all the vacations and then dream of the Shiddha Kutta Wuddas? Or do you actually want to take the Shiddha Kutta Wuddas and make the dreams a reality? Because the faster you make the dreams a reality, the more you can enjoy all the things that you're doing right now and the more experiences that you have around them. There is this book I wanted to mention to your audience. It's called Outwitting the Devil by Napoleon Hill. Have you heard of it, Moses?
Speaker 1:No, and I'm a Napoleon Hill fan. I haven't read that one.
Speaker 2:Oh, so good, my husband and I, we like I was listening to it on a bell and I was listening to it and I was doing some things around the house and I paused and I listened to it, I put it on speaker and we my husband's a theologian and we just were like what? Like it was deep. It was a conversation with the perceived lack right, the serpent, and him saying he had to be honest and he had to say what he does in order to manipulate people. He, he loves dressers, he loves people that can't make up their mind. He loves people that say, and I don't know. He loves people that just go from work home to sit on the couch, to work home, sit on the couch. He loves that.
Speaker 2:He hates and he cannot do anything with people who have a vision, who have a definite purpose. He can't touch you. And so, because we know that to be true, we know that to be true Biblically, we know that to be true, it is our duty to take our talents and skills and serve the world and if we're not doing that in a valued price way, we're doing a disservice to our people because, in order to transform way, we're doing a disservice to our people because in order to transform them, they fucked. You know they have to pay.
Speaker 1:What would you say? You know, I know we're talking about the differences and you know the value versus hourly and why you know it's beneficial for someone to go that route. But you'd be a little bit more specific on some of the like the pros for doing value-based pricing, whether it's financial time, you know, talk us through, like, how your clients actually benefit from implementing this before, before you know going this route.
Speaker 2:I love this question so I'll give you an example. So one of my clients, ginger, she came to me and she was doing hourly pricing. She was preparing a proposal for a client and I want to say it was roughly like 10 or 15,000. And we sat down and we looked at the offer and we were trying to craft it, you know, to figure out exactly what was the result, the value that they would get out of the thing that she was doing for them, which is a lot bigger, a lot more than what she was putting out cheaper, because she was comparing it to what the market was saying that she's supposed to do. You see what I'm saying the light items, items, the description, everything. And she's like, well, honestly, I'm in when you get to this step, I'm doing all of these things and I'm like where, where is it? Where is it in the offer? And she hadn't had that outline because she didn't see her value, her person, the perceived value of the client to the client. Does that make sense?
Speaker 2:So when we started to identify specifically how fast this client was going to make a lot of money, like eight figures in a very short period of time, and said we need to revisit this and we went from a 14 to a 70K offer. Now that's within a day of our VIP. It was a VIP client that was in within a day. She was able to sell that offer to that client and now she has that. So now she has that offer, all she has to do is look for more clients that need that offer. How easy is that? You know how easy is that. So from here it's just about marketing strategy, iterating, and that's it. So it really makes business easier.
Speaker 2:What high ticket that offers value-based pricing does is giving time and money freedom, because you're able to deliver something a lot faster. The client is happy, you're happy, everybody's happy, time value the price is more expensive, but it's only because you think it's more expensive. If you outweigh the value the client is getting compared to what they would need to do in time, money, investment to get the result you're gonna give it to them in a couple of days, in a couple of weeks, compared to months and years, I mean it's a no brainer, it's like a no duh right. It's like I would absolutely do that, yes, so, and then the other part of that is that you're going to be working with quality clients. So I don't want to say that you know there are certain level, but there are right.
Speaker 2:There are quantity clients that know that they want to go faster, that they know what they want. A lot of clients don't know what they want and they stay stuck. They're drifting. If you want to stay with drifting clients, you're going to get drifting at prices. If you want to work with faster, more efficient, more, higher level thinking clients, you're going to go higher, you're going to go faster. So it's all about how you're attracting the right audience, the right client, and then you start to attract even more because you're at that level. It just makes it easier for you to get there.
Speaker 1:That's huge. The last part, as far as attracting quality clients, I think that is huge. And it's not to insult anyone because, just using me for an example, if someone 10 years ago had said, hey, you want to buy a rental property, I would have been like, eh, you know I would have been hesitant. But as years went on, and I, you know I researched and you know I would have been hesitant. But as years went on, and I, you know, I researched and you know I was doing things listening to podcasts, reading books, and I was, you know, scratching the surface. But then when I got in it, I'm like, OK, I'm addicted.
Speaker 1:So same person, but my mindset evolved over time. So I went from being one of those quantity folks to a quality person, to where I've paid for, you know, programs to help me better understand real estate before I became an expert myself. So it's not to insult who you are overall, it just might be where you are today, you know. So my quality today requires me to work with people who can take the knowledge that I have and apply it. Then they can create these success stories and then tell other people. Versus, people will buy a course or buy a product and then they sit it on the shelf because they're not ready to take action. So I love that.
Speaker 2:So good that's. The thing is that everybody everyone has an opportunity to a level. It's a decision you can, you like, we all attract what we are. So if we are feeling stuck or overwhelmed, stressed, we're going to attract clients that are stuck, overwhelmed, stressed. We're gonna attract clients that are stuck, overwhelmed and stressed. If we are higher level thinking of efficiency and systems, I mean you could create a system, a productized system in your service business. That is gold to so many clients because they're like I don't have to think about what's next and you, the expert is going to solve it for me and my business. That's the thing your clients are desiring. And when you elevate, like you said, your perfect example is like when you elevate, you need to transform by paying, investing into the next thing.
Speaker 1:Yeah, which kind of rolls into my next question. Investing into the next thing yeah, which kind of rolls into my next question. People will say, well, hey, moses, melinda, you know, you guys, if I increase my prices I'll price myself out the market. You know I won't get any customers to even start. You know how do you address that head on when you meet new people that will challenge you, saying you know, let's go to high ticket offer route.
Speaker 2:When I'm working with clients, the first call, the first conversation I have with them is I address all of their objections. We get all of them now, and that's one of the most favorite ones that pop up in people's minds is I'm going to lose my existing clients if I transition to a ticket offer. They're'm going to lose my existing clients if I transition to my ticket offer. They're not going to want to pay this. They can barely pay the invoices. Now it's the messaging, it is how you package it, it is how you deliver it, it is explaining and conversing to find out what they actually need beyond the thing that you're doing right now. Now, I'm not saying it's going to be perfect for everybody, but you're going to weed out those that you're not called to serve, like it's just they're going to have to take a minute. Okay, I'll come back to you. Can you keep delivering on the thing? Absolutely, but what they're going to see is they're going to see other people getting great results fast. They're going to see testimonial after testimonial and oftentimes I find that those clients that were stuck at like I don't want to pay the high ticket prices because I'm not, I don't think I'm ready to do that whole transformation Often are accelerated because they are in, they're experiencing FOMO. They were missing out.
Speaker 2:You see other businesses winning. They're like maybe I should revisit that thing with Moses, because I think it's probably the right time to do that now. Or maybe, you know, they're going to get sick of the system that they're running. They're going to want to go faster, they're going to want to transform, and so it's our job. I think, like sales is the best way to serve, right, so it's our job to serve them with opportunities to transform their lives and their business. But you just keep that door open until we are ready to fully transition to high ticket. So it's not an overnight thing, it is a process. Yeah.
Speaker 1:So, when it comes to just the economy, you know in itself self right now I mean I know currently it's October 2024, you know S&P 500 is pretty much at record high, so the economy is technically doing well right now. You know the unemployment is sticking up a little bit, but you know things could change Right. So does how does high ticket offer this strategy work when companies start to feel the stresses of, you know, budgets and growth and things like that? Is this still a strategy that can work in that type of environment? Absolutely.
Speaker 2:There are different types of problems. There's problems that are kind of like an eight I'll wait a couple of weeks before I call the doctor. There's problems like a pain where my entire arm does not work and I need to go to the ER. You're going to want to solve the second one. You're not going to want to try to solve people who are feeling in pain because, like you said, the autonomy is volatile. We're going to start to see a lot more back and the expectation would be I need to be afraid. The reality is we just need to have conversations with our buyer, our clients. I call them buyers because I have an entire strategy about there's 37 buyer types, so I refer you to that.
Speaker 2:So you have to keep talking to your customers and your clients to see what is what they're dealing with, what they're experiencing, what is the top of mind thing that might be an opportunity for you to create an offer before your competitor even thinks to create something, while they're looking at the tidal wave, your head getting the surfboards in the boat. You know so like. What can you do to be ahead of the game? Is having a conversation, picking up the phone and talking to them when you're having your check-in calls. You know, finding out what's top of mind. What are you working on right now? What's your stretchers? What's keeping you up at night? You know, be on the solution. You're delivering with them.
Speaker 2:That's how you build advocacy. That's how you build rating fans, people who are like man Moses is the best, melinda is awesome, right, they are always on top of things. They solve problems before I even ask them to, because they see that it's painful. It's too painful to go on like this. So that's how you can really just continue to evolve with the marketplace. Continue to evolve with the marketplace. You know it's. It's not, it's not any different from 2024 to 2001 or, you know, anytime in 2008 and anytime in in in history. It's always about what is in demand, like what is the thing that people are saying they need desperately, and solving that problem.
Speaker 1:Sounds like you need to be agile. Yes so yeah, I'm hearing that a lot. You know, talk to us about some. It could be your personal success stories or maybe your clients that you know when they implemented this strategy. You know what are some money success stories? This is the Money Focus podcast. So you know, enlighten us on some of the successes that you have firsthand, or you know, assisted with over the course of your career.
Speaker 2:I like this question too, wow, okay. So the smallest I would say would be a five-figure day making $70,000 for one of my clients. Five-figure day making $70,000 for one of my clients. The larger would be a $1.4 billion day for one of my clients in the last four years. Wow. So I mean we've transformed people's lives and just changed the way that they do business, because we understand the marketing systems, the strategies and how to do business that is agile, it evolves right, like that's the name, and how to do business that is agile and evolves right, like that's the name of the game.
Speaker 1:Oh, that's cool. And you mentioned marketing a few times, so is there a certain way that you should market your products or services when it is high ticket versus? You know, just your normal fly by night, no persons, you know just your normal fly by.
Speaker 2:No, it's the same marketing principles. You still focus on your target market and their key points and challenges and you deliver us that solution. I mean, you know, back in corporate that's that's one of my responsibilities was making sure to to attract target markets. So it really does come down to aesthetic psychology so that they think before they even see your face oh yeah, you're for me.
Speaker 1:Right, tell us a little bit about it. Sounds like you have something going on this upcoming Thursday, which is what is this? October 16th, 17th, yeah, 17th. So yeah, tell us a little bit about what you have coming up.
Speaker 2:Well, I have a masterclass coming up and it's called GovConMillions G-O-V-C-O-N-Millionscom. It's a four-hour masterclass where I am helping business owners, entrepreneurs, create a revenue stream with government contracts, and it's a lot of fun. A lot of fun changing the world, changing our lives, and for those life-issue builders that are ready to go full throttle and grow their business exponentially, come on in, happy to have you.
Speaker 1:Government contracts. What type of government contracts?
Speaker 2:US government contracts. What type of government government contracts? Us government contracts? Federal, state, local government contracts? So I mean just anything, anything that the government buys, which is just about everything. That's what we talk about. Yeah, it's fine, wow.
Speaker 1:How can someone sign up they?
Speaker 2:go to GovConMillionscom. We start at we startvconmillionscom. We start at we start general mission 10 am and the VIP starts at 9 am, eastern Standard Time, and y'all, if you become a part, if you join VIP, let me tell you something If you have any questions related to your business and government contracts, you got to be the guy. It like is this it only makes sense. It only makes sense. Now we go. I drop a lot of secret sauce in general mission, like a lot People usually say man, you're getting too much away. I just can't help it. I'm a servant hearted person. Like I want you guys so fast, like, stop with the objections, just go and do it. The money is there. It's literally, literally for you. Like, it's literally for you. So we just got to go get it.
Speaker 1:Well, you know, I definitely love government, but I'm, so you have a section main investor, so you know that that works. I'm going to have to get more information from you, so appreciate that. So what, what final thoughts or advice would you have for someone who is, you know, maybe in the nine to five world today and they're looking to start a business or start a service, freelance, whatever it may be and they're concerned about value-based pricing, like they're not really getting their value? What would you say to someone who wants to start that type of business? And you know, floor is yours, I appreciate it.
Speaker 2:All right. So real talk, yellow that earth. I want you to ask yourself something, Right? So real talk, yellow that earth. They can buy. I want you to ask yourself something. I want you to ask yourself what would you buy If you could go fast, Like if you could go extremely fast in your life?
Speaker 2:What would you buy If you could figure out all of the steps, the solutions, the systems, the processes, everything? What would it be? And I'm sure you would come up with something. That's exactly what your buyers are thinking. How can I go fast? How can I save money? How can I save time on what's already going to happen? Time is already going to pass.
Speaker 2:So you get to decide whether or not you live your life the way you're living it or you transform. And guess what? I'm going to tell you this it's a lot easier than you believe, right? You just have to shift your beliefs. That's the only thing. Nothing is in your way. In fact, everything is held up for you, not against you. It's just because, right now, your perspective for where you are down here needs to go up here. Once you're up here, my friends, I mean you go higher. You can see the entire valley for where you are and enjoy and celebrate the journey, because it'll be that much sweeter, You'll be so much stronger and you'll have a lot more to give the people you're called to serve. So just think about what you would deliver and what would you buy and just go out and deliver that so that you can buy the thing you want.
Speaker 1:Well said, well said. And before you go, tell us, tell the audience, how we can stay in touch with you, website, social media, you know. Go ahead and give us a list of that so we can make sure to continue to talk.
Speaker 2:Oh, I got it easy for you. So go to Melindacalonecom forward slash gift. Melindacalonecom slash forward slash gift. I'll make sure to give moses that link and you'll be able to connect with me all over the interwebs, find out what's going on in my world, so you can go to masterclasses, whichever ones I I have going on, or even see me at a speaking event. So yeah, melindatalonecom forward slash gifts.
Speaker 1:Perfect, and I'll definitely include that in the show notes. So again, melinda, thank you so much for joining the show you.
