How To Fix "The Struggle To Charge What You're Worth" As An Online Coach or Trainer

Today's video is specifically for those who are struggling to charge what they're worth. To charge higher prices for their service online. And I'm going to take you through what's holding you back. The number one reason why you may have to discount. The number one reason why you aren't able to charge really what you know in your heart, what you're worth, what your services are worth. And the number one reason that most coaches have so much knowledge, it can transform people's lives, but end up charging next to nothing for the services and still have people complain about it's too expensive. Or can I get a discount? Or I don't have the money this week. Can I pay you next week? And you're continually chasing people for money, continually chasing bad debt. People who owe you money and it's soul crushing when you know you're worth more and you're already charging less and you still have those problems.

And you're probably sitting there thinking... If that's you, you're probably sitting there thinking Chris, well, I already charge lower than I know I should. I already charge lower than what I know other people do, but I still have people cancel. I still have people say, "That's too expensive." I still have people say they can't afford it. Or they can't pay this week. How the hell am I ever going to be able to charge more if when I'm charging lower, I still get those issues?

Now the solution to this problem, this is the cause of a deeper problem. What you are seeing are the symptoms of a deeper cause. It is not you. All right. If you're a completely beginner, know nothing coach trainer, can't really help anyone, whatever it might be, yes, you need to charge what you are worth at a lower rate than someone's who's got crazy results, knows what they're doing, has massive credibility. So on and so forth. Of course, you need to charge what you are worth.

But I would say 99% of the times, there are amazing coaches out there who are charging way under what they're worth. And they see other coaches out there that are not even half as good as them charging way more than them. And it kind of is soul crushing for them. So to be able to charge what you're worth, there's actually two sides to this equation. One, you need to know how to... There's an internal issue and there's an external issue that you need to fix.

Now I'll start with the external issue that you need to fix. Now you can be an amazing coach. You can have all the education in the world. You can be phenomenal. You can have the IQ of an astronaut. All of this sort of stuff, but ultimately when you aren't able to charge what you're worth it is because you are unable to communicate your value. You're unable to market your value effectively to your prospect. So they understand your worth.

Now I'll give you a little story. If I rewind 15 years ago, I came out of university, which is a bachelor of science in sports nutrition, in nutrition science. And I thought, cool, I'm going to get a degree. I'll come out of the degree and I'll be a highly educated coach and I'll be able to get jobs easy. I'll be to get clients easy. So and so forth. I came out. Yeah, on paper I had degrees. I knew lots of stuff. I knew lots of book stuff, whatever it might be and I struggled to even get a consistent flow of clients. I struggled to even get a handful of clients, low paying clients. When there was coaches and trainers out there that had half the education of me and they were killing it. And I'm like this sucks. Maybe it's because I don't have enough education. Maybe I don't have enough commas after my name. I don't have enough plaques on the wall. That must be the issue.

And so I actually went back to university and while I was still working, I went back part-time and I thought I need more education. I need more credibility. And I went and studied a masters. I'm like once I get my masters, that must be when I'll hit the glory land. The paradise. While I was doing my masters, I finished my masters. Sorry. And while I was doing that, I started reading books about PR and all this sort of stuff because I'm like, maybe I need to get in magazines, or maybe I need to get on TV, or maybe I need to get on radio. And then I'll get this crazy credibility and then clients will start flocking to me and paying me crazy amounts.

I started reading books on it. I spent a lot of time on it, contacting staff doing all of this techniques that these books were telling me. I got articles published in Men's Health Magazine. I got articles published in the biggest newspapers circulation in Australia. I got on a couple of news shows doing reviews of stuff. And lo and behold, still crickets. Still struggling to get clients. And I was at a stage where I'm like, it's got to be more education. That's got to be the problem. I don't have enough credibility.

And so I was this close to hitting the button and enrolling to get my doctorate, going back to university, spending another hundreds of thousands of dollars. Another couple of years. I thought once I become a doctor, then everything will go next level. And I met my first mentor at the time and he's like, "Chris, you have no idea how to communicate your value. So no one even knows all of this stuff. You may become a doctor. You may get more education, duh, duh, duh, duh. But you don't know how to communicate that. You don't know how to communicate that value. So no one sees any of that of value. So getting more of that, isn't adding any more value. Your true problem is your inability to communicate. Your inability to market yourself. So people see you as high value. You are of high value, but you can't communicate and you can't market. So people see you as low value."

And I was like, "Hmm." And he was like, "Man, I have half the degrees, half the knowledge that you do and I probably charge 10 times what you do. Why do you think that is?" And I sat back and I was almost a bit taken back and a little bit offended by it. And I kind of put my ego aside, sat down that night and I'm like shit, everything he's saying points to be real. All the problems I've got, all of the things that he's able to do and I'm not so on and so forth. And it wasn't until I then went, okay, well I need to not learn more about training, get more education, and get more plaques, and get more letters after my name or doctor in front of my name. I need to educate myself on how to communicate and how to market myself.

And so I went head first into that. I ignored the doctorate. I'm so lucky I did. I dodged that bullet. Not saying if you become a doctor, it's a bad thing or whatever. If you are amazing, good work. But me in my life there, I turned left rather than turning right. Turning right would've been a couple more years at university, even more debt. Would've come out, become a doctor, had a doctorate and I still would've been broke and I still wouldn't have been able to get clients. And then I would've been even more frustrated. I turned left and got my doctorate in marketing and communication and everything went from there.

And now looking back at it I'm like I shouldn't have even done my masters. I should have done this even earlier. Ability to communicate and market yourself as a high value person. Tell people easily and communicate how much value you have and how much worth you have. So when they see you, they're like, ah, that person, that trainer, that coach is amazing because of X, Y, Z, ABC. and then they're like I want to work that guy. And alternatively, the other dudes...

I ended up working for a business to cut my teeth and learn the marketing side of things. We hired someone that went down and got their doctorate, who would've been like me and that guy got paid pennies because he couldn't communicate, he couldn't market. He had a doctorate. That would've been me in five years time if I had gone down that path. And he actually reported to me and I actually hired him and every day I was like God, I dodged that bullet because he couldn't get a job. He couldn't get clients. So he ended up getting paid pennies, because that's all he could get because he couldn't communicate and he couldn't market.

It's very, very critical. The point being is don't think you need to do more kettlebell training. You need to do more HIIT training. You need to get this new certification. You need to get that. You need more time to duh, duh, duh, duh. No. You need to become better at communicating and marketing yourself as a high value person. And when people understand that they see you as a high value person, they chase you. They're happy to pay you high prices. It sets you apart from the rest of the market. You become up here and everyone else is down there. But if you just get education, more education and you can't communicate that no one knows and no one cares and sees why that's a value, you're going to be down here with just more degrees and more debt. Point one.

Point two is an internal. That's the external. The internal component here is you need to believe your value. Now I speak to so many people who are like, "Chris, I've done this. I do that. I've won these comps. I change people's lives. I've got all these testimonials." And I'm like, "All right, how much do you charge?" And they're like, "Bum." And I'm like, "Geez, that's really, really low." And they're like, "Yeah, I know Chris. I know I should be worth more. I really know in my heart I'm worth 10 times that. And I know other people who are half as good as me who are charging more than me, but I just can't do it. It just doesn't work. No one wants to pay me that, duh, duh, duh, duh."

And the true reason is they don't believe in their own value. And it is wrong to hope that someone else will believe in your value when you don't believe in your own value. It is an internal blockage around money and around personal value. And whether that's self-esteem driven, whether that's confidence driven, whether that's experience driven there is a roadblock that a lot of us have that we need to break to break the shackles to go to the next level. To go to the level that they should be at and should realise, and success, and the impact, and the reach that they should be at already. And they have everything else around them but these shackles is what's holding them back. And that's the shackle of being unable to realise their true own value.

Once you realise your own true value, it is very easy to get other people to. Once you believe in yourself, it's very easy to get other people to believe in you, but it's impossible to get other people to believe in you when you do not believe in yourself. And think about it, if this has ever happened to you. And this is a signal that you may have an issue around this. When you speak to a prospect and you give a price, you're speaking a prospect and you're like this person's really keen. This is really, really good. And in your head you're like, I'm worth X. And then when you get to that last little pitch and they're like, "Okay, this sounds good. What's the price?" And you end up discounting yourself and as you're saying it, you got this cringe inside like, oh, I know I should say this price, but I'm just going to say a little bit lower because I really need this client or whatever it might be. And you kind of cringe as you say it, because you know that you are devaluing yourself.

If that's ever happened to you or it's still happening to you, or you say your price and you're like yeah, but I've got a special today. Or the final one is you say your price and you say, "Hey, this is how it works. This is the price." And you keep talking and you fill the silence. And if they don't say something straight away, you say, "Oh yeah, but also I could do this." That is a symptom of you not having belief in your own value. If any of those three things have happened to you currently or have happened to you in the last week, month, year, this is a shackle you need to break. Otherwise, you'll never realise your true value.

You can have all the right systems in place. You can have all the right marketing in place, but if you don't work on your internal blockage, you always have those shackles holding you back. Now there's a couple exercises that I've got that are absolutely amazing. The two things, A, the external issue, that being the marketing, the communication stuff, I can definitely help you with that. If you have issues around that, reach out to me, [email protected], that's .C-O. Or you can Facebook message me Chris Lynton.

Two, the internal blockage. I've got a couple of amazing exercises around that, that will help flip the switch, break those shackles and take your... This is not about becoming a super ego. It's not about thinking you are the Tony Robbins of the world, and you're going to go around and start beating your chest and being a bit of a wanker. That's not what this is about. This is about you are here. You're in this world for a reason, you're on this planet for a reason. To change lives, to help people and your value is here. Your true value. But for whatever reason you are down here. I'm not talking about if your true value's here being a bullshitter, and scamming people, and trying to raise your value way above what you actually truly are. I'm actually talking about hitting your true value, realising your true value, realising your true impact, realising how powerful you truly are.

Because there's nothing more crushing in life, knowing that you're better. Knowing deep down inside, and being truthful. There's some people that think that they're amazing and really they're crap. That's a different story, but there's nothing worse than being actually really good and knowing deep down inside, and being honest with yourself, but never actually getting to where you should be. Never realising your true value. There's nothing worse than that.

So I've got some amazing exercises on that. How to flip that switch, break those shackles. If that's an issue for you, reach out to me. We can talk about that too. That's it for me on this session. Lovely to see so many different faces. Hopefully having an amazing week, Chris Lynton from TribeFit signing out. Hit me up. There's two internal external issues so that you can start charging what you're worth, charging more and realising your true value. Cheers.