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