Mom Owned and Operated

Stop Undercharging & Claim Your Genius Offer with Audra King

August 08, 2022 Rita Suzanne Season 2 Episode 27
Mom Owned and Operated
Stop Undercharging & Claim Your Genius Offer with Audra King
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Show Notes Transcript

In episode of the Mom Owned and Operated podcast, Rita Suzanne and Audra King discuss raising a family, running a business and remembering yourself.

Audra (M.Ed.) is obsessed with making business building easy and accessible. She has built a 6-figure business by constantly asking herself (and her clients) "How can we make this feel fully aligned and fun?" She backs up her big-picture planning and coaching offers with a full-service agency, so you can start, pivot, and grow your business with ease. Her driving belief? When women create wealth, we make the world a better place.

You can find Audra on her website, on Instagram, and on LinkedIn.

Follow the Fun Workshop: shelovesherbiz.com/ftfworkshop
Register for this month's workshop and purchase replays of past workshops.

Follow the Fun Self-Guided Check in: shelovesherbiz.com/ftf
Complete this check in to help you understand where you are at in your business and to get personalized feedback from Audra on a burning question.

Listen to more interviews by visiting momownedandoperated.com and apply to work with Rita at ritasuzanne.com/apply/

Rita Suzanne
Transform your business into a predictable income machine by crafting an irresistible brand.

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Listen to more interviews by visiting momownedandoperated.com and apply to work with Rita at ritasuzanne.com/apply/

SPEAKERS

Rita Suzanne, Audra King


Rita Suzanne  00:01

Welcome to the mom owned and operated Podcast, the podcast about moms and for moms, where we have candid conversations about running a business, raising a family, and remembering ourselves. I'm your host, Rita Suzanne, a single mom of four, digital strategist and provider of no nonsense business strategies and tactics. Hi, this is Rita Suzanne. And today I have my guest Audra king with me and I'm so excited to chat with you today. Audra. Please tell everyone a little bit about you, your family and your business.


Audra King  00:40

Awesome. Well, I'm so excited to be here. My name is Audra King. Like you mentioned, I run a business consultancy and agency called she loves her biz. I'm mom to a very active eight year old. And I live in the Midwest, we have two guinea pigs, they are also part of our family, and just really enjoying the entrepreneur, entrepreneur life. My agency side focuses on website and branding. But I've shifted over the past year and who hasn't shifted? Thank you COVID Over the past year, to offering more strategy and one on one coaching, and really leaning into the mantra of my business, which is follow the fun.


Rita Suzanne  01:25

Yes, I love that so much. So tell us a little bit more about that. That leaning into the fun. What how do you do that? How does one do that?


Audra King  01:36

Yeah. So you know, I think we hear so many times that you have to do this, you should do this to be successful. This is the path. And what I've realized over the years of being in online business is that there's no one path. And also you can have a beautiful vision and plan and then something changes. And we're always making micro adjustments or sometimes just completely pivoting our businesses. And so about a year and a half ago, when I was kind of wrapped up in some of these things that I was doing, and realized that I didn't even enjoy how I was running my business or what I was doing in my business. Like I thought I would, I realized if I can do this business anyway, I need to do it in a way that feels the most fun and feels the most aligned. And so that's when I really started to structure, my time and my schedule and my offers around what feels fun and what feels I like to use the word ease full, as opposed to easy, because there are things that I do in my business that no one would consider easy, but because they are aligned with how I want to be spending my time or where I want my energy to be going, they still feel really good to be to be doing. And so follow the fun kind of became an experiment for me. I've always been pretty careful with my schedule. Because I came from a crazy workload, I was a teacher for seven years, and I was working 60 to 70 hours a week. And a big thing that drove me out of teaching was how much time and energy it was taking from me and my family. So I didn't want to recreate that. But I also had to be really mindful when I decided to lean into following the fun on only doing those things that felt aligned during those hours that I have. So I usually aim to work 20 to 25 hours a week, I block off my days. So Wednesdays, I don't do any client work because I do life on Wednesdays and Fridays are flexpays where I decide where I need to put my time and energy if it's into my family if it's into my business. And then Monday, Tuesday, Thursday are really the days where I lean in to getting business things done. And I found that as I've shifted more and more towards what feels fun and aligned, I've found more and more success. I'm a nicer person, a happier person. And so I've really started to promote this idea within the work that I do with my clients and what I put out into the world, because it's been really transformational for me in my life.


Rita Suzanne  04:30

Yeah, I think it's super important. Because, you know, as I've mentioned before, a lot of times, when we start our businesses, it's like we will roll out of bed and just work, work, work, work work, and then we're just burning out. And, you know, I talked to a lot of people about burnout about business burnout. And so I think it's important for us, especially as moms who are trying to you know, raise our families and run our businesses and we still have to We remember ourselves, right? We put ourselves last all the time. And because we're not really being mindful, and I like to say that I went from having one boss to having, like, 15 bosses. That's how I designed my business to be initially. So do you have any, like tips or, you know, strategies that someone can use in order to make sure that they are not bought? You know, or that they are creating an ease, full business for themselves?


Audra King  05:31

Yeah, so one of the things I have a framework that I've created around follow the fun, but I think one of the key steps if you're just starting to, to shift into this type of mindset, one will, I'll just say, is defining what does fun mean to you like, what is a good schedule for you like, what kind of clients do you want to work with, but really productizing your services, I see so many entrepreneurs, who are offering way too many offers. And they do it because they're hungry for sales, they're hungry for clients, and I get it, I've totally been there myself. But when I started shifting my own business model, one of the key things was creating a productized suite. And when I say productize, I've got basically four criteria that successfully productized service meets, that has a clear transformation, this is the most important piece because it makes it really easy to sell that service. You have a proven process and a framework. So you've provided this service enough times where you really know what you're talking about. And you can walk people through the process before they invest with you. You get a consistent results for people. And I'm not saying you have to like you know, completely change somebody's life every time that you work with them. But you can really showcase results that you've gotten through people. And it has a predictable timeframe for delivery. And what what these four things do. Aside from making your product much easier to sell, they also make it way easier for you to manage the like back end of your business. Because you're doing the same thing over and over again, you can refine your process, you can improve your process, which is going to get better results for your clients. And you you can take a look at your schedule and understand how many of whatever can I reasonably deliver at the quality level that I want to be at because I know we all want to deliver really great results for our clients without overbooking ourselves. I think sometimes we have a hard time really understanding what it takes to deliver our services until we're in the middle. And we know overwhelmed feels like and we know what too much feels like but we don't always know like how to pace ourselves in what we're offering.


Rita Suzanne  08:02

Yeah. And I think that that leads to undercharging, basically, because you think that you can do it in X amount of time, especially when you have the multiple services. As we talked about before, like I've put myself into positions where I've had multiple offers, you know, running simultaneously. But then I recently read and when I mean read, I listened to a audio book that really opened my eyes. And you know, for years, I've always told my clients that they need to niche down and they need to do this. And but it's really hard. And I understand why people don't do it. But I listened to this book, and it's called $1 million offers. And it's on Audible. And it's by Alec, I can't remember his last name, but it's so good. It helped me to really understand the reason for niching down. And it's similar to what you just said, it's really helps you to focus in on that one thing. And you're doing that one thing really well. And his example that has stuck with me was for instance, let's say that you have a course that you want to offer, and you're going to charge $100 for this course. And it's just two nurses, right? And let's say then you have the same course the content is pretty much the same. But now you're going to take that content and you're going to market it to pediatric nurses, right and now you're going to charge $1,000 Because it's so specific and so niche down that and then if any other nurses come to you, you don't work with them, right, because your focus is on the pediatrics, you know, versus being able to serve everyone, but let's swing back around into the undercharging because I think that is so important and a topic that we need to talk about because we think that we're charging enough until we get into the project.


Audra King  10:09

Yeah, and I think that is where to having a productized service helps you avoid scope creep, which can eat into those profit margins. But I think many of us, especially if we're just starting out in business, are undercharging across the board. And I think that comes from, you know, a lot of reasons. But I think confidence and feelings of worthiness really play into that tendency, especially for women. And I would say, especially for heart centered caregivers, like what I imagine your audience is, where you want to help people, and you want to make a difference. And sometimes we forget to include what we need in that equation. And I think what has helped me become more confident in charging, for my time at a rate that is, you know, rewards me for the time and energy I'm putting out there is just one realizing there's a lot more money out in the world than I thought. I grew up in a small Midwestern town, my family didn't have a lot of money. And it took some rewiring in my brain, some rewiring of scarcity mindset, and some just opening up my understanding of what people will pay for and how how much money there is out in the world. As part of my journey towards charging more, but then I think also, as I valued my time more and my energy more and my expertise more, it became easier to communicate that value to my clients. And if you feel confident in the value that you're able to deliver and provide to people, when you get on that sales call or discovery call with them, they're going to pick up on that confidence. And it's going to make them feel like it's a safe investment. If you're not sure about yourself, or your processes, or what you're charging, your prospective clients are probably going to pick up on that. And they just want to feel safe. Because a lot of times that you know what they're investing is a big decision for them. And so the easier we can make it for people to feel confident that we're going to deliver what we're promising, the more likely they're going to be willing to pay those prices. And sometimes I hear people say just double your prices, women always under charge. But I actually don't recommend that because I think a lot of times, the problem isn't the number of dollars, the problem is the mindset that you're going into pricing at so that's something I work with my clients on, through coaching sometimes is, is how do we get to a point where it feels not just okay to charge more, but you're actually excited about what you're charging? Because you know that you're going to deliver amazing results to your clients.


Rita Suzanne  12:55

Yeah, do you have any strategies that you give them to increase slowly, because I know that one thing that I used to do, especially both of us, you know, do used to do day rates. And so when I was first starting with my day rates, I started at a low offer. And then once three people purchased, then I increase my prices. And once three people three more increased and increased and you know, and but you're there's a cap, right? Like you have to hit you hit a cap where you're like, Okay, this market is not set up for another increase. So do you have any strategies?


Audra King  13:34

Yeah, for sure. And I agree with the strategy you outlined, where I think it's totally fine to start at a lower price point, when you're first proving an offer, it teaches you things about the process that you need to know etc. But I think as soon as you start to see client results from whatever you're offering, you raise your price. And I think having a number in mind that you're working towards, is really important. And I would even recommend every time you have somebody who pays at your current price point, if you're working towards a higher price point, you need to bump it up because you've proven that someone will pay whatever and now it's time to prove that they'll pay the next one. And as far as running into stealing in terms of your audience. I think there's a couple of choices you have. One is to to fish in a bigger pond, right? So maybe four or a different pond, right. Like when I first started working with clients, a lot of clients were coming to me with a DIY mindset. And so they just they wanted the least expensive option and they wanted they always wanted to like take something out of the package to make it cheaper, etc. The clients that I work with now are they value time more than money and so they just want to know They're handing it off to someone who will get it done, who will deliver on what they promised, and they don't have to spend time and energy micromanaging. And that was a big shift for me in terms of what I could charge for my prices. And I think it also can circle back to what you were talking about before in terms of niching. down and really specializing, because I know where I'm at in my business. Now, I used to be that di wire who wanted to save money. And now I'm that person who just wants it done. And so if someone comes to me with the exact solution that I'm looking for, I'll invest more money because I feel like they're going to deliver exactly what I need, as opposed to someone else who's like, well, we could do this, or we could do that, and maybe doesn't message their offer in such a way that I'm clearly like, identifying Yes, that's what I need. And so when you are working through your offers, I think it's scary, because it feels like you're saying no to potential clients. But keep in mind that you're also saying yes to that exact client who's going to benefit the most from what you get the most pleasure out of offering,


Rita Suzanne  16:07

right. And overall, that's going to help you in the long run, because you're not going to be overwhelmed or burned out or unhappy. And, you know, we definitely don't want any of that anymore.


Audra King  16:20

Most personal culture can can die as far as I'm concerned.


Rita Suzanne  16:24

I agree. And I think that as moms like we should never like feed into that. I think that a lot of times when someone is like, you know, like a Gary Vee, who is all about hustle culture, that's great. He has a wife who takes care of his children, who does all the things for him to help support him. But if you don't have that same luxury, then you cannot compare yourself. And I always tell people this to like, you know, comparing yourself to, let's say, a huge, like marketing guru like and Amy Porterfield, who maybe come out with a thing that says, hey, build your email list? Well, her email list is crazy, you know, and so the tactics that maybe she would use would not be the same as what you could use as a new newer person, you know, so I think that that's important to remember as well.


Audra King  17:18

I agree. And I think, you know, keep in mind, too, that all of the successful people that we see, it's just a snapshot of what they want to show people. And every time I've gotten into the backend of a business that on the outside looks like they've got it all handled, and they're very polished and professional, and you're like, they must be making millions of dollars a year, you get into the back end. And you realize it's just normal people like us trying to muddle through, and they might have, you know, a larger team or more resources, but they also don't have it all figured out. And we're only seeing the polished view that they want to show the world, nobody airs their dirty laundry to the world, right. So I find that really encouraging because it means that I don't have to have it all figured out either. And what I've started doing is just doing it dirty as what I call it, but like, which sounds dirty, but like, doing it messy doing it before it's perfect. I used to be a perfectionist. And I would, I wouldn't put something out there until I thought that it was, you know, polished and ready to go. And I recently launched a workshop series where every month we'll be talking about following the fun and doing a check in on the previous month setting goals for the next month and then focusing on a topic that helps lead to more fun in business. And instead of building out an awesome platform and all of the content and going all in I decided just to do one test month. And it was just a simple form through my email service provider where people got tagged with registration. And I didn't charge for the first one. It's like how can I make this as simple as possible. So I can just see if the idea has merit, right. And so it was a big success. And I decided to move forward with it. So this month, we're putting in a few more systems and then next month, we'll add some more things to it so that I can grow in a way that isn't overwhelming because I don't have, you know, a whole month of 40 hour weeks to dedicate to building out something huge and then if it didn't land the way I hoped it would have spent all of that time and energy in a way that wasn't gonna prove to be a good return on investment.


Rita Suzanne  19:41

Yeah, and I think that that's important for people to learn. I think the so let's talk a little bit about that perfectionism thing I once read, I believe it was something about perfectionism just being a disguise for fear right so What are your thoughts on that? Because I know that especially a lot of people, introverts, especially, then, like you and I are a Rite Aid to put ourselves out there with our new thing, and maybe the best idea ever. But let's talk a little bit about that. Yeah,


Audra King  20:15

I love that. And I think you're totally right. I think it comes down to fear, fear of judgment, fear of not being good enough fear of for those of us who really care about what we're delivering, fear of not delivering on the promise that we've we've made to people. And I think, you know, what's, what's shifted, for me has been some internal work, like I work with a coach who has helped release some of that and helped me understand maybe where some of those feelings are coming from. But also, just the more time I've been in business, the more I've realized that the people who I admire aren't the people who have the most beautiful graphics, or, or even businesses that on the outside, people are gonna say, Oh, they they run a perfect business, it's the people who've taken action. And those are going to be the most successful people too. I am in a group with a lot of business owners who are much further ahead than I am, you know, the Gup million or multi million dollar businesses. And when I see who is making money in their business, and having the impact that they want to have, it's not the people, you know, pro, I forget the term, but it's basically like perfectionism as a way of forecast procrastinating. Like, I can't say the word, I'll stumble over it. But you know, it. Perfectionism keeps us from taking action. And by not taking action, we're not getting data, we're not getting results for people. And so I think at a certain point, you just have to let it go and say what I'll do what I can and, and be okay with that. And, and I will say, working with somebody who could help me kind of work through that was was really helpful for me as well. It's not something that if you haven't gotten to that point, I want anyone to feel bad about because I needed support to kind of let go of some of those feelings.


Rita Suzanne  22:13

Yeah, because I think that having a business, there is a lot of mindset work that needs to be done. And that that's something that you've mentioned a couple of times, then I know when I first started, I, my first one of my first friend, slash coaches, she told me, she said, you need help with your mindset. And I'm like, I didn't even know what that was. Right. And so I think that once we get into our businesses, we start to realize that they're the shifts that we have to make. And that's what I love about your workshop and all of the things that you're doing, because you're helping people to really see the the, even the tiny little shifts that they can make that will help them improve their business, right. And these little things, although we might, you know, we kind of probably glaze over them over and over because we've, you know, move past it, but it's so imperative and important for us to just, you know, fix the money mindset, fix the scarcity, fix the, you know, the fear, I think the fear is the biggest thing fear of judgment, fear of, you know, rejection, all of that. Is that the worst problem? So, I love that your workshop is tackling all those things. What is like the next one? What are you talking about? What is the subject matter?


Audra King  23:39

Yeah, so the next one, we're talking about offers, I'm calling it offers made easy and really diving into a little bit of what we touched on today, as far as like how do you create an offer that really serves you and what you want out of your life and business as opposed to trying to think what will someone buy? I think a lot of us start from the perspective of what can I sell that someone will buy and I want to ship that to what can I offer that serves me the best right? So that's happening and in May and then in June, we're doing an interview I'll announce that here because I know this podcast will come out in a few weeks with Liz Wilcox, who is an email marketing guru and she's got a great story about how following the fun helped her I think she made $30,000 in an offer. Through following the fun she was in a mastermind that I read last year so she'll be coming in in June and I have a link if you want to check out the workshop we have past months so even if you weren't able to catch the offer workshop if you're interested in catching the replay. You can find that at she loves her biz.com Um, slash FTF workshop FTF stands for follow the fund and get more information and sign up if you want for the next workshop.


Rita Suzanne  25:09

I love that. I love that. So one of my favorite things that I love to ask my guests because my whole purpose around starting this podcast was really to see how other moms are running their businesses and raising their families. But the biggest thing is like, what are you doing for yourself? So I want to know, how are you remembering yourself Audra, like, what are you doing just for you so that you don't, you know, get overwhelmed with all the things?


Audra King  25:41

Yeah, I love that question. So one of the things that I love about how I've created, my schedule is Wednesdays, I don't do, essentially, I try to do nothing for the business. It's my day to do self care to do just the things in life that you need to have time to do like appointments, etc. And I have a massage scheduled twice a month on a regular basis. And I've really leaned in this year to taking care of my physical self, because I know that that helps me in all areas of my life. So I get twice a month massage, I go to the chiropractor regularly. And I'm prioritizing getting out on walks. I used to think you had to like, run and do all of the like heavy lifting stuff to feel healthy. And what I'm finding is for me a walk a day is really grounding and it helps me take care of my mental health as well as my physical health.


Rita Suzanne  26:45

Yeah, and it helps that the weather is starting to improve, right?


Audra King  26:49

Yes, read and I don't live too far from each other. So we experienced the same weather and the sun shining and the birds singing is definitely helping my mood these days.


Rita Suzanne  27:02

Exactly. I mean, I loved when I was in California, and I got to hike every day. That was my, my favorite thing to do. And so being back in Ohio, it was just, you know, it's been hard. Did you say inside all these, you know, all these months and stuff? And the weather is just what I like to call like, yeah, I don't know. It's it's a mess here. But this is where we are. So yeah. So besides going and finding the workshops, and we you know, checking out any of the replays? Where can people find you online? Where are you hanging out?


Audra King  27:44

Yeah, so my website is she loves her biz.com You can check out ways to work with me there if you're interested. I'm on Facebook and Instagram at she loves her biz. And I've recently started diving into LinkedIn. And so you can find me on LinkedIn under Audra King.


Rita Suzanne  28:01

Yeah, I So which one's your favorite? What do you think I feel like Instagram would be your favorite.


Audra King  28:08

Instagram is the easiest for me to be active on LinkedIn, I actually really enjoy LinkedIn for personal connection. And that's important to me. So I don't post a lot on LinkedIn. But I like the community there for just setting up chats to get to know people and that kind of thing. And Facebook, I have a Facebook business page, but it doesn't get the bulk of my love these days. So I would say if there's, if there's one place you want to find me if you want to set up some kind of get to know you chat, find me on LinkedIn. And if you just want to see what I'm up to, and some pictures of flowers and guinea pigs on occasion. Follow me over on Instagram.


Rita Suzanne  28:51

And you don't have a Facebook group or anything do or no and don't like because I feel like Facebook is where all the moms are right like


Audra King  29:01

I Yeah, you know, and I'm still on Facebook, because there's some mom groups that I'm a part of, but I just couldn't let go of so I agree with with that. It's a good place to be with other moms.


Rita Suzanne  29:12

Yeah. All right. Well, thank you so much for joining me today. It's always a pleasure chatting with you.


Audra King  29:19

Well, thank you Rita. It was a pleasure to be here today.


Rita Suzanne  29:22

Thank you. And there you have it. I want to encourage you to remember that being a mom who runs her own business is not easy. We all struggle, but just keep moving forward. And don't forget to make time for yourself. As moms we are usually the first thing to go to the bottom of the list. If your business is overwhelming you and you need real solutions, not just some sugar coated suggestions apply to work with me at Rita suzanne.com/apply