How to Charge Your Worth, Quit Underselling Yourself and Make More Money As a Women Expert Entrepreneur with Chella Diaz

Here's a hard truth:  Women Entrepreneurs >>> You are underpaid... it’s time to charge your value.

Those are the exact words from this week's Standout Women Show guest, Chella Diaz,  who's on the same mission: to help women entrepreneurs become visible, get highly paid, and create the businesses and lives they desire and deserve.

Learn the 3 Steps to Increase Your Fees Confidently
(𝘴𝘰 𝘺𝘰𝘶 𝘴𝘵𝘰𝘱 𝘰𝘷𝘦𝘳𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘯𝘬𝘪𝘯𝘨, 𝘶𝘯𝘥𝘦𝘳𝘷𝘢𝘭𝘶𝘪𝘯𝘨, 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘨𝘪𝘷𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘢𝘸𝘢𝘺 𝘵𝘰𝘰 𝘮𝘶𝘤𝘩)on how to know, charge, and raise your fees as a woman in business.

I've also been there many times and have learned so much from Chella, who believes that women overthink things, undervalue our service, and give away too much.

It's time to put ourselves at the top of the list.

LINKS
Connect with Chella Diaz on LinkedIn
Listen to Chella on my recent LinkedIn Audio Event 

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Hi, I'm Michelle B Griffin. I write, speak, and teach women experts how to position themselves as the go-to authority in their fields so they can expand their reach, grow their businesses, and become industry thought leaders.

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Transcript

Michelle B. Griffin: Welcome back everybody to another episode. I'm your host, Michelle B. Griffin. And today I'm delighted to welcome to the show someone who I have known for several years now. She actually was on my LinkedIn audio show a couple of months ago, and it was so good. Everyone was taking notes, including me. And I said, she has to come back and reach her bigger audience on the podcast. So welcome to the show, Chella Diaz. It's so good to have you here again.

Chella Diaz: Oh, it's a pleasure. I've been looking forward to it. Cause I was just telling you, I've been writing the book draft and it opened me up into all my offers and all the things I've been doing. You come equipped with a huge message about financial security and today, especially, we're going to talk about this: three lists you need to really learn how to know your worth, know your value and raise your fees as a woman entrepreneur and expert. I really want to get this out to more women so we can all be really financially set, fulfilled, joyful, all the things.

Michelle B. Griffin: So before we do that, tell us a little bit exactly what you do, who you support, specialize in helping, and all the things and then we'll get right into those three lists.

Chella Diaz: Well, let's start with, I am a mom of two adult sons, and I believe that having sons for me helped me to become the coach that I am today. Because you get to play so many different parts as a parent, but really I am passionate about guiding women, stepping into their value, charging the fees that they deserve, and making a bigger impact. No offense to the men. Like I said, I already said, I have two sons, but women, when we learn something, we are really out there teaching others. When you're making more money, you can teach others to do that. You can make a bigger impact in your neighborhood or community. You have more money, whether you choose to donate or invest time in a nonprofit. I'm excited.

Michelle B. Griffin: I am too. It's an economic booster, you know, just knowing your worth and your value and charging accordingly. And I've been guilty of it too. I think for me, the hardest thing when you come out of corporate and start your own business, no one really tells you or it's hard to price yourself. You're so used to getting a salary all those years. So it can be a trial and error, but you come with three lists to really get us started. And if women are out there already, maybe undercharging, they're feeling this, this is going to help them reset. So let's get into that because it was so good.

Chella Diaz: Absolutely. The first one is going to be, and you just framed it perfectly because a lot of us did come from corporate. Right, where we had a salary, we made that regular paycheck, the regular vacations, the bonuses, the commissions, whatever that was. So changing hats into now you're going to go out and you're going to ask for money for something that you provide. And let's face it, ladies, you started your business because you have a passion, you have a skill set that you want to share. So let's get that out of the way. That's your bonus. But the first list that you're going to do is you're going to write out all of your trainings, all of your certifications, all of the workshops, all the conferences that you've attended, because that is going to separate you from anybody else. Even if Michelle and I did the same thing and we both went to the same workshops, we both got something different from it, but you're going to make out that list. What are some of the certifications, trainings? Go far back, especially if you were in corporate. What were some additional trainings that you did? What were some of the workshops that you attended? This goes back as far back as you can remember, including cheerleading, if that's something, or you played sports, whatever that is. Because you want to put in writing all your skillsets.

Michelle B. Griffin: That's so good. Because also too, I'm thinking from a branding and a brand story and positioning part, that really helps us because you could have some really interesting angles that really can come into play to appeal to the audience or the ideal client. You know, really relate. I always like to say pricing is a branding tactic, right? So when you are premium or right on the money, you're well branded as well. You're not this amazing person who's going to charge peanuts. So absolutely love that deep dive. That's so good. So, okay, we're making our list. What would number two be?

Chella Diaz: Number two is going to be, what do your clients say after they work with you? How did you make their life better, faster, easier, whatever that is. We use their words. What are they saying? So for me, every single one of my clients said that they're lighter after working with me because I guide them through identifying and releasing the money drama from childhood. So what do your clients say after they work with you? This is Michelle's area of expertise, but now you can take the client's language and words. You can already see where this is going, right? So we are accomplishing a couple of things. After the three lists, we're going to give you the magic sauce, how they all come together, but you're also setting yourself up for success so that you can stand out.

Michelle B. Griffin: Absolutely. I'm thinking from branding, from positioning, from the messaging, from the sales pages for these offers, you're helping people transform. And so when they hear on a very emotional level, the things that you're calling out, that's ongoing in their head that they need, it's almost like a no-brainer. Stop and give me, you know, take my money, please. That is brilliant. We don't do enough of that. We just take it for granted. But we need to do it. And I would even say do it as soon as you finish working with someone.

Chella Diaz: Correct.

Michelle B. Griffin: So that it's fresh and on their mind. Let's go into number three because I know we're on a roll here.

Chella Diaz: Absolutely. This is a great opportunity for you to go back and check with your clients, maybe to reconnect with them. Start that conversation because you'll be surprised. And I lead by example. So I do reach out to my prior clients and just yesterday, I received a voicemail that said, "Oh my God, I need to make an introduction to two people." Sometimes people just need to, and it's not that they forget about us, but they need that reminder. But let's move on to list number three. List number three is from your perspective, what is the transformation that you offer your client? List number two and list number three, we could have some crossover because what they said and what you actually do, but you can have in my book, both pages. This is what's important because I want you to imagine those three lists. One of my clients, the list was over a hundred. Can you imagine having the list, even if you have 25, 55, 75, it doesn't matter. When you see this in writing and when you see these three lists together, something happens. Because now you have it in black and white in front of you. The next question is going to be, "Oh my God, what do I need to do to increase my fees?" Because it gets you thinking, what can I do? How can I do this? Because you have proof in front of you.

Michelle B. Griffin: You're inventorying you. Like businesses go and do inventory every couple of months. We don't do that. We don't inventory who we are and how far we've come. We should be doing that weekly and stuff. We just keep going. Looking ahead to what's next, what's next. So this is perfect inventory of you, what you've done personally and professionally, and then what your clients say about you, and then what you do for them. That is so brilliant. And it opens up your thinking and your ideas, right?

Chella Diaz: Absolutely. And let's face it, entrepreneurs, we sometimes have those low days, right? But can you imagine having this list handy where you can go in and you can remind yourself what you bring to the table? You remind yourself what your skill set is. You remind yourself why you started this business to begin with. It serves so many different purposes but I can tell you, and I definitely look forward to hearing from you when you have these three lists, your brain begins to think because you see this list. I don't care if you have 10 items. This also includes those folks that may not necessarily have paid you money, but you were practicing, right? Because if you're doing this as a business, that means that we've already helped quite a bit of people before we got to this point. Go back to those folks that you helped with your area of expertise and inventory that.

Michelle B. Griffin: Oh, that's so good. You know what else I do? And this is something that's on actually my website. I have a results page with just client testimonials. So, you know, not every one of them. And then I have case studies, client success page. And then I have another page called wall of love. Over the years, between my community and my content, my events, when people just screenshotted great things, like on LinkedIn, basically where I hang out, not really any other platform, I'll just kind of screenshot. They're really unsolicited, awesome words. And I put that in my wall of love to remind me too, but just so people see. And I even say, here's my unsolicited feedback because that way, you know, screenshot of this, it's just like, wow. And every now and then I'll go to it and I'll like, oh wow, I did do that. Or my community did help people or this event. So I think from an internal confidence standpoint, we need that and we need to refer back to it often just for that pat on the back to keep us going.

Chella Diaz: Absolutely, especially right sometimes where you're like, "Oh, you know, when you have those days, you know, the PowerPoint didn't work. Your phone is whatever it is like we all have those days. You thought this person was going to sign up. Maybe they changed their mind. They're not ready for it to enroll with you." To me, that's when the list comes in, right? We need that little boost. We're having a low day and those lists, having those lists handy. It's a game changer. It really is.

Michelle B. Griffin: So once we do all this foundational work, I'm all about the foundational work and keep doing this. Don't just do it one-off, but now it's probably time to go to your current offerings right after that. And then look through those. What's the next step?

Chella Diaz: Absolutely. Now that you've made the list, you know what? People 10%, 20%, whatever it is. I say, you know what? Whatever it is, this is an inside job. So if you're currently offering a package of, you know, 2,500, okay, great. What if you offer it for 3000? So this is the magic sauce. We're not going to leave you hanging though. I want you to go out, you have the three lists, you increasing it by 300, 500, the amount doesn't matter. You're going to go out and have 10 practice calls. You're going to go hang out at networking events. You cannot go to your current clients. It has to be new people, new conversations, and you're not looking to sell anybody. This is not what we're doing. We're simply having 10 enrolling conversations and we're going to quote the new price, whatever that is. You know what that is. Test out different ones. You got nothing to lose. What if you increase it to a thousand you like doesn't feel okay five hundred three hundred doesn't matter. Something happens during these ten practice calls where you're totally detached at the beginning. Your voice is going to be a little bit shaky. You're not going to believe it yourself. This is why it's ten practice calls. Something happens between call number six and nine. Wow. It was now because you practice, you got all the nervous energy out of the way. You have your list handy. So during the sixth to the ninth call, your body was like, you're come across so confident with that price point that one of my clients enrolled two new clients during this 10 practice call. She wasn't looking to it, but something you looking for your mind, your body and your heart to be on the same page with whatever that price is.

Michelle B. Griffin: That's so powerful. And I felt like the nonverbal, especially you can, most of us do it like probably online and stuff. The nonverbal cue is what we say most of us learn from our communication. That speaks volumes and it's just the little nuances sometimes you say, and the way you look people in the eye. So yeah. So that's just getting a stronger, like going to the gym, just getting that muscle flexed and stronger. So I absolutely love that. So how would people if you don't, if you're having these practice calls and people maybe didn't sign up, like how would you go about, you know, setting those up if they're not exactly like, like booking on your Calendly. So what would you suggest for something like that?

Chella Diaz: Well, as I was having the conversation, we already talked about it, leave the conversation with, "Who do they know that can benefit from your service?" We're planting seeds along the way. We're practicing for ourselves. The 10 conversations is for us because we want to become in alignment with that. As far as people are always wanting to help you, "Who do you know that can benefit from my service?" Period. "Who do you know that can benefit from my service?" That's it. Because people are going to want to refer you or keep you in mind. Stay in touch, stay in connection. I work through my list and I go back and I just connect. I don't want anything, I just want to connect. What are they working on? What resources do I have that can help them? Always come from a place of service. What can you share, what can you provide?

Michelle B. Griffin: Not salesy. People are very likely to help you. I absolutely love that idea. That's something we could probably all do, every quarter, even if you're jamming along just to reconnect with people. So you keep that connection point still strong, vice versa, ask them, "What you can do for them." It's a two-way street for sure. Well, now that we're doing these practices let's flip to the forward-facing thing where our offers are, I want to get your insights on, when you're presenting this discovery or enrollment calls, wherever you want to call them. Do you think that it's stronger case to have a lot of this dialed out on your website? I know everyone's different. Like there's some people who have everything on their website and you just buy, there's some, you have to have a longer cycle, some you have to send proposals, but what's your thoughts on having that really dialed it so people could kind of do the pre-selling themselves and then also second part on that question is, let me know what your thoughts are about putting pricing or some type of pricing starting at point. What's your thoughts on those?

Chella Diaz: You're right, there's so many different ways you can go about it and it all depends on where you want to go with your business. The thing, when you put a price point on your website and it's public, and let's say somebody took a screenshot and let's say it was, you know, October 2023 or October 2022, they weren't ready at the time, but they have the screenshot. Guess what? What if your price is now twice as much? Then there's that disappointment because they think they're going to get this and the prices. We can always say subject to change, but how many of us read that? And now you're going to have a person that's upset because they thought that we're going to get this price, but now it's, which absolutely, that's what I teach. I want you to double your prices. I want you to continue to increase your fees. So sometimes that turns off that person. Because they were thinking they were going again, that might not be the right client for you anyways, right? Because maybe they were right at the time. If they're just not ready and you're a higher price point, that may not be your client. The other thing with, if you have it all together on the website, their price point that they're able to buy without really they can just go on and buy. You may have a client that signs up that you may not want to work with.

Michelle B. Griffin: That's a good point.

Chella Diaz: That will be the only thing. Personally, I would not, I mean, even if it's just a 15-minute conversation, I would want to have with somebody. Because we may not be a fit, they may think we're good, but that may not be somebody you want to work with. You can always refund, but depending on how many people you want to have, do you really want to have to go through those?

Michelle B. Griffin: That's a good point. And this is for the one-on-one working with you there. I mean, obviously not for like a course or digital product that you're not working with them. It's a relationship-driven service and business. I like to have a rapport with people. I want to have the clients that I feel like we can just bounce back. And you know, I 100 percent agree. If that's the service that you offer, you know, one thing that I've seen, and I get your point about, you are wanting women to continue to, you know, and no one really, very few people are ready to buy at that moment, the cycles, and the thought process. Is understandably, it takes some time or they want to get to know you and trust you, but you can always have, I think a starting at price, unless that kind of tilts backwards when you're like way higher. And then the starting price was nowhere near it. What are your thoughts about having some kind of, because what are your thoughts about the tire kickers? You know, it's almost like the other side is you don't want the people who are just going to waste your time and would never be the perfect fit as far as resource wise. So what are some ways we can work through that?

Chella Diaz: That's a good point. I did a program. I did a five-day challenge with a gal and then I did a program and she believes put your price out because you don't want to deal with the tire kickers. What if we put up a range? Because if you put up a range, you're not holding accountable to anything. Of course, the range has to be a little bit on the high side, but you have a range depending on your needs, depending on where you are on your journey, because that at least gives them an idea. And the whole purpose of this is to get rid of those tire kickers. So you want to get those that are looking. It's like, "Okay, she's not for me." Great. They can move on. So I believe that having a range, and of course that can also always change, but having the range at least gives them an idea of where they are.

Michelle B. Griffin: I absolutely think that is the best compromise middle ground. And because I've done everything putting my price, not putting my price, but the range is a new idea that I think I'm going to start doing just to kind of give some indication of, you know, and also too, it's like, are you a DIY service, a done with you, a done for you. So, you know, and I also think as everything, your messaging, your positioning are going to go hand in hand. If you're more premium, you're going to hopefully look and sound and feel the part. So that all aligns as well. So there's no shocker when someone sees the price and everything else you have is premium, right? And then the price is premium. That should be understood. I think that's where people get shocked. It's like, oh, wow. And it works both ways.

Chella Diaz: Absolutely. And you brought up a good point. We're only talking about where you're going to have one-on-one. We're not talking about having an online course, because we want them to hit press buy on those. Because they're not going to be working with us on a regular basis, but those one-on-ones, they may think they really need you and they might. But what if you guys energetically are just not in alignment? That's going to be a challenging client.

Michelle B. Griffin: That is incredibly. Because I am moving up my one-on-ones to more of a VIP now. And I do, I tell my clients, I'm going to be your business partner on this. We are going to realign everything and get this done. And I want to make sure that we see eye to eye on the same page. And so I positioned myself as their branding business partner for this big project and a team member they need. And so they get it and it makes 100 percent sense. So I also want to say, if you're working on doing all these three lists and looking at your stuff, this is also a good time to make sure that the messaging that you're putting out to go with that offer completely ties in all those areas that we've, you know, maybe it's listed on because that's what the clients are going to want to hear. Their exact words and then the transformation, right? That's why we're in business to give people transformations.

Chella Diaz: Absolutely. And I did have quite a few people follow up from our LinkedIn audio room. Send me messages and also made comments on the event page. Making these lists, even if you think, "Oh, what a pain or why am I bothered?" Go through the process because if your body's already fighting it, you're like, "Oh, another report that I need to do." But this stuff works. This is empowerment. When you see it in writing, it just works. I can't explain why. All I can say is trust the process. Do your list.

Michelle B. Griffin: I agree because I remember in the audio room and then I had people message me after and comment too, like you stirred the pot in the best way possible for these women. And they were like, "Wow, I never thought of that way." That could be like sort of like a course for you down the road. You could really get nitty gritty on how to do this and then how to translate. My brain always fires that way. Like how can I position this or an idea for someone? But that's just such a novel thing. It was so refreshing, so easy. And it's an empowerment tool because we all need to make more money. We all deserve to make more money likely than what we're charging right now. I find there's probably stats, right? That women undercharge is probably like studies and stats on that. I should probably dig some up for my book. I'm writing, but it's ridiculous. It's ridiculous on those stats. And it's even more ridiculous that 76 percent of women. Do not believe they're good with money. I'm simply telling you, and listen, we do all of the shopping. We coordinate everything, but we still think 76 percent of women do not believe. They're good with money.

Michelle B. Griffin: And that's huge because, you know, let's go into what you were telling me pre-live because I really didn't know this about you even though I've known you for a couple of years now on your actual area of expertise and the, in the area that you help what women tell the listeners exactly, because this is really, really exciting for me to hear as the parent of young, you know, up and coming women who need to know about money and also some of your big picture goals. Cause you're going, you're trying to get more visible and bigger too. So are you open to tell us about it?

Chella Diaz: Absolutely. Lead by example. So I have been teaching financial literacy workshops for over 20 years. I started when I was five. So now I've been teaching this and in the classrooms. at the high school level and college level. And my favorite workshop that I did was for the foster. It was this high school where they had mostly foster kids. And that changed the way I wrote my first book because they were real and because they did not take anything for granted, right? Because they're foster kids, so they don't have, maybe they were bounced from one home to another home, but they had the real questions, right? Because they didn't have, in a lot of cases, an adult that they could go to. I've been taking all these workshops for a very, very long time, totally transparent. To be honest, I thought that that was going to be it. I was going to publish the book. We were going to do fundraisers with the book. I thought that was it. Then I was invited to do workshops for women. But then during that process, I also created a game. A lot of people don't know about the game, but this is an in person hands on game. And what the kids learned during the game, which is about an hour to 90 minutes. depending on their attention span. It's a lot, it's a lot of work because I have different stations set up, but what they learned during that, it was life changing for them. And I have a friend and five years ago, he said, "Chella, you need to take the book and the game and put it into an app." I wasn't ready being totally transparent. That seems so outrageous of an idea. I was like, "Oh." And I'm not techie, so let's not even get started on that. But, you know, I started doing some research. I now have three bids to create an app to bring my book and my game, put it together so that I make a bigger impact with my 19. This is going to be an app for 19 to 24 year olds. It has to do with money, but it's also answering the questions. That they're asking when I walk into the classrooms.

Michelle B. Griffin: Oh, so powerful. So needed. The time was right. You weren't right. The technology is even better and more, you know, it's cheaper, more available. So what an impact you're going to make. You know, before we recorded, I was telling Shella, my big goal to have in the next 10 years to reach a million people by my, you know, books, speaking content, podcasting to help more women get visible and think bigger about themselves, you know, so they can impact the world with their transformative work and ideas. And it gets that takes off with being super clear on who you are and super visible to get out there in a bigger way. And then you launched into this app thing and I didn't even know that about you. So congratulations. As a parent of two young women, they don't get taught that in school. I mean, yes, they can get the family, but let's face it as parents, we don't sit there and at least we didn't, maybe we should have, had financial literacy classes or games and stuff. I love the embedding of that, right when they become adults and they're going through college and career and all that good stuff. So congratulations. What's the next step on that?

Chella Diaz: Well, next step, you know, gosh, I don't want to put a date on it, but, you know, I've done the bids, I have somebody that's going to come alongside who understands totally transparent. I needed to go out and hire somebody to explain to me what the bid said. Totally right. That's, that's just not my area. I was like, I don't even know if I need this. So I finally have a dear friend and he's going to join me and I am so, so grateful and I'm so delighted because I don't want to think about the tech. I think now that he's on board it's going to go a lot faster.

Michelle B. Griffin: So you're going to keep us posted. You learn something every day, but that really feeds into this conversation about women, entrepreneurs, experts who are selling their services pretty much, it's very deep. Personal thing because you're using your expertise to transform someone's lives with exchange of value, which comes with exchange of money. And this conversation, as you were pointing out in your app, we don't get that foundational grounding and learning early on. And so we undersell ourselves, we undervalue ourselves. If someone listening to this is like, "Gosh, you know what, this is a really good conversation. I'm probably undercharging. I want to go higher in my business." What after, you know, doing the three steps, what would you suggest a woman do to really get up to that next level and make more money with her expertise?

Chella Diaz: You know, put a number out, let's face it, get a post-it, get three post-its. And put three different price points there and go with one of them. One of them is going to talk to you. Trust the process. If you're like, "I don't know, should I do 10 percent, 20 percent?" Put three prices. All three of them are higher than what your current fees are. And just go with one. There is no wrong way of doing this. Three post-its, sit with it for a couple of days. One of those price points is going to talk to you. Your body is going to talk to you. Your body's going to be in alignment with that price. For some of you thinking, "Oh, that sounds a little too woo woo." What do you got to lose? Give it a go. If you don't ask, you don't do, you never get.

Michelle B. Griffin: I love this mindset shift and I know you do a lot of that in your work and everything. So now that you've given us this amazing tip, I know there are women who are like, "I need to learn more about what you're doing." So tell us a little bit where we can find you, connect with you, learn from you and your books and all that.

Chella Diaz: My books are available on Amazon under my name and come hang out with me on LinkedIn. I host audio rooms twice a month. I love the LinkedIn audio rooms because you're able to have a two-way conversation. You're able to ask questions. So come hang out. I'm definitely on LinkedIn. You know, I promise five days a week.

Michelle B. Griffin: Well, I'll put the link to LinkedIn and, and if those are just, you know, someone's like, I don't know about LinkedIn. It's not the place that it used to be. It truly is a community feel you've just find your right people and where you want to learn more and grow more. And this is a perfect opportunity. So I'll put the link in the show notes. So that more women can get to know you and you're just so much fun and just energetic and empowering. And we need more women like that, especially in the financial conversation. So thank you so much for sharing your wisdom with us today. It's so appreciated.

Chella Diaz: It's been a pleasure and I look forward to hearing from you. Your questions, your comments.

Michelle B. Griffin: Yeah. So definitely reach out to Chella and for me and we'll connect you. And yeah, she's always dropping so much value. All right, everybody, that's it for another action-packed episode. I'll be back next week, but until then, I want you to keep putting yourself out there. You have a brand to build, a message to share and people to impact. I'll catch you next time. Take care.