#6 Shifting the Money Mindset: The Value of What You Create

In Episode 6 of 'Shifting the Money Mindset: The Value of What You Create,' Courtney Gray tackles the often difficult topic of money mindset in the creative business world. From sharing personal stories and struggles about undervaluing work to providing practical advice on pricing and customer connection, this episode is packed with actionable tips. Discover how to reframe your approach to pricing, build confidence in the value of your work, and attract clients who appreciate what you do. Courtney also discusses the importance of educating your audience and setting clear baselines for your prices. Don't miss the challenge at the end to put these ideas into action and start transforming your business mindset today. Tune in for an inspiring and motivational conversation aimed at helping you recognize and celebrate the true value of your creative work.

Transcript

  📍   Hi there friend. Today we're diving into money mindset and specifically how to shift your thinking about the value of what you create and why it's important for your business. I'll also share some quick wins you can start applying today to improve your approach to pricing, connecting with customers and building confidence around the value of your work.

I know this topic can bring up all kinds of emotions. Money's a big one. It can bring up doubt, fear, even frustration, but trust me, we're going to tackle this together. By the end of this episode, you'll have a clearer idea of how to reframe your mindset and take some steps towards valuing yourself and your work.

When I first started, I priced my work way too low because I was afraid no one would buy it. No one could afford it. It's not affordable enough for my client base. I thought if I made it affordable, I'd have a better chance at sales, but all this did was leave me feeling undervalued and overworked.

The moment I started pricing based on the value of my work. The skill, the time, the materials, everything changed. my customers respected my work more. I started attracting people who valued what I created and I finally felt like I was building a sustainable business.

I know many of you are facing similar struggles wherever you're at in your career. So let's talk about how to break out of that mindset and start owning the value of what you do, what you create. So where do our beliefs about money come from? I'm a curious person as you may have found out.

I like to understand the core of where these belief systems are coming from, why certain emotions come up all the time and distract me from moving forward or putting myself out there in a way that I know I can. being authentic. Our beliefs about money often come from how we were raised. So we gotta go back a little bit here and think about what we've experienced in our life.

Maybe you grew up thinking money was hard to come by. Maybe it was. Or that asking for more was greedy or selfish. Or perhaps it simply wasn't talked about openly at all. These beliefs can stick with us and they show up when we price our work or approach sales. So think back, I want you to think back with me to a time when you made some hard decisions about money.

This could be super early days. For me, it was my get rich quick dad. He always had lottery tickets in his desk. I was a snooper. I'd  like to stay in the loop about what was going on in my home, even when I was really young. You'd find me lurking in the corners, listening to conversations, and yeah, going through my dad's desk drawer in his office.

He always had lottery tickets. Like, I'm not talking about one or two, I'm talking about  A lot of lottery tickets in his desk drawer. He also had get rich quick books on his desk most of the time. And I think I, I didn't judge it at the time, I was too little, I didn't get it. But I think this formed in me a curiosity about his mindset early on, and a realization that at some point later in my teens, when you start becoming more aware, in different ways, that this was a very unrealistic approach.

I'll tell you, I have never, ever, bought a lottery ticket. So instead of seeing money as something to shy away from, think of it as an exchange of energy. Your clients aren't just buying a product, they're investing in your time, your skill, your vision. I have a friend, Mia, who has a really big house near Austin here in Dripping Springs.

she is a big executive for AT& T and she said to me once, I never got this until later, Don't be afraid of the zeros. It took me a minute to let that sink in, but I remember when it did. It finally did and I was so jazzed up, I grabbed a couple of my employees at the time and I took them out for a drink and I said, Let's not be afraid of the zeros.

this community can be as big as we want it to be. Or as small as we want it to be. We get to decide. So the moment I reframe this belief, this deep rooted belief that artists can't make money, that nobody can afford it, we're going to price ourselves out of even having any customers, everything changed.

The school started blowing up. I started bringing in all these amazing go getter mover shakers who were just bringing so much credibility and energy and growth to the school. So with your work, I want you to think about this too. We want to attract, you've got to surround yourself with this belief that you can attract people that can afford your work.

And if you're stuck in that place of pricing it so low so that there's no chance that they can say, no, I think we need to flip that script and turn it the other way. I get emails sometimes for custom work I just got one yesterday actually. And it was for a pendulum  a man going into the seminary.

What a cool like honor,  to even be asked to do this project. So my first question to him, and I'm going to get into this more when we talk more pricing down the road. But I want you to think about this. I had to respond to him with the very first prompt.

The very first piece of information that he needed was to talk about budget. Here's the thing, people don't really know what the value is sometimes. You have to educate them. So I had to, baseline it, basically, hey, I'm so honored to be asked to do this. Have you thought about materials? Have you thought about gemstones?

Do you have an image about,  showing a design that you've thought about or a sketch to share with me? And the last question, have you set aside a budget for this? And if so, Where does it lie? That budget question can feel scary until you practice it. So I'm inviting you to go ahead and ask that question up front.

It saves a lot of time and I'll dig into this more in a little bit. Don't be afraid of the zeros. So here's something to remember. People often judge the value of a product by its price. So if your prices are too low, they might assume your work isn't very high quality, even if it's beautifully made. And I want you to think about the luxury market here.

Customers pay for the experience. They're paying for the exclusivity and a story behind a product. The same applies to your jewelry. So this is where educating your audience comes in. I want you to start thinking about ways to show them the process. the labor and the years of skill building it takes to make intricate high quality jewelry.

When customers understand the story behind the piece, they're more likely to appreciate and pay for the value you're offering. So it's time to shift our  mindset around money and rewrite this narrative. I want you to write down three reasons that your work is valuable. Your skill, your unique design, your craftsmanship.

Remind yourself of these every time doubt creeps in when you're talking about budget with a client and let's start educating your audience.  like I said, people don't really know. They don't know the time and effort that we've put in at the bench, the hours, the blood, sweat, tears, the materials we've wasted and recycled hopefully.

And The challenges that we face, not just the time to create the piece itself and the material costs, but what about the communication time with your client? The time it takes to go back and forth if you're doing custom design. on what they want and helping them zoom in. That education is part of the process here.

So I want you to think about this when you're pricing out your work, and decide on a minimum price that you'll accept for your work. If it doesn't meet this threshold, it may not be worth your time or energy, period. Start sharing those behind the scenes images of your sketches, the soldering process, the casting, the intricate, the engraving, the enameling I could go on.

There's so many techniques under this umbrella of jewelry making. It's endless and it's wonderful. If people can see. These, , they'll become educated and it helps people connect with the effort and the artistry behind your work. So let's talk pricing again. Mine started at around 250.

I was doing custom pendants in my 20s. I didn't want to do rings. Rings scared the hell out of me. I thought, oh my gosh, this is such an important, you know, I can't do engagement rings or wedding jewelry. It's too big. It's too important. What if I screw it up? I kind of kept myself in this safe little bubble of just doing like powerful pendants for people.

And of course my first clients were friends, were family, people who wanted to support me. my baseline was like 250 bucks. I mean, imagine that now with the price of metal, you can't even cover the costs. And that was after doing a lot of projects that were like a hundred dollars when I very first started.

So now fast forward, you know, I've been in the industry for 25 years, my baseline, and I know many of you, your baseline's way larger than this, but I have to start around 2, unless it's for a charitable cause, that's the baseline. That I've created for myself and it starts the conversation off with clarity and it helps me save a ton of time I can't tell you how many Clients have come in and thinking that it should cost 100 It just doesn't  you can't even get the materials together for that cost unless you're donating it.

It doesn't make sense so I want you to think about this come up with a baseline for yourself if you haven't already and Present it right away It does something to your customer. It does something for them. It's part of that education that I'm talking about, and it also gets them serious about this project.

Or how serious are they? We can gauge, is this a serious inquiry or is it not? Now, I'm not talking production, I guess. I'm talking mostly custom, which is what I do. Now, a lot of you doing production, you can charge 250, you can charge 100, because you're making multiple pieces and  it balances out in the long run.

But if it's a custom project where you're back and forth client and really zooming in on what they want, who they are, what they wear, thinking about them as who you're creating for, I invite you to think about that base price and celebrate every single sale. If they say no, that's okay. the guy that came to me for the seminary piece, I sent him my baseline and I said, how would you like to proceed?

I'm happy to help in any way that I can. And if I can't help, I can educate you on what's out there and what's possible. And he came back and he said, The most lovely thing thank you so much for considering this project. I'm going to save up some  money and then I'm going to reach back out to you.

And I thought, perfect. I said, great and good luck to you. I can't wait to reconnect. And you can follow up with these folks. Sometimes it just filters out the ones who really aren't in a place to afford your work yet, and that's okay too. Maybe they're more suited for the production line that you have, or the, the piece that you can offer at their price point.

And you can ask these questions. I know money talk can be really uncomfortable for some people, but the more you practice this, honestly, the easier it does get. Put yourself out there and just ask the questions. How much were you hoping to spend? You could do it in a really lovely way. It doesn't need to be salesy.

It doesn't need to be snobby and it doesn't need to be pushy. Just asking those questions creates a lot of clarity about, is this a person who fits my, customer view? Is this somebody who I can work with? And, is it a project that I can fit into my, work agenda? Does it make sense financially?

  I worked with a jeweler, Sharon. This was one of my clients who was afraid to raise her prices. She thought her clients and friends couldn't afford it. She was saying things out loud to me like, Well, this is for my friend, so I'm pricing it at my friendly price. She was also relating her prices to city she lives in.

This can create a scarcity mindset. So I want you to be careful with this. You're boxing yourself into a price point that you haven't really tested it yet. You don't really know what that market can bear. until you put it out there. So guess what? She finally did it. She doubled her prices on one collection.

And not only did she sell out, but her customers appreciated her work even more because they understood its true value. All right. So here's your challenge for the week. I want you to choose one of these quick wins and put it into action. You can write down three reasons your work is valuable. Like we mentioned earlier, Pick one piece of work and adjust its price to reflect, truly reflect the time, materials, and skill it required.

And I want you to post  on your social media page, about the story or process behind one of your favorite pieces. Engage with your audience and just see what comes up for you. Your money mindset directly impacts how you price your work, connect with customers, and grow your business.

Shifting your perspective is not easy, but it's absolutely worth it. Baby steps. You guys start moving towards this direction. I promise you're gonna get more respect from your client base if you are solid on your pricing, if you know what you're asking, if you have a system, and we'll talk systems in a later episode.

on how you approach these inquiries. When people ask you, do you do custom design? Would you make this for me? You'll have the answers ready because you know the value of your work. You have your baseline pricing. So start there if you haven't already. And before we wrap up today, I just want to remind you of something really important.

You are valued. The work you create matters. And so do you. I'm so incredibly proud of you for showing up, for doing the hard things and for pouring your heart into what you make. You are a badass. Don't forget that. Keep believing in the value of what you do because the world needs your creations. It needs your passion and your unique voice.

I want to thank you for letting me be a part of your journey. I am here cheering you on every step of the way. I'd love to hear how you're applying these ideas. So, email me or tag me on social media and share your progress. And don't forget, I want you to tune in next week.

We're going to continue this mini series on mindset. Before I start bringing in some stellar guests and hang on, I can't wait to share some news with you about the new year. Next week, we're going to dive into getting naked. The truth about putting yourself out there. Don't forget, I have made a free guidebook for you guys.

It's on my website and I'll put it in the show notes here. On courage, clarity, and customers. You're going to get that  download for free. It's just a gift from me to you just for signing up for my email list and the newsletters They're going to come out weekly, give you a little boost to move  📍 your business forward.

And share this with one person or three who need to hear it today, who've maybe been keeping themselves in that bubble that I was in, a hundred dollar baseline pricing or 250. Let's lift each other up. Let's not compete with each other, 

let's collaborate. Let's do this together. Again, I'm cheering you on the whole way. You've got this. Trust, let go, believe, and keep moving forward. Until next week, onward and upward.