If you’ve ever looked at your prices and thought, “I genuinely don’t know how I landed on these numbers,” this episode is going to hit. Today I’m taking you right back to 2010, when I started my first business as a marketing consultant and was basically charging whatever I thought someone might say yes to. I was ambitious, eager, and desperate to make it work… but my pricing strategy was a hot mess.
In this episode, I’m walking you through the biggest pricing mistakes I’ve made over the last 16 years as a service provider, from hourly rates and undercharging, to scoping disasters, discounts, letting clients dictate the work, and not tracking time (which is honestly one of the most expensive mistakes of all). This is a no-fluff episode, and it’s designed to help you spot where you might be leaking money without realising.
I also share the more subtle mistakes that don’t get talked about enough, like putting your prices up too soon without proof, getting knocked when nobody buys, and then losing your confidence in your offer. Plus, the “exposure” era, where I worked for free more times than I care to admit, thinking it would lead somewhere. Spoiler: it didn’t.
"Most pricing mistakes don’t come from being bad at business, they come from being insecure and guessing."
If pricing has been the thing you constantly spiral over, the thing that makes you second-guess yourself, over-deliver, or quietly resent your work, join the waitlist for my new pricing bootcamp, Rave Your Rates, coming 25th February 2026: https://ceels-lockley.myflodesk.com/raveyourrates