Hi Visionary,
I sat down last month to set a rate for a new offer that I built exclusively for my agency clients.
I had the number in my head. I had been carrying it for about a week, the way you carry something you have not said out loud yet. I made myself a nice hot cup of apple tea, put on my headphones, sat down at my iMac, opened the proposal, and watched my hand hover over the keyboard.
This was my own formula.
The one I've taught to numerous women, the one that almost doubled my income last year. The one I built after almost 30 years of business experience and after a 2023 season of crisis pulled me into a complete pricing rebuild.
And there I was. Hovering.
Overthinking.
And hovering some more.
That is the part nobody warns you about. Even when you know the math, the moment your number meets the page is a moment of identity. Not arithmetic. Identity.
I typed it. I sent it.
She said yes within the day.
What I want you to understand. The formula did not give me the number. The formula gave me the permission to use the number I already knew was right.
The Wrong Question Most Women Ask
When women come to me about pricing, the first question is almost always, "What should I charge?"
It is the wrong question.
After eighteen years of leading marketing strategy across more than $280M in client results, after five years building a global community of ambitious women, writing for Forbes, Fast Company and Entrepreneur, I can tell you with certainty: the women who get stuck on "what should I charge" stay stuck no matter what number they land on. Because the number is the symptom. The structure underneath it is the issue.
The right question is, what is my pricing actually built on?
If your pricing is built on what your competitors charge, you will keep undercharging.
If it is built on what the market will bear, you will keep negotiating against yourself.
If it is built on what feels safe, you will keep performing humility through your invoice.
The Profitable Pricing Formula starts somewhere else entirely.
The Three Pillars
The formula rests on three pillars. I will name them today. The full execution lives inside the tool itself and inside the work we do in the PDA Collective. Here is enough to know whether your pricing has structural integrity right now.
Pillar 1: Value Anchor. What you are actually selling versus what your client is actually buying. Most women price the deliverable. Profitable women price the result. The gap between those two numbers is usually where the missing revenue lives.
Pillar 2: Capacity Honesty. Pricing that protects the season you are in. If your business is in summer and your life is in winter, your pricing has to know that. A rate that worked in a different season will not hold in this one. This is where Dual Seasons meets your number.
Pillar 3: Signal Integrity. What your price says before you do. Your number is communicating something to your buyer the second she sees it. The question is whether the signal matches the woman you have become and the work you now deliver.
The formula does not tell you what to charge. It tells you what your number needs to do.
That distinction is what truly matters.
Why This Works When Other Pricing Advice Fails
Most pricing advice assumes you are running one business, in one season, selling to one kind of client. None of that is true for the women I work with.
You are running a business that is evolving. Your life is shifting underneath it. Your clients are getting more sophisticated. Your worth has expanded faster than your invoice has caught up.
A formula that bends to that reality, instead of fighting it, is the only kind that holds.
Your Move This Week
You do not have to fix all three pillars at once. You probably already know which one is leaking. Name it. Then ask yourself one question, honestly:
If this pillar were strong, what would I charge?
The answer that comes up is information. Sit with it. You do not have to act on it yet. You just have to stop pretending you do not know it.
What pillar is your pricing weakest on right now? Hit reply and tell me. I read everything that comes through.
P.S. Next week, the real ledger. What actually happens when you charge what you are worth. Not the highlight reel. The honest one.
→ Ready to put the architecture in your hands?
What I'm Excited About
Podcast Palooza!
Two podcast features and a season finale, all worth your time this week and over the long holiday weekend.
Out today: I'm on the Unstoppable Success Podcast with Jaclyn Strominger. Jaclyn is an incredible leader and coach, and I can’t tell you how much fun we had during this session (you’ll have to watch and listen).
We covered the path from $700 and a laptop to more than $280M in client results, the Dual Seasons framework, and the moment that rewrote everything I thought I knew about ambition. One of the more honest conversations I have had on a mic this year.
And in case you missed it last week, I was also on Just and Joyful with Kristin Carver Smith. A different kind of conversation focused more on mental health, with the same threads running underneath. The feedback about survival ambition has been truly phenomenal. → Listen here: Just and Joyful Podcast
I just wrapped Season 1 of the Joyful Ambition Podcast on Substack. Twenty-one episodes, all available now. Your DMs, your comments, and the way so many of you have told me it feels relatable and easy to sit with have meant everything to me. Keep it coming! Love your feedback as it will inform Season 2 and you just might get featured.
If you have not made it through the full season yet, this is your invitation.
