Graham Cochrane (00:28.504)
There's a lie that's quietly robbing you of income, impact, and influence. And it's the belief that you are not qualified to teach what you know online. Or you're not qualified to charge more than your competitors. So you hold back, you wait to feel like more impressive or more polished or more like an expert, whatever that means. Meanwhile, people with half your experience are making thousands, if not
millions of dollars simply by sharing what you're too insecure to say out loud. Here's the truth. What's obvious to you is gold to someone else. What's ordinary to you is extraordinary to someone else. And in this episode, I'm going help you crush this lie once and for all and show you how to turn what you already know into income or how to raise your prices if you're too scared to do it, even
if you don't feel ready.
Graham Cochrane (01:48.943)
It's fascinating to me how insecurity continues to plague everybody at every level. I know this for a fact because I've made millions of dollars online. I've built two multi seven figure a year businesses. I have done quote unquote impressive things and deep inside my heart, I am still insecure. I'm insecure when I launch a new offer. I'm insecure when I write a new book. I'm insecure.
when I step onto a stage in front of an audience I haven't spoken to before, I'm insecure when I raise my prices. So I know it's real because you would think I wouldn't be insecure, but I am. I also know I'm not a fluke. I coach very high level entrepreneurs that are doing hundreds of thousands and millions of dollars a year. And in our private coaching sessions, they tell me the same thing. The thing that they know they want to do, launch into a new business,
double their prices, whatever it is, they don't do it. Even though they have every right to, they're just scared or they don't feel like they're ready yet or they don't feel like they have enough expertise. They're waiting for something. The difference between someone who actually makes it in business or scales or increases their prices and someone who doesn't really is nothing more than just a decision.
I know that I'm not the smartest guy in the room. I wasn't when I was in the music space when I first business. I'm certainly not in the business space. I just am stubborn enough to go do the thing and not always right away. When I launched this brand in 2018, I was two years late. I wanted to launch this in 2016. I waited two years to launch my business coaching brand because I didn't feel qualified.
Even though I had generated millions of dollars online in my own business, the recording revolution, I didn't feel like I was business coach material. I don't know what I was waiting for. Certification, someone from on high to knight me and christen me, give me their blessing. I don't know what I was waiting for, but I didn't feel ready. I was scared. I was insecure. I didn't want to put myself out there because what would people think? Well, he's, who's he? He's not a business coach. He's the music guy or I don't even know who he is.
Graham Cochrane (04:12.302)
Have you ever felt that? So if you ever asked yourself or felt these questions, who am I to teach this stuff? Who am I to create a YouTube channel on this subject? I don't know enough. Or I love this one, it's already been done. Bro, just can you lean in for a second? Can I tell you a really big secret? Everything's already been done before. everything, there is nothing new.
There's nothing new. You know what's wild is 3,000 years ago King Solomon of Israel literally said this There is nothing new under the Sun the book of Ecclesiastes and that was 3,000 years ago and Ain't nothing changed. There's you're not gonna be the first one So got to get rid of that excuse In fact, if you're the first one you probably won't make money because it's not a proven market I'd rather you jump into a market
where you know people are flooding it and it's saturated because then you've got proof that it works, proof that there's money being spent in that market, you won't have to risk jumping into some unknown blue ocean thing where there's no guarantee there's money. Jump into a niche where there is guaranteed money and then just serve people well. There's plenty of people, there's plenty of money to go around. Yes, it's been done before. Was I the first person to teach music recording on the internet? No. Was I the first person to start teaching?
how to grow your business online. No, I haven't been the first. I won't be the last. Everyone who comes after me can still make plenty of money. Like it's, it literally is not a fixed pie. So those are all excuses. And the one that's interesting to me is the, well, I don't have anything interesting or unique to say. Have you ever felt that? Like, yeah, maybe I've helped somebody in their weight loss journey or I've helped somebody with their
marriage or I've helped somebody grow their business, but but I'm just sharing stuff that everybody already knows like like this This isn't unique to me. Even the way I do it is not unique. Have you ever felt that? Like duh everybody knows this Can I let you in on a little secret? They don't know it Not everybody they don't know it and they don't think about it the way you think about it
Graham Cochrane (06:32.322)
I was reminded of this a weeks ago. was at an event in Atlanta, John Maxwell. There's a group within the John Maxwell sort of coaching organization called High Capacity Leader. My friend Chad Johnson started this mastermind of entrepreneurs and CEOs and executives and bringing great speakers and we do workshops and we're all trying to scale our businesses and run our teams and build a legacy and make impact.
All that great stuff. I've loved being a part of the group, but also I've been able to lead a couple of sessions with these high capacity leaders. so, Chad asked me very last minute, like the week of our most recent event in Atlanta, said, hey Graham, we're doing some breakout sessions. I want you to do one on digital marketing, is that okay? Basically, just teach for 10 minutes or whatever you want with digital marketing and then we'll open it up for 20 minutes of Q &A.
and then we'll have another round of people come in after that so you'll lead two of those same breakout sessions. Does that sound good? by the way, I already sent out the email to everybody with your name on it, so I guess I kinda need you to do it. So I'm like, okay, last minute teaching moment, I've got 10 minutes. I'm like, what can I teach these world-class entrepreneurs and executives of major companies and organizations about digital marketing that they don't already know? Like, they probably already know
most everything there is to know about digital marketing because they use it for their businesses or they have digital marketing experts on their team running the marketing division. What can I share with them that they don't already know? These are not beginners. These are my peers, right? And some of these guys and gals are doing humongous things. So it was a little intimidating because I was like, A, I didn't have any time to prep, but B, what am I going to teach them? And so was thinking about...
crazy, unique, interesting things. And I just, went off on a rabbit trail for a while of trying to come up with something new. And then I was reminded of what Solomon said in Ecclesiastes, there's nothing new under the sun. Like everything's already been done and been said and there's nothing new. So I'm just gonna teach them three major shifts that you need to make in your digital marketing because I think people misunderstand the purpose of marketing, right?
Graham Cochrane (08:50.988)
and I shared three very simple, high-level principles about what's happening with online digital marketing these days. And I was so like, not nervous, because I could talk about this stuff in my sleep, and I love this stuff. I just was like expecting crickets, you know? Like I'm gonna share this stuff, they're gonna look at me, and I'm gonna say, all right, let's open it up for questions, or we can mastermind a workshop, and they're all gonna just like stare at me, blankly.
Yeah, yeah, bro. I'm already doing that. I know that. Do you have anything new for me? Like, that's what I was expecting. The moment I was done with the first 10-minute group and I opened it up for Q &A, there was a guy sitting back left and kind of in the back row and he had his glasses off. He was taking his glasses off and he just looked irritated. And so I assume, and if you've ever been a speaker, you know this, like if you see faces, you always try to like look away from the frowning faces because they messed you up, right? If they're frowning,
You think like you're doing a bad job, so you always look for the smiling faces. There weren't a whole lot of smiling faces, a lot of like neutral faces. And this guy was kind of frowning the whole time and he asked the first question, raised his hand, so I called on him. I'm like, boy, here we go.
He said, hey man, I run like a major healthcare company.
I'm just irritated because I learned more in the last 10 minutes of you sharing than I have in the last 10 months of spending a crap ton of money with a personal branding agency who's supposed to do all this for me. Like I get it now. Why didn't they teach me any of this stuff? And then he asked if I had coaching. And it's like, wait, that basic stuff that I just shared.
Graham Cochrane (10:42.296)
Like you had a major unlock. He was like, yeah, no one's ever explained it that way before. And it like blew my mind. And then it was person after person saying the same thing. One lady was like, I took three and a half pages of notes. I'm like three and a half pages of notes. I had three bullet points. and I talked for 10 minutes.
It blew me away and it reinforced, again, something that I have known and continue to forget and then continue to relearn to remind myself and then I'll probably forget it again, which is there is nothing new under the sun. And so the things that you're so insecure to share because you don't think they're that unique or special or mind blowing or brilliant, you only think that because you know them. You've swim in that water all the time. It's familiar to you.
It's like how your house has a unique smell, your apartment has a unique smell. Hopefully it's a good smell and you don't realize it because you're in it all the time until you've been out of town for a week. You come home, you're like, what's that smell? is that what my house smells like? That's what your house smells like, for better or for worse, to other people when they walk in, but not to you because you've adapted to it. You've acclimated to it. You and I have acclimated to our knowledge and information and it might seem like simple knowledge and information.
It might seem like, well, yeah, that makes sense. It might even seem like what other people are teaching and sharing, but not everyone knows that. Not everyone follows those other people. Not everyone likes the way they look or the way they talk or their worldview or their personality or whatever, but they like you. Or they would like you if you showed up on the internet to share the thing that you know how to do that you think is ordinary that might be a huge unlock for someone else. So, what I want to do
is I wanna briefly reframe this idea of expertise. Then I wanna show you the cost of this lie, because it is costing you a lot. And then I wanna give you some action steps, whether you're starting a business and you haven't yet, because you're believing this lie that you're not good enough or qualified enough, or you wanna raise your prices and you haven't yet, because you don't feel like you're qualified enough, because there's two different groups of people, okay? So let's reframe expertise real quick. I don't know what you think of when you hear the word expert.
Graham Cochrane (13:01.964)
Maybe you think of someone with a degree or multiple degrees like a master's degree, a doctorate or a certification or fancy logos around their name or an endorsement by someone famous like Oprah. I don't know what comes to your mind, but what I want you to do is obliterate whatever comes to your mind. And one step further, I want you to obliterate the word expert. I know there's a lot of language in this online space about
expert secrets and profiting off of your expertise. I don't love that language because it's such a limiting visual image for people. People hear expert and they go, I don't identify with that. Most of us do not identify with the term expert. So I think we throw that word out entirely. You don't need to be an expert. I don't consider myself an expert in anything, never have. But I have made tens of millions of dollars online helping other people get a result.
Okay, that's all we're doing. That's all you need to do. Can you help someone get a result? And the way you know you can help someone get a result is twofold. One, you've either helped someone get that result in real life. You're the friend that people come to when they need marriage advice and you've helped them in their marriage. You're the friend people come to when they wanna get in shape because...
You seem to be in shape and you've helped them get in shape. You're the person people come to and they're like, hey, I don't know how to get great looking photos on my iPhone camera and you help them with their iPhone photos and videos. If you've helped someone in real life, you can do it online and get paid for it. My first business, the recording revolution, I had helped all my musician friends set up home recording studios because that's what I love to do. And I realized I could help people on the Internet that aren't my friends but are just like my friends. And I'll just do it from one to many on YouTube. And then eventually I had courses and memberships and
made millions of dollars just helping people like my friends in real life, but on the internet with their music. And then I started to help people with their businesses. I had an article come out on me on Business Insider way back in 2015, and it was one of those clickbaity headlines like, 32 year old musician makes $75,000 a month, and it like blew up for a hot minute. And I got all these messages and DMs and emails from people that like, I don't care about music or recording or whatever you teach, but I...
Graham Cochrane (15:24.534)
I'm blown away at how much money you're able to make and how few hours you work because that was what the article said is only work 10 hours a week, which was true, no longer true. Now it's five hours a week. So it's only gotten better and millions of dollars, not 75,000 a month. So they were blown away by those two things. How are you doing that with so few hours? What's the business model? I don't understand it. And so I started jumping on Zoom calls for free just to help these people. Cause I was like, dude, this is so simple.
There's four components to an online business. There's kind of six core phases. All of this, by the way, I teach in my book, How to Get Paid for What You Know. So if you haven't read it, it's the most affordable thing I offer. Pick up a copy. I'll link to it in the description or get it wherever you buy books. So I just was showing them what I show in this book and I'd show people what I do and it was blowing people's minds and I realized, my gosh, I'm helping people start their fitness online business or they're teaching French online business or they're...
motor, recycle, mechanic, DIY, fix your own bike business, or your back pain, get rid of your back pain business. I was helping all these people start these online businesses in real life, so was like, I could just do this to the internet like I did with the first business. And so having that experience, I started a YouTube channel, I started this brand, and the rest is history. So you know you can help people if you've actually helped people in real life, even if they didn't pay you for it, by the way, because notice that's not what's required. What's required to...
to get paid to help people is that you've actually helped people, that's it. Doesn't matter if they paid you or not. And then number two, if you haven't helped people in real life, but you helped yourself get a result in real life, that counts as well. Were you overweight and then you got incredibly in shape and went on this health journey and now you look shredded or you look amazing in a bathing suit and you used to not? Bro, if you helped yourself, you can help other people. Did you have a business that was
only doing like a thousand to three thousand dollars a month and then you figure some stuff out and you scaled it up to thirty thousand dollars a month even though you never coached anybody else you did it for yourself you can help other people do it as well. Was your marriage on the brink of divorce and then you figured some stuff out and you guys have figured it out and stuck together not only that now you're more in love than you ever were before even if you never coached another couple in your life you did it with your marriage you can do it with others.
Graham Cochrane (17:41.091)
That is proof you've helped someone get a result, even if that person is yourself. In fact, your own personal story of transformation, of how you had this pain point that your future customers have, and you discovered something that your future customers want to discover, and then you got the result that you have that your future customers have, that story of your transformation, of your journey, of your discovery of how to go from your sort of proverbial hell to your proverbial heaven, that story you're gonna use
Everywhere in your sales presentations, your webinars, on your website, if you speak from stage, if you write a book, like that story alone will help convert whatever you're selling. And it's not about you coaching other people, it's about you having that personal journey yourself. People will connect with that story so much, you wanna leverage that story over and over again. So friend, you have everything you need to get paid to do this. Is this resonating with you?
Okay, the second thing I want you to think about for reframing expertise, number one is get rid of the term expert. If you've helped somebody get a result, you can do this. Number two is you don't have to know everything to start teaching. You only need to be one week ahead of the students, right? If you ever thought about that, like you could become like a middle school science teacher today, right?
And if you've read at least a chapter ahead in the science book, you could teach the class what's in that chapter this week, and then you read ahead for next week. So you learn it ahead of teaching it next week, and then you teach them the next week. You don't need to know the whole science book for the whole school year before the school year begins. Are you tracking me? You just need to know what you're teaching that week. You need to be one week ahead of the students. We get this idea that we have to like be this
Guru at the top of the mountain that's come down and said, I have accomplished all there is to accomplish, now I'm gonna show you how to get back up there. And that's partially true, that's the imagery of like, take people where you've been, but you don't have to do it in one shot. You just have to stay one week ahead of the class. Is this metaphor making sense? When I started the recording revolution, I didn't know everything about producing high quality music. I knew a lot, because I'd been doing it for myself and my own music and my own bands. I'd done it for friends.
Graham Cochrane (20:07.45)
I'd even produced it for other people as a service, but I had never taught it to people. And I was like, I'm not a teacher. I'm a bit of a practitioner, but I'm not even amazing. So what did I do? I taught the basics that I knew they didn't know, the stuff that they were struggling with and the stuff that I was still learning. I was working on like getting excellent at those things myself before I taught them. So there were simple strategies and tactics that most people needed to know that I already knew how to do.
And while I was teaching those, I was learning and perfecting the more complex things or the things that I was interested in learning. And as soon as I would learn something, I would teach it to somebody else. In fact, I've been doing that for over 15 years. Learn something, implement it, get a result, teach it as fast as I possibly can. Why? Two reasons. One, if I have something that I know works, don't hold it back. Don't withhold good from whom it's due. That's what the scripture says. If you have something good you could share, don't withhold it.
Give it away, give it somebody else, because it could help them. So the moment I learn something that helps me, I'm gonna share it, because it could help somebody else. Second, the moment I teach it is the moment I truly master it. I learn and I get to mastery by teaching and sharing. So the faster I can teach and share something, faster I better understand it for myself and then for my students. It becomes this beautiful, virtuous cycle of learn something, teach it, helps me learn something so I can teach it better, helps me learn it better so I can teach it better, and then I become a master.
and I'm adding value all along the way and I'm doing that in public in real time, not in a vacuum until I feel this arbitrary feeling of I'm ready to get out there. Because I've never felt ready. I still don't feel ready. I didn't feel ready to start this second business. Like I said, I didn't feel ready to write my first book. Even when I got a book deal, I was scared out of my mind to get rejected by publishers, by the way, which I did get rejected by at least 30 publishers, but two gave me an offer and I got to choose out of the two, which is great.
I was scared out of my mind to make a run for the USA Today bestseller list. I was scared out of my mind to get up and do my first keynote speech, even though I'd been talking and doing webinars and presentations online for decades. Like, I scared out of my mind, but I did it anyway. And that helped me get better and better understand it. And then I could do more of it. You just gotta get out there and start the virtuous cycle. This making sense?
Graham Cochrane (22:30.114)
At the end of the day, people don't want perfection. They want relatability. They don't need you to be perfect. They just need to be able to relate to you and connect to you. If you can demonstrate empathy for their pain and their problem, hey, I understand where you've been. If you've struggled with this, I have too. I've seen other people struggle with this. It feels like this, feels like this. Empathy is the beginning of this whole process. Then if you can show them, hey, but I've solved this.
I feel what you feel because I was there, but I've solved this because I've got this transformation for myself or for my students or for my friends. There's credibility because again, all people care about is can you help me? And then I'm going to show you the steps to get there. There's a path. It's not just random. is there. I discovered these key steps, these key moments or these key habits. That's all it takes to garner people's trust.
for them to wanna do business with you. So, the real cost of believing this lie that you're not qualified enough to teach or to raise your prices is immense. Number one, if you haven't started your business, the cost is authority in the marketplace. Every day that goes by that you're not posting and starting your online content business is the day that someone else is. And so, 12 months from now, someone who started today while you were waiting till you felt more ready or qualified, whatever that means,
they'll have 12 months of a head start on you. That's at least 52 pieces of content. 40 of which are gonna be just okay. 10 of which will be solid. Five of which are gonna be killer. And they will have made money. And you won't. So it's costing you time. People are getting ahead of you. And that time is what's
costing you the authority in the space. The sooner you get out there, the sooner you can build trust and become an authority. It doesn't take forever to create authority, but every day you wait is a day that you miss creating authority. You miss sales, obviously. The offer you don't make is the offer they can't take, so every time you don't put something out there for sale, even if you've created content, you haven't launched your first offer or product or whatever, you're literally missing just money, period. But what I think you don't understand is how much money you could be missing.
Graham Cochrane (24:56.69)
Literally, it could be tens of thousands of dollars in the next few months. And for some of you, if you already have a business, the cost of not increasing your prices, from what I've seen, is multiple hundreds of thousands, if not a million dollars in the next year. And I'm not exaggerating, I think most entrepreneurs who have had some success online misunderstand how much money they're leaving on the table by charging too low. And the reason you charge too low is insecurity and fear. I'm not qualified enough.
or people won't pay that amount or whatever narratives or lies you believe. And you can believe those lies, they are just that. They're just lies, they're stories that make you feel safe and make you feel comfortable so you don't have to take action that makes you feel uncomfortable or feels risky. But while you're believing those lies and not charging what you're worth, doubling your prices, tripling your prices, raising your prices, whatever it is, launching a high ticket offer, whatever it is, every day that you're doing, you're doing that and just sitting there frozen, someone else is saying,
I'm gonna raise my prices and they're making money and they're scaling and we're talking about hundreds of thousands to not a million extra dollars a year and What's the craziest most frustrating part about all of that? Is that the people that are gonna do that while you're waiting waiting to start or waiting to increase your prices? Probably aren't as good as you like What could be worse than somebody making more money than you who's not as qualified not as?
incredible, who's not as talented, who's not as thoughtful, who's not as generous, who's not as good as you. But they just took action and you didn't. That stings, right?
I don't want that to be you. So what I wanna do is wrap this up is just give you simple action step, okay? So I got four steps for each group. If you're the person that hasn't started your online business, I'm gonna give you the steps and if you're the person that hasn't raised your prices, I'm gonna give you those steps and then we're gonna put a bow on this. So what do you do if you haven't launched? Number one, write down five things that you have figured out, five problems you have solved or five things people ask you about or five things you've helped people.
Graham Cochrane (27:08.276)
If you can't come up with five, it's all right. But I'm giving you the freedom to brainstorm a few different areas because you're probably good at a lot of things. And you probably could build a business around easily three to five of the things you come up with. So I just want you to see just how prolific you are. And don't overthink this. For example, five things that I have figured out or people have asked me about are personal finances.
How do I budget? How do I get out of debt? How do I invest my money? Starting or growing a business, obviously. Recording music professionally, obviously, that's my first business. How to sing better, I'm a singer. How to song write. Parenting. Marriage. And get this, hair. Hair! Like, how do you style your hair?
Like I have more people ask me about my hair than anything and that's ridiculous. But I could probably start a business around hair. I'd actually have to figure some things out. I really, I would only have like three strategies. One, have hair, because a lot of the guys that like my hair are bald. Two, heat, use a blow dryer. Heat, so so important. And number three, product.
Get the right product.
Wow, there's my, that's it. That's my course. You got that for free. Funny story, was at a Kajabi's very first live event in 2019. And at the time they were giving out these pens based off of how much money you've made on the platform. it was new. Kajabi wasn't new, but those pens were new and this was the first event. so I'd been on Kajabi since 2013. And at that point I'd made millions of dollars already on Kajabi.
Graham Cochrane (29:02.926)
And so they were giving out if you've made $5,000 or 10,000 or 50 or 100 or a million dollars. So I had all the pins and it was funny because we were walking around this ballroom and people would notice the few of us that had the million dollar pin. And back then, like now there's tons of people that have made millions of dollars on Kajabi, which is awesome. So that community, and there's even a private Facebook group for Kajabi heroes that have made over a million dollars. It's just grown immensely. But this was a long time ago. And so at that event, there were only five of us.
that were there that had made a million dollars on the platform. And the other four had already found each other. And I'm such an introvert, I'm just standing in the bar, they're doing like a cocktail hour, and I'm just standing by myself, not talking to anybody because it's not my scene. Even though I love going to live events, it's still not my scene, so I'm just standing there drinking my hand by myself, and these four people start stalking me, and I kind of see them out of the corner of my eye, and they're like randomly coming up to me. And I'm like, what are these people doing? And then they kind of spring up on me, like, hey.
We're the other million dollar pen, Kajaba users, and we've been stalking you and wondering from afar what your business is that's made over a million dollars, and we have a theory. We've unanimously agreed that we think you are in the hair salon business. And I about died, spit out my drink. was like, no one ever in my life has ever assumed that I'm in the hair salon biz, like I own a bunch of hair salons. I at your hair, you don't do hair product, your hair salons? I'm like, no, bro, I teach musicians how to record music.
It was hilarious. so what do people ask you about? What are five areas of things you figured out? Just write them down and then circle the one that you're most excited, like the one you're like, I would love to talk about this forever. And that's the second step is choose one that you could talk about for the next 10 years. Because it might be four or five things that you've helped people do or you've helped yourself do or that you could talk about, but
I guarantee there's not all of them you wanna talk about forever. So pick the one that you're like, I could talk about this and share about this for the next 10 years. It's just so much fun. And then what you wanna do is have a simple teaching platform. So one video a week, start an email list with one email going out to that list every week just sharing your free content, right? So I've done a lot of content here on the show about how to build an email list, but just think about it as showing up
Graham Cochrane (31:25.58)
weekly, that's all I want you to think about. Forget social media and posting three times a day, like forget all that crap. It's amazing how many people are like, I can't post three times a day so they don't post at all. Commit to one core piece of content a week. Think seven to 10 minute video or one episode of your podcast or one blog post or whatever. Just one core piece of content a week and talk about your subject. And if you don't know what to talk about,
Take your subject, open up ChatGPT and say, ChatGPT, I want to help people lose weight, or I want to help people get in shape, or I want to help people's marriages, and I'm starting a content platform on YouTube or a podcast or whatever. Give me the 52 most popular or most asked questions around this problem or around this subject. Chat will give you 52 questions, and then all you do for the next year is each week you get up on your phone,
you turn on the camera and you answer one of those questions. There's a year's worth of content right there. And then you just start to pay attention. Look at the analytics, look at the engagement and see what do people like, what do they really like, and what do they not really care about.
Publish it, even if it's imperfect. Literally, just hold up your phone and then upload that junk. Just build the muscle of teaching and publishing. Teaching and publishing. You'll get better as you go. And the good news is, it's ugly, no one's gonna see it, because they ain't got no one following you. It's the best time to just go ugly early, as my friend said. Go ugly early, because no one's looking. people, they're gonna realize it's crap. Here's the good news, nobody knows you exist yet.
So start now and then they'll find you and you'll be getting better by then and then you can polish up the thumbnails or the way you teach or like if you want to be encouraged, you want to see my very first video ever posted, go to the recording revolution on YouTube. So get on YouTube and type in recording revolution. You'll find my channel. Click on videos and sort by oldest to newest and watch that first video and then laugh at your boy. Just laugh at me. I have like a neck the size of
Graham Cochrane (33:40.569)
Texas, I'm like, it's shooting it at night in my spare bedroom, so it's dark. The only light in the room is behind me, which makes no sense. So it's casting a shadow on my face and illuminating the back of me that no one sees. I'm using a camcorder that does not shoot in HD and I'm staring into the camera like a serial killer. I look scared out of my mind or like I'm plotting to kill you because I hadn't developed the skill of being able to say something.
while thinking about the next thing I want to say, I look scared out of my mind. And just know that that's the very first thing I ever posted on YouTube way back in January of 2010, that was the first step for me to generate what is now over $15 million online. Completely changed my life and my family's lives. But it started with that piece of crap video that was still helpful. People still liked the video, that's what's crazy. But I felt like a complete loser and scared out of my mind and so embarrassed to this day.
that video exists. go be, get confident by watching how pathetic I am. And then the fourth thing is, this is how you build confidence is through action, not overthinking. More thinking will not lead to confidence. More action will lead to confidence. It's the only way to get there. I wish you could just think your way into being confident that you'd be confident. The only way to be confident is to go do something and then you'll get the confidence. There it is. Now, if you already have a business, but you're like,
I'm scared out of my mind to raise my prices. don't feel qualified enough to raise my prices. I don't feel like I've gotten enough results to raise my prices. I don't feel like I've been in this game long enough, whatever. Okay, here's what do. Four steps. Number one, collect and reread your top three testimonials. Go find, if you don't already have this collected, your top three case studies. The top three customers or clients or people even free that you've helped that have had the most
exponentially amazing results, right? Like I think one of my clients, Hope, she did like a partial VIP day with me a few years ago. Came to Tampa. I didn't even get to spend a whole day with her because I was masterminding with her and two of her friends. So I had to split up my VIP day among the three of them. So at best she got an hour to two hours of my undivided attention. And at the time she was like, I really want to launch my first like high ticket mastermind and I don't know how to do it.
Graham Cochrane (36:03.438)
and she was a little afraid to do it but didn't know how to structure it and sell it. we outlined her whole offer, sales structure and sales presentation concept. She went and launched it. She made over half a million dollars. Okay, that's a great story. Like one idea, like one hour with me, she generated a half a million dollars for something she was scared to do. It's like, that's one of my favorite stories, right? So collect your top three testimonials just for no other reason than to be encouraged that, bro, you have helped somebody.
You've helped three people. So you'll be encouraged. Then look at those results that you've gotten them. Step two, calculate the monetary value that you created for them or the cost of not working with you that they would have paid. So for example, if you help people make money or save money, like on their taxes or in their investments, something like that, this one becomes easy. So for example,
With hope, I helped her create half a million dollars with one hour of my time, one idea, right? Half a million dollars. So I would say my results I got her were worth a half a million dollars. The crazy thing is that's kind of like one time-ish. I think she did that over two years. So it's like she can keep running that play for years. So it's really worth millions.
But let's just say of the half a million that I know that she generated from that one idea shortly after.
my help for her was worth half a million dollars. Okay, I have another client, Lane, who's been working with me for years and he's generated over $800,000 implementing my strategies. Okay, so I know that I've helped Lane make $800,000. Okay, obviously both of them are brilliant, both of them have done a lot of this stuff on their own and it's like, it's not just me that gets the results, like my student's success is because they are successful.
Graham Cochrane (38:06.84)
But you understand like I can say I've helped them make that amount of money. If you don't help people with a financial thing, let's say you help people with their marriage, then you have to figure out what the monetary value is. So if you help marriages, for example, that are falling apart, if you can help a couple come back together and not get a divorce, well then compare it to what is the cost of a divorce, right? I don't know what the average divorce cost is. Average divorce.
cost in the US.
Graham Cochrane (38:42.006)
It can vary, a few hundred, a few hundred dollars average cost of divorce without lawyers is $11,000. So on the low end, $11,000 if there's no lawyers involved. But when you have a messy divorce that goes to court, guess what it costs? At least half, right? At least half of whatever you own. So you can say saving someone a divorce is anywhere between $11,000 and
hundreds of thousands of dollars, if not millions of dollars, depending on your assets and net worth. So your coaching in the marriage realm is the equivalent of tens of thousands, if not hundreds of thousands of dollars. Okay? If you're in, let's say, the weight loss space or the fitness space, someone works with you and they go through your program and you've gotten them incredible results. What is the cost? Well, there's health costs of not being healthy. If they were overweight,
obese or they had diabetes and they didn't work with you and reverse that diabetes and got in shape, what are the health costs? What is a heart attack cost? What are the insurance bills cost? What does medication cost? Like you can add all the typical, just look at the typical numbers of what someone in their shoes is gonna pay over the next, just say 10 years if they don't fix their health journey, there's the cost because there's always a cost.
with every offer, right? There's the cost of the offer. What does it cost to buy Graham's coaching program, right? Like for example, my VIP day program, $250,000 for a VIP day with me. You get more than just the day, but it's awesome. And some people might say, $250,000, that's a lot of money. Maybe that's the cost that you have to pay me, but what you're gonna get is,
the custom strategy to make your next million to $5 million a year. So the cost of not giving me $250,000 is at least $1 million, but likely $5 to $10 million in the next couple years. So your choice, both, but you make the cost, there's a cost either way, right? So that's the same with investing. People say, I don't wanna buy this house because I might lose my money. Yeah, but if you buy it, you might make money. There's an opportunity cost, right?
Graham Cochrane (41:02.378)
is the cost of the investment or the opportunity. It's a cost either way. You just have to look at the two costs and see which one is higher and then make your choice. And so your job is to look at your clients, see what results you've got for them. What is the cost of not working with you? And you can find a monetary value for it. You can also collapse time. Sometimes the cost is time. 10 years of your life, we could collapse that into a year. So then what does that cost? Nine years of not getting the result?
There's a monetary value there that you could figure out. So your job is to look at your top three results for your top three clients, figure out the monetary value that you've created for them, and then all you gotta do is make this best offer that you have, the offer that's helping get the results, make it one-tenth of that price.
All right, so for example, going back to like my friend Hope, it would be very easy for me to say, oh, I helped her generate $500,000 so I could sell a one hour coaching call for $50,000 because that one hour with me helped her generate $500,000. And if it was closer to two hours, then okay, my hourly rate is $25,000 an hour, right? So I could say,
$25,000 for an hour of my time or $50,000 for two hours of my time or whatever I wanna do or $50,000 in my group coaching program for the year, I can help you generate $500,000 because I've done that before, right? So this is how you think about it. It's not, the problem with pricing is we look at what other people are charging and we just say, I'll charge that or less than that or more than that. We're letting other people determine our prices. We're letting the market determine our prices.
That's not how you should be pricing your offers. As a coach or consultant, your offer should be priced on the value you create for your students or clients. So if you can get people 10X, 5X, even just 2X the cost of your offer, it's a good deal.
Graham Cochrane (43:07.726)
If I say, give me $10 and I'll give you $20, is that a good deal? Yes.
nine days out of the week, like that's a great deal. If I say give me $100, I'll give you $200, is that a good deal? Yes. If I say give me $100,000, I'll give you $200,000 back, yes. Because you're literally making 100 grand out of nothing, like that's the way you need to think about your offer. So make your offer price 1 10th the cost of the value you create for them, or 1 10th the cost of the cost of not working with you. That's like, so you're saving them all that.
And if all of that's just overwhelming, you're just like, I don't know about that, Graham, blah, blah, blah, then you wanna know the back of the napkin answer to raise your prices, here you go. Just double your prices. Simple as that. Double your prices and move on with your life. Like, stop playing games. You create so much value, you're undercharging. I know you are, most of my clients are undercharging. All of my clients are undercharging. Just double your prices. And the great news is,
You'll make the same amount of money. If half the people, if you start getting half as many conversions, so your conversion rate drops in half, great. You make the same amount of money with half the customers to keep up with half the clients to serve. You're also gonna increase the quality of your clients. You're actually gonna attract more clients that weren't gonna do business with you because you were too cheap. I know that sounds crazy to believe, but there's a ton of people that won't buy from you because they think you're too cheap. So they assume that you're not good.
Right? How many cheap brands
Graham Cochrane (44:42.424)
There's no way you can tell me that the cheapest brand is the best. There's no way.
Now the most expensive brand isn't always the best, but it's way more likely to be the best than the cheapest. So by virtue of raising your prices, you signal to the upscale market like this person's legit. And people with money want to spend a lot of money on the best. They don't want to, they don't want to shop at Walmart. Okay. So just double your prices and all as well. You're more qualified than you think, my friend. You don't need permission. You don't need something to change or something to happen for you to be able to start your business.
or double your prices or price what you should be pricing things at. It's just your one decision away. It's just a decision, a bold decision to realize no one's coming to save you, no one's coming to give you their blessing or give you a certification or to come and give you enough thumbs up to say, now you're ready to charge what you're worth. No one's coming. You have to decide that for yourself. And the good news is you can decide that today and make that change today. So if this has resonated with you and you're watching on YouTube, like the video.
leave me a comment and let me know, my gosh, I needed this today. Let me know that I needed this today and let know what part resonated with you. And if you're listening to the audio version of this podcast, you can always message me, my friend. Go to Instagram, that's where I hang out the most, at TheGrahamCocker and let me know that you listened to this episode and that it resonated with you. I'd love to chat with you there. As always, I hope this bless you and encourage you and hope it helps you in your business. impact a ton of people, make a lot more money, have a lot more fun, charge what you're worth. Don't wait because you are more qualified than you think, my friend.
See you on another episode real soon.
