Ep #126: Who Doesn’t Get a Vote on Your Pricing

Hey coach, the era of women undercharging, yeah, it's so over. And that includes outsourcing your pricing authority. I'm Kendall. And in this episode of The Money Coach School Podcast, we are calling out one of the most subtle income leaks in women-owned businesses, and that's handing your number over to someone else for approval. So if you've ever landed on a price that you thought was going to be good, and then immediately texted a friend, asked your partner, polled your mastermind, or opened chat to double-check, this episode is for you.

We're breaking down exactly who not to outsource your pricing to, why it feels so tempting in the moment, and how that single habit caps your authority and definitely puts a ceiling on your income. Because pricing, it's not a consensus decision. It is, though, one of the most direct ways that you can claim economic power and independence in your business. And from here forward, your price gets to reflect the transformation that you deliver. It's all here for you inside this powerful episode of The Money Coach School Podcast. Let's dive in.

Welcome to The Money Coach School Podcast. To really excel at coaching women, you have to be skilled, confident, and even fearless at money coaching. If you're passionate about women holding genuine money power and love supporting women entrepreneurs, then this is the show for you. Now, here's your host, money feminist Kendall SummerHawk.

Hello, beautiful coach, and welcome back to The Money Coach School Podcast. We are starting here today with two big announcements. The first is that the era of women undercharging, yeah, it is over. You are no longer tiptoeing around your value. You are done hanging on to prices you've outgrown, and you are done seeking permission to earn more. We're entering a new era for women where pricing is your solution to income that creates freedom and support and opportunity, your solution to clients who arrive ready and committed and respectful of your work, and your solution to pricing that unlocks your next level of growth.

So, that leads me to the second announcement, which is I am so excited to personally welcome the newest members inside my newest coaching opportunity, which is The Pricing Room. Now, if you just joined The Pricing Room, I am genuinely thrilled you're here with me.

The Pricing Room is my monthly space for high-integrity women entrepreneurs who are ready for pricing that reflects the transformation that you deliver and the income that you are ready to receive. So inside The Pricing Room, we work the strategy, the emotional steadiness, and the voice behind your numbers, so you can raise your rates and actually hold them.

Now, at the time of this recording, the founding members' rate for joining The Pricing Room is just $38 a month, or the whole year is at $380, which does include two months free. There's no contract, you can cancel at any time.

So if pricing has been the place where you hesitate or you negotiate yourself down, The Pricing Room was created for you. You can join me there at KendallSummerhawk.com/pricingroom. I will also put a link here in the show notes.

And today's conversation fits this perfectly because one of the fastest ways women dilute their pricing power is by handing their number to someone else for approval. So let's talk about who not to outsource your pricing to.

You know, there's a moment that happens when you're setting a new price. You've done the math, you've felt into the stretch, you've gotten the coaching, you've landed on a number that definitely feels like growth, and that's awesome. And then you want to hear someone say, "Yes, that makes sense."

That's the moment we're talking about today because pricing is one of the most direct ways women claim economic authority and independence in their businesses. And that independence cannot be validated into existence by someone else. So, let's go there.

All right, so number one, you do not want to outsource your pricing to family, friends, or your spouse. So, let's start with the most common place women look for reassurance: your partner, your best friend, your mom, your sister, your group text. I once outsourced a pricing decision to my massage therapist. I mean, oh my god, right? So why do smart, capable women do this? Because pricing feels vulnerable.

When you raise your rates, you're not just changing a number, you're changing identity. You're changing income expectations. You're changing what's normal. So of course you want reassurance from people who love you. You want safety, you want validation, you want someone to say that sounds reasonable or yes, you'll get that number.

But here's the problem. People who love you, they're usually wired for protection when it comes to you, not expansion. Your spouse, for example, may subconsciously want stability or they don't want to see you fail, whatever that means. Your parents may carry money fears from a completely different economic era. Your friends may project their own income ceilings onto you. Nobody here is being malicious; they're just being protective. And protection often sounds like, "Gosh, that feels high. Sweetie, are you sure? Maybe try a smaller increase first. You don't want to scare people away."

So what just happened there? Your pricing decision moved from leadership to consensus, and consensus, it dilutes your authority. When you outsource your pricing to family or friends, you anchor your number to their comfort, not to your vision. You normalize their money ceiling as your own. You train yourself to seek permission before claiming that income. And that's expensive, like really expensive.

Your business revenue is not a family democracy. This is a CEO decision. So here's the mindset I want to give you on this one. Your loved ones can support you emotionally, but they do not get a vote on your rates.

All right, number two, you do not want to outsource to peers who are not your buyer and who may not even be playing at your level. Now, this one is sneaky. Let's say you're in a mastermind, you're in a Facebook group, you're talking to peers, colleagues, and you say, for example, I'm thinking of charging $5,000. And then someone responds, "Well, I would never pay that," or "My audience could never afford that," or "That's really high for your niche." Now, notice what just happened. You handed your pricing to someone who is not your ideal client, does not operate on your revenue model, may not even be profitable, and may not have the same financial standards or goals that you have, or they haven't done the same level of money mindset work that you've been doing.

So women slip into this because we value collaboration. We value community. We're taught to be agreeable, and we don't want to be “too much”. So what do we do? We gather opinions. But opinions from people who are not your buyer and not operating at your desired income level are statistically irrelevant.

For example, if someone is earning $50,000 and you're calibrating to $300,000, your nervous system, excuse me, their nervous system is not trained for your numbers. Their nervous system is not trained for your numbers. If someone's pricing is like a low-volume, high-scale, you know, high number of people, and you're a high-touch premium type of business model, their framework doesn't apply to yours. When you outsource your pricing to peers, you number one, collapse to the average of the room. Number two, you confuse relatability with strategy, which it's not. And number three, you trade vision for validation.

And then, of course, your income follows suit. So the truth here, I really should say the money feminist truth here is you don't price to be relatable. You price to reflect the transformation, the positioning, and the revenue structure that you are leading. Your ideal client's capacity matters. Your business model matters. Your financial goals matter. A random peer comfort? Yeah, random peer comfort does not matter.

The third place you don't want to outsource your pricing to is Chat, you know, AI. So let's just talk about this one directly. It is incredibly tempting to ask, what should I charge? You know, to put that into AI, because technology gives quick answers, and quick answers feel efficient. You might outsource your pricing to Chat because you want objectivity or you want data, or you want to skip the discomfort of deciding. You want someone else to carry that responsibility.

And I get that, but here's the reality. There is no algorithm on this planet that understands your nervous system, your current financial standards, your lifestyle goals, your long-term revenue vision, the depth of transformation you deliver, and the emotional ceiling that you're ready to break through. I could actually go on and on with more reasons or more places where that algorithm does not have that knowledge or expertise.

So tools can offer inputs, absolutely, but they cannot hold authority for you. When you outsource pricing to Chat or any of the different kinds of AI, what you're doing is subtly telling yourself that you don't trust your own calibration. You dull your pricing instinct instead of strengthening it. And you practice outsourcing authority instead of really owning it for yourself. And that, my beautiful sweet soul, erodes self-trust, okay? It erodes self-trust. Pricing is not a math problem. Pricing is a positioning decision, and it's a profit decision, and it's a capacity decision. And it's truly an identity decision. Technology can support research, absolutely, it cannot replace your leadership.

And if you want to scale into higher income brackets, the muscle that you must develop is this: the muscle of self-trust under financial stretch. That cannot be automated.

So here's why outsourcing your pricing to any of these three areas is costing you. Every time you outsource your pricing, you lower your authority, delay emotional growth around money, reduce your pricing capacity, and normalize doubt as part of your leadership. No, please don't do this because over time, what this does is it obviously, it either creates or reinforces undercharging and over-delivery, resentment even, and income ceilings that can feel mysteriously sticky. Yuck, we don't want that. And then you don't just have a pricing problem, you have an authority leak. And authority leaks, yeah, that costs cash. And you guys know cash is queen.

So what do you do instead? So instead of asking, is this okay to somebody external in one of these three groups I mentioned, you ask yourself, does this number support the revenue goal and the lifestyle I'm choosing this year? That's a concrete, valid, million-dollar question. It's measurable, it's strategic.

Instead of asking someone, would you pay this, you ask yourself, does this reflect the transformation I deliver and the profit margin that I require in my business? So instead of seeking reassurance, you're anchoring into calibration. I love this word so much. Calibration sounds like what revenue goal am I leading towards? What client volume supports my energy? What margin allows profit and taxes and savings and owner's pay? And what emotional state do I want to hold when I say this number?

This is leadership. This is financial agency, which I am all about. This is money feminist work that you're here to do. And by the way, I did a whole episode on owner's pay titled "Owner's Pay 101: What It Is, How It Works, and Why It Matters." It's episode 123, and it's actually turning out to be the most popular episode so far this year. So I'll go ahead and link to it in the show notes.

So to wrap up here, do not outsource your pricing to family, friends, or your spouse. They love you, but they are wired for safety and protection, not expansion. Do not outsource your pricing to peers who aren't your buyers or who aren't operating at your desired income level. Their ceiling, yeah, it's not your strategy. And do not outsource your pricing to AI, you know, Chat tools. Tools can inform, they can't decide for you.

Pricing is one of the fastest ways you change your financial reality, and it is one of the most direct ways that women claim economic power through the vehicle of their business. Authority at first certainly can feel edgy, and I get that. And then, you know what happens? It feels normal. And then you know what happens? It becomes your new standard. And then what happens? Your income follows. I want you to remember that you've got this.

So if today's episode showed you even one place where you've been outsourcing your pricing power, then I encourage you, I strongly invite you, I excitedly invite you to come bring that into The Pricing Room with me. This is where pricing becomes a strategy that funds your freedom, your growth, and your next level. The era of women undercharging is over. And from here forward, you let your price reflect the transformation that you deliver.

If you're ready to operate from that standard, definitely come join me inside The Pricing Room. It's just $38 a month at the time of this recording. That's the founding members' price. It will not last forever. Or it's $380 for the year, which does include two months free. There's no contract, you can cancel any time. So the link is in the show notes or you can just go to KendallSummerhawk.com/pricingroom. And I hope to see you inside there.

Thank you so much for tuning into this week's episode of The Money Coach School Podcast. If you enjoyed this podcast, make sure you follow so you never miss an episode. Also, I would so love and appreciate if you would leave a 5-star review. Your review supports women just like you in discovering all of the juicy tips and insights I’m sharing here on how to coach women on money.

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