3 Ways to Self-Sabotage Your Fee (And What to Do About It)

Here's a little secret...state your price then 🤫

Welcome to all 383 of you in the MYM Familia.

---

A Hellhole Called “Meeting in the Middle”

One of the challenges when negotiating with event planners is this: How do I get the number that I want?

Negotiating your fee (ahem, “investment level”) can be a nerve-wracking exercise. But let’s also remember that getting to the point of a negotiation is a win! It’s a validation of your hard work.

Being wanted is a good thing.

There’s just one problem challenge: Now, it’s time to close the deal.

I’ve been involved in hundreds of speaking negotiations.

Here are the three sentence starters that are guaranteed to lower your investment level.

[📸 Screenshot this list and pull it up during your next negotiation.]

---

3 Ways to Self-Sabotage Your Fee

1. “What’s your budget?”

You’ve probably heard advice that goes something like this:

• Events have fixed budgets

• You don’t want to “outprice yourself”

• Ask what their speaker’s budget is and then work from there

I want you to take that heap of mularkey and throw it into the 🗑.

Here’s what negotiating 437 keynotes taught me:

• Event budgets may be fixed but there are multiple buckets. If they want you, they’ll pull money from another line item to make it happen.

• “Outpricing yourself” is a myth and starting with a strong value proposition sets the expectation level.

• If you ask what the budget is, be prepared to get a low-ball number.

  ---

2. “Well, I usually charge…”

I took a negotiation class in law school and frankly I don’t remember much, but one concept stands out:

Anchoring: A well-known cognitive bias in negotiation, anchoring is the tendency to give too much weight to the first number put on the table and then inadequately adjust from that starting point.

When you say, “I usually charge $___, what does the listener hear?

• “Well, I guess sometimes she doesn’t charge that much.”

• “It’s going to be easy to bring him down.”

• “I bet he’ll take $___.”

That one word - usually - anchors us on a shaky foundation.

---

3. “Could you do…”

This language pitfall has all of the markings of a car dealership rendezvous.

Using “could” is akin to slipping on the top rung of the negotiation ladder.

It’s going to be an ugly fall to the bottom.

---

The Mic Drop 🎤

So, how should I start my negotiation?

Try this:

“I’ve reviewed my notes from our call and I know [NAME OF YOUR KEYNOTE] will be the message that will [AUDIENCE OUTCOME]. My investment level for this keynote is: [INVESTMENT LEVEL].”

Diligence + Impact = INVESTMENT

[Feel free to tweak this language to fit your style, but hold true to the framework.]

At a later point, we’ll go deep into the Bundling Approach (providing multiple services to get to a larger number).

And remember: It’s okay to negotiate down to a number that you are happy with. I’m not saying you can’t lower your price (just don’t make it a default position 👊🏾).

And finally one last thing.

After you state your number….

Do Not Say A Word. 🤫

Let the event planner be the next person to speak.

Just breathe…and be quiet.

You’ve got this!

---

That’s all for this week, MYM Familia.

If you’re committed to investing into your speaking journey, here’s a resource:

• Our “Get Paid to Speak” course shows you, step-by-step, how to build a speaking business. These seven modules will put you in position to monetize your message.

---

If you liked today’s newsletter, be sure to like, share, and comment below.👇

Take the Stage.

Get Paid.

Buy Your Freedom.