How I Started To Finally Get Paid From My Business

Nick James :
Nick Good morning, Facebook. How are you doing Nick James here? What’s a phenomenal time to be alive this morning. I am joined by the amazing Rachel fit dissolve. Hey Rachel. Hi. How are you doing all right, mazing. Thank you so much for joining us this morning. I know you’re not a morning person, so I appreciate this is a big deal that you’ve made the effort to join us early doors. I appreciate it massively. So for, for those who don’t yet know you, um, why don’t you just give us a very quick 10 seconds or less who you are, what your business does please.

Rachel FitzD: 
Okay. So I’m Rachel Pfister’s auger, but everybody knows me as Rachel fixed D and, um, I’m a problem solver for parents families. So my background is as a specialist in somewhat quirky midwife and parenting consultant, and yeah, now I, um, help families work on solutions to their parenting challenges.

Nick James :
Amazing. Thank you. So, yeah, for that, for those that are tuning in, um, first of all, thanks for joining us for those of you tuning in here. I think, um, the title of this interview was how I started to finally get paid, what my expertise is worth. So, um, if this sounds familiar to you, you’re in the right place. If you know that you’re an expert, that you’ve got skills, you’ve got experience that can help loads of people can make a massive difference, but you don’t yet feel that you’re getting paid, what you’re worth. I think this next 20 to 30 minutes could be really insightful, really helpful for you. So, um, Rachel, why don’t you just give me a or give those that are tuned in, in a quick kind of like where you were a couple of years back with your Islam, like expertise, authority, positioning you’ve managed to build and what, like, what was going on?

Rachel FitzD: 
Sure. So I, um, worked within the NHS. Uh, I’d actually gone into midwifery straight from school, uh, instead of done my five years training, um, but had quickly quickly while a student midwife, um, it becomes sort of known and established as quite specialized within the area of infant feeding and, um, and then slightly sort of slightly quirky ways. Um, and then went on and quite early on at trained separately for, um, birth prep. And also as a parenting consultant left the NHS, um, in 2012, because I couldn’t really be, I couldn’t explore my specialties in a way actually, that they wanted me to. I was quite hemmed in by the hospital, um, protocols really so left in 2012, very, very short about what I wanted to do and very much hit the ground running because of mine as specializations. Um, so that I was kind of really where the buck stops.

Rachel FitzD: 
So it was quite easy to get work and I didn’t tended to, um, do a business course, but because I hit the ground running, I just kind of went with it. Um, and not knowing how much to charge, really, how to structure my business and came out with the intention that what I wanted to, as long as I could reach back to where I have been earning as a part-time midwife, that was good enough. That took me a few years, but I got there, but that was quite a low bar. Um, and then I got discovered if you like for being a little unusual in how I worked in glass, right. And from that, I was commissioned to write a parenting book. Um, and from that quickly got picked up and by, uh, had my own publicist by, um, the baby shows. So they wanted me to be their baby sleep experts. Um, and then by mother and baby to be their agony aunt and to do regular Facebook lives because they realized that I’m not camera shy as for, and I’m not saying I don’t get stage fright, so,

Nick James :
And what kind of, um, obviously you and I have talked about this privately, but for everyone else, what kind of volume of people, what was, um, platforms like mother maybe, and baby show getting you from

Rachel FitzD: 
Maybe show is multi thousands. I mean, I just, I just, I don’t know. And they, you know, I’d go up in done that, uh, live events obviously. And then through the, um, lockdown I’d been doing their, uh, their virtual event, I mean, multi, multi, I mean, I don’t know how many tens of thousands go through and then from other and baby, the reason why they kept asking me back actually was because the first one I did, I said, look, I’m going to do sleep because it doesn’t matter whether people are doing weaning or setting the kids off to school or whatever. Sleep is always an issue. Always an issue always bubbling in the background. And the first Facebook live I did for them. I think I caught 3000 people live and they went, we’ll have you back. And so, and then by the next day, 5,000 people, so it regularly sort of thousands watching, and then I’ve gotten monthly slots doing that. And then of course my book, but actually you see people thought that I must be earning really well. People always tapping me up to try and get,

Nick James : 
This was my question a lot. So hold on it, this sounds amazing. We got the book publishing deal. We’ve got thousands of people watching your Facebook lives. Thousands of people seeing you at events. So like, obviously that means you were making a fortune, right?

Rachel FitzD: 
I used to cry because I also used to get phone calls still do from journalists, from major newspapers. Um, and because they knew that my writing style was very popular. Um, they were, they always, always, I mean, I was being rung up and say, you know, we’d like 300 words. Can we do it in 10 minutes? I can. Um, then of course there’s no payment in it because they’re going to promote your book and they think that’s great for you. But because I was self published, I’m getting about between 30 and 50 P a book, which is called. And so actually,

Nick James : 
What were you charging his time for? Um, but you were getting lots of exposure and not safe people message you on Facebook for free advice, unsure and asking questions to pick your brains all the time. If somebody was became a client,

Rachel FitzD:
I was, I had, I had moved my crisis up to 50 pounds an hour. I’d moved them up from 13 to 50 because I didn’t want to sort of, uh, well, one, I came from a midwifery background. Well, you get your midwife for free. You think, of course you’re not because the, the NHS is paying her, but you know, everyone thinks that midwives should be working just out of a love of the love of a job. So the year before I started with you, I had banked 12,000 pounds

Nick James :
Probably is comparable, probably comparable to like part-time midwife,

Rachel FitzD: 
Actually my last year with midwifery, I don’t 24. Yeah. That was, that was working lots of shifts and doing home births and also working as their sort of, um, infant feeding Durham and that sort of thing. So, um, that was sort of doing specialized work, but part-time, as a midwife I was doing about 30 hours a week was, uh, 24. So that was half of my income as a midwife and really out there,

Nick James :
50 quid an hour like that. That’s why probably because you go 50 quid an hour, you need a lot of hours in order to make a decent income. So, um, you, you enrolled in our mastermind. When was that? Uh,

Rachel FitzD: 
It was to, well, we are a plus a year years, 2020. It was April, 2018, 28 April. We’ve lost

Nick James : 
About 18 months ago. That sounds about right to me. So about 18 months ago. So what were the big changes that you made to your pricing, your packaging? Um, because I think there’s people watching and tuning in here today who can probably relate to this, that they’re. I mean, by the way, let me just say, because you weren’t, but, um, ladies and gentlemen, we are talking about a like top, top expert. Somebody who’s an absolute authority in their field. Well-known highly regarded, respected and was charging 50 pound an hour and making 1200 a year. So I’m getting not that. And what I often share is that as much as you would think that fair would be the, the more expertise, the more of an authority you are, the more you get paid, unfortunately, that is not necessarily the case. There is no correlation between how much of an expert you are, how good you are at what you do and how much you get paid.

Nick James : 
In fact, I would bet Rachel and many of the people watching this, that there were, or are for those that are tuning in plenty of people out there who know less than you, that aren’t as good as you are at what they do. They’re getting paid a lot more, which shows that there is no correlation between expertise and income. So you made some changes to your pricing structure, you made some changes to how your offer. So what, what did you do? What did you go from? Uh, what’d you go to from 50 pounds an hour?

Rachel FitzD: 
Um, from 50 pound an hour, I went into, um, just not doing our, we work really tall. So the first big change I made was to go into, um, uh, setting programs, packages, which suited me anyway, because the, one of the biggest problems of doing by the hour is that people will then start looking at that person thinking how many hours do I need? And then of course, it’s a bit like going to the hairdresser and saying, I’ve only got five. Can you just do one half and leave the other, they’d constantly try and squeeze you down. You’d say, well, I can’t actually help you in the way that you want to be helped in that amount of time. And so, you know, you and sort of negotiating trying to rush it, it’s a very, very uncomfortable way to work. So it’s

Nick James : 
People do make the same mistakes. So what did you go to? You went to

Rachel FitzD: 
Packages and, um, I was, uh, charging right from the outset, um, for my best package from month, 1,504, I had two packages, one where, you know, I helped them with program planning and then we met up every week, see how things were going, you know, with, with their plans and with parenting. Um, and so that was for four good sessions a month. And that was nine, nine, five plus a really good discount if they wanted to sign up for me with three months, because three months is you can do a lot in three months. I’d rather work for three months with a client.

Nick James : 
So rewarding clients for greater commitment while giving discounts

Rachel FitzD:
Completely and actually pitching that at the level I wanted. Well, they think it’s what they want because it was such a good discount, but actually it was the way that I wanted to work. And then, um, for 1,500, they also have access to me, um, by, uh, um, WhatsApp and people don’t abuse that actually I do get weird photographs over breakfast. Does this look normal?

Nick James :
This is your job. And I’m sure you’re very used to that. Um, very, very, so you went from 50 pounds an hour making 12 grand a year to 1500 pound a month or three months sending one month three-month packages. So what, what did you, um, what difference did that make? How did

Rachel FitzD:
It made all the difference? All the different? So, uh, one, I was able to just take on a few clients and I wasn’t feeling overwhelmed and that friend also to spend more time with my family. So plus I’m a grandma, you know, and I, I look after the grant while I was looking after grandchildren twice a week, but also I have a very, very active social equity wants to keep up. So it freed me up to do that. But also the main difference for me was feeling really valued. And also the other thing that I felt for me was I knew, I, I really knew, and I was helped to set myself apart because there are a lot of people working with moms and babies, and he wouldn’t believe him at people that work in infant feeding, and I really needed to set myself apart. I really did. And I took a tip from you quite early on. I remember you telling me a story about one of your mates, who is a personal trainer, I think, and he charges a heck of a lot of money. And he just says that he, I think, does he build himself as the most expensive personally? Yeah.

Nick James :
It’s actually a guy who’s a life coach and he’s not niched in any way, shape or form, but he bit the pitches himself as the UK, most expensive life coach. So it gets a lot worse.

Rachel FitzD: 
Absolutely. And that’s why I started doing was, um, I’d, I’d learned from Matt how to sell cars. I didn’t have a clue. I was so apologetic. So in batteries, so ashamed really, um, it to be talking about that filthy money. Um, and so I really learned to value myself and to sell, but then when, uh, people would say, Ooh, you know, that’s a lot of money. I would smile back and say, yes, I like to think that I’m very reassuringly expensive. And that always worked every time. I couldn’t believe how much people would say. Yeah, but you worked there. And I would say, I really am. Yeah, I really, I mean, I really am.

Nick James :
You got to believe that as well. And I think, I think the, um, you know, pre, you know, a few years back, even though you knew how good you were, you still didn’t believe that people would pay more than 50 quid an hour. And, and, you know, whereas the belief shift, I think, is huge and making that shift, realizing what you were, I mean, with the level of positioning or authority you’ve got, um, you get, you get out to a large audience anyway. So just give me a small number of people that will always pay the most expensive.

Rachel FitzD:
Yes. But I actually think, um, the other sort of, uh, angle, if you like, is that by undercharging? I was also saying to people I’m like everybody else. Um, I’m an also ran. I, um, because often they would come to me having exhausted everything else, everything is, and I didn’t know how much they were paying for the people. And then I’m saying when I’m 50 pounds an hour and a lot of the time they say, Oh, you know, I’ve already spent all my money. Well, you know, kind of more fully ready, but by setting myself aside, I was really saying, there’s that. And then if you really, you know, we were talking consultant level and Leon, now you’re going to have to dig deep because you’re going to the top, you know,

Nick James : 
The way that I would explain that, um, as in like, why I think this has worked so well, is that when somebody pays such a premium as they are with you now, the level of belief they have in you being able to get the result goes through the roof. So, you know, if they’re going to make them to you and you sound 50 pounds an hour, the government I’ve already done loads of that. And it hasn’t worked. So I might just be throwing good money after the bad, the belief, when they go 1500 to go, she must know something. They don’t, she must have great knowledge, expertise, great. A depth of experience than everybody else. So therefore that their belief in your ability to get the result goes up and therefore the likelihood of investing goes up too. So, um, yeah, I think anybody tuning into this, if this resonates, um, I think, you know, big takeaways here, first of all, never, never, never, never sell by the hour. You just, as Rachel says, you just wanna one of many, um, so sell in packages minimum, you know, I say 30 day, 60 day, 90 day would be a start point. Um, and, you know, look at the market and charge premium, um, cause there is always going to be for everyone who wants the cheapest. There’s always going to be somebody who’s willing to pay for the most expensive. And they’re more likely to take the survey seriously. They’re more likely to invest the time and energy and heart into it to get the results.

Rachel FitzD: 
And I would also say, don’t assume that, um, I mean, I still get quite a lot of people who come, what they tell me, I genuinely genuinely a harder, um, but you know, especially when it comes to parenting and when they’ve had new babies families, actually the, to how pounds and they’ll go in the buttons, scraps, mitzvahs or things like that. Well, you know, now, now, now by me.

Nick James :
Yeah, actually, yeah,

Rachel FitzD: 
Chad by me, you know, and I get, I get that quite a lot. So I’ll get families, um, who will buy me as a gift for their loved one, which is quite nice. And again, that seems like valued to know that I’m being gifted. That’s really nice. Isn’t it to know that. Um, but the other thing is, is that if you’re, if somebody is recommending that person to you, so I come by recommendation and also I’ve had quite a few clients recently you’ve said, look, I want to work with you because I saw you on a baby show. If you’re not charging tops or the light, you say it makes you look a bit naive to not mean crack. Imagine her she’s all over the baby show and she’s charging what it doesn’t look good. Does it,

Nick James :
The positions, you all the hard work you’ve done over a long time to build your credibility, to be the expert featured in, on mother and baby on their platform and at the baby show and having the book and all that stuff and being featured on TV, radio magazines, whatever, then to charge 55 an hour kind of, and does all that hard work. I think people probably now come to expect that, you know, you’re going to be top dollar. And so when they find that that’s the case, they’re not that surprised. So, um, so what, where are like, just for those that are tuning in and watching this, and maybe this is resonate in, it sounds familiar and I know they’re not charging enough for selling by the hour. Like, so what, where are we now in the business where we’re only 18 months down the road of having this fresh approach. So relatively early days still, but what kind of difference has it made to your income and then how

Rachel FitzD: 
That’s a great question. So the difference it made to my income was that, um, I quickly, quickly, um, uh, got up to just around about the 40 K Mark, which was above what I’d set myself actually. Um, I I’d set myself around about a 30 K Mark because, um, I wanted to still be working very much part time and I didn’t want to set myself a target that meant target and that I was going to be able to having to drive myself and not be able to give my energy to my, my grandchildren and my family. So, um, but I quickly realized that, um, I was really, really enjoying and I did enjoy having that year of working with just a very, very few people that are very, very high level. That was very calming. It was very calming. Um, it was very, very good for, um, revitalizing me because I was on the, of retiring.

Rachel FitzD: 
I wanted to, um, become a humanist celebrant for funerals or not. Um, I, I was sick of it. I just couldn’t face coming on charging 50 and down. So it revitalized me, but I realized that I really wanted to take advantage of that big audience. And I still had this big audience because I’m still doing all this work for mother and baby and the baby show. So I decided that I really wanted to do was to go up to, um, the, um, six six-figure mastermind. Um, and so I signed up for lifetime. My husband, I do you remember the first time we met and that you said you’re going to start up and make sure. And I said, I think I need to talk to my husband. I have, I have a husband who will buy anything as long as it’s 50 P from China, you know, and you know, and remember I said to you, I said, you know, we’ve got a hot tub.

Rachel FitzD: 
I’m going to sit in the hot tub where I know it will be nice and relaxed and talk to him about this. And he was brilliant. Actually, he, he was amazing. He said, I can see how fired up you are. I think that you should do this now. Why wouldn’t you? And then at the end of the year, when I started coming up to the end of my year and he said, well, tell me what’s on office. I said, well, I could do another year at 50 K. I could do a year. I could do another year, six figure, but I’m not sure I want to drive myself to earn six figures. I’d like to work in that way or I could do lifetime. And he said, why wouldn’t you do lifetime venture? Why wouldn’t you? So

Nick James : 
It’s 50 feet from China. So we’ve missed it in a good, but I think, you know, and I do think it’s fair to say you went from 12 grand a year, um, working a lot of hours to 40 a year working part time. So, you know, that, that in itself, I suppose, was proof that what you’d been doing is working. So what, so what’s next, you, you, you nailed the high ticket, low number of clients that you did that for a year. What, what are we now building? How do we grow that? Because, you know, you could keep doing that and it’s great. Or, you know, I know that you want to grow the business.

Rachel FitzD: 
So what I’m doing now is, um, I decided that I wanted to follow this sort of more six figure model of building a membership of doing one-to-many. That really appealed to me, really, really appealed to me to get my message out there, particularly having written a book, you know, that was already out there. You want to capitalize on that. And my audience for mother and baby and from the baby show to bring them along. So I really, I wanted to set up a membership for ships and membership site that could have gone very wrong. This spoonerism is that, um, you, you walked me through the basics of setting that up and I set up the members, I set up the first free Facebook group on the 1st of April, just at lockdown. And it was glorious timing because mothers out there are in a terrible state and I’ve grown my membership site, my free membership site from naught to, um, just coming up for 900, um, since the 1st of April and I’m now, um, and that is just looking, I mean, I’m obviously in there being really sort of involved in that and loving it, really loving it, but already I’ve got a big group of people who are in there all the time, really engaging.

Rachel FitzD:
And they’re the ones that I want to take along to a paid membership site. So at the moment I’m working on that producing content for the membership site. And, um, I know my original to say, well, you see, because I’ve been, I’ve been that audience as well as a mom. And so I I’ve, I’ve been able to build that, uh, yeah, that free Facebook group of incredibly incredibly fast.

Nick James : 
Yeah. I mean, zero to 900 in a few months is, is crazy. That’s really, really more important than just the number they’re engaged. Um, so lay the foundations to then build a paid membership. And what I love about the paid membership model, which obviously your about to transition into is the, what you were doing originally 50 pounds now, as you were trying to help everybody, and now you get to help everybody in a way that is good for them, and it serves to make a difference, but it’s also good for you because you do the work once it serves a large number and you actually can help them for free, whereas before you were helping them for free one-to-one and not getting paid for it. So I think that that is what we would suggest for many. It’s quite the next phase of growth. You’ve gone from one to one 40 grand a year. Really good. Now it’s all right. If we want to help more people learn and increase our income further without taking on load a new clients. One-on-one we go on to many with the membership site

Rachel FitzD: 
And my plan is to have that membership site. Um, I think that I’ll get to a hundred members and no problem, no time at all. I’ve already got them. I mean, I’m not, nobody knows about it yet, but they’re all at me saying, can we have, you know, they won’t courses, could you produce a course on this and the course on that. So I know that they’re just cubing up really. Um, and then I, of course I can still add in extra by just taking all my private clients as many or as few as I want, you know, that I’ve got choices. That’s, what’s so important for me now is I feel I’m in a place of choice, which is fantastic.

Nick James : 
Amazing. Thank you again for getting up, especially early, right?

Rachel FitzD: 
Oh yeah. I’m going back to bed now.

Nick James : 
Uh, everyone who’s tuned in, um, show some appreciation for Rachel hit the lights, the loves, if you watch it on the Facebook page and you know, somebody who needs to see this, um, hit the share button, tag them in the comments, please help us spread the message. Of course, if you know, any, any mothers or families that are struggling with parenting issues, tag them, uh, and, and, uh, show them, um, what Rachel is all about. I’m sure she’d really appreciate that. So, um, once again, thank you so much, Rachel,

Rachel FitzD: 
Thank you so much for, um, all that you and your lovely team have done. Thank you, gentlemen. I wouldn’t be here if it wasn’t for you and your team. Thank you very much.

Nick James :
Oh, thank you. Thank you. So, um, everybody hopefully found this useful, insightful. Interesting. Remember as always, the more you connect more, you collect

Rachel FitzD: 
Bye.