*This* is expensive

Have you ever tried baking bread from scratch? I love to cook — so I figured it couldn’t be that difficult. Unfortunately, what I produced didn’t fit the legal definition of “bread”. The kids — my biggest critics — called it “a brick” ????.

Yet, for someone who’s baked hundreds of loaves, they could produce perfection with their eyes closed and their hands tied behind their back.

Same ingredients, same kitchen, same recipe; completely different outcomes.

The gap between my results and theirs? Knowledge.

Gaining expertise is an expensive venture, no matter how you slice it.

Some spend money on a formal education. Others might spend years in apprenticeship. And many, like I’m sure you have, know the cost of learning things the hard way through trial and error.

The things you know might feel like common knowledge to you. But to others without your experience? It’s practically witchcraft.

But are you accounting for that when you price your services?

You have the receipts in the form of every mistake you’ve made, every course you’ve taken, and every challenge you’ve overcome. These things have made you valuable far beyond the hours of labor you provide on any given project.

You’re not just selling a service; you’re lending out all of the knowledge you’ve earned along the way — and your prices are a reflection of that.

It’s great to get out a calculator and draw up numbers based on time, materials, and expenses… but that calculator doesn’t factor in the scars — many of them costly — your clients will avoid by having you lead the way.

Think back to the baker… the true value isn’t just in the ingredients they use or the oven it’s baked in — it’s in the hands that crafted it.

Same goes for you.