In this meaningful episode, Patty Block, Founder & President of The Block Group Inc., shares how she has empowered women business owners who are experts in their fields to turn up their power to price, sell, and run their business on their own terms with less stress.
You will discover:
– The power of perceived value
– How to price with confidence
– When “testing your market” is actually just “doubting yourself”
Episode Transcript
Scott Ritzheimer
Hello, hello and welcome. Welcome once again to the secrets of the high demand coach and I have a very special high demand coach here with us today. And that is the one and only Patty Block. She’s worked with women business owners since 2006. And she believes that consistent business success comes from leveraging your hidden advantage, making informed decisions, communicating powerfully and taking calculated action. Now in her book, The Hidden advantage, unlock the power to attract right fit clients and boost your revenue. Patty reveals a new perspective and a proven practical solutions for guiding women to unleash their inner potential to run their business with less stress and more joy and achieving a more profitable future. Well, Patty, I’m so excited to have you here. I mentioned as we were getting ready to hit record here that my mom is a business owner. And so what you do and the power of it really hit home for me as I was researching before this episode. So before we get into all of that, though, I’d love to hit rewind for a moment and look at what were you doing before 2006? Before you made the leap as a coach? And how did that ultimately lead you to what you’re doing today?
Patty Block
Well, I’m really glad to be here. And many years ago, I feel like it’s a different lifetime. I was a political consultant and a lobbyist. And loved it was fascinating, and I’d never do it again. I’m based in Houston, Texas. So I was commuting to our State Capitol in Austin. I did some federal and local lobbying, and train candidates and did campaign strategy. So it really was a fascinating career. I had that business for about eight years. And all of a sudden, I’m 35 years old, I have a thriving business, three little kids at home and a surprise divorce online, and realized very quickly that I needed to stop traveling, which of course the lobbying required and stabilize things for my kids at that time. My youngest was about two, and he just turned 31. So fast forward all these years, I’ve raised the kids myself did not have financial support, which is a separate story in itself. And but raise the kids help them all get through college, graduate school, launch their careers. And now they’re all three business owners. Wow. So I’m super proud of them.
Scott Ritzheimer
That’s awesome. That’s awesome. It. It’s, it’s interesting. And I love to ask this question of guests, because so often you see that the power of what they do today, the passion that they have for it comes from a difficult time a difficult journey. And that’s every bit is true for you. So fast forward 2006 is Congo, we’re years after that. Now you’ve been doing this for a while you’re very, very good at it, what would you say today is some of the most important work that you do for your clients.
Patty Block
Helping them find their hidden advantage. In fact, I wrote a whole book about it. Because what I realized is many years into this almost two decades into working exclusively with women, and I work with women that are experts. So a lot of accountants, attorneys, up professional speakers, corporate trainers, and so they have a wonderful expertise. They’re an expert in their field, but they may not feel super competent about running their company. And so that’s where I’m helping them. And what I boiled it down to more recently is I’m really helping them find what makes them unique in their market, how they can talk about, I mean, I’m not a messaging specialist, but I am a communication specialist. And I’m also a pricing expert. So what I find is that combination can be super helpful in helping women experts, position their company in the marketplace, attract the right fit buyers price for value, and be able to talk about all of that very effectively.
Scott Ritzheimer
Yeah, you had a couple of startling statistics on your website that I just wanted to share with everyone and correct me if I got this wrong. But I think I remember you saying 62% of women rely on their business for their primary income, is that right?
Patty Block
Correct.
Scott Ritzheimer
And and then you follow that up with a zinger if you will, but 88% of women bring in less than $100,000 a year, which, you know, $100,000 for some folks feels like a ton of money. But when you’re in your position, you have three kids, you 35, you’re relying on that to you know, to give them the life that they not only want but deserve that doesn’t go very far. And so first off for there’s a second part of this, which is I feel like a lot of folks when they even think about you mean I could make $100,000 there’s almost this instant shame that goes like how dare you think that is that been your experience?
Patty Block
Yes. You know, when I was growing up, my mom made these fabulous cookies. The whole house smelled good. It was warm, the cookies were gooey. And all my life I watched my mom eat the broken cookies. But it wasn’t until I was a teenager that I even thought to ask her. Why do you only eat the broken cookies? Do they taste better? And she laughed and said, No, I eat the broken cookies, so you can have the whole ones. And this memory came rushing back to me. Several years ago, when I was struggling to put language around, what is the pattern that I have seen all these years of working with women. And I realized, that’s what we as women are doing is that spirit of self sacrifice that we saw in our role models, our moms and our grandmothers. They brought that spirit to everything they did. And we ended up bringing it into our businesses. And what what that looks like is we undervalue ourselves, we underprice our services, then we are investing in staff in technology inside our businesses. And we over deliver for our clients. Because most of us do routinely over deliver, and our profit goes poof. And because of that, and it’s so pervasive, especially with women that I named, it is called the broken cookie effect. That is a dynamic that I see all the time, primarily with women business owners, but not exclusively. And what that does is it keeps us very limited, and often very unfulfilled in our businesses, because it feels like we’re always scrambling.
Scott Ritzheimer
Yeah, it’s it’s such a great story because it captures it so well. I think what’s so tricky about is that self sacrifice is a noble thing. Like you’re not here saying self sacrifice is bad, we should stop self, self sacrificing. But what I do hear you saying is there’s a right and wrong way of doing that there’s a right and wrong place of doing that there’s a right and wrong time of doing that. And I think the real tragedy of it is what a lot of folks don’t see, especially around this idea of pricing. There’s so many different places when it comes to experts, the less you charge them, the less people listen. I mean, that’s just the truth of it. And so the the kind of dynamic downside of this is when we undervalue ourselves, others undervalue our opinions. And you can be saying the exact right thing, and you’re actually not moving your clients as far as you would if you had overcome that challenge. Is that Is that what you see?
Patty Block
That is so well said. And you really encapsulated what the problem is? You’re absolutely right. I’m not saying be selfish. I’m not saying always put yourself first. And don’t worry about everybody else. We innately worry about everyone else. The challenge is that we allow that dynamic to keep us stuck. And it’s not about the money, it almost never is about the money. It’s about, as you said, the credibility, the level of understanding that your buyer has in terms of your value, and they can’t read your mind. They don’t know your qualifications and experience, unless you tell them. And as women, we often don’t talk about ourselves. And we feel like we’re bragging. But again, I’m based in Texas, and we have a saying here, that it’s not bragging if it’s true. And everything that these women are talking about, or sometimes not talking about is true. It is factual. And their experience or expertise, their higher education, all of those pieces that come together to create that expertise. And yet we’re not talking about it. And so people may not perceive the value you think they do. And then your pricing seems out of alignment, either too often it’s too low. And people you know, we’ve seen this in the retail market. There’s Walmart, Macy’s and Neiman Marcus. Well, which woman shops at which store depends on how much money she can spend and what she thinks is important. And your buyers view you the same way. Yeah. And you have certain expectations. When you go into a Walmart or Macy’s or Neiman Marcus, you have expectations of what you’re going to find. And if it’s going to address the needs that you have. Same thing when people come to you, as a buyer. There they have expectations, and perhaps they’ve been referred to you. So that’s a warm introduction. and you have every opportunity to build that perceived value, how they perceive you, and subsequently, what you are charging for that.
Scott Ritzheimer
Yeah. And there’s so much to unpack in there, I think the thing that you keep coming back to is the perceived value, right? You’re very careful with that statement. Because what we have a tendency to do is kind of see our own value, assess our own value, and then think that everyone else sees it the same way. So when they say, No, it’s devastating, right? Because they’re saying no to all this value, I can’t cut my price any lower. Right? And we mistake there No, for really a fulfillment of I’m not worth it. Would you agree with that?
Patty Block
I would. And it’s also the power of building a pricing model. When, and I teach how to build a pricing model, how to build your perceived value, because with a model, you have a structure around it. And then if someone has an objection, or says, No, it’s structural, it’s not personal. And you’re right into especially for women, it is it becomes such a personal rejection. Yeah. When someone has an objection, or and we hear it that way. Or if they say no, or they say not now, or they say, I’m checking with other vendors, then it feels extremely personal. Yeah. So being able to detach a little bit emotionally, and talk about the structure of your pricing. This is how you price this is the level at which you price, then it takes away some of that feeling so personal.
Scott Ritzheimer
Yeah. So some folks have seen will come at it, and maybe they don’t have the confidence that they should have. And so they’re like, Well, what I’m going to do, I’m going to price myself low, so I can get a couple reps under my belt, and then I’ll be more confident. Is that a strategy that you would encourage?
Patty Block
When you’re first starting out? Yes, I think that’s fine. Because you have to find ways to get comfortable with selling, or you will avoid it. So as a startup, yes, that’s fine. I work with established companies. So by the time you’ve been in business, let’s say three years, that strategy undermines your credibility. When you think I’m going to price low, to get started to prove myself, you don’t need to prove yourself. And again, the people who come to you already believe something, and they usually believe something positive, or they wouldn’t be speaking with you. Yeah, that’s so good. And you can build on that. But again, you have to be confident to talk about yourself, your experience, your team, your network, all of the pieces that are valuable to your buyer. And often we forget about that, we forget that we have spent 30 years building a network of wonderful, giving generous people. And that is part of the value we bring to our clients. So being able to talk about that and feel confident in what you’re saying and how you’re saying it, I think is really a critical piece. And one other thing I’ll add is I often work with women who are in a later stage of their business, maybe they’ve been in business 25 or 30 years. And they are starting to think about how they want to exit their company. So I’m helping them build value. So they can position their company for exit, which usually means a sale, and that the broken cookie effect applies there, too. Because so many of us experience that. And once we priced low, we kind of paint ourselves into a corner, and then raising your prices or changing the structure can feel like you’re going to experience conflict. Yeah, like people are going to push back, they’re going to question you. And so there’s really a process that I recommend that you put into place. So as you get further along in your business, you’re really building that value as opposed to just generating income.
Scott Ritzheimer
Yeah, yeah, that’s so good. And one of the things that I’ve found working with folks is that when you prove Oh, I can sell my services for $100 an hour, right? You’ve only proven that you can tell them for $100 an hour or so, you know, in terms of confidence, you almost hit reset when it’s like well, I charged $1,000 I couldn’t charge $1,000 An hour like you’ve actually not proven that to yourself. And so there’s a dynamic there and I love that folks like you can come alongside and help people walk through it because, you know, to an extent you can’t come out of the gate and charge full you know, full price, you know, you build up to that but in the end The extent if you start too low, you get stuck too low. Or if you get stuck too low, it gets harder and harder and harder to change later. So I love that that’s such a big part of what you do, because it’s right where you know that the broken cookie effect and the real world come colliding together. That there’s this question that I’ve had, it’s kind of been lingering in the back of my head, and you actually just came back to this does does the broken cookie effect go away? Like, is it something that you overcome? And it’s like, you get the you get the coin and you move on? Or is it something that like the is constant, it’s like more of a constant companion.
Patty Block
I think it’s a constant companion. And the what I teach is how to beat the broken cookie effect. What I’ve learned is, from working with so many women, what happens is, for the first three months or so, they beat the broken cookie effect, they rework their pricing, they are attracting more ideal buyers, all of those pieces fall into place. And then we start to doubt ourselves, we start to wonder, Should I do this differently? Should I tweak this, should I now, I will say the underpinning of being an entrepreneur is your tolerance for risk, and being able to experiment and test in your market. And I think that’s critical for every business owner, to understand and to do. However, when we start to doubt ourselves, and wonder if maybe we should do something a little differently, that’s not really testing, that’s doubt. And that doubt can undermined our confidence. And even though you think you may sound really confident when you’re talking to a potential buyer, they may hear in your voice, or the way you’re breathing, or your body language, how nervous you really are. Yeah, and all of that comes across, and it undermines your credibility. And your, again, that perceived value, how they perceive the results, they will get, yeah, in working with you. So the broken cookie effect, because that’s how we’re raised. It, it is very pervasive, and it’s not something you just get over. It’s something that you learn about, and that’s part of my mission is to bring that to awareness. Because once you’re aware of it, you can use specific strategies and tactics to not be so victimized by that scenario. And, and over time, as you practice, it becomes easier and easier.
Scott Ritzheimer
That’s so good. And so good. Patty, there’s a question I like to ask all my guests, and it’s this what’s the biggest secret that you wish wasn’t a secret at all? What’s that one thing that you wish everybody listening today knew?
Patty Block
You can price for value with confidence, there is a price point for every buyer. So if you feel as though you need to keep your prices low, you may not be talking to the right buyers.
Scott Ritzheimer
And how do you how do you discern the difference between your price out of the market and you’ve actually not found the right market?
Patty Block
You know, that’s a great question. What I hear a lot, I’ve done a lot of market research with my audience. And one of the things I hear two things, my pricing is fine, quote unquote, right, everybody thinks their pricing is fine. And the second thing I hear is the this issue of it’s too tricky to try and change my pricing. And it makes me so uncomfortable. I’m just gonna leave it alone. So I think, as we’re thinking about the pricing piece, and feeling confident, it is about testing. The second piece that I hear frequently is I have to price based on what the market can bear. And there really is no such thing. If you believe that there’s a price point for every buyer. Yeah. Right. So that means you may be, for example, if you are only talking to start up businesses, and you’re an accountant, let’s say and you get a lot of pushback, and people are aghast at your prices. There is a whole world out there of people who can afford your services, appreciate the value you provide. And you may not feel like you have access to that audience. But those are some of the strategies we can put into place. So you do have access, right? So when you’re asking that question about how do you know the difference between pricing yourself out of the market and out And my feeling is I would go with the idea that you are not pricing yourself out of the market. But perhaps you’re speaking with the wrong people. Yeah. And maybe there’s a better balance you can achieve in that if you want to serve a particular population, that you may be able to have access to a different audience that does understand the value.
Scott Ritzheimer
Yeah, it’s so true. It’s actually something that we talk about with our coaches all the time. And that is, especially with us, we’re working in the world of business. So our, you know, our buyers or business owners, and, you know, we use this idea of stages, there’s this early struggle stage, there’s this fun stage that comes after that. And then whitewater and, and each stage has its own challenges and problems, right. But there are a lot of problems that seem like they show up in all the stages, your accountants are classic version of this, everyone’s trying to be profitable. But the way that a brand new business that doesn’t have a market yet finds profitability is by figuring out how to sell right, not by having a beautiful p&l. And so what ends up happening because of just the number of brand new businesses, because so many of them fail, there’s just a huge volume of brand new businesses, that if you go out to the world and say, Hey, I help business owners, right, like 80 90%, especially if you say small business owners, they’re all going to come back in early struggle, because they’re looking for help. They’re trying to get this thing to work, right. But what you do, unless it’s specifically designed to help people on that stage, even to this, I work with folks who have been around for a few years, because you know, what I do, and what is what you’re passionate about is helping those that are in that fun stage, right? Who are who’ve been the kind of the early odds, but they’re still selling themselves short. And I think the thing for everyone, you know, guys and women in particular is find out what stage you love to work in, right, and then go solve the problem of finding people in that stage. And you’ll, you’ll find just a tremendous, tremendous difference in in the actual value that they get, right? Not even perceived value. But if you’re helping someone with processes, and they don’t have them and sold anything yet, right? Like their real value is very low. What if they’re selling so much that processes are now an issue, their real value can be exponential, if you find the right market? So that’s such a good point of not just jump to, oh, let’s price lower, let’s press lower, or the markets not there? Have you found the right market for your services? That’s so good, Patty.
Alright, so I want to show okay, we could do a whole conversation right there. But sake of time, I’m gonna, I’m gonna shift gears on you one more time. And I’d love for you to actually just take your coach hat off for a moment, put your CEO hat on, kind of jump into the ring with the rest of us. And tell us a little bit about what the next stage of growth looks like for you and your business and what challenge you have to overcome to get there?
Patty Block
So I recently launched my book, Your Hidden Advantage. And that has been the focus for almost two years writing, publishing, and launching the book, which has been so cool, because part of my mission is to reach more women business owners, especially in that early stage, that are struggling, and helping them shift the way they think about their business as a whole. So that has been, it’s really fed my soul in terms of reaching more women and helping more women. The focus for my business, in terms of the consulting is on the women who have been in business much longer, and have, they’ve almost gotten to the stage where business is not fun. And it feels like a burden. And they’re making great money. They’re very profitable, very consistently. And they have all the burdens of adding more staff members, more training, more technology, all the business processes, and all of those pieces that can sometimes bog us down. So now they’re starting to think about how can I build wealth instead of generate revenue, right? Because generating revenue is a temporary thing. And even being profitable is temporary. And so these women are consistently profitable, but they’re looking at a more long term strategy. And so that is the focus that I bring in that consulting is helping women to position their company build wealth, and be ready when they’re ready to exit.
Scott Ritzheimer
Yeah, yeah. Oh, that’s so good. There’s there’s a couple of places we see that happen when we call one of them whitewater and the other one treadmill. And it’s almost the same thing for two entirely different reasons. But it’s so needed and I think up to that point, a lot of folks solve the early problem and then They’re completely caught off guard when all of a sudden is not fun again, like why, like, we’re just doing more of what we’ve done all along. Why isn’t it more fun than it was all along? And it’s just, it’s a different beast, it’s a different challenge. And again, I love that you’re there to help them through that. It’s fantastic. So, you mentioned your book is actually there behind you for those who are on video, but how can folks get a copy of the book? And how can they find more out about what you do?
Patty Block
yourhiddenadvantage.com And there are several free bonuses there, including a video training and an article that are companion pieces for the book. So yourhiddenadvantage.com And you can also reach out to me through my website, and I love meeting new people. And if you reach out to me, please mention this podcast so I can make that mental connection.
Scott Ritzheimer
That’s fantastic. Well, Patty, just just tremendous. I think everyone the broken cookie effect is like sealed in our memories. So just such a great example such a powerful concept. Again, I appreciate you appreciate the work you do. Thanks so much for being on and to everyone listening you know your time and attention mean the world to us. I hope you got as much out of this conversation as I know I did and I cannot wait to see you next time. Take care.
Contact Patty Block
Patty Block have worked with women business owners since 2006. She believes that consistent business success comes from leveraging your hidden advantage, making informed decisions, communicating powerfully, and taking calculated action. In her book, Your Hidden Advantage™: Unlock the Power to Attract Right-fit Clients and Boost Your Revenue, Patty reveals a new perspective and proven, practical solutions, guiding women to unleash their inner power to run their business with less stress and more joy, achieving a more profitable future.
Want to learn more about Patty Block’s work at The Block Group Inc? Check out her website at https://theblockgroup.net
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