When Pricing Cracks the Ice
Ever have a month where the truth shows up uninvited… and somehow it’s exactly what you needed?
November felt like that.
Pricing conversations lit up like a prairie thunderstorm — fast, loud, impossible to ignore.
And when the hard numbers finally spoke, something shifted:
the ice cracked.
Not in a scary “oh no” way…
but in that deep, resonant way that says,
you’re stepping into leadership now.
I remember my own “crack.”
Back in my workaholic era — the one where sleep was optional and grit was mandatory — I priced my team’s billable hours using “industry standards.”
It felt responsible.
Professional.
Legit.
Except…
I had completely ignored overhead, downtime, training, team building, sick days, holidays — all the invisible, essential threads that hold a business together.
No wonder I struggled to get ahead.
I was doing CEO-level work with employee-level math.
❄️ This Month’s Icebreaker
One of my clients ran his Profitability Scorecard and froze — literally stopped mid-sentence.
The package he’d been offering wasn’t just underpriced…
it was borderline charity.
And when we traced his effective hourly rate?
Let’s just say CEO energy was nowhere in sight.
He wasn’t lazy.
He wasn’t disorganized.
He wasn’t “bad at money.”
He was simply doing what so many high-level founders do:
Running the business with “Set it and Forget it” pricing.
But time has a way of shifting value, deliverables, and expectations — and our thinking patterns don’t always shift with them.
That’s the real trap: old math + old assumptions = new problems.
When he saw that negative profit number?
Bam. A mild frown turned into a full-body nope — this ends today.
And in the space that opened up?
Momentum.
Ideas.
Actual leadership choices.
We built a three-tier proposal in one afternoon — with deliverables matched to the client’s needs and his own internal profit benchmarks.
Done-Together Pricing
Pricing is where DIY goes to die.
And honestly? It should.
Facing pricing with an interpretive guide — someone who sees what your brain filters out — changes leaders fast.
My clients aren’t “raising prices.”
They’re shedding assumptions they didn’t realize were welded to their thinking.
Pricing becomes an ecosystem:
-
the hard math
-
the client perception
-
the value delivered
-
the capacity of the human doing the work
-
and the thinking patterns driving every decision they make
And once they see the whole picture?
The ice cracks.
And suddenly pricing no longer feels like walking on hot coals…
instead everything starts clicking into place — aligned with who you are and what your clients need.
This month made one thing unmistakably clear:
Support melts the ice faster than strategy ever will.
Done-Together.
Side-by-side.
Looking at the whole landscape —
the numbers, the habits, the thoughts, the horizon stretching out like an early-morning prairie sky…
and realizing you don’t have to cross it alone.
If Pricing Is Fermenting in Your Mind…
…move it out of the mental pantry and onto your actual action list.
If you “know” what needs to happen but keep circling the thought like it might fix itself… it won’t.
And if you’re finally admitting you won’t do this alone —
that’s the moment where courage sneaks in.
That tiny “ugh… okay” whisper that feels like surrender but is actually the start of leadership.
Here’s my hand — not a pitch.
Just a human invitation.
Reply with PRICING,
and we’ll look at your next right move together — based on where you are and where you want your numbers to take you.
🔮 What’s Coming Up Next Month
December is for downtime — the grounded, grown-up kind.
We’re letting our minds wander.
Spending more time with life and less with work.
Quietly letting our brains recharge and finish rewiring the habits we built this year.
Preparing ourselves for the clarity that January demands —
and the 2026 vision waiting to take shape.
✨ October Highlights
ICYMI – This Month’s Blogs:
📬 Hiding in Your Inbox
-
What if Profit isn’t the Result? It’s the Plan.
- Your Profit Pathway is shaping up!
💙 Thank You
Thank you for reading, reflecting, and taking action all year long.
Your leadership habits are the quiet engine behind your freedom.
Sincerely,
Jennifer Bauldic, Cash Coach
Breakthrough Coach, Profit First Professional, Fix This Next Strategist
You CAN Change Your Business
👉 If you found value here, forward this to a friend or colleague who’s ready to melt the ice in their own business.
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