A business owner reached out for a coaching conversation because they were struggling with what they should be charging for a significant project.  Despite having 20-plus years of practical experience in the field, they felt uncomfortable with charging a premium price as they had “only recently completed a university degree in their area of expertise.”

The dilemma faced by the business owner reminded me of a story told to me by one of my early coaches, when I was struggling with how to price my services as I held no formal business coaching qualifications:

A woman approached Pablo Picasso in a café and asked him to sketch something on a napkin. He obliged, creating a beautiful drawing in just a few minutes. When he handed it to her and asked for $10,000, she was shocked.

 “But it only took you a few minutes!” she protested.

 Picasso smiled and replied, “No, madam. It took me my whole life.”

 As he explained the point of the story is, I am not charging my clients for the time it took in the moment of our conversation, I am charging for the accumulated knowledge and wisdom I bring to the conversation to guide them through the challenges they are facing.

As I explained to the business owner, they, as I had done in the past, were experiencing what I call reverse imposter syndrome. Instead of feeling like a fraud despite their qualifications, they were treating their most valuable qualifications — their 20-plus years of experience — as worthless while overvaluing their newest formal qualification. To put it simply, they were valuing the wrong thing.

The university degree was the cherry on top of an already substantial expertise cake. They should be charging a premium price precisely because they combined practical mastery with formal knowledge — a rare and valuable combination that most people in their field were unable to offer.

I encouraged the business owner that if they are having doubts about what to charge for that project because it “wasn’t going to take long” or because they feel like they are “still learning,” remember Picasso’s response. In the end, the price will not be set based on the time it took them to complete the project today, they are charging for everything it took to make them capable of completing that project today.

In summary, the lesson for all business owners is that if you are discounting your prices because you think your experience ‘doesn’t count’ compared to formal qualifications, you are leaving serious money on the table. Your accumulated knowledge and wisdom is exactly why people are prepared to pay a premium price to access you.