Undercharging Is Costing You More Than Just Money--Free Your Magic Challenge Day 3

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Undercharging may feel safe, but it’s one of the fastest ways to cap your growth. In this powerful episode of the Free Your Magic Challenge, Christine DeHerrera dives into the real reasons business owners resist raising their prices—and how those fears secretly drain energy, attract the wrong clients, and keep you stuck at yesterday’s level.

From busting the “too busy” excuse, to facing worthiness head-on, to finding courage for difficult money conversations, Christine offers fresh insight and actionable journal prompts to help you finally break free. If you’ve ever wondered why raising your rates feels so uncomfortable—or what it’s costing you not to—this conversation is the wake-up call you’ve been waiting for.

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Episode Transcript

Christine DeHerrera (00:00):
Welcome to the Free your Magic Challenge.
We're on day three.
I know you've really beenenjoying days one and two
because I've been getting somepretty amazing feedback.
You really resonated with thetoxic positivity and the toxic
excellence.
Today we're just going to jumpright in to the next toxic trait
undercharging.
If you're undercharging, you'reworking twice as hard for half

(00:22):
the reward.
Today we're going to talk aboutwhy you're afraid to raise your
prices and what it's reallycosting you.
Maybe, just maybe, the biggestreason you're stuck isn't your
marketing, it's not your offer,it's not your clients.
What if it's your price tag?
Undercharging doesn't make youmore accessible.
It makes you invisible.
Let's talk about why you mightbe keeping your prices low and

(00:44):
why it's holding you back.
I find there are three reasonsthat toxic undercharging is such
a common issue among businessowners.
Number one you're busy.
Being busy is one of thebiggest reasons you're not
raising your prices, butbusyness is often just an excuse
.
It's easier to stay in theweeds of day-to-day work than

(01:04):
sit down, look at your numbersand ask yourself the hard
questions.
Raising prices requiresreflection and strategy, but if
you're always too busy to pauseand think deeply, you'll keep
spinning at the same level,which is a real problem because
busyness becomes the ultimateshield against growth and,
unfortunately, being busy is notthe same as being strategic.

(01:25):
If you look at the inflationrates from 2016 until now, I'm
just going to read you a few In2016, the inflation rates were
2.1%.
In 2019, they were 2.3%.
In 2021, they were 7%, 20%,2022, 6.5%, 2023, 3.4%.

(01:45):
I tell you this because ifyou're charging the same rates
year after year after year,you're not even keeping up with
inflation.
That's a problem, because itmeans you're actually making
less money doing the same amountof work.
Even though you're busy, youhave to block time in your
schedule to look at all yournumbers and raise your prices

(02:05):
accordingly, which brings us toreason number two.
It's really easy to be afraidyou're not worth it, kind of
like imposter syndrome indisguise, but also a worthiness
issue that comes from being inour society and constantly being
challenged what is your value?
What is your value?
What is your value?
What is your value?
Which leads us to say things inour mind like who am I to

(02:29):
charge more?
Or what if nobody pays?
But the thing is, if you'relistening to this podcast, I can
almost guarantee you're alreadyover delivering more value than
you give yourself credit for.
Undercharging doesn't make youroffer more accessible.
It makes your energyunsustainable.
You can't step into your nextlevel if you're constantly
undervaluing your current one.

(02:50):
Undercharging is just impostersyndrome with a price tag.
Which brings us to the thirdreason.
Undercharging is a toxic traitand that is simple.
People avoid raising pricesbecause they don't want to have
the hard conversations.
People avoid raising pricesbecause they don't want to have
the hard conversations.
Talking about money can stillfeel uncomfortable, even though
it's becoming more of a thingwe're allowing ourselves to do.

(03:11):
The fear of rejection, the fearof hearing no, or even the fear
of disappointing somebody who'sbeen a longtime client these
reasons keep entrepreneurs quiet.
But here's the thing Everygreat business owner has learned
that uncomfortableconversations are the doorway to
growth.
When you avoid these moments,you're not protecting your
business, you're capping it.

(03:32):
If you avoid hard conversations, you avoid big opportunities.
That's what it really comesdown to.
So what happens if you don'traise your prices?
Number one you're going to burnout faster.
When you don't raise yourprices, you end up working
harder and harder just to keepup.
More clients, more hours, morehustle, without more income
that's the reality of not evenkeeping up with inflation, and

(03:53):
that's the fast track toexhaustion.
If you don't raise your prices,you are the one that pays the
difference with your energy.
Number two you attract thewrong clients when you're
undercharging.
Low prices often attract clientswho don't fully value your work
.
They nitpick, they drain yourtime, they don't follow your
boundaries and then therefore,they don't get the best results

(04:15):
because they're not reallyinvested.
Undercharging is like puttingup a magnet for the wrong
clients.
Number three if you don't fixyour toxic undercharging, you
stall your growth.
If you keep chargingyesterday's prices, you lock
yourself into yesterday's leveland if you're listening to this
podcast, you are not about thatlife.

(04:35):
Your skills, your experience,your results they're still
growing because you're committedto learning and changing and
bettering yourself.
But your bank account cannotcatch up if you keep
undercharging.
Keeping your old prices keepsyou stuck in the old level.
So what do we do about this?
Number one we have to look atour numbers and be honest with
ourself.
I'm going to give you somejournal prompts to help you get

(04:57):
started wrapping your headaround this.
Ask yourself where am I usingthe busy excuse to avoid looking
at the true value of my workand what I should be charging?
What would open up for me if Islowed down and made this a
priority With this question?
You have to just slot, justslot in 10 minutes sometime in
the next week to answer thesequestions.

(05:20):
Number two if you're using theworthiness component to avoid
raising your rates, ask yourselfthis If I believed, without a
doubt, that I was worth it, whatwould my prices be today?
How would I show up differentlyif I trusted my value fully?
Third way you might be avoidingraising your rates is, of
course, having the difficultconversations.

(05:42):
Ask yourself this whatdifficult money conversation am
I most afraid of having rightnow?
Is that with yourself?
Is that with your clients?
Is that with your family?
What is that conversation?
And follow that up with whatcould become possible for me and
my business if I chose courageinstead of avoidance around this
issue.
I've been in business for morethan 20 years.

(06:03):
I have definitely gone throughthe ringer with all of these
things being too busy, notwanting to look at my numbers,
wondering if I can raise prices,being afraid to have the
difficult conversations.
I have literally been in thetrenches and every time you sit
down to have the conversationwith a client or you just raise
your prices across the board.

(06:24):
With all the new people comingin, it's like such a weight off
your shoulders and the universeresponds to that energy by
bringing you new and betterclients.
It's happened to me everysingle time.
I'm not a huge fan of the bookLean In by Sheryl Sandberg, but
one thing that she said in therethat really flipped the script

(06:45):
for me was charge like a man,and what she meant by that was
if you're doing hourly work fora client and you get on the
phone with them for five minutes, you have to bill them for that
.
So that was the one brightpoint of that book for me, and I
challenge you to that as well.
If you're still feeling squirmyaround undercharging, just

(07:05):
charge like a man.
I thought that was so funny,but it really stuck with me and
it gave me a lot of courage.
This is one of the things I workwith my own clients on.
I even work with this on someof my vendors.
I'm like it is time for you toraise your prices.
So if this is something youneed help with, you can book a
free consultation to talk abouthow I might be able to help you,
and be sure to tune in tomorrowfor day four of the Freer Magic

(07:29):
Challenge, because we just keepgetting deeper and deeper into
it and I know you're going tolove this next toxic trait.
See you then.