A friend of mine was asked to speak and run a workshop at an event. He told the organizer that his rate was 1,000 (well beyond the event budget), but he would do it for free.
He was following a successful speaker’s advice – charge your full rate or do it for free; offering a discount sends the wrong message. Of course, this advice assumes you have been paid your full rate for such engagements.
The expression, “fake it ’til you make it” is useful sometimes, but I don’t think it should be used to set exorbitant rates for your services. You should provide so much value that people are surprised that you do not charge more. When demand for your services is so great that you have to turn away opportunities, increase your rate.
What advice have you received that sounded good, but is impractical?
Self promotion… emailing, marketing, seems simple from the outside and then somewhere in the bit between writing the emails and sending them it goes sideways.
Fear, uncertainty or something along those lines.
I am with you on that one. It always sounds so simple, but doing it is another matter entirely.