What’s Your Price?
Know the lines you will NOT cross in order to make your business successful.
Hi! Kathryn here. This month we discuss the importance of “Naming Your Price”, aka knowing the lines you will NOT cross in order to make your business successful.
When comedian Dave Chappelle got his first deal with Comedy Central, he was excited to tell his father. Getting your own show was a sign that you “made it” as a comedian. His father listened intently as Dave told him about the deal. When Dave was finished, his father took a deep breath and said to him, “Name your price now.”
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Dave was confused, which is what happens when you share news you find exciting with a parent and their reaction is less-than-thrilled. What was his father talking about? He was about to be, to use a phrase from The Chappelle Show, “Rich, Bitch.” His father, sensing his son’s confusion, then went on to say, “At some point you will be challenged. Name your price now, the line that you will not cross, and be okay to walk away.” Fast forward a few years later, and Dave was presented with that line. He walked away from a $50 million dollar deal with the cable network.
There will be a time in the process of building your business when you are going to be faced with a challenge to your integrity. As a CEO, I’ve faced a number of these challenges. In one particularly hard instance, funding came with activities that compromised the integrity of the organization as well as my personal integrity. Several millions of dollars of funding were at stake, so I walked away (slowly, because it was game-changing money). Less than 2 years later the organization received even more support without the questionable strings attached.
You will face a slew of other challenges —to your bank account, your personal life, even to your mental health. It’s important to be very clear before you start to even build your company about the line you will not cross. Naming your price, aka recognizing your core values, and defining what constitutes a violation of them, is crucial. These values are your own personal truths--the things you hold dear and are central to you as a person. They’re your North Star that will help you define partnerships, make decisions about hiring and funding, and check yourself to make sure you're achieving your goals.
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Build The Damn Thing podcast, based on my bestselling book, is on Apple Podcasts, Audible, and Spotify! Season 3 is available now. Check out the How to Mentally Prepare for Entrepreneurship episode from Season 2 for more tips on how to get your mind right to make your own big business decisions.
In next month’s newsletter, you’ll learn more about how to define your core values and how to use these values for business success.
Keep Building the Damn Thing!
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