How audacity took this B2B business to $1 million with Dr. Michael Tatonetti

Akua: After today’s episode on the Independent Business Podcast, you are going to feel so fired up about your business. Dr. Michael Tattanetti, who is the founder of Pricing for Associations, joins us on the show for a very impactful conversation. He walks us through his incredible business journey, the importance of prioritizing yourself and how to have the audacity to go after what you want in your business.

This conversation is a powerful reminder that if you want to build a successful business, you need to have not only the confidence, but the belief that you can. Let’s get into the episode. Hey everyone. This is your host Akua Kanadu and you’re listening to the independent business podcast. More people than ever are working for themselves and building profitable businesses in the process.

So on this show, I get to sit down with some of the most influential authors, entrepreneurs. and creators to break down the science of self made success so that you can achieve it too.

Hello. Hello, Michael. How we doing?

Michael: Hey, I’m great. How are you doing today?

Akua: Good. I love how you’re so formal as if we’re not friends, but that’s okay.

Michael: Uh,

Akua: I’m still So happy to have you here because you guys, Michael’s a dear friend of mine and he, one thing I love about him is that he keeps it real and he always brings his receipts.

So I’m so excited for you to come here on the show to talk about your business journey. And before we hop in and really just get into that nitty gritty, I really would love for you just to share. Cause I don’t think I even fully know this of essentially just like how you ended up as an entrepreneur and into the business that you have.

today.

Michael: Yeah. So it’s, it’s a crazy journey, but the very quick of it is I just kept latching onto whatever opportunities I saw in front of me that I felt were lucrative. So basically I put myself first and took my own self interest to heart. Um, yeah, yeah. So that in and of itself, I think is a, is a strong lesson.

But I worked in nonprofit. I did education, higher ed, then I started working at a professional association and I took the skills from that organization and, um, they did, uh, pricing work and I parlayed it into my own niche that they weren’t touching. So basically I started my own firm doing pricing consulting four years ago, actually, October of 20.

20 during COVID before that I had been freelancing like marketing, mostly doing sales funnels and content strategy for about three or four years before that. But when I hunkered down on pricing like niche down and specifically for other associations, it was kind of something that really wasn’t tapped into and I saw an opportunity.

People kept asking me for help in my field for pricing and I would help for free. And then I was like, wait a minute, There’s a need I could charge for this and turn this into a business. So yeah, I kind of, that’s the very quick version, but I fell into it and I just kept looking for each next.

Opportunity in the road and how can I capitalize on that?

Akua: Yeah, but I think I too want just to do a little bit of a breakdown of just so the audience understands because I feel like you, a lot of us as business owners, we work be like B2C and your business is B2B. You know what I mean? And so when you’re saying you’re working with a lot of associations, you’re working with a lot of nonprofits, corporations, it’s like that.

And what I’m excited to have you on the show is because, um, I feel like as business owners, we are leaving money on the table when we’re not working with corporations. And if we’re not, and there’s nothing wrong with that, but people, a lot of people like I have worked with both and, but the way that I was able to build my business, build that growth was heavily by working with B2B.

And so I just love that. It’s just highlighting of the fact that there’s more than one way to build success in your business. And so, you know, I, I just wanted to have you on because you again, bring that really unique perspective as a consultant and really paving the way for yourself that works best for you.

So that’s what makes it that you’re here. But when you’re saying associations, again, just wanted to highlight that talking about corporations, nonprofits, those types of things. And so you were really helping people. do their pricing. So pricing what they offer well to where in a way that it helps them grow their business.

And so everybody listening, I just want to give that clarification.

Michael: Here’s what this means. Yeah. Yeah.

Akua: One thing that I do want to break down a little bit is you said that you have always latched onto lucrative things and have always put yourself first. Give us an example of a situation where you’ve done that.

Because I think even for me, I just, I had a little bit of a jump scare. I was like, Oh, You know what I mean? Because I felt a little bit where I think for me, I felt an instant like sense of guilt, but I think that’s such a, why you have built, like you’ve had a very successful year in your business. And I think it’s because of that, but like you do it in a way that number one, you’re not sacrificing your values or anything like that.

So let’s talk about that a little bit.

Michael: Yeah. Well, I think, okay. I think one elephant in the room is there’s a level of privilege to even have that audacity. So like, I do want to acknowledge that as a cis white man, I have. A healthy dose of audacity in the world that we live in. And I’m aware of that. And then at the same time, leaning into it in an ethical way, meaning always giving opportunity for others.

But at the same time, not fully disowning the confidence that I have, I’m using it to leverage opportunities. So. For me, what that looks like is whenever, okay. Like there are statistics, right. On even within corporate having a nine to five on who will go for a promotion and that men tend to go for a promotion.

If there’s 60, 70 percent qualified, something like that is the statistic where women want to be overqualified. And I’ve worked in primarily. Women dominated industries within nonprofit and education. And I’ve always had to encourage like, Hey, you’re ready for this next step. If I was in the leadership position and I think also being willing to step into that, take risk and know, I may not know everything, but I know enough.

And let me go for this and just like, give it my best. That might mean that I have to work a lot harder as an individual because I do lack some of it, but I think, I think it’s just going for things and it’s saying, okay, I know enough. Also, the other thing I would add to that is we tend to look at ourselves as if we don’t know enough within the silo that we exist.

But we don’t realize comparatively. We probably know a lot more than the other people, which goes into qualification. So I can look at myself or anyone can look at themselves and say, well, I know, let’s say 80%. That’s but the clients that you’re serving probably know 20%. So while you may not know everything perfectly, and I’m not saying Go for things when you’re under, when you’re not qualified enough.

I’m not saying like, actually this feels kind of weird coming out. So I don’t know, like, we’ll, we’ll, we’ll, we’ll figure this out. But, but I think what I am saying is like being willing to go for things, even, even when you doubt yourself a bit and knowing that you can still deliver results to your clients.

And then, um, yeah, I don’t know. I don’t know. I feel kind of weird with that answer. No,

Akua: no, no. I think that’s a really good answer. And I think there’s a lot to unpack with that is that. I think a lot of times as business owners, and I remember like when I even first started into my journey and at this time that I’ve even like from just mentally having to rework through that a clue, you don’t have to have all the answers.

You just need to know more than you, the clients that you’re serving. And that’s essentially like what you’re saying. And I think that’s such a great reminder because we instantly will tap ourselves out all the time. We instantly Instantly will already just say that we fail, even though we haven’t tried.

You know what I mean? Right. I think that type of mindset just really hinders us from actually trying, because you really just don’t know where that’s gonna take you. Yeah, and I think especially as business owners, if you’re looking to like pivot in a certain way, you’re wanting to offer a new service and something new that you’re exploring, I think that’s just such a good sentiment of like, you don’t have to know everything.

You just need to know more than the people that you’re serving. Absolutely. Because that’s where you’re gonna be able to really get those. Those results, but also to getting very clear on the deliverables, the results where a lot of times we’ve, I’ve mentioned this before, we’re like, we’ve just been seeing a lot in our industry just in general of like do these exact same steps to get six figures and not all the time results need to look like that.

Are you providing to where they’re able to have more time in their life, spend time, like, you know, or have more flexibility? Like what are the other tangible results besides money that we just really need to be thinking about? And I think that’s kind of just a lot of what you said, just how, just unpacking that.

Yeah.

Michael: Yeah. Yeah. And I think even like, um, Cassie’s episode, uh, 75 on the podcast. Yes. One thing, one thing they talked about was, Hey, we were basically doing this offer. And then we hit a point where our audience was asking for something different. So instead of just running the same offer and always trying to get a new audience, it was elevating with the audience.

I think that speaks to the opportunity to saying. What’s in front of us, where can we go? And what I’m big on Pareto principle, like how can I give 20 percent and get 80%? That’s enough. So what matters, like what lever, what lever is going to get me where I want to be. And then I’m really big on top of that on like systematizing, streamlining, hiring, like making sure that we can do it very quickly and repetitively in a way then that our clients are getting what they need.

But we’re working with a level of ease and it’s a win win.

Akua: Yes. Oh my gosh. I love that so much because like I said, like. I think a lot of times we, a lot of us as business owners, we are not doing enough money generating tasks. And this is something I’ve said before. Y’all know I referenced Shay Cochran because her episode is so damn good, y’all.

So I’m just gonna put that, we’re gonna put that in the show notes for people to go back and listen to. But I think again, like, you are also one of those prime entrepreneurs. That also is very strategic with how you spend your time. And so any way that like, because we all have limited time, like you have a family, right?

Like you have other things and other obligations that you have to take care of. So I know with you, like your time is very intentional. And so one thing that I even want to ask is that is how are you creating some of these eases into your business? Like, you know, you said you systematize. And you have propelled heavily this year.

How have you done that with ease? What systems have you created that has made it be able to where you’re able to do that with ease?

Michael: Yeah. So for context, for our listeners, I’m a solo parent. I co parent with my ex. I have five kids, so dating. Kids running a business, life is busy. He’s doing it all y’all.

I’m doing, I feel like I’m doing everything somehow. And so for me, like I would say in the journey, okay, I’m going to kind of take a macro step back, like look at, look at the forest inside of the tree. When we launched the business, we had great success right away because I had already kind of built a network again.

It was what opportunity was there. I wasn’t. Fully started from scratch. I already had the skill and then I already had a network and it was marrying that, Hey, this network needs this skill. So let me tap into it. So the first three years, like we did six figures and I hired within four months, my first assistant to help me.

And I started to say, okay, I’m doing like, you know, back then I had everything kind of written out in a notepad at my desk of here’s the steps to take a client through, here’s our process. And so my first step was literally let me get off the redundant administrative things that are taking up a lot of my time and, and show them.

And I just use looms. There was nothing fancy and just said, here’s how you do it. Boom. And we would email back and forth every day. We didn’t even have a project management system. And then I was using HoneyBook for like our sales, but like after that, once they signed, it was like manual. And then what I did was over the following two to three years, before we had this Blow up year in 2024 was we started to refine.

We, we got ClickUp personally, but we got our project management system. We started to move everything from paper into there and then make it into a template that we can just copy over for each client. And then we also started to make templates of like all of our meeting reports, like We were doing the same phases with each client and saying, okay, here’s the steps, here’s the deadline, here’s how long it takes us to turn it around.

So slowly, this was a slow process over like three years of just documenting what we were doing, finding the variants, but then trying to coordinate what was consistent. And then this year we blew up to where, you know, we’re doing. It’s between four and five X what we’ve done per year the last few years.

And so we had to hire quickly. We brought on like three, four new people this year, but because we had those systems, we were easily able to say, okay, here’s your seat on the bus. This is what you’re going to do. It’s very focused and we already have videos or there were some, we still had to record. Like the knowledge was still in my head or in my, my assistant’s head.

And we got it out there. But I think for me, I would call a lot of people call that productizing your service. So I think that saying here’s a repeatable rinse and repeat. Service model. So whether if you’re B2C and you’re doing, you know, photography or, you know, whatever it is, accounting, bookkeeping, you know, what you have to do so many months out or each month or week or whatever, having that very clearly defined.

And then the big thing I had to learn was if I can do it, anybody else can do it for the most part. I had a bit of a, like, I think a lot of us can have ego and say, well, they’re not going to do it the same way as me and they don’t, but they do it 80 percent and then. We train and get it right. It’s the same thing.

If I can start at 80%, so can my team. So allowing them to do that work and take it off my plate and trust them, um, and have clear expectations and like checklists for them to follow. It’s allowed us to scale in such a huge way. When opportunity came knocking, we were ready to sign those clients and not question.

Do we need to stop? We’re at capacity. I was able to say, Nope, let’s keep going. Keep going because we have what we need in place. To scale truly. And that’s been such a rewarding year being able to do that.

Akua: Oh my gosh. I love that. And an episode that we have with Paige Griffith, we literally, her story is very, has very similar remnants with you as well of the, what I say is like, stay ready.

So you don’t have to get ready. And that is a prime example of that is that you prepared for the success. And this is something that I need business owners to remember is that you will be successful regardless. It’s what you do with that success that matters. You know what I mean? That’s, what’s going to propel you into like you making into this new stream, uh, like new revenue stream or not, or keep you where you’re at.

And so I think that’s, and that’s really important of like really taking those times to really build out those systems, taking the time to really time track, see how long things are going to take. And it’s not a perfect thing. It’s something that you were consistently, consistently refining. So when you have that moment that happens, That moment’s not going to waste because you have those systems in place that are able to allow you to take that extra client that is allowing you to make more impact in a ways that you just didn’t imagine.

And it’s not sexy. I say it all the time that systems are not sexy, but it’s truly the key to running a sustainable business. Cause you want to build the business, your business for tomorrow. And you are a prime example of that. You were like, I know, like, I don’t know what’s going to happen tomorrow. But I’m just going to keep building and building and building.

And so when that moment finally came, you’re like, bet we’re ready. We’re ready to go.

Michael: Right. And we even had a dip, as you know, cause again, we’re friends in real life. We had a dip a year or two ago where we went like six to 10 months with like minimal revenue. Like it was like me booking speaking engagements, which are one, two, 3, 000, like nothing substantial to pay the bills.

And. One of my strategies before I quit my nine to five, I built my business while working my nine to five, which a lot of us do. But I stacked that money and put a year’s worth of money aside. And I’m glad I did because then when that drought came, I could sustain my bills and my team member that I’d hired without having to let them go.

Even if we didn’t have much to do that week, it was, well, what can we work on? What marketing or, you know, What followups can we do? Let’s just see what we can work on. But I always knew even in that drought, I did not want to go back to a nine to five because I knew that this business had like the foundation to be successful.

It really was a need in the marketplace. What happened was in my industry of associations, they just stopped spending for about a year with pretty much every consultant. So it wasn’t just us. As I spoke with other business owners in my field, It was everybody. So it wasn’t anything we could really do. It was just a tight purse string year.

So we were able to hold over. And again, that’s also a privilege. Not everybody can do that, but I knew that this was going to be successful and I don’t know what we’re going to do next year. I don’t know if we’ll do as much as we’ve done this year, if we’re going to do less. I don’t know things I am working on though, is my team has been time tracking everything that they’re doing and keep attaching it to the task as well as myself.

So we can quickly run reports and update our estimated time in the task templates. So we know, okay, when we sign a client, this is how long it’s going to take. This is our workload for the week. Can we take on more? Do we need to hire more? And I’m already working on our org chart to hire two to three more people and saying, okay, once we hit these revenue amounts, this is where they, this is how we’re going to keep splitting up the work and add more seats on the bus.

So I’m like thinking ahead to what else needs to be happening both for client delivery and then business operations, marketing, sales. Finance so that we’re doing what we need to do.

Akua: Yeah. I think too, like, I kind of want to pivot a little bit as well, because you’ve given such really great advice.

Michael: I

Akua: have a couple of questions just based on all of that that you’ve shared is number one for business owners that are looking to maybe pivot a little bit with their audience, right?

Like, Hey, like I want to get into, uh, Another stream of revenue of like either doing speaking opportunities in the corporate space or, you know, taking on a corporate client for retainer or, you know, those different types of things. What advice would you give to business owners?

Michael: I’m glad you asked that.

Cause I kind of did want to hit also on like B2C versus B2B because I freelance B2C. So I was running an Instagram profile that was targeted, you know, all that. I was doing the personal brand Facebook. I had a following and I was making like, You know, maybe 60, 000 a year doing that, like not chump change doing well, but not compared to B2B.

And I think the big thing there is that B2B just has more money, but how do you get in front of them? Those same skills that you have, they could utilize. So to me, my cheat code that I tell every friend who’s asking to get into B2B is to actually tap in. Two associations. So associations may not be your client, but in associations.

So think like American bar association for lawyers or a ICP is the association for CPAs, for accountants, there is American Institute of architects. There’s, there’s an association for every field. There’s the medical American dental association, American nurses association. So think of who, like, let’s say you do.

Um, social media strategy. And right now you’re hustling out the B2Cs and these two, 3, 000 a month retainers. But you say, you know what? I would love to maybe help chiropractors or dentists with their social media strategy or their website or whatever. And so what I would do is I would look up the association for that.

Field, um, both the national and the state or local chapters. And then I would email their marketing team and just say, Hey, like, create some content specifically for that niche. Like maybe here’s considerations for your social media plan, or here’s a, um, template of like a 30 day, like, here’s what you Possibly be doing and then turn it into a blog and also offer to do it as a free webinar.

That’s going to, and then have your opt in, right? Have that sales funnel ready where people can opt in, download something that’s going to position you in front of that audience without you even having to do paid like ads or anything right away. And then you can see, you might get one or two or three inquiries from that and then turn them into clients and they’re going to be able to afford a different budget.

Now it’s also going to be a different workload. For that client, but to some degree, it’s, it’s not going to be like three X, the amount of money in three X, the amount of work might be three X, the amount of money in two X, the amount of work. So you’re making a better ROI and also speaking. Most of my speaking is for associations.

So then as you get in with writing blogs or maybe doing free webinars. Then you tap into the meetings team and you say, Hey, I would love to be a breakout speaker. And now they’re not going to pay you. This is going to be a business investment. Associations typically only pay their keynotes, but if you can go to your local chapter in your state, or if you’re willing to invest to go to their national conference, when I tell you I could with a national conference, I can usually book.

Six figures in business three to four months after even smaller events. It might only be 10, 20, 000 that I book, but if I spent 3, 000 going, that’s worth it, and then that can turn into returning clients over time. So I would say that associations are a really great way to get in front of. An audience. And try to tap into them, um, to switch verticals or even going B to C versus B to B and really making a name for yourself in that way.

Akua: 1000%. And I do want to also add to that as somebody who also has like worked with corporations, like with doing, uh, you know, working on retainer. It really, all it takes is, is one. Uh, client.

Michael: Yup.

Akua: And so when I got my first retainer client, I made sure to offer the best client experience that I possibly could, where they literally kept extending and extending and extending my contract.

So I was with them, it was supposed to be a three month contract, I ended up staying with them for 12 months. And, you know, everything was just done, like I had did a great job, but then somebody else in the same network, like very similar companies and they’re both like, they both were companies that, and I was working in the financial investment.

So I learned a lot about investments too, which is a really fun industry to learn about, but they were both companies that almost did the exact same thing, but they supported each other. So they saw a lot of the work that I did with their brand, everything. And then they hired me for six months. And then from there I offered an amazing client experience and that led to me then all of a sudden pivoting into an eight month contract with a nonprofit.

And then at that, right. And so then I ended up with a, um, youth football team and I got to do that for a long time and then manage their team. So like, it really does matter. The client experience that is truly amazing. everything. Like I wanted each client to make them feel like, and I still did this while I also had one to one work, right?

So like, that’s something to just really emphasizing, right? So still doing B to C, but it was also doing B to B. And so, and that gave me the freedom to also like be more innovative with my business and the services that I was also providing because I knew I had this retainer amount That was coming in and I didn’t have to worry.

And so I think, again, I think it just really speaks to the fact that there’s more than one way to build a business. And even you just never know who’s going to be around. Like I just taught a workshop a couple months ago and I just got asked to speak at a corporate event, paid, paid. Everything’s covered, flight, food, hotel, and my speaking fee.

So my point is, in the corporate space, it’s like you just never know who’s gonna be there. And so I think it’s just such a good reminder that every single thing that you do, you are consistently showing up and providing the best experience possible. Because that workshop that got me this speaking event, that was for business owners.

Small business owners, independence. Now that just led me into a corporate opportunity. And so best believe I’m going to be showing out doing my best that whole time because there’s more people in that room that can get me into other areas. And so I just really want to emphasize that always providing the best client experience is so key and it can propel you so far in your business that you would just love it.

Never even thought of.

Michael: I fully agree. And a lot of the associations have board members that work at corporations, right. So, so they can represent, and again, you never know who’s in the room. There’s been times where I’ve done the free webinar, and again, it has led to business. Even if it wasn’t someone in the room, they told someone else.

And we all know that building a book takes time. So again, that’s why it’s almost like the first three years. It was mostly first time clients. Some of them repeated the second or third year, but now as we are finishing year four, getting ready to start year five, it’s been so many repeat client, like one client literally just signed three different contracts with me for three completely different projects.

Um, this past month to work on over the next six to 12 months. That’s one organization, like three different agreements. That’s a lot. Um, so it’s possible. It just takes time to build that book. So yes, you might need to continue to kind of hustle with the B2C or the nine to five or whatever, but I do think that investing in B2B in, in speaking and sharing thought leadership and content, and then having a solution, a consulting solution that is in alignment with that, that you say, Hey, we can come in and solve this problem for you.

I think that’s genius. And you do have to be aware of certain things like pay attention to, do they already have staff doing that? So they may not need, you know, again, like a small dental office or chiropractic office might need a social media manager. You know, um, is Coca Cola going to hire you to be their social media manager?

No. So what are the things, who is your target? And where is a viable business, but it’s 100 percent possible.

Akua: Yes. And I think, I love that you said it takes time. Cause like I said, like I had worked with this one client for a year before I moved on and then like, I leveraged that to get to the next client and the next.

And it was all like word of mouth. That was truly how I built my business because the experience that I provided, people were like, you ha like, when they needed help, I was the first person that they thought of. And so I think, I think I just want to emphasize, like, I love that you shared that of like, it takes time, but it’s more than possible.

And so again, I just, I’m going to keep repeating it. Like there’s more than. more than one way to provide success as a business owner. And that’s the beauty of entrepreneurship is that we get to make it how we want to make it. And so another question I want to ask you is because I just, I truly do love how confident you are as a business owner.

And I’m sure there’s people listening like, okay, yeah, like you said, having the audacity. And I just want to come back and just address that really quick, especially as business is like, I’m sure people are now really starting like the wheels are starting to turn. And, and I feel like to work in like, To do B2B and B2C, no matter what, as a, so you have to have audacity.

I, we have to have audacity to ask whatever’s that we want. And so for you, how do you have the confidence? How do you have the audacity to go after what you want?

Michael: Yeah, well, and I don’t want to, you know, this is one podcast interview and you know, when you’re the guest, it’s easy to feel that confidence, but you know, from behind the scenes, there are days I do not have the audacity.

So I first, I actually want to start there with transparency that there are days where I want to quit. There, up until the last few months, like literally for the first, almost full four years of my business, I would get anxiety before every client meeting out of fear that they would not like our results and what we produce.

And that they would shame me or give me a like black ball. We give me a bad name in the field. So that part is real as well, but then there’s just something right. We have our good and our bad days. So on the good days, it’s that I just say, you know what? I know that I know this. And my confidence comes from knowing that I’ve gotten other clients results.

Like there’s proof. It’s not just an inflated ego and narcissism, right? It’s not like imaginary in my head. It’s, I know that I have helped organizations and they, most of them get a 10 to 20 ROI. Um, so, you know, even if they spend 30, 000 with us, 40, 000, but then we help them find literally 1 million in further revenue.

Like. That’s more than worth the investment that they made. So I have to remember that there are clients that we don’t have that big of a win and that’s okay. Like everyone is not going to be a knock it out of the park, but I have to remember that our systems work, our process works, what I’ve created, like I pulled out of thin air, right?

Like I sat down and I said, What is our process? How do we get the client from A to Z? And then we’re finding that and working really hard at it. But I think the audacity just comes from, from proof from like you have to start. And then as you show, so even starting with B to C for me and saying, no, I know marketing really well.

I know psychology. I know how to position. I know how to figure out packaging. I’m really quick at that. And then adding in that pricing element to what we do, it’s just in the proof. And so I think it’s okay to. Feel yourself. It’s okay to look in the mirror and like hype yourself up a bit, right? Like almost like an Issa Rae moment.

I’m insecure. Like sometimes you’ve got to do that and I’ll do that with my friends. I’ll call you. I call other friends and I’m like, I feel like quitting today or I’m not having a good day or this client made me upset. Right. Um, or made me feel less worthy, but then I have other clients who are like, Oh no, like you helped us.

You, you and your team are making such a difference and you’ve got to focus on. The positive voices, you have to watch what you take in. You have to watch yourself talk. And then in that you just have the audacity to say, okay, maybe I’m not going to kill every project in the way that I want to, but the majority again, that 80, 90 percent I am, and I know that on the other 10, 20%, I did everything that I could, sometimes it’s the client.

They didn’t follow through on things. Sometimes it’s their audience. We couldn’t get the market research that we needed and it’s neither one of our faults. But I’ll figure out how can we try to make it right? Or how do we. How do we still land the plane? Well, um, but I think it’s the proof is in the pudding.

So I think you have to start, you have to do, you have to count your wins and remember them even on the hard days. And that gives you the audacity to say, no, like I am a professional at this. I am an, like, I am an expert at pricing for associations in my vertical. There to me, there is no competition and people know when they say pricing, they say, Dr.

Michael, like that’s who you need to call as his firm. Like they’re going to get you right. I think it’s trying doing, having a sense of like, you know, ego, but healthy, but then don’t rely on the ego. Like start relying on the results, but you need the, you need some of that audacity to start. That, that is maybe like, no, I know I’ve got this, but then you start relying on your results, not an inflated narcissistic ego.

So you got to get the wheels rolling a bit.

Akua: Yes. But I think that’s just such a good thing of like, you just have to start. And so like, right. And then you’re taking that data, which is used to help you, like is used to help you learn. Right. And that’s the data is what helps take your next steps. And so I think that’s just such a, such a good thing where you’re like, now I have built this portfolio where it’s like.

It’s nothing. And I think too, when we have the audacity, we don’t have shame of putting ourselves forward. We don’t have shame of seizing opportunities, lucrative opportunities. Like I think sometimes, like I said, even like, I just felt a little bit of that guilt. I’m like, Ooh, putting myself first. Like, I think I still feel a little guilty of that sometimes, but there’s nothing wrong with that because you deserve to put yourself first.

Michael: Well, if you don’t, who’s going to, no one else is going to come up to you and say, you should start a business and I’m going to pay you. 3, 000 or 30, 000 or 100, 000 to do this. You have to step forward and say, I can do this. And you have to keep trying, keep trying until someone says yes. And that like you have to, but this is where I think seizing the right opportunities, Ties into audacity.

You have to do it strategically. I don’t just take any opportunity, like just because there’s a job posting. If it like, if a client comes to me and says, can you do this? And I know that either I can’t or I could, but it would take way too much effort for the amount of money they’re paying us. I tell them no.

So I don’t take every opportunity. I strategically take the right ones and say, Oh, you want us to do this? And it’s adjacent and we can use the same systems and template, tweak it a little bit and get that contract. Yes, we can do that. Here’s how we would do it. And then there are times where I’ll tell people on sales calls, we’re not the right fit.

Here’s some other orgs that I think would be, but on the flip side, when we’re like in the final two or three for a big RFP and we’re on the final sales call interview, and they’re like, why should we pick your firm over these other one or two? I can confidently say, here’s what makes us different. We know this.

Really like we know pricing really well. They know marketing and writing value propositions, but they do not know the science of pricing. If you want pricing, we are your firm. I am 1 million percent confident in that, but the rest of it, I’m not going to seize those opportunities. So it allows us to become this well oiled machine, build thought leadership, contents, not scattered.

We’re not talking about 10 different pillars. We’re talking about like one thing in a few different ways. Yeah. So you’ve got to be strategic, but that audacity, it’s like it fuels itself.

Akua: Yeah. 1000%. But I love that you said that because that also makes me think of Haley page when she came back on, um, after her lawsuit was settled.

And that was, you know, how she ended up in that situation was because. We sometimes have this scarcity mindset that we think that this opportunity is the only opportunity for us. And so that can actually, at the end of the day, do more harm than good. And so having the confidence, having the audacity to know that this isn’t a good fit for me, and I’m making room for something better to come along.

And I think again, it’s that abundance mindset is that having that audacity of like, and that confidence within yourself to know that something better is going to come. Something that’s more aligned and that’s going to feel really good to you is already on its way. And I think that’s just so important for us as entrepreneurs is to consistently, consistently remember that.

And Michael, this conversation has been absolutely amazing. I adore you so much for coming on the show. And so every single question we love to end with is, what do you think is the biggest differentiator between the businesses that succeed and the ones that fail?

Michael: I think it’s having the audacity. I’m going to stick with that theme to go for the opportunities in front of you.

To, to put yourself out there and say, I deserve to give this a shot. Why not me? And go for it.

Akua: Yes. I love that. Kept it, kept it short and sweet too. So yes, love, have loved this conversation for people that want to connect with you because you truly are like the pricing guru for people who want to connect with you as business owners.

Where can they find you?

Michael: Yeah. LinkedIn is the best place. Um, so you can look me up there, Michael Tattonetti, or if you want to take a look at our website, uh, our website is. Pricing for associations. com the easiest SEO decision I’ve ever made.

Akua: Oh my goodness. Thank you. Thank you so much, Michael. This conversation has been so amazing, so fulfilling and for everybody listening until next time.

That ends our episode of the independent business podcast. Everything we’ve discussed today can be found at podcast. honeybook. com. Head to our website to access for show notes, relevant links, and all of the resources that you need to level up. And if you’ve enjoyed today’s episode, be sure to subscribe to the podcast to make sure you never miss our future content, drop us a review and leave our guests some love on social.

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