Latest / Freelance Careers with Fexingo: Independent Work, Consulting, and Self-Employment / 100 Episodes of Freelance Careers What We Learned About Pricing
Transcript
- Lucas: So this is episode 100 of this show. I'm not going to do a big retrospective montage or anything, but I did spend last weekend going back through the transcripts of the first 99 episodes to see if there was a single thread that runs through all of them. Luna: And what did you find? Lucas: That every single rate-raising tactic we've covered — the price escalator, the scorecard, the exit interview — it all comes down to one uncomfortable truth: most freelancers are charging less than what their clients would happily pay. Luna: So we're basically 99 episodes deep into 'ask for more money.' That tracks. Lucas: But here's what surprised me. The most effective tactic — the one that produced the biggest single rate increase in the case studies we covered — wasn't the most complicated. It was the client exit interview we covered in episode 84. Luna: The one where the marketing consultant raised her rate by 40 percent after one conversation? Lucas: Exactly. She had a retainer client for two years, never raised the rate. When the client said they were cutting the budget, she asked for an exit interview — just a candid conversation about what worked, what didn't. And the client basically said, 'Your work is great, but we assumed you were happy at that rate.' Luna: So the client had room in the budget the whole time, they just didn't offer because they didn't have to. Lucas: Right. And that's the pattern I see across almost every episode. The freelancers who raise rates successfully are the ones who create a moment where the client has to explicitly say no — and nine times out of ten, the client says yes. Luna: I think we should be honest here: this is episode 100, and if we've helped you think through a career move or a pricing decision, that's genuinely the reason we keep doing this. Lucas: A couple of dollars a month is what keeps these episodes ad-free and independent. Buy me a coffee dot com slash fexingo — if you've gotten something out of the show, that's the easiest way to keep it going. Luna: Yeah, it really does make a difference. And now back to the numbers. Lucas, what was the second biggest mover? Lucas: The client scorecard from episode 91. A freelance brand strategist used a simple fifteen-point scorecard — things like responsiveness, strategic thinking, on-time delivery — and showed each client how they scored compared to the agency the client had used before. Luna: That's a power move. It's not asking for a raise, it's presenting evidence that you're worth more. Lucas: And she raised rates on eighty percent of her clients within three months. The average increase was twenty-two percent. Luna: But a lot of listeners probably think, 'I can't do that, my clients will just leave.' Is that fear real? Lucas: It's real, but the data from our episodes says it's overblown. Across all the case studies we covered, the average client loss after a rate increase was about eight percent. And the average revenue increase from the remaining clients was twenty-three percent. Luna: So you lose some, but you make more overall. That's the math. Lucas: The math is clear. But what I found most striking is that nearly every freelancer who successfully raised rates described the same emotional shift: they stopped acting like a vendor and started acting like a partner. Luna: Meaning they stopped treating the client as the boss who sets the price. Lucas: Exactly. They started saying things like, 'Here's the value I bring, here's what the market rate is for this, and here's what I need to continue delivering at this level.' That's a fundamentally different conversation from 'Can I please have more money?' Luna: I remember episode 99 — the retainer that doubled when the freelancer tracked her own time. She realized she was working sixty hours a week for a forty-hour retainer. Lucas: That's a classic. She presented the data: 'Here are my actual hours for the last six months. The retainer covers forty hours. I'm averaging fifty-five. We need to adjust.' And the client said yes because the data was irrefutable. Luna: So the through line across all these episodes is: data, evidence, and a willingness to have the conversation. Lucas: Plus the willingness to walk away. That's the one thing I think separates the freelancers who earn a great living from the ones who struggle. If you're not prepared to lose the client, you don't have any leverage. Luna: And that's hard. Especially when you've been working with someone for years. Lucas: It is hard. But here's what I learned from episode 86 — the price reopener clause. A freelance copywriter put a clause in her contract that said rates would be reviewed annually based on inflation and her own cost increases. She framed it as a standard business practice, not a personal ask. Luna: So it becomes automatic. No awkward conversation every time. Lucas: And she got a cost of living adjustment every year for three years without ever having to negotiate. That's the ideal: remove the emotion, make it structural. Luna: But for people who don't have a clause like that, what's the single best piece of advice from these hundred episodes? Lucas: Start with your best client. The one who values you most. Have the conversation with them first. If they say yes — and they probably will — you've got confidence and a case study to take to the others. Luna: And if they say no? Lucas: Then you learn something important about that relationship. And you decide whether to keep investing in it. Luna: I think that's a good note to end on for episode 100. Thanks for sticking with us. Lucas: Here's to the next hundred. And to raising your rates.