Robin Waite joins the Unforget Yourself Show to reveal why hourly rates fail, how to price for outcomes, and how a podcast generated 3,000 leads in a year.
Most service providers are working harder than they need to, and charging far less than they should. Robin Waite joins Mark and Katie to explain exactly why, and what to do about it.
In this episode of the Unforget Yourself Show, hosts Mark and Katie sit down with business coach Robin Waite to explore why coaches, consultants, and freelancers stay stuck in the cycle of overworking and undercharging. Robin draws on two decades of business experience, including his own lessons in burnout, intentional growth, and outcome-based pricing, to show a better way forward. He also shares how one well-placed podcast appearance generated more leads in 90 days than four and a half years of social media combined.
This article breaks down their conversation into practical steps for coaches, consultants, and freelancers who want to charge what they are worth and build a business that fits their life.
The most common mistake Robin sees among coaches, consultants, and freelancers is undercharging through hourly or day rates. The average month contains roughly 160 working hours, but most consultants bill only two to three days of actual client work. Earnings potential is capped from day one.
There is a deeper problem too. Hourly rates create a structural conflict of interest. To earn more, the provider must sell more hours, keeping the client dependent rather than getting them results. Most business owners are ethical, but the model works against their values without them realising it.
Robin makes the point sharply: if you were on your deathbed and had to price your final hour, most people reach for a seven-figure number. So why is every other hour worth fifty pounds? Because the pricing model has nothing to do with the value delivered.
Robin's framework for moving away from hourly pricing rests on three criteria, forming the foundation of outcome-based pricing strategy.
First: Define the dream outcome. What is the client actually buying? Are you saving them time, making them money, reducing risk, or improving profitability? The outcome has to be specific and measurable, especially in B2B contexts.
Second: Can it be delivered in a fixed timeframe? A faster, higher-quality result should command a premium, not a penalty. If you have refined your process to deliver better results more quickly, that efficiency is part of your value, not a reason to discount.
Third: Can you charge a fixed fee? This is where most people hesitate. "It depends" is a swear word at Fearless HQ; clients get fined for saying it. In practice, it signals a lack of confidence, a lack of systems, or trying to serve too many different client types. The goal is to do one thing well for one specific client, systemise it, and make the outcome predictable.
When those three criteria are met, knowing your numbers becomes straightforward, because decisions are driven by data, not guesswork.
To illustrate how dramatically pricing approach affects outcomes, Robin uses a story about three web designers pitching for the same job.
Bruce quotes 20 hours at $50 each, totalling a thousand dollars for a website. Three months later, it is incomplete, the blog and shopping cart are missing, and he wants extra payment for the additional work. The client is resentful. Bruce is resentful. Nobody wins.
Tricia has been doing this for years. She is faster, sharper, and immediately spots that the shopping cart is unnecessary. She delivers in 10 hours. The client pays $500 and is happy, but Tricia has just been penalised for being better. The outcome is stronger, but she earns less precisely because of her expertise.
Liz does not mention hours. She promises 15 fully qualified leads within 30 days, backs it up with a money-back guarantee plus $1,000 compensation if it does not work out, and charges $10,000. The client's logic is straightforward: if she delivers even a handful of new clients, the investment pays for itself, and if it does not, they are fully covered.
The lesson is not just about charging more. It is about taking ownership of the result. Most service providers point the finger at the client when outcomes fall short. Liz takes responsibility upfront, and that commands a premium.
One of the most eye-opening moments in the episode is when Robin shares research carried out with the Chartered Institute of Management Accountants. Most business owners assume a 10% discount requires 10% more clients to compensate. The real number is 22%.
By the time a discount works through a profit and loss account, the compounding effect is significant. At a 25% discount, you need to double your client base just to maintain the same net profit. And most business owners are not even calling it a discount; they are simply undercharging from the start, which amounts to the same thing.
The model Robin advocates is straightforward: half the clients, double the income. Fewer relationships, deeper results, and the systems to support genuinely accountable outcomes.
Robin is direct about the psychology that leads service providers to take on the wrong clients. When the mortgage payment is approaching and a prospect is on the phone, the temptation is to say yes regardless of fit.
His approach is to build qualification into the process before a sales conversation even begins: a quiz, a short assessment, or a one-page worksheet. Crucially, the content matters less than the behaviour. Does the prospect complete the task? Do they show up on time? Those signals reveal whether someone is ready to do the work.
Robin calls this a "shit test," a reliable filter the prospect does not know exists. It is a cornerstone of the business coaching work he does within Fearless Business, and it protects both sides of the relationship.
After selling his marketing agency in 2016, Robin spent the early years of his coaching business doing everything the gurus recommend. At its peak, he and his small team were spending over 30 hours a week on content. The returns were moderate, and by the end of 2022 he was burnt out for the fifth time in his career.
His reset, which began on 1 January 2023, centred on one question: what would generate a thousand leads at a time, without the grind? The answer was intentional partnerships. Rather than pushing content, Robin focused on building genuine relationships with people already in the right rooms, including entrepreneurs like Daniel Priestley, Ali Abdaal, Chris Do, and Simon Squibb.
Six months in, he was invited onto Ali Abdaal's podcast. Within 90 days, that single two-hour conversation produced 1,500 leads. Within a year, the total reached 3,000, and they are still coming in two and a half years later.
To put that in context: 3,000 leads through conventional social media had taken four and a half years. The partnership approach now requires two to three hours of effort per week, roughly a tenth of what the content grind demanded.
The strategy is not about chasing tier-one opportunities. It is about consistently paying into relationships, staying visible in the right networks, and trusting that patience compounds over time.
Days 1 to 30 - Clarify your offer: Define your single dream outcome and your one ideal client type. Draft a fixed-fee, fixed-timeframe package built around a specific, measurable result. Remove "it depends" from your vocabulary entirely.
Days 31 to 60 - Build your qualification process: Create a short task or assessment that prospects complete before a sales call. Use this period to review your current client list and tighten your intake process. Raise your minimum price point.
Days 61 to 90 - Invest in intentional partnerships: Identify five to ten people in adjacent spaces whose audiences match your ideal client. Reach out with genuine value, not a pitch. Explore one podcast, event, or collaboration. Measure by qualified conversations, not impressions.
"People in my area won't pay higher prices." This belief is a business-killer. You do not need hundreds of clients; you need ten. Finding ten people who will pay your proper rate is entirely achievable. If you genuinely cannot see them, you are either defining your market too narrowly or pricing against an imaginary ceiling.
"I can't guarantee results, as the client has to do the work too." True, and the solution is qualification, not a weakened guarantee. When you only work with clients who are ready to engage fully, a strong guarantee becomes a statement of confidence. Your qualification process is what makes it defensible.
"I'll lose clients if I raise my prices." You might lose some. But clients who push back hardest on price are rarely the ones who get the best results. Raising prices tends to attract more committed, more coachable clients who are far more likely to refer others.
"I don't have the audience for partnerships to work." You do not need an audience; you need access to someone else's. Start small, deliver real value, and let the compounding do its work.
The problems most service providers face: burnout, undercharging, the wrong clients, too much hustle for too little reward, are not personal failings. They are structural. The hourly model, the discount mentality, and the pressure to say yes to every prospect are built into the way most people start out. They feel normal because they are common, not because they work.
The shift Robin advocates is about taking ownership of your offer, your results, your client relationships, and your time. When you stop selling hours and start selling outcomes, qualify before you pitch, and build relationships rather than broadcast content, the business starts to work very differently.
His health diagnosis in 2024 sharpened what he already knew: a business that demands everything from you is not a business worth keeping. Design the business around the life first. The results tend to follow.
Robin Waite is the founder of Fearless Business and author of Take Your Shot. Connect with him on LinkedIn or grab a signed copy of his book at fearless.biz/TYS. Listen to the full episode on Spotify or Apple Podcasts.
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This Scorecard has been designed to show Coaches, Consultants and Freelancers their blind spots and provide instant, actionable steps on how to increase their prices.
