For mentors
Pricing your time without underselling it
Almost every new mentor starts too cheap, then resents the calendar. A practical way to set a number you can hold.
Daniel Okafor
21 August 20267 min read
The instinct when you start is to price low, fill the calendar and raise it later. It rarely works, because the calendar fills with the people who chose you on price.
Price the outcome, not the hour
Nobody is buying sixty minutes. They are buying a decision they have been circling for a month, or a portfolio that stops getting rejected. Ask yourself what that is worth to the person sitting on the other side.
When you price the hour you compete with every other hour on the internet. When you price the outcome you compete with nobody.
Use a free session as a filter, not a habit
One free slot a week is a good way to meet people you would never otherwise meet. Six free slots a week is a second job you are doing for nothing.
Keep the free one and make it clearly limited. Scarcity does more for your reputation than availability does.
Raise it on the calendar, not in your head
Pick the number that feels slightly uncomfortable and publish it. The discomfort is usually a better signal than the spreadsheet.
If bookings keep coming at the new price, the old one was wrong. If they stop entirely, you learned something in a week that you would otherwise have wondered about for a year.
