The most common mistake people make when pricing their time for the first time isn't charging too much. It's charging so little that the price itself becomes a problem.

Not a problem for the person booking; a problem for the interaction. When a price is low enough to feel like nothing, it creates a category error. It tells the person booking that what they are getting is probably in the 'not a big deal' range. They don't prepare. They don't think too hard beforehand. They arrive casually and casual arrival produces casual engagement, which produces a session that does not go as deep as it could.

The price, in other words, set an expectation and the expectation shaped the conversation.

What you charge is the first thing you communicate about what your time is worth. It sets the tone before anyone speaks.

The psychology of what people bring to a session

People behave differently depending on what they have invested. This is not a personality flaw, it is how human psychology tends to work. When something costs real attention to access, people give it real attention. They think about what they want from it. They prepare. They show up with a specific question rather than a general desire to 'pick your brain.'

The specificity of a prepared person produces a better session and a better session produces a result, something they did differently, decided more clearly, understood more deeply. That result is what makes them recommend you. The price did not just communicate value. It created conditions for value to be generated.

Low pricing as a form of apology

Most people who under-price do so from a place of uncertainty. They are not sure the value is really there, so they lower the price as a hedge. If it is cheap enough, maybe people won't notice if it's not quite good enough. Maybe they will be less disappointed if they paid less.

But the logic inverts in practice. The lower the price, the less seriously both parties take the exchange, and the less seriously the exchange is taken, the less likely it is to produce something worth remembering.

A higher price, set from a place of genuine belief in what you offer, does something different. It asks both of you to show up as if it matters. And when both of you show up as if it matters, it usually does.

Pricing from confidence produces different sessions than pricing from apology. The sessions then prove or disprove the confidence - and mostly, they prove it.

What you are actually communicating

When you price your time on Iungo, you are making a public statement about what a conversation with you is worth. Not just to the person booking but to yourself. There is something clarifying about seeing a number attached to your time. It requires you to have a position. And having a position, even tentatively, starts to change how you hold what you know.

Start higher than feels comfortable. You can always adjust. But the adjustment downward is much easier than the adjustment upward, and the starting price shapes what comes next more than people expect.

One practical note

There is no universally correct price. It varies by context, audience, type of conversation, and market. What matters is that the price is a considered statement rather than a number chosen because it seemed safe. Safe prices protect nobody. They just make the offering look uncertain of itself.

Be uncertain about many things. Not about the fact that your time and knowledge have value. That part is not up for discussion.

Your price is the opening line of every session. Make it say the right thing.

Set your rate on Iungo from a place of belief, not apology. The sessions that follow will reflect which one you chose.