hourly pricing Archives - Business RadioX ®

Meg Rentschler’s Journey from Therapist to Executive Coaching

April 16, 2025 by John Ray

North Fulton Studio

Meg Rentschler's Journey from Therapist to Executive Coaching

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Meg Rentschler’s Journey from Therapist to Executive Coaching (The Price and Value Journey, Episode 129)

In this episode of The Price and Value Journey, host John Ray interviews Meg Rentschler, an executive coach known for her deep listening, practical insights, and real-world coaching expertise. Meg shares her transformative journey from a long-time therapist to a successful executive coach, as well as working with other coaches. She discusses the circumstances surrounding her daring decision to abandon her role as a therapist in insurance provider panels and fully commit to coaching, along with the challenges and strategies she used to make this transition. Meg offers insights on the challenging identity shift required when transitioning careers, practical advice on managing client relationships effectively, staying true to one’s service mission, and the importance of clarity in professional identity and value proposition. She and John discuss creating value-based packages rather than hourly rates, strategies for coaches to confidently price their services, and the importance of avoiding poor-fit clients despite business pressures.

The Price and Value Journey is presented by John Ray and produced by North Fulton Business Radio, LLC, an affiliate of the Business RadioX® podcast network.

Meg Rentschler

Meg Rentschler is an Executive and Leadership Coach renowned for her commitment to helping management teams and organizations maximize individual and collective potential through tailored coaching and team-building programs. With over two decades of experience as a psychotherapist and business owner, Meg brings a profound understanding of human behavior, workplace dynamics, and the impact of stress on performance. Her approach is rooted in solution-focused methodologies, guiding leaders and teams to identify goals, leverage strengths, and address challenges to achieve meaningful business outcomes.

Meg holds a Master of Social Work from the University of Michigan, a Bachelor of Science from Michigan State University, and a Graduate Certificate in Executive and Professional Coaching from the University of Texas at Dallas. She is a Professional Certified Coach through the International Coaching Federation and is skilled in utilizing a range of assessment tools, including emotional intelligence instruments and the Winslow assessment for employee and executive development. Her expertise spans industries such as transportation, technology, finance, healthcare, and services, with clients including American Airlines, Aetna Healthcare, and Bell Helicopter.

In addition to her coaching practice, Meg serves on the faculty at the University of Texas at Dallas, teaching in the Graduate Program for Executive and Professional Coaching. She is also a Certified Critical Incident Responder, having supported organizations through more than 200 workplace crises since 1992.

Meg is the creator and host of the STaR Coach Show, a weekly podcast dedicated to providing strategies, tools, and resources for coaches and leaders. Through over 430 episodes, she has built a platform that educates and inspires listeners about the transformative impact of coaching, featuring expert guests and practical insights for professional growth. Her passion for empowering others and fostering healthy, productive work environments is evident in her work as a coach, educator, and podcast host.

Website | LinkedIn | STaR Coach Show Website and Podcast Episodes

Topics Discussed in this Episode

00:00 Introduction and Welcome to The Price and Value Journey
00:47 Meg Rentschler’s Journey from Therapy to Coaching
02:28 Early Influences and Career Beginnings
06:19 Transition to Executive Coaching
07:55 Coaching Philosophy and Approach
11:07 Challenges and Lessons in Transition
24:52 Advice for New Coaches
30:47 Common Struggles for New Coaches
31:41 The Journey of Pricing in Coaching
32:15 Transitioning from Therapy to Coaching
33:31 Building Experience and Finding Your Niche
35:55 Shifting to Package-Based Pricing
40:41 Offering Tiered Services for Coaches
43:14 Understanding Client Value vs. Self-Worth
45:56 The Importance of Saying No to Poor Fit Clients
47:19 Balancing Business Needs with Client Fit
53:27 Capturing Wisdom and Learning from Experience
54:54 Conclusion and Contact Information

About The Price and Value Journey Podcast

The title of this show describes the journey all professional service providers are on: building a services practice by seeking to convince the world of the value you offer, helping clients achieve the outcomes they desire, and trying to do all that at a price that reflects the value you deliver.

If you feel like you’re working too hard for too little money in your solo or small firm practice, this show is for you. Even if you’re reasonably satisfied with your practice, you’ll hear ways to improve both your bottom line and the mindset you bring to your business.

John Ray hosts the show, and he produces the show in conjunction with North Fulton Business Radio, LLC, an affiliate of Business RadioX®. You can also find the series on all major podcast apps. The complete show archive is here.

John Ray, Host of The Price and Value Journey

John Ray, Author of The Generosity Mindset and Host of The Price and Value Journey — John Ray, Author of *The Generosity Mindset* and Host of *The Price and Value Journey*

John Ray is the host of The Price and Value Journey.

John owns Ray Business Advisors, a business advisory practice. John’s services include business coaching and advisory work, as well as advising solopreneurs and small professional services firms on their pricing. John is passionate about the power of pricing for business owners, as changing pricing is the fastest way to change the profitability of a business. His clients are professionals who are selling their expertise, such as attorneys, CPAs, accountants and bookkeepers, consultants, coaches, marketing professionals, and other professional services practitioners.

In his other business, John is a podcast show host, strategist, and the owner of North Fulton Business Radio, LLC, an affiliate of Business RadioX®. John and his team work with B2B professionals to create and conduct their podcast using The Generosity Mindset® Method: building and deepening relationships in a non-salesy way that translates into revenue for their business.

John is also the host of North Fulton Business Radio. With over 850 shows and having featured over 1,300 guests, North Fulton Business Radio is the longest-running podcast in the North Fulton area, covering business in its region like no one else.

John’s book, The Generosity Mindset: A Journey to Business Success by Raising Your Confidence, Value, and Prices

John is the #1 national best-selling author of The Generosity Mindset: A Journey to Business Success by Raising Your Confidence, Value, and Prices.

If you are a professional services provider, your goal is to do transformative work for clients you love working with and get paid commensurate with the value you deliver to them. While negative mindsets can inhibit your growth, adopting a different mindset, The Generosity Mindset™, can replace those self-limiting beliefs. The Generosity Mindset enables you to diagnose and communicate the value you deliver to clients and, in turn, more effectively price to receive a portion of that value.

Whether you’re a consultant, coach, marketing or branding professional, business advisor, attorney, CPA, or work in virtually any other professional services discipline, your content and technical expertise are not proprietary. What’s unique, though, is your experience and how you synthesize and deliver your knowledge. What’s special is your demeanor or the way you deal with your best-fit clients. What’s invaluable is how you deliver great value by guiding people through massive changes in their personal lives and in their businesses that bring them to a place they never thought possible.

Your combination of these elements is unique in your industry.There lies your value, but it’s not the value you see. It’s the value your best-fit customers see in you.

If pricing your value feels uncomfortable or unfamiliar to you, this book will teach you why putting a price on the value your clients perceive and identify serves both them and you, and you’ll learn the factors involved in getting your price right.

The book is available at all major physical and online book retailers worldwide. Follow this link for further details.

Connect with John Ray:

Website | LinkedIn | Twitter

Business RadioX®: LinkedIn | Twitter | Facebook | Instagram

A Real-Life Example of How Hourly Pricing Hurts Your Bottom Line

March 9, 2022 by John Ray

North Fulton Studio

A Real-Life Example of How Hourly Pricing Hurts Your Bottom Line

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A Real-Life Example of How Hourly Pricing Hurts Your Bottom Line

Hourly pricing or pricing by any increment of time is one of the red flags of inadequate pricing for professional services providers. Here’s a real-life example from a coaching call which illustrates how hourly pricing hurts your bottom line. The Price and Value Journey is presented by John Ray and produced by the North Fulton studio of Business RadioX®.

TRANSCRIPT

John Ray: [00:00:00] Hello. I’m John Ray on The Price and Value Journey. One of the red flags for me of inadequate pricing for professional services providers is pricing by the hour. Now, it’s not that hard once you dig into the details of a particular project or situation to prove it.

John Ray: [00:00:19] Here’s an example. Recently, I spoke with a professional about her pricing, and it was a service with significant value for the niche that she and her firm work in. They have comprehensive experience as both employees and consultants to several different organizations in this niche. They can cite case studies in which she has delivered demonstrable, hard dollar results. Their work delivered high six and low seven figure results for these organizations.

John Ray: [00:00:55] Now, one suggestion that she had received was to price her service at $150 per hour. Her first impulse was to wonder whether that was “too much”. So, let’s go through the math of this, I suggested to her, “Let’s take the example you mentioned of that $1 million result. How many hours did you spend on that project?” Well, after we chatted a bit, she decided it was about 25 hours.

John Ray: [00:01:24] I suggested we assume 50 hours for purposes of this exercise. So, double the number of hours and that we assume $150 per hour. The reason I suggested we double the number of hours is just to address the what if the project takes more hours objection that commonly occurs in these situations. So, in this exercise, which is hypothetical, but it’s based on actual results that she delivered, this provider’s total revenue would have been $7,500. So, that’s 50 hours of the project times $150 per hour.

John Ray: [00:02:04] So, let’s go back in time, I told her, to the point where you were proposing this project to the client. What would their reaction have been if you said you could deliver a $1 million result and that your fee for doing so would be $25,000? What would happen if you went on to ask them what they’d do if you only delivered $500,000? Wouldn’t they still believe the investment in you and your service was worth it? You’re still giving them a 20 times return on their investment, which is one indicator that that $25,000 might not be a high enough price, by the way.

John Ray: [00:02:48] Just in the side here, don’t ignore the fact that we’re just measuring hard dollar outcome that the client receives. We’re not measuring the intangible benefits to the organization and its leaders, which this outcome would also deliver. Those intangibles have value as well.

John Ray: [00:03:08] Further, I told her, by pricing your service in this way, you’re using your price to deliver a marketing signal to the client. A signal that indicates quality, your experience, you deliver results. Those results are demonstrable and you’re worth the investment on their part.

John Ray: [00:03:27] The question with getting off the hourly hamster wheel doesn’t even start with you. So, you start with the problems the client is experiencing that you solve. The friction in their business and their life that you can remove. And the consequent value, both tangible and intangible, you’re able to deliver back to your client. You think in those terms and you price to receive a slice of that value which still gives the client a substantial ROI. And there’s just one example of why when you price by the hour, your price is too low.

John Ray: [00:04:08] I’m John Ray on The Price and Value Journey. If you’d like to hear additional episodes of this podcast series, go to pricevaluejourney.com. And, of course, you can subscribe in your favorite podcast app. And if you’d like to connect with me directly, you can send an email to john@johnray.co. Thank you for joining me.

About The Price and Value Journey

The title of this show describes the journey all professional services providers are on: building a services practice by seeking to convince the world of the value we offer, helping clients achieve the outcomes they desire and trying to do all that at pricing which reflects the value we deliver.

If you feel like you’re working too hard for too little money in your solo or small firm practice, this show is for you. Even if you’re reasonably happy with your practice, you’ll hear ways to improve both your bottom line as well as the mindset you bring to your business.

The show is produced by the North Fulton studio of Business RadioX® and can be found on all the major podcast apps. The complete show archive is here.

John Ray, Host of The Price and Value Journey

John Ray The Price and Value Journey — **John Ray, Host of “The Price and Value Journey”**

John Ray is the host of The Price and Value Journey.

John owns Ray Business Advisors, a business advisory practice. John’s services include advising solopreneur and small professional services firms on their pricing. John is passionate about the power of pricing for business owners, as changing pricing is the fastest way to change the profitability of a business. His clients are professionals who are selling their “grey matter,” such as attorneys, CPAs, accountants and bookkeepers, consultants, marketing professionals, and other professional services practitioners.

In his other business, John is a Studio Owner, Producer, and Show Host with Business RadioX®, and works with business owners who want to do their own podcast. As a veteran B2B services provider, John’s special sauce is coaching B2B professionals to use a podcast to build relationships in a non-salesy way which translate into revenue.

John is the host of North Fulton Business Radio, Minneapolis-St. Paul Business Radio, Nashville Business Radio, Alpharetta Tech Talk, and Business Leaders Radio. house shows which feature a wide range of business leaders and companies. John has hosted and/or produced over 1,100 podcast episodes.

Connect with John Ray:

Website | LinkedIn | Twitter

Business RadioX®: LinkedIn | Twitter | Facebook | Instagram

Hourly Billing Gone Wrong

January 24, 2022 by John Ray

North Fulton Studio

Hourly Billing Gone Wrong

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Hourly Billing Gone Wrong

Flaws in hourly billing don’t always cheat the client; they often cheat the professional sending out the bill. A story on hourly billing gone wrong from Simon Sinek’s book, The Infinite Game. The Price and Value Journey is presented by John Ray and produced by the North Fulton studio of Business RadioX®.

TRANSCRIPT

John Ray: [00:00:00] I’m John Ray on The Price and Value Journey. Here’s a story of hourly billing gone wrong from a book I strongly recommend, The Infinite Game by Simon Sinek.

John Ray: [00:00:12] Sinek writes, “I used to work for a large advertising agency. After my first year at the company, leadership decided to implement time sheets. Unlike a law firm where a lawyer may be billing their clients for the actual number of hours of work, this was a way for the company to keep track of – well, actually, no one really had any idea of the utility of the timesheets. It was just something we were told to do. I managed to get away with not filling out mine for months. If they were tracking how I spent my time, I saw no point in telling the company I worked 100 percent on the one client to which I was assigned.”

John Ray: [00:00:53] “Of course, I got into trouble for not turning in my timesheets. And so, from then on, at the end of every month, I sat down with all my timesheets and filled them out in one go, in at 9:30 a.m., out at 5:30 p.m. In reality, I often came in earlier and left later. But who cares? I recall taking my timesheets to my boss for his signature. He looked them over and commented sarcastically, ‘You’re certainly a very consistent worker, aren’t you?’ And then, he signed them.”

John Ray: [00:01:25] “I have to believe that the timesheets were implemented because something went wrong in accounting. Perhaps a client was over billed for work done and demanded that the agency prove that the senior people who were promised to spend time on their account actually were the ones who spent time on the account or something like that.”

John Ray: [00:01:48] Interesting story from Simon Sinek. The question is, was the problem really in the accounting department? No. Because the problem arose because of a billing method which invites inaccuracies, abuse, and worse. Note that Sinek says his timesheets were fiction because he under billed, not over billed. The flaws in hourly billing don’t always cheat the client. They often cheat the professional sending out the bill.

John Ray: [00:02:21] This is one reason I tell professional services providers that if they are billing by the hour, by definition, they are underpricing their services. You might ask, though, how does under billing with a time based billing method shortchange the client? The problem is simple. When the client gets that bill, they don’t necessarily know that all the hours aren’t billed. An invoice based on time invites questions like, Did this work really take that much time? Why does this person think they’re so special they get to charge this much per hour?

John Ray: [00:02:56] And then, even after being told hours have been shaved off the bill, the client says, “Hmm. Can I trust that the previous bills I paid were right? What about the future ones? Will they try to make it back on me?” All these questions are misdirected. None of them address the most central point, “Did I, as the client, receive more value than what I paid in fees?”

John Ray: [00:03:24] Sometimes clients may start questioning a services provider who’s actually providing great value because the bill focuses attention on inputs which have nothing to do with value received. Hourly billing is nuts because it cheats both the client and the service provider, often, simultaneously.

John Ray: [00:03:48] I’m John Ray on The Price and Value Journey. If you’d like to know more, go to johnray.co or send me an email, john@johnray.co.

About The Price and Value Journey

The title of this show describes the journey all professional services providers are on: building a services practice by seeking to convince the world of the value we offer, helping clients achieve the outcomes they desire, and trying to do all that at pricing which reflects the value we deliver.

The show is produced by the North Fulton studio of Business RadioX® and can be found on all the major podcast apps. The complete show archive is here.

John Ray, Host of The Price and Value Journey

John Ray is the host of The Price and Value Journey.

In his other business, John a Studio Owner, Producer, and Show Host with Business RadioX®, and works with business owners who want to do their own podcast. As a veteran B2B services provider, John’s special sauce is coaching B2B professionals to use a podcast to build relationships in a non-salesy way which translate into revenue.

Connect with John Ray:

Website | LinkedIn | Twitter

Business RadioX®: LinkedIn | Twitter | Facebook | Instagram

Paul Klein, Klein Consulting and “Pricing Is Positioning” Podcast

April 8, 2021 by John Ray

Nashville Business Radio

Paul Klein, Klein Consulting and "Pricing Is Positioning" Podcast

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Paul Klein, Klein Consulting and “Pricing Is Positioning” Podcast (Nashville Business Radio, Episode 1)

His own experience as an independent consultant led Paul Klein to build a practice in which he coaches other consultants and coaches on effective pricing strategies in their own businesses. He joined host John Ray to discuss value pricing, the inadequacies of hourly pricing, offering options, anchoring, and much more. “Nashville Business Radio” is produced virtually from the Nashville studio of Business RadioX® .

Paul Klein, Klein Consulting and “Pricing Is Positioning Podcast”

Paul Klein is a business consultant and entrepreneur. From his days as 1980s hair band guitarist and lifelong entrepreneur to starting and scaling a successful SAAS company to consulting for some of the biggest brands including Target, Neiman Marcus, Starbucks, Holiday Inn, and other global brands, Paul helps Consultants, Freelancers, and Solopreneurs price their services, stop undercharging in order to build 7 figure businesses. Paul is the host of the “Pricing Is Positioning” Podcast and The Rock Your Pricing Online Course and Community.

More on the Pricing Is Positioning podcast.

How does your pricing stack up? Take Paul’s Pricing Quiz here.

Paul’s website | Facebook | Instagram | YouTube

Questions and Topics in this Interview

What do you mean by pricing is positioning? Tell me more about this.
Tell me a little more about value or how value can affect pricing in the marketplace.
What about charging hourly for service?
If hourly is not ideal, what are some other pricing arrangements?
Tell me more about using anchoring and options and how this can be used.
You talk about choice overload and using a one-page proposal, tell me more about this.
Why did you make the move to Nashville?

“Nashville Business Radio” is hosted by John Ray and produced virtually from the Nashville studio of Business RadioX® . You can find the full archive of shows by following this link. The show is available on all the major podcast apps, including Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google, Amazon, iHeart Radio, Stitcher, TuneIn, and others.