Why Charging Premium Fees is Actually a Service to Your Clients, with Criminal Attorney Joshua Baron (The Price and Value Journey, Episode 138)
In this second part of a compelling conversation, host John Ray continues his deep dive with criminal defense attorney Joshua Baron, exploring the life-changing effects of charging premium fees and the philosophy behind building a service-based practice.
Josh reveals how a single 45-minute conversation with a business consultant led him to triple his prices and why most of his clients said yes. This episode unpacks the psychology behind pricing decisions, the importance of aligning your client experience with your fees, and how premium pricing actually serves both attorney and client better.
Beyond pricing strategy, Josh shares his unique approach to client access (including giving out his personal cell phone number), his philosophy on when to work for free versus when to charge premium rates, and how his deeply held beliefs about service and purpose drive his business decisions.
Whether you’re struggling with pricing confidence, wondering how to justify premium fees, or seeking to understand the relationship between pricing and client treatment, this episode provides both tactical strategies and a philosophical framework for building a sustainable, values-driven practice.
If you haven’t heard the first part of John’s interview with Josh, please follow this link
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.
Key Takeaways from this Episode
- Test pricing changes with pilot programs – Don’t overhaul everything at once; experiment with a subset of cases to build confidence and gather data.
- Focus on what you’re uniquely good at – Narrow your offerings dramatically rather than trying to serve everyone; Josh went from thirty practice areas to essentially two.
- Have honest value conversations with clients – Help clients articulate whether the case is truly important to them rather than trying to convince them it should be.
- Premium pricing requires premium experience alignment – You can’t charge high fees while delivering a discount experience; everything must align.
- If clients don’t treat you well, examine your pricing – Low prices communicate that you see yourself as low-value, which affects how clients interact with you.
- Personal accessibility can reduce overall contact – Giving clients his cell phone number actually decreased calls because they felt secure knowing they could reach him.
- Your day job enables your mission, it doesn’t have to be your mission – Charging sustainable rates allows you to pursue your deeper purpose without financial stress.
Topics Discussed in this Episode
01:34 Recap of Part One
02:00 Joshua Baron’s Pricing Journey Begins
04:04 The Impact of Pricing Changes
08:08 Client Value and Case Selection
10:30 Understanding Client Value
16:53 Creative Solutions in Legal Practice
20:37 Premium Legal Fees: A Service to All
22:45 Balancing Work and Life as a Lawyer
23:35 The Importance of Pricing and Client Treatment
25:13 Setting Boundaries with Clients
26:09 The Value of Accessibility and Client Communication
30:16 Philosophy Behind Legal Practice
34:41 Pricing and the Mindset of Service
42:42 The Importance of Networking and Relationships
46:15 Final Thoughts and Contact Information
Joshua Baron
Joshua Baron is a criminal defense attorney and the founder of SB Legal, based in Utah. He graduated summa cum laude with a Bachelor of Arts in History from Cal Poly, Pomona, at age 18, then served an LDS mission in Viña del Mar, Chile, where he became fluent in Spanish. In 2007, he earned his J.D. cum laude from Brigham Young University’s J. Reuben Clark Law School, serving as Executive Editor of the Journal of Public Law and Associate Editor of the Education Law Journal. After law school, Baron began his career as a civil litigator in Park City, representing developers and real estate companies. Seeking more trial experience, he joined the Salt Lake City Prosecutor’s Office in 2008, handling over 1,500 criminal cases per year and leading more than thirty jury trials.
In 2009, Baron co-founded Sharifi & Baron, PLLC, which later became SB Legal. He has since represented hundreds of clients in nearly every court in Utah, covering a wide range of criminal and immigration matters. Baron is licensed to practice before both federal and state courts in Utah. His practice areas include criminal defense—such as violent crimes, drug offenses, white-collar crimes, domestic violence, and sex crimes—and immigration law, including deportation defense and appeals. He has achieved not guilty verdicts and dismissals in serious criminal cases, including aggravated burglary, sexual assault, and drug distribution.
Baron is recognized for his professionalism, client-focused approach, and responsiveness. He has been selected as a Super Lawyer by Mountain States Super Lawyers from 2020 to 2025 and previously as a Rising Star. He has also been named a Top Lawyer by the Global Directory of Who’s Who and included in Utah Business Magazine’s Utah Legal Elite.
In addition to his legal practice, Baron is an author and educator, having written books such as Criminal Defense Referrals and The Business of Criminal Law, and taught criminal law and procedure as adjunct faculty at Ensign College.
About The Price and Value Journey Podcast
The Price and Value Journey is a show for expert-service professionals who want more than formulas and quick fixes. If you’re a solo or small-firm provider—consultant, coach, attorney, CPA, or fractional executive—you know the real work of building a practice goes far beyond pricing. It’s about finding clarity, showing up with confidence, and learning how to express the full value of what you do in ways that clients understand and appreciate.
Hosted by John Ray, business advisor and author of The Generosity Mindset, this podcast explores the deeper journey behind running a services business: how you think about your work, how you relate to clients, and how you sustain a business that’s not only profitable but deeply fulfilling. Yes, we talk pricing, but we also talk mindset, business development, trust, empathy, positioning, and all the intangible ingredients that make a practice thrive.
With solo episodes and conversations featuring thoughtful guests, The Price and Value Journey is a companion for professionals who are building something meaningful. Produced in partnership with North Fulton Business Radio, LLC, an affiliate of Business RadioX®, the podcast is accessible on all major podcast platforms. 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.
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 880 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 outstanding 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.
The 
Steve Zylstra serves as president and CEO of the Arizona Technology Council, a role he assumed in 2007. He is responsible for strategy, operations, finance and policy development. Zylstra is a vocal spokesman for the value technology can provide in raising social and economic standards in Arizona.
Karen Nowicki is a successful author, speaker and the creator of Deep Impact Leadership™ and SoulMarks Coaching™. She is a two-time recipient of the prestigious national Choice Award® for her book and personal development retreat. Karen was crowned the first-ever “Mompreneur of the Year” Award in 2010 for the southwestern states. She was recognized for her leadership, business acumen, and work-life balance.
Leslie Cooper Marquez is a dynamic marketing professional with over 17 years of broad-based marketing, public relations and advertising experience in both in-house and agency environments.
