If Josh had gone into freelancing with the attitude he desperately needed those first retainer jobs, he wouldn’t have asked for $100/hr. He would have asked for $30/hr. And it would have taken him a lot longer to get to six figures at $30/hr. 

Of course, it’s easier to adopt this attitude when you have money in the bank and a steady stream of clients. Although, even then, it can take our scarcity-programmed minds a little time to catch up.

If you don’t have the “I don’t need a yes” attitude yet, get a part-time gig or retainer, so you have consistent income coming in and actually don’t need a yes. It will give you the confidence to experiment with quoting higher rates. And when clients think you don’t need their project, they’ll want to work with you even more.

“The tone of a sales call changes when you don’t need a yes, or even better, when you almost don’t want a yes because you have too much work already. Most freelancers are desperate and struggle to ask for what they think they are worth, or they make concessions as soon as a prospect shows any resistance to pricing. When you don’t need the yes, you’re confident, you aren’t pushing for the close, you’re able to support the prospect rather than forcing the sale, and you can ask for and then justify your pricing.”