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Why That Number Isn't What You Should Be Asking?
What does the market bear? What does your competition charge? What do you think you can get away with? These are the three questions most founders ask when they set a price, and Ed Lee has spent the last decade watching them lead people straight into underpricing themselves.
Ed is the author of The Last Mile of Trust and has worked with over two thousand companies on how they price what they sell. For years he watched founders carry the same insecurity into every pricing conversation, shrinking the number the moment a client hesitated. Then he started to see that insecurity eroding the very thing that made his clients worth paying for.
In this conversation, Ed makes the case that what someone pays is directly tied to what they believe they are getting, not to what the comps say. A consultant pricing at $3,000 because that is what the market shows, while delivering $50,000 worth of transformation, does not read as a deal. It reads as a mismatch, and mismatches make buyers walk away, not the quoted price. Ed shares how to find the right number for your business. It’s not the number he says, it’s how much they trust you.
Ed and I have worked together for the last year, and what stands out about him is that he is unapologetic about needing time with his Family. His business supports his life, not the other way around, and I watched him live with that friction and resolve it one step at a time. The friction he feels when charging what he is worth is the same friction he faces every time he puts his family first. It’s an investment for him.
If you are tempted to price something by asking what everyone else charges instead of what you are worth, this episode is worth a listen. You will walk away with a way to find your number, and proof that facing friction instead of running from it is what makes the number hold.
Chapters:
00:00 Cold open — Pricing builds trust, not just numbers.
00:46 Intro — Beate welcomes Edward Lee, author of The Last Mile of Trust.
03:32 The friction myth — How “frictionless” can erode your secret sauce.
04:52 Price as identity — Your number signals value, impact, and trust.
08:39 Adobe case — Subscriptions, AI add‑ons, and when features backfire.
12:40 Pricing as a filter — Qualify ideal customers; repel discount‑seekers.
14:41 Values and balance — Family, presence, and the workout analogy.
23:33 Evolving the offer — How Ed reshaped Hello Advisor’s pricing and model.
27:14 Book + key takeaway — Where to get it, toolkit bonus, and why price is the last mile of trust.
About Ed Lee
Ed Lee is the founder and CEO of HelloAdvisr, a pricing strategy consultancy, and the author of The Last Mile of Trust. He has advised more than 100 high-Growth companies on pricing and monetization, with a combined valuation exceeding $1.4 billion. He teaches at UCLA, serves as expert-in-residence at Oxford University's Saïd Business School, and hosts the Margin for Error podcast.
Connect with Ed Lee
Website | LinkedIn | X | Instagram |Instagram
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