"Before joining, I wasn’t feeling comfortable in pricing my work.
I didn’t expect to learn so much from real life experience-based examples from other participants as well as Aleix, and to learn how to identify red flags and a broad range of scenarios.
Participating in negotiating role-playing was a highlight for me. Definitely learned a lot!
I now feel a lot better about pricing, negotiating and talking with clients. I know now for sure the focus is bring client's fears and main focus points to the forefront to build trust which can help me boost my prices and higher.
Definitely a game-changer for me, would definitely recommend it to anyone looking to get better at pricing. Go, learn, take notes, ask questions and participate! It's scary but it is so helpful to learn and apply this information!."
I used to struggle with defining a cost, daring to set it at a higher than simply-sufficient rate and feeling like the higher rate is truly justified and justifiable.
I still lack experience, but I am applying what I learned already and feeling much better about knowing I have tools and a community to help me navigate it all.
Anytime that money becomes a topic, I think of the tools and knowledge we learned, automatically, knowing I got this to help me out. I feel more relieved.
Yessss!! I doubled the expected price for a recent client!
I feel way, way more confident. Now I have a direction, an approach and also a flexibility plan if clients need different deals.
Three things that really stuck with me:
Day 1 - The graphic on how much clients are willing to pay
Day 2 - “Hard Mode” negotiation
Day 3 - Reacting to objections
You're late, go in before it get's too crowded! It's an awesome starter kit to upgrade your negotiations, specially if you lack experience or you're just not good at it, like me.
This has upped my game, I needed this more than I thought.
I struggled with pricing different types of projects, which led me to undervalue my work.
Learning a specific framework for calculating project rates really stuck with me - it felt like I finally had a system. Also, I learned how to justify higher rates by focusing on value rather than just time. I came for pricing help but learned better ways to communicate value to client.
I feel much more confident discussing rates upfront instead of avoiding the conversation, and I'm no longer intimidated by pricing negotiations since I now have tools and scripts to use. Overall, I feel more prepared and less anxious when clients ask about my rates compared to before the cohort. I haven't had the chance to apply it with real clients yet, but I've already noticed a shift in how I think about my work.
I recommend this to any freelancer who's struggling with pricing - whether you're just starting out or have been working but feel like you're undercharging.
Definitely worth it if you struggle with pricing like I did. It's not magic, but it gives you practical tools and confidence that you can use right away.
I wanted to know more about working in the field as a freelancer. To get a more transparent idea of negotiations and how they exactly go, to prepare myself.
Now I feel waaay better about pricing, negotiating, and talking with clients. I know I can prepare a call and have my cards ready. Makes me feel assured I can be assertive.
The roleplaying at the end was a highlight for sure! It pushed me to put the theory to use, and I was happy it went well :))
I never knew how to price my self and had been doing it just using references by people I know, but that wasn't so effective.
I really like the way these lessons make you think about yourself. Role playing was a fun idea!
I surely I have more confidence now.

Gatex
Music Producer & Sound Designer
Before joining, I didn’t know how to present higher prices without fear and I worried too much about it.
I really liked the comfort question, diagnosing like a doctor, and selling a solution to the client's problem rather than just assets.
I feel a bit more confident, knowing that there are different ways of figuring out the available budgets and the ability to charge higher without the client just running for the hills if they can't afford your initial price.
If you're struggling with low pay/inability to figure out how much to charge - check it out.
"I was struggling with finding clients who were willing to pay well. It makes it difficult to be able to feel like it's ok for me to keep doing only sound design without feeling like I need to go get a part time day job to help with financial stability.
Two things that surprised me: One thing was hearing the red flags again and knowing that I've dodged a couple of bullets by passing up jobs with clients who had several of those red flags!
The other was hearing that clients want to see you charging more because it feel like you do better work. I'm always so scared to offer too high of a price but knowing this now will help me feel more comfortable about asking for a higher price in the future!
Seeing the Discovery Call rules broken down is really helpful. I feel pretty confident when doing discovery calls now but seeing the questions broken down further to show WHY we ask them makes me feel better about asking the questions I was more uncomfortable with.
I feel like I will be more comfortable with it the next time I get to use these techniques! I always have a hard time with doing things without knowing why so knowing why some things work and some don't or why we ask certain questions helps me feel more confident when it's time to talk to a client!
If I would have known any of these things when I was first starting it would have helped a lot with getting paying clients earlier in my career.
10s all around!"
Coming from the film/TV world, my rates were often determined by studios and were not negotiable. In short, asking for money can easily put you in a blacklist of freelancers (absolutely a real thing in the film/TV world).
This worked well when I was paid a lot of money, but not so much when I had to work for free. Hence, I never developed any foundation for pricing or negotiation. This also led to "friends" abusing my skills so I'd do work for free with the hopes of landing a project.
In short, all of my career I've struggled valuing my work and not letting it depend on hope.
I was surprised when Aleix mentioned that we normally start negotiations as a confrontation. Such an incredibly pertinent statement that I had never internalized.
I didn’t expect to learn new ways of negotiating and pricing. For example, thinking about other incentives one could get if working for free. Whether those are recommendations from the client, social media posts, etc. As evident as it is now, I had never thought about it.
Now I feel like I can start testing these pricing modes to see what works best. I'm particularly a fan of creating a three-tier option chart to share with clients and see how that goes. Come up with a crazy Option 1 :)
I feel more prepared and confident once the next project arrives. This is super valuable information for pretty much any freelancer out there, and I truly believe what we learned here is applicable to many other professions outside of game audio. They should absolutely consider it as it would help them feel more confident with negotiation(s).