They Didn’t Pay Me - But Taught Me the $10K Secret to Selling

I was 22.

Hungry. Confident. Probably a little too confident. But that's me. I wasn't even drinking coffee yet.

Some guy at my job said he had a buddy who needed help building a little software app.

I had no idea how to build what they wanted… but I told them I did.

"Can you code this in Visual Basic?"

“Sure,” I said, like a dumbass. “I know all that shit tough guy.”

I didn’t. Not even close.

But I figured, how hard could it be?

They offered me $500. Which back then was enough to make me feel like I was stepping into the big leagues. A real contract. My first.

So I went home, started up my computer, and started hacking.

Two days later… I was toast.

Nothing worked. I was exhausted, frustrated, and pulling my hair out.

I almost got it working. But not really. I came back to them embarrassed, said “Hey guys, I tried... but I couldn’t get it done.”

One of their guys sat down with me to go over what I built. He was kind about it, but the message was clear:

“Better luck next time, kid.”

“Cool,” I said. “When do I get paid?”

He gave me a look.

Then he said the words that would sit with me for the next 20 years:

“We don’t pay for effort. We pay for results.”

And they didn’t pay me.

The Brutal Shift From Time to Value

I was pissed at the time. I felt like I got screwed.

Two days of my life. Gone.

But that sentence haunted me…in a good way.

I started to notice how the real players got paid. Not by the hour. Not by the line of code. Not by how many meetings they attended or how many “rounds of revision” they pushed through.

They got paid because they solved real business problems.

They got paid because the needle moved when they showed up.

I thought about that old parable - the one where the engineer gets called into the factory because a machine is broken and halting production. He looks around for 10 minutes, walks over to a valve, and hits it once with a wrench.

The whole line roars back to life.

He hands the client an invoice: $50,000.

They argue. “You were here for 10 minutes!”

He smiles. “$5 for hitting the valve. $49,995 for knowing where to hit it.”

That’s the game.

Why Hourly Work Will Drain the Life Out of You

I’ve done my share of hourly work since that early project.

And you know what I realized?

It’s almost never worth it.

Not because I didn’t get paid, but because the job never ends.

You’d think value-based work would drag on, because people always want more once they taste results.

But here’s the truth:

When you define the outcome clearly, and deliver on it, the work actually ends.

It completes.

It closes a loop.

But hourly work? That loop never closes. Scope creeps. Clients nitpick. Projects meander. You become more of a convenience than a solution.

And the biggest issue?

They don’t see your thinking as value.

They see you as a tool.

And tools get priced down.

You’re the Expert. Act Like It.

These days, I price based on outcomes.

For example: companies bring me in to tear down their sales funnels.

They don’t want a “funnel report.”

They want answers.

• Why aren’t people buying?
• Why does their pricing feel off?
• Why are customers confused at the point of purchase?
• How do they increase conversion without feeling scammy?

I don’t sell deliverables. I sell clarity.

I give them the blueprint, the rewrites, the scripts. Whatever moves the needle.

Then I walk away.

And they happily pay me for the result, because I showed them where to hit the damn pipe.

No hourly quote. No negotiation. No time tracking.

That’s the business I want to be in.

And honestly?

That’s the business you want to be in too.

Because the alternative is endless churn, capped income, and clients who don’t respect your mind, just your minutes.

My brain can't do endless hourly work. It's basically buying yourself a job.

Your Time Isn’t the Asset: Your Insight Is

If you’re still charging hourly, let me guess how things feel:

• You’re exhausted because every client has “just one more thing”
• You feel underpaid because the results you drive far outweigh the invoice
• You’re struggling to scale because your time is your ceiling

And worst of all…

You keep working with people who don’t get it.

They don’t see the value in what you do because you’ve trained them to price you like a part-time assistant, not a strategist.

That’s not sustainable. In fact, I find it awful.

Build a Business That Pays You for Your Brain

Here’s the move:

1. Identify the real ideal problem you solve (not just the service you offer)
2. Define a clear, visible result you can deliver
3. Craft a high-trust process around delivering it
4. Price based on value and clarity, not time

That’s how you move from $500 gigs to $5,000 transformations (and beyond). That's a lot of coffee.

That’s how you start working with clients who value speed, certainty, and insight, because they’re trying to win, not nickel-and-dime.

And yes… it’s how you finally build a business that pays you like the expert you are.

Want the Shortcut?

Get my pricing guide - inside, I’ll show you:

• How to define your value in business terms (not task terms)
• How to price and position yourself with authority
• How to craft a result-based offer clients can’t say no to

It’s free. For now. Normally part of my inner circle.

But it won’t be available that way forever.

Want it? Reply "MUNEE" and I'll send it over.