Please do not respond with what you charge for the highest show you ever charged for. That has absolutely nothing to do with your value. I am not asking what you charge. I don't care. It isn't relevant.

I am asking for your value. I am asking what it is you bring to a client and why that is valuable? Is it different for different clients?

What exactly is it that goes into conceptualizing your own value to a client? Does it change over the years? Is the passage of time enough to increase that value?

I have seen those who increase price based upon a clients budget? Is that offering your true value to that client? How does your value increase simply because your client has more money? Why are you not charging that always if that is your true value?

Michael Ammar talked years ago about presenting three options, knowing most people will naturally pick the middle one. What stuck with me wasn’t the psychology trick—it was the discipline it forces on you to define value instead of just naming a price.

What I expanded on was how those options were selected.

Internally, I built a range of packages (12 of them) but I never showed all of them to a client. I still only ever presented three choices, and those three were chosen based on the situation.

For example, an apartment birthday party for a 10-year-old and a birthday party at a high-end country club are technically the same type of event—but they come with very different expectations, constraints, and budgets. Showing both clients the same three options wouldn’t make sense to either one. Also keep in mind that as a Balloon Guy who was performing, it was much easier to adjust my show.
- Game of "Guess that Animal"
- Straight Jacket Escape while making a monkey
- Balloon Combat (shooting balloons off your finger through ring hats of others)
- Everybodys Twisted (teaching balloon twisting)
I built a bunch of MIX N MATCH party games and items with FULL ON CRAZY for the top 3
- The Mad Hatter Tea Party (Multiple Entertainers and a Catered Tea Party with Balloon Decor, Me as the Madd Hatter, and making hats and wearables for everyone, and used a few local theatre folks for things like the QUEEN of Hearts)

I was not a balloon factory (Thanks to Todd Neufeld, Buster Balloon, Jeff McBride, and a few others for helping me be an Entertainer)

This approach also helped me stay honest with myself. I didn’t want to change price unless something real changed in what I was providing. If the fee went up, the experience, responsibility, or outcome had to go up with it—otherwise it felt wrong.

So while Ammar’s idea introduced the concept of three options, what I added was using those options to actually fit the client’s context, not just steer them toward a number.

I still use this mindset today as a Speaker (less bundles)

Yea I have never been a fan of his approach, but as you said it DOES demand you define value. It forces you to think of value as opposed to price and that is a good thing. (By the way not his idea, just he who you heard it from LOL.) He also had some thoughts on the "salami method". The idea is nobody wants to eat an entire salami so you have to slice it until they say no. (Sort of what you are doing.) It does build that relationship with a client.

What you are doing is starting a conversation about building a package for how they want the event to go. Thus assigning a value to each thing and having a price for that value. You never concentrated on price, you concentrated on what you were bringing to the event and why that was of value to the client. This is how you build relationships well beyond being the lowest price.

It also helps sell YOU as YOU! Price anyone can compete on. That is simply what I call a "race to the bottom". Play that game at your own peril. But when you define these things as you have, and concentrate on the value each one brings to the client then there is no choice but to bring a relationship with them further.

It is a great mindset as you end up selling you, not just offering a price.

My approach is 180 degrees different. I absolutely have a price for what it is I do. It is what it is. I absolutely DESPISE negotiation. I believe it is an inherently dishonest proposition. I want to sell something for as much as you are willing to pay for it. You want to buy something for as little as you can get it for. This is NEVER a way I want to start a relationship with people. I 100% center on value. I am expensive. I am not for everyone. I do not generally do one night parties ever. I don't turn them down, I just price them SO HIGH as to be cost prohibitive. If someone actually says yes, then everyone is happy. I have always felt that negotiation leaves someone feeling taken. Plus I don't like the feeling folks can end up with that they could have done better.

With your method, you are offering more things for different money. People are making a choice. You don't negotiate, but bundle and save. Not a bad approach. Everyone is happy. In what I offer I am not in a position to do it that way. Negotiation on price centers on price. Doing what you describe centers on what value you bring to the table. I like that.

Yeah, exactly, and this is the part most people miss.

If price is the only difference, then price is how the decision feels to the client, even if they do not consciously want it to be. You can talk about value all day long, but if they cannot see or feel a difference yet, the brain defaults to the simplest comparison.

That is why the pre-conversation matters so much.

Before numbers ever come up, I always tried to get them to visualize the event:

what the room feels like

how people are reacting

what they will remember afterward

what success actually looks like for them

Once they are emotionally anchored to that, the conversation naturally shifts from "how much" to "how do we make this happen?"

That is really where Ammar's thinking helped me back then. Early 2000s. Ugh, I am getting old. My beard was not grey back then. The three options were not about steering someone to a middle price. They were about giving structure to a value-first conversation after the client could picture the experience.

Once they are in that headspace, they are not buying time or tricks anymore. They are choosing outcomes. And at that point, price stops being the driver and becomes a byproduct.

Different mechanics, same end goal:
help them decide based on meaning, not math.

This is exactly where entertainers have a huge advantage that most business owners never fully use.

As a marketing coach and consultant, I spend a lot of time helping people get away from price as the deciding factor. What is funny is that entertainers already have the hardest skills baked in. We just do not always apply them outside the show.

Good entertainers are already doing things like:

reading emotional state

elevating that state (dopamine, anticipation, relief, excitement)

helping people temporarily see the world differently

That is literally what entertainment is when it is done well.

Most business owners do not have those skills, so I end up teaching them how to tell their story in a way that shifts the frame, so the prospect sees the problem and the solution through their lens instead of defaulting to comparison shopping.

This is why I have always liked the framework Oren Klaff lays out in Pitch Anything with the STRONG sequence:

Setting the frame

Telling the story

Revealing the intrigue

Offering the prize

Nailing the hookpoint

Getting a decision

If you set the frame around the emotional outcome of the event and get them to visualize what success actually feels like, the decision stops being about price. At that point, as long as the number is within what they can afford, you have already won.

Price only dominates when nothing else has been made real yet.

Entertainers are uniquely positioned to do this well. We just tend to underuse it because we think of it as "selling" instead of what it really is: helping the client experience the value before it happens.

That is when value leads and price follows.

Hot dam*, it is about time that someone gets this as this is what I have been preaching for years! When done right, rarely if ever is price the factor. Not dealing with entertainment business this way only leads to the uneducated, default shopping method and mentality of shopping on price.

Even if they feel price is a factor or concern when you've done this right, they will often, as I said in an earlier post, do whatever they can to find a way to book at your price. They don't even want to seek or compare other magicians, they want YOU!

Value is something magicians and many types of other performers don't understand. And rather than trying to put in the effort to learning this, they put their efforts in to excuses and justifications to work around this (again, more me-based thinking!) They then twiddle with packaging additional items they "think" is adding value and justify this in their minds as value. It really is not. You are just doing more, and often giving them something they don't want just to try to give "what you think and you hope they perceive as value." When in reality most will get off the phone with you saying to themselves, "All I really wanted was a magician, but now I'm also getting balloons, juggling, face-painting, and a cheap birthday cake! (Not at all what I was seeking).

People do not know how to buy or shop for entertainment. You, the entertainer, must teach them. This is a HUGE opportunity for you to both educate and steer them to where you need the conversation and process to go. You are in the driver's set, you are the professional, expert they are turning to for advice and are seeking insight, knowledge and wisdom from.

Like talking about the Default level of performers where everything is about me-based thinking and their tricks, when you level up it becomes about something much greater than those. The same is true for business practices and conversations. In the Default model it is usually based on price and little else. The performer (you) usually spends time telling them about your background and history (I started doing magic when I got my first magic kit for my 7th birthday!), show, the things you do, the tricks you do, and maybe something about using audience members or the birthday boy or girl in a segment of your show.

As you level up as we're discussing here,, it is less about all of those things and is more about your value proposition, the value and perceived value of your offerings and business, and the outcomes the client and their guests will experience...and tricks in your show are never even mentioned.

Do you think when Copperfield books a venue, casino or run, he talks about his Graffiti Wall, Making the Statue Of Liberty Disappear, or his tricks? Not al all.

I have always said success in what we do as entertainers and as entertainment business owner/operators comes from the business behind our show. Our show is just the product. The business creates al of the emotional, strategic, analytical, and other elements that go into deciding to book your show production/show.

I get guys and gals that ask me "How can I tell if I am still in the Default Model/Level?" This make sit very easy to tell. If you are talking about your tricks, and the different services you offer or can add-on you're still in the default model. If you are talking about the things Mike has mentioned you are at a point to level-up and operate from a different business level or model.

This should be so easy for performers and entertainers as this is what we do in our shows, and is the same exact thing you should do when talking to a prospective client. I call this your Sales Performance or Sales Presentation. It is a structured process just like your stage show, bit this is designed to inform, educate, position (don't forget asbout positioning) and sell your experience. This is what we do! There is no reason why a performer shouldn't be shoe-in to do this. No one has a better opportunity with this than performers.

There are many reasons why things are price based. It is basically a default position. You learn some magic, you decide you are ready, and then you look at what others charge and "compete" on price. Since everyone is basically doing the same act anyhow the only real way to compete is on price.

Any time you sign up for one of those talent aggregator sites you are relegating yourself to competing on nothing other than price, and how fast you can possibly return a request for information.

Magicians teach each other that this is the way things are done. They pass on bad business habits and everyone just accepts them as the way it is done. Ridiculous.

Value has nothing to do with price. It is about them getting an experience that exceeded any expectation they may have had. Price is not relevant, heck it should never be thought of.

It is interesting that value can change. For example in New York Off Broadway they can get $250 per ticket to see me. The value is fantastic. Here in Branson you can't get 25% of that! You must know your value as it relates to whom you are trying to extract that value from. It will do me no good to try to extract a $250 per ticket price in Branson Missouri. I would not sell a single ticket. So that value would be zero in reality.