I always seem to start by talking about the weather, and it’s hardly surprising as it has certainly been keeping us on our toes!
The photo of me was taken on Bournemouth beach on Sunday 4 October. And yes, it really was warm, hence me wearing my favourite summer dress.
Since then, the weather has flip-flopped (I think I’ve just made that word up!) between warm and cold, and yesterday I was back in a summer dress again.I’m dreading the moment when the cold finally sets in, but let’s not dwell on that just yet. Instead, let’s get moving with this month’s newsletter!
Am I the missing link when it comes to getting paid your true worth? Hell yeah!
Recently, I was delivering a presentation to a local law firm prospect about what I do and why it’s different from those delivering pricing training, so I thought it would make an excellent newsletter too.
Who am I?
I am Vanessa Ugatti, the True Worth Expert, and I help law firms and other professional services get paid their true worth.
I certainly didn’t wake up one morning and think, “I know, I’ll help professionals charge with more confidence”, so below is a summary of my journey.
13 years ago, I was already coaching professionals in confidence and a positive mindset, yet there was a niggle at the back of my mind that something was missing. I just didn’t know what it was.
So, I was on the computer (well, not literally) looking for inspiration. And I found it!
By some quirk of fate, I stumbled upon a marketing programme specifically for coaches and the words literally jumped out of the screen.
“You have to have a niche and build a tribe.”
I’d heard of niching, but I had no idea what mine was nor how to create it.
After lots of procrastination and fear, I signed up for the programme and in the very first workshop, the facilitator asked us to write down all our interests, so I scribbled away and can’t remember what they were except for one subject:
Charging what you’re worth.
She said that’s marketable, so I said, “Well, you’re the expert and I’ll go out networking and find out what’s going on.”
And who do you see a lot of at networking? Lawyers and accountants.
So, I asked them quite simply what their challenges around charging were and they told me.
Underestimating, discounting and over servicing.
It was my first bit of evidence.
Then I looked at clients I’d been coaching and discovered that I was already helping some of them with charging, which makes perfect sense to me now.
Fortunately, I then decided to shine the spotlight on numero uno and guess what I found?
I was utterly clueless when it came to charging.
In time, I discovered that this was a very common problem indeed.
Then something amazing happened when I was in bed.
No, it wasn’t that!
I was half awake and half asleep and a formula appeared in my mind. And here it is:
UV + CV + CD = CW
And I bet you’re dying to know what it stands for, aren’t you?
Well: it’s understand your value + communicate your value + confidence delivering fees = charging what you’re worth.
The weird thing was, though, that I knew exactly what it meant and I knew I was right even though I had no idea how.
That is the power of the subconscious mind. It knows more about you than you do.
It was my wake-up call. I understood that my subconscious mind realised what my niche was because it knew I had to solve the problem for myself.
Now I totally understand my value and am fearless at speaking with clients about costs, no matter who the client is. As such, I am well positioned to help others make the same shift.
With the help of the programme, I went on to write my Amazon Best Seller, How to Charge What You’re Worth and Get It, which seemed like a big deal at the time, but was only 5,000 words.
As time went on and I worked with more people, including law firms, I was horrified to find that it was not unusual for people to not get paid sometimes.
So, I changed the name of my book to How to Get Paid Your True Worth and developed my current True Worth™ Methodology, where each letter represents a key part of the sales process.
Fast forward to 2026 and I finally wrote what I call my proper book: How to Get Paid Your True Worth Ethically, Without Selling Your Soul, which is available here: https://www.vanessaugatti.com/
Lawyers and other professionals may know what they should charge; in fact, they probably do. But if they don’t have the confidence, self-belief, self-worth or understand their own value, they just won’t do it.So, they find themselves underestimating, discounting, over servicing, not recording all their time, not billing on time and ultimately not getting paid their true worth.They may well be brilliant at what they do and yet, when it comes to charging, they just don’t cut the mustard.
As the Managing Partner and I agreed, it is about addressing their fears.
The fear of losing the client or the business.
The fear of rejection.
The fear of what the client might think.
The fear of talking about fees.
Because it is those fears which drive behaviours that ultimately cost both the firm financially and the individual stress wise.
What I Do and Why It’s Different From Others
Pricing training is about the mechanics of charging. My work is about the psychology and there’s an ocean of difference.
It’s about the inner game: what’s going on inside the heads of your lawyers. Their confidence levels, their mindset, belief in their own value, self-worth and the fears that sit behind their charging behaviours.
And I don’t tell people what to do. I create a safe space for them to explore and share their challenges around charging so that they identify what is holding them back, challenge their thinking and change their behaviours.
Why It Works
First because I’m good at what I do.
Pause for a giggle.
But also, because it isn’t just training. It’s coaching.
What I do has been described many times as thought provoking, inspiring, motivating and empowering. It is also action focused.
The aim isn’t simply to give lawyers more information about pricing.
It’s to help them shift their thinking, so that they recognise their value and feel able to act on it.
They identify their own challenges, take ownership of them and change their behaviour.
“Vanessa was truly inspirational and motivational. She connected with everyone in the room and her valuable messages were delivered in an entertaining, easily accessible manner. One of the best courses I have been to in a long time.”
Mary Anne Fedeyko | Senior Partner, Thompson, Smith and Puxon
Summary
You can teach people the mechanics of pricing, but that won’t change how they feel or what they do when they’re faced with the fear or discomfort of actually talking to clients about their fees.
That’s the gap I help close: empowering lawyers to overcome their fear by understanding their value internally and changing their thinking and behaviours, so they can confidently communicate their value and get paid what they’re truly worth.
Result: More money on the bottom line. Less stress for law leaders.
More confidence, awareness and less stress for the lawyers.
A win/win.
Bye for now.
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