how $9 customers almost killed me

2 years ago, someone offered to pay $29 for my $599 digital product. 

She found it on a sketch pirate site and thought she'd 'give the money directly to me' instead.

How generous.

I clicked the LinkedIn link in her Email signature.

Turned out, she was a university professor who teaches equality and ethics (I wish I was joking).

At the time I thought this was just the cost of doing business.

I didn't realize I was doing something wrong.

The sucky customers causing 90% of the headaches were ALWAYS ones who paid the least.

The $9 buyers who couldn't follow a basic tutorial (and then bombarded my inbox).

One of them publicly called me a scammer on X because they didn't read the setup instructions.

I also got many fraudulent chargebacks.

People telling Stripe they never willingly bought my product when I could literally see they'd used it.

I spent a whole year like that.

Answering support emails. Handling complaints.

Until it was too late:

When Low Quality Customers Almost Killed Me

A few months later, my body threw in the towel.

Heavy flu. Then chronic pain in my arms.

I woke up every day with a throbbing pain.

Every morning felt like the worst hangover of my life.

I couldn't move and work anymore.

My nervous system was completely fried and on constant edge, my anxiety was creeping into every thought.

I was unable to rest, unable to think clearly.

I was a mess.

I was running the whole business on my own. Thousands of low-ticket customers. Every support request landed in my personal inbox.

So there I was, sitting at my computer, barely able to move, trying to push through.

At the time, I didn’t feel confident enough to charge higher prices.

But low prices meant I needed more customers to hit my numbers.

More customers meant more emails, more complaints, more drain.

That's when I connected something I'd never connected before.

My pricing wasn't a business decision.

It was a health decision.

I thought my pricing was only about how I can make numbers go up on a spreadsheet.

I didn’t anticipate the underlying cost to my health.

But my body was responding to it like sleep, diet or exercise.

Something that determines how you feel every single day.

And I'd been getting it wrong for years, only optimizing it like a business number.

Then I accidentally found out how get out of this mess:

From $9 Products to $1000 Calls

In 2024, I launched my newest product, the AI Course Creator.

On the landing page, I set a $1000 consulting call as a price anchor.

A “hack” to make my actual offer look cheap by comparison.

I NEVER expected anyone to buy it.

But then 5(!) people did buy it.

You might think, making an extra $5k would be a reason to celebrate, but I was terrified.

Now I had to deliver.

$1000 bucks for one call. Three times more than I'd ever charged. I was sweating like a madman.

$1000 for talking to…..me???

But five minutes into the call, my body eased into it.

The conversation was flowing. The guy was taking notes, asking good questions. I just didn’t realize I had it in me.

I didn't believe it until someone paid me.

And here’s what I learned:

The person who paid $1000 was 10x easier to work with than most people who paid $100.

That was the day I started charging more.

First I was scared I would make less money, but here’s what actually happened:

Fewer customers. Less emails. Less complaints. Less drain.

My health started improving again (big surprise, lol).

The 3 Beliefs That Kept Me Poor

We all have heard the cliche advice to “charge more”, but still it’s so frickin’ hard to do.

Looking back, these were the three reasons why I didn’t:

"Nobody will pay that much."

I was just operating based on my narrow view of the world. When I asked "who would pay this?" I was scanning my mental tribe. But the internet is unimaginably bigger than I could feel. The people who pay a premium are out there. I just couldn't picture them. Once I did the math, I realized I only needed to reach a ridiculously small percentage of the market.

Secondly, I just thought:

"I'm not good enough yet."

Classic imposter syndrome. It took me 3-4 $1000 calls for it to go away. These days I like having imposter syndrome, because it shows me I’m trying hard and I’m growing.

"I just need more sales."

Low prices means you need massive volume. Often you end up with both- no money AND no energy. You find yourself in an insanely fast spinning hamster wheel. You are too busy to even think about how to get out.

The first important step to get out the wheel is to pause. To stop chasing for a couple days, because it’s very hard to think clearly when you are trapped in the low-volume game.

Once your thinking is clearer again, it’s time for a change: 

Here's what I want you to do.

Look at the offer that's taking up most of your time.

Increase the price by 20%. Treat it as an experiment for 1-2 months.

Then do it again. See what happens.

Most people can easily 2x-3x their prices. You’ll be surprised.

Oftentimes, conversion rate even goes UP!

We are entering the new year soon, it’s the perfect opportunity to raise your prices.

So see this is as your cosmic sign to do it ;).

I'm building my software business now.

And the first question I ask myself is: 

how do I get premium customers from day one?

For me It's about building a life where I can work with people I like, raise my family and fully be present with them.

I'm not wasting another year fighting professors who want to scam me out of $29.

Your price decides who you work with. 

Who you work with decides your stress. 

Your stress decides your health.

See you next week

Ole

P.S. Please reply with “I’M GONNA RAISE MY PRICES NOW, HELL YEAH.” Let’s manifest it together ;)”. Also let me know if you like these styles of email targeting 1 topic vs wider range topic emails where I go more off the rails.I read every reply!