When I saw the title I clicked on this thinking I was going to comment “you should never negotiate your rates”. But I was pleasantly surprised that you didn’t actually talk about negotiating, rather you discussed building the right client relationship and foundation of confidence required to command a high rate. And I agree with all of those points.

But we also need to be careful with terminology. A “negotiation” implies that there will be some give or take on either side to reach an agreement about price. Yet I don’t believe this should be true. You should certainly negotiate the project brief, scope, timeframe, etc. But don’t negotiate price. Your rate is your rate. You can’t just discount it if a client feels it’s too expensive, otherwise you’re instantly breaking the rule you’ve so importantly described about valuing your skills and asking for what you want. Instead, negotiate the scope of the project or the deliverables until they squeeze the price within your client’s budget.