“No, you cannot pick my brain for free,” is what I told him.
You wouldn’t ask a restaurant owner to give you free meals or a doctor to give you free surgery.
But somehow in marketing, especially digital, charging for your expertise is rude.
Sure, give them a minute (make sure it’s actually just a minute), and answer a quick question. Link them to an article you wrote.
If you want to be taken seriously, charge appropriately for your time– for the years of hard-fought experience you’ve gained, not the minutes of consulting.
The magic phrase here is “You know I do this for a living, right?”
I’ve had people hit me up saying that I’m just hanging out on social media, totally available, and not doing anything.
Like my time is just like leftovers sitting around, with them doing me a favor by helping take it off my hands. Jealously guard your time– it’s super expensive and once used, you cannot get it back.
But give your knowledge away freely– put it into blog posts, videos, social media, or whatever, so anyone can consume it.
That’s the irony of digital marketing– that your time is a finite asset, but what you publish can serve everyone, especially the folks who cannot afford or do not wish to pay for one-on-one consulting.
Here is what Grant Cardone does to make sure that there is a fair exchange for information and time.
