Ed Gandia shares a story about fixing a washing machine to explain why you should charge for expertise, not hours. A plumber's one-minute fix cost hundreds because he knew exactly what was wrong. Same principle applies to business writing and consulting.
Welcome to the High Income Business Writing Podcast, helping you propel your writing business to a whole new level. And now, here's your host, Ed Gandia.
Hey there. Welcome to the High Income Business Writing Podcast. I am your host, Ed Gandia, and this is the podcast for business writers and copywriters who want to earn more and less time doing work they love for better clients. This episode is a little different and much shorter than usual rather than my typical 45 minute format. Today I'm sharing a quick tip with you and this is part of the regular audio insights that I publish for my private coaching clients. I just thought you'd find it helpful. So here we go. I hope you enjoy it. Our washing machine stopped working recently and it stopped draining water in the middle of the spin cycle. This was in the middle of the lockdown, so it wasn't really the best timing ever. Not that there's ever a good time for your washing machine to break. I'm not much of a handyman, but, you know, I decided to look up the error code that I was getting on Google and the most likely cause I found was a clogged or damaged drain pump. And that's when macho Ed kicked in. I said, you know what? I can do this. I took the whole thing apart, not the whole thing, but I took the back panel out, got in there, got to the drain pump and took it apart and nothing. It was clean. I looked it up again on Google and the experts, so to speak, were suggesting I just replace the drain pump, which I did. I ordered it right away, got it later that week, and replaced it. Now, you need to understand, this was a huge hassle. By this point, our laundry was piling up like crazy. It had been a week since we'd done laundry. It was already kind of piled up before then. There was water in the tub that I couldn't drain completely and the water was starting to smell. Everyone's looking at me for a solution. I'm feeling confident that this is it. It's the pump. We're going to get it fixed. Here we go. So I replace it, we run a small test load, and it all goes well. Yes. All right. We run another one, slightly larger test load, and it's all good. And then in the middle of the third load, I get that error code again. It just stops draining. So time to call an expert to come out. Which, fortunately I got somebody in the next day. But he couldn't figure it out either, so he just charged me for the visit. He said, I don't Know what's going on inside. I can't duplicate the code. The next day we're talking with one of our neighbors and we tell him about the issue. And he pauses to think about it for a second and he says, do you use oxiclean? And my wife says she does. So he asked her how much she uses. Apparently she uses a full scoop for each load. She's, you know, I'm the cook, she does the laundry. So he says, okay, so you use a full scoop. Do you also use detergent? And she confirmed that she does. He said, okay, try cutting back the oxiclean by half. And she laughs at the suggestion. But you know, she tries it anyway. It doesn't seem like it would make a difference. But the next day she gives it a go. And wouldn't you know it, it worked. Since she adjusted her mix and reduced the oxiclean, we haven't had this happen once. Machine has worked wonderfully well. Now, my neighbor took all of two seconds to think about the problem and present a potential solution, a solution that worked instantly. So let me ask you. Let's say that my neighbor was a content marketing writer or a marketing consultant and I were a client and say my problem wasn't a washing machine, but rather something about my content marketing approach or strategy or what I'm using that just isn't working right. And after listening to me for a couple of minutes, you gave me an idea or suggestion that worked, whatever work means in the scenario. So I don't want you to think it has something to do with top line results such as generating revenue or generating a sales ready lead or anything like that. Just whatever the right outcome would be. Okay? And you gave me that idea and I got the outcome that I wanted based on implementing, by implementing that idea that you gave me. In that kind of situation, if solving the problem meant a lot to me, if it was, say, at least in my head, a $50,000 problem, just to put a number to it, would I feel cheated if you sent me an invoice for, say, $2,000? Not at all. Yet that's what we often do. We think too much about time and effort and not enough about our value. So we price and value our expertise based on how long it took us to complete that project and not on all the time we spent learning and studying and practicing for all those years. The blood, sweat and tears we she. And now we're finally at a point where we're so good at this stuff. We can solve problems faster, we can look for solutions and suggest the right solutions sooner. Quicker we can complete projects faster, we can deliver much more value to clients. What you can do quickly and easily is not the same for everyone. In fact, most people can't do the same. We take it for granted. We devalue what takes us little time, or what comes easy to us. It's a natural human thing. But you have to minimize that kind of thinking. How? By continually reminding yourself that time is not the most valuable thing. The most valuable thing is applied knowledge and expertise.
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