Ed Gandia explains how freelance writers should handle requests to pick their brain for free. He covers setting boundaries around your time and expertise, and how to turn these requests into paid opportunities instead of giving away advice.
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 another episode of the High Income Business Writing Podcast, the number one podcast for business writers and copywriters who want to earn more and less time doing work they love for better clients. With over 1 million downloads from listeners just like you across 101 countries, this episode is much shorter than usual rather than my typical 45 minute format. Today I'm sharing a quick tip with you. This is part of the Audio Insights I publish for my private coaching clients every weekday, and I thought you'd find it helpful.
So here we go. Hope you enjoy it. The first time someone asked if they could pick my brain years ago, I I was flattered. The second time I was happy to be asked by. About the fourth or fifth time I started making up excuses as to why I couldn't meet or chat with them. There's a pretty good chance you fielded a similar request more than once over the past few years, either from a client or a prospect or someone looking to get started as a freelancer or maybe even an acquaintance or a friend of a friend who knows you're a writer and needs feedback on their new website, a book they're writing, or maybe a business idea they have. I've always found it interesting that people ask so freely for my time and for my guidance. I know that if I owned a shoe store instead, or maybe a grocery store or bakery, no one would hit me up to see if I could give them a free pair of shoes or some free bread or a couple of free steaks, right? But when it comes to professional services, many people don't see it as a big deal to ask for 30 or 60 minutes of your time. It's just time. After all, we have so much of it, right? Why can't we just spare some of it for that? But it's not just time. Of course you're giving someone guidance advantage picking sessions. My response shifted from reluctance or just flat out ignoring them because I didn't want to deal with it to one of sure, I'd be happy to hop on a call and discuss your question or issue for one hour. My fee is $250, and it was great because when the request came in, I didn't feel like I had to lie anymore or ignore them. I didn't have to make up some excuse as to why I didn't have the time. I just told them, hey, I'd Be happy to meet. Here's how that works and what I charge. I adopted a matter of fact tone when I delivered that, when I replied, rather than a reluctant or a defensive one. And this is typically done over email. Some people politely decline, some people never responded. But you know what? Most took me up on it. And I no longer felt that resentment I used to feel when I did this for free. Now eventually I started feeling like $250 was way too little for helping people get clarity on big issues. I also felt because my business has shifted, I felt that I was undermining my coaching programs by letting people get kind of backdoor access to me. And the $250 just didn't mean that much to me anymore. It became more of a, I wouldn't say a nuisance, but it became a block. Many times I saw that I had that call right smack in the middle of the day. It felt more like an interruption. So I created a different offer. I called it a breakthrough engagement. I changed how I framed the value and the structure and the process. I added more meeting time and I started charging $1,200. And that's how currently I basically work with people who want to pick my brain. Now, my point today isn't about the details of my offer or even about the actual fee you should charge. It's about changing how you think about your value. And it's about having different ways or thinking about different ways that you could help different people and different audiences who may ordinarily ask to pick your brain for free. There's no right or wrong here. You may decide that when it comes to, for instance, peers at your level, you're happy to let them pick your brain. As long as the call, it's let's just say 20 or 30 minutes, no more than that, or as long as there is a mutual understanding that they return the favor someday. That's my personal policy. When it comes to fellow coaches. I don't charge them for this. It's just these are people I know and we just have a mutual understanding. But if it's a prospect or an aspiring online business owner or a friend of a friend who needs advice on their book or business idea, that's when you should have a brain picking offer of some sort. You don't have to call it that, but that's internally how I think of it. Thing is, these days there's no excuses not to do it. There are platforms out there such as Clarity FM that make this super easy to set up and to accept payment so the logistics are no longer an impediment. Whatever you decide, the point is to have some sort of option for these situations. Once you do, these requests will no longer feel like a burden to you. By reframing the narrative around brain picking, you now pave the way for a culture of reciprocal respect and value exchange, and that ensures that your professional contributions are recognized and appreciated in their rightful magnitude.
Well, that's it for today. I hope you enjoyed the episode. And just a quick reminder to grab your free copy of my latest book, Earn More in Less Time the Proven Mindset, Strategies and Actions to Prosper as a Freelance writer. You can get your free copy@b2b launcher.com or you will also find the detail show notes to this and all my other episodes. Enjoy and have a great day.
