Raise your hand if you've ever given away an hour of free advice only to have that person hire someone else.
Happens more often than you’d like?
Yeah, that sucks.
Let's paint the picture…
Mary asks to “pick your brain” or meet for coffee – or maybe you scheduled a “getting to know you” call with her.
Mary shares a challenge she's been experiencing and your brain lights up!
You immediately think of lots of resources and suggestions to share.
Mary starts scribbling down notes. You both are feeling excited.
You think to yourself, it feels so good to help her.
An hour flies by and at the end Mary has several pages of notes. She is grateful for your generosity and you're feeling pretty good about how that went.
You know Mary has some bigger issues to contend with that you didn't really get into, but you feel confident she will be back in touch when she is ready to work on that.
So, what happens next?
Rarely do people take immediate action based on free advice, especially when that advice is not a clear strategy, but a random list of tactics.
A couple of weeks later, Mary stumbles upon these pages of notes and feels bad that she hasn't put your advice into practice.
She is having some trouble deciphering her cryptic notes and is feeling overwhelmed by the number of possible ways forward.
A few days later she sees you at an event and avoids you because she is afraid you'll ask how things are going and she doesn't want to admit she hasn't done anything yet.
She keeps thinking about how generous you were and doesn't want to bother you again until she's figured out exactly what help she needs.
Meanwhile, she tells a friend about her situation and that friend introduces her to a coach.
The coach asks some clarifying questions, looks over the list of random tactics, and suggests trying out one or two to get started, but says to be in touch if Mary needs further assistance.
Two weeks later, Mary hires THAT coach to do a strategy session and build out a strategic plan.
You hear about this through the grapevine and wonder why it happened again – you gave away an hour of free advice, why didn’t they hire you?
Your Challenge For This Week
I can help you stop this cycle.
There is a Magical Question to ask when your head is filled with a zillion suggestions and you can feel you’re falling into this pattern again.
Find out the question that turns the conversation into a prospect call.
I’ll show you how to incorporate it into your next “pick your brain,” coffee chat, or “get to know you” call.
You’ll also receive “The Free Advice Trap” section of my latest book, “Small List, Big Results: Launch a Successful Offer No Matter the Size of Your Email List.”
The Magical Question isn’t even in the book!
Get it at www.robbiesamuels.com/magical.
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Try this and let me know how it goes!
Business Growth Strategist & Business Coach
As a relationship-based business growth strategist, I work directly with a limited number of self-employed professionals, aka solopreneurs.
WHO YOU ARE:
You want to have a greater impact and increased income. The problem is that there are so many options for how to build your business that you can feel stuck, overwhelmed, and like you’re running out of time.
The reason options are overwhelming is that you’re looking at them as a series of disconnected steps, when to make the most of your time, you need a strategy that connects only the most important and highest impact ones.
You know that if you try to do everything, you’ll accomplish nothing. This means, to achieve your goal, you have to invest in a strategy to put time on your side.
What’s Included:
As a relationship-based business growth strategist, I will work with you to design a year-long plan that consists of three 12-week sprints, each followed by 4 weeks of reflection/assessment, rejuvenation/vacation, and strategic planning. This will allow you to sequence your goals, create momentum, and leverage your limited time.
We can build your plan through a half-day strategy session, a coaching engagement, or a mastermind program.
These are not right for everyone; they’re personalized offerings and are priced accordingly.
What might you work on?
In my coaching work with entrepreneurs and solopreneurs, we focus on the areas where you’d like to grow, which may include:
- Creating a strong sales conversation framework
- Building your referral network
- Lead generation through a relationships
- Growing your visibility in your industry
- Increasing your ability to attract the right kind of clients
- Identifying and launching a minimally viable offer
- Breaking through whatever bottleneck is holding you back from getting the results you want and deserve
- Becoming a published author and marketing your book successfully
- Improving your virtual presentation skills
Learn more about the different ways we can work together – deep dive 3-hour session, private 1:1 coaching, and masterminds. I’m excited to support you in reaching or exceeding your goals.
Stay Connected:
- Connect with me on LinkedIn to see the content I share.
- New to my website? Start here
- Listen to my On the Schmooze podcast – weekly since July 2016.
