Can I Pick Your Brain? How to Protect Your Time and Calendar Ep 91

Ever felt that twinge of guilt when you turn down a "quick coffee" because deep down, you know your time is worth more?

In this talk, I'll take you on a journey through my own experiences, from the early, over-eager days of saying yes to every coffee invite, to the present where I've mastered the art of graciously declining while keeping my connections robust and my calendar in check.

This episode is peppered with humor and the hard-earned wisdom that comes from setting boundaries that ensure our expertise isn't just appreciated but compensated.

Being freelance does NOT mean you work for free!

Learn how a cheeky Instagram post about consulting fees became a viral sensation, and more importantly, how it underscores the message that our time as freelancers is precious. I'll share practical tips for balancing professional commitments with personal time—because no one wants to spend their weekends playing catch-up when they could be sipping mimosas at brunch, right?

Original IG post from 2019:
https://www.instagram.com/p/B2AbUYQldtD/

2024 LinkedIn Post:
https://www.linkedin.com/posts/brendameller_consultant-coach-solopreneur-activity-7186317493982916608-DTKO

Want to "Pick My Brain"? 
I do offer 1-to-1 LinkedIn coaching services. Visit this to learn more: 
https://www.mellermarketing.com/1-to-1-linkedin-coaching and pick an option to get started 😎

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15 LinkedIn Profile Tips for Coaches and Consultants

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This checklist provides 15 quick and easy ways to update your LinkedIn profile TODAY and help generate more leads for your coaching / consulting business.

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My name is Brenda Meller. I'm a LinkedIn coach, consultant, speaker, and author. My company is Meller Marketing and I help business professionals get a bigger slice of the LinkedIn pie.

Visit mellermarketing.com

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Transcript

Speaker 1: 1:01

In this episode, I want to remind you that just because you're freelance does not mean that you work for free. Hey, this is Brenda Meller and in today's show, I want to talk about consulting fees and, as it relates to people approaching you to ask you questions like this, Can I pick your brain? How often do you hear that? Or what about this one? Hey, I have a quick question. Let's jump on a quick call. Or the elusive hey, let's meet for coffee. I need some LinkedIn advice. Right, and a lot of times these individuals they value the insights that you have to offer, but they may not value you enough to pay for your time. Right, and I actually did a post this is a few years back on Instagram and it was one of my most popular posts. And I actually did a post this is a few years back on Instagram and it was one of my most popular posts and I created a fake rate card. It's not actually something I give to people, but the title is the words in all caps consulting fees. And I've actually listed out all these questions. Can I pick your brain? And I have XXX per hour listed next to it. I have a quick question. Same thing, XXX per hour. So I've listed out each of these requests and, kiddingly, this would be like a rate card that you would send to people every time you're asked this question. And I created this graphic and I'm doing this podcast episode today to remind you that your time is valuable and you don't get paid unless you get paid.

Speaker 1: 2:25

Now I remember in the first years of my business I would do a lot of discovery calls. If people reach out to me and ask for a get to know you phone call, I would do that. If they ask for a virtual coffee, I would do that. And even before the pandemic they would ask to meet in person for coffee or lunch and I would do that. And what I found over time is that I was giving away free advice. And I don't know if you're like this, but if you're a people pleaser, it might feel pretty good giving someone free advice and they are very appreciative of it and they may or may not take action on it, but they appreciate the advice that you are giving them. But I found that over time that I realized I was giving not only advice away for free, but I was taking precious hours away from my calendar. Now we only get 24 hours a day. I do not get any more than 24. We all get the same amount of time and I found that at times these coffee meetups or lunch meetups would take me at least three hours because it would often take 30 to 45 minutes to drive.

Speaker 1: 3:20

I'm on the east side of Macomb County and there's not a whole lot over here, so I'd often be driving and meeting my friends and new connections at a place that was convenient for us both, which was typically halfway, which was typically a half hour or more of a drive, and then, after a lunch of could be anywhere from an hour to 90 minutes, I'd have that same drive getting back home and that would be a large chunk of my day. And then I'd find myself getting behind on client work and that would take me into doing work after hours in the evenings and sometimes on weekends, and I realized that I needed to be more protective of my calendar and not always say yes to everything. And I started getting very comfortable. When people would ask me to meet up, I would start to get comfortable by saying no, but politely I would say something like you know, I appreciate you asking. I'm keeping really busy on client project work this month, but let me know when you're attending the next Troy Chamber event or the next Inform event or the next XYZ, a shared organization, and maybe we can meet up and sit together, Right? And sometimes I would even say, you know, during the week I'm really busy with client work. But how about we meet for brunch on the weekend? And sometimes people say, yeah, let's meet for brunch, and other times people would say, no, the weekend, that's my time with my family and they would protect their time. Right. And it's very similar when we all value time in different ways and we all have our calendar set apart in different ways. If they want to protect their weekends for their family and their personal, I should be entitled to protect my weekdays for my work time, right? So I think it's really important to give this some thought, and I'm actually going to drop the link to the LinkedIn post inside the chat in case you'd like to join the conversation on LinkedIn and weigh in on this.

Speaker 1: 5:01

And for the most part, people did agree with me. I did have a few people that said, no, it's important to meet people for coffee, it's important to do discovery calls, and I'm more than willing to do a 15 minute or even a 30 minute because it might lead to a large client engagement. And I'm not saying I don't ever do discovery calls, I'm just saying where I'm at at this point in my business. I make sure that I'm screening people in and I'm only scheduling those calls for opportunities that have been vetted by me and that they're a good fit for both of us. And let me give you another example.

Speaker 1: 5:34

Recently I was approached by someone asking to meet up to talk about doing some LinkedIn strategy coaching and possibly team training for their organization. And they were probably located about a half hour away and she said why don't we meet for lunch and we'll have a couple members of our team come out and we'll talk to you? And I said well, typically what I do is I do a 15-minute discovery call first and then, if it's a good fit, then absolutely I'd be happy to come out and meet with you. We could talk about it in greater detail. And we ended up jumping on the Discover calls about a week ago and within the first 10 minutes I discovered that the organization, in addition to looking for help with LinkedIn, they actually needed a little bit more help with marketing strategy first and developing their key messaging and some other areas. They would definitely be a part of what we did with LinkedIn, but I mentioned to them that I no longer do marketing strategy development. I no longer do marketing planning as a part of the work. Now I solely focus on LinkedIn and I didn't want to engage with them on LinkedIn, not having these other areas well-defined, because it was going to slow down the process. They would get frustrated with me, the process would take longer than expected and they wouldn't have the outcome. So I actually ended up referring them to one of my local partners for marketing strategy and asked to that we re-meet up again once that strategy was better defined.

Speaker 1: 6:51

So I did take that opportunity to have an in-person meeting for a possible client engagement, which could easily have been three hours out of my day, and I carved it down to 15 minutes. We actually ended up talking on the phone for, I think, 20, 20 to 25 minutes in total, but I was able to protect the time on my calendar and also respect my potential future client, Because if we met up for three hours and if I would have said the same thing, it would have been three hours out of their busy day. That was I don't want to say wasted, but not spent in a way that was the most productive. That was I don't want to say wasted, but not spent in a way that was the most productive. So I welcome your thoughts. I welcome your comments.

Speaker 1: 7:29

For those of you who are just getting started, I want to encourage you to think about protecting your time and not giving away too much of your time, especially if you're a people pleaser. Maybe you'll reach that day at some point in your business, as I did, where I started realizing I was exhausted for all these meetings and discovery calls and things that weren't leading to business, and you'll start to be more selective on the right opportunities to help you to shape your calendar and also to grow your business. That's it, my friend. I leave you with that thought. I welcome any comments back, either on the LinkedIn post. You can email me at brenda at mellormarketingcom, or give me a comment on my Instagram for Mellor Marketing, or visit me on LinkedIn. Until next.