“Can I pick your brain?”
For a long time, I dreaded this question. It’s a selfish question that only serves one person. The person asking in the first place.
“Hey String, Can I pick your brain over coffee?”
We sit down at a cafe and they ask all sorts of questions on how they can do business better. In the end, they treat me to a $4.00 coffee. Sounds familiar?
Here’s a break down of the costs…
4.00 is meant to cover the knowledge one gains during research and development, and travel expenses to the cafe.
Usually, there’s a word for this kind of session. It’s called Consultation.
Consultants don’t give away free knowledge. People pay them money to help create more money. Asking for a brain picking means that you’re kinda don’t have money to spend or don’t know the value of time or money.
If you’re approaching a person of influence, here are some consideration:
- make it a win-win situation (it’s a two way street)
- research who you’re approaching and make it relevant to them. How would they benefit with the exchange with you?
- Or just pay them a consultation fee.
Solution: Pay’me booking system
To help filter, the serious and the non-serious. I embedded a booking system on my site — I love it because it’s PAY first to confirm a time.
I actually look forward to someone asking me:
They: Can I pick your brain, Suzanne?
Me: I say sure, book a time here: stringstory.co/time
This can be used with anyone who charges an hourly rate for their advice and knowledge.
Here’s my example: stringstory.co/time (I embedded a calendar from youcanbook.me and it hooks up to my Google calendar)
Do you have a pay’me booking system? What are do you use?
String gets paid to develop and strategies for Snapchat. As a curious geek of the future, her Snapchat channel are filled with social and tech trends.
Follow her on StringStory
