Love this and am so honored to be part of the inaugural Wisdom Exchange. Folks come to me on everything from brand strategy and messaging advice, how to start a consulting practice, how to get published, and now, how to create a more empathetic leadership style/culture/brand. Like you, I am always up for a connection that is mutually beneficial (and I do love a good coffee!), but I also charge for a 90 minute Booster Session if I know we're going to get into some nitty gritty about marketing or branding specifically that crosses into consulting. Early in my business, I spent too much time meeting tech founder CEO's for coffee and giving them a free gameplan for how to kickstart their marketing plan and org, thinking it would lead to more work, but never heard from them again. Our expertise is valuable and it's fairly easy to discern if this is more of a mentoring/connection request or a "free consulting"request so I judge accordingly.
Thank you for being a part of it! My typical approach is to say, here, let's do my free 30-minute introductory call and figure out if there's a fit for us to work more together. Whenever possible I'd rather spend that 30 minutes exploring their budgets, timelines, goals etc...like actual information that would help me give them a proposal, then just give 30 minutes of free advice. (That being said, I give friends free advice ALL THE TIME because I like to 😹)
Same! I got wise after a while and used those prospect coffee dates as a way to ask more questions and uncover their goals, needs - and budgets - before giving it all away for free. And we like giving advice, my friend - we are opinionated women with experience to share. And nothing makes me sadder than seeing someone struggle when I have gone down the road before them and can offer a perspective to better pave the way!
Love this and am so honored to be part of the inaugural Wisdom Exchange. Folks come to me on everything from brand strategy and messaging advice, how to start a consulting practice, how to get published, and now, how to create a more empathetic leadership style/culture/brand. Like you, I am always up for a connection that is mutually beneficial (and I do love a good coffee!), but I also charge for a 90 minute Booster Session if I know we're going to get into some nitty gritty about marketing or branding specifically that crosses into consulting. Early in my business, I spent too much time meeting tech founder CEO's for coffee and giving them a free gameplan for how to kickstart their marketing plan and org, thinking it would lead to more work, but never heard from them again. Our expertise is valuable and it's fairly easy to discern if this is more of a mentoring/connection request or a "free consulting"request so I judge accordingly.
Thank you for being a part of it! My typical approach is to say, here, let's do my free 30-minute introductory call and figure out if there's a fit for us to work more together. Whenever possible I'd rather spend that 30 minutes exploring their budgets, timelines, goals etc...like actual information that would help me give them a proposal, then just give 30 minutes of free advice. (That being said, I give friends free advice ALL THE TIME because I like to 😹)
Same! I got wise after a while and used those prospect coffee dates as a way to ask more questions and uncover their goals, needs - and budgets - before giving it all away for free. And we like giving advice, my friend - we are opinionated women with experience to share. And nothing makes me sadder than seeing someone struggle when I have gone down the road before them and can offer a perspective to better pave the way!
too true