A lot of business and entrepreneurship advice is about saying no. Control your time and manage what you work on by saying no to more things. I say – SAY YES more. In fact, say yes to everything!!!!
If you are a successful business owner, speaker, coach, author or even just an industry expert you are probably often asked:
- Can I pick your brain?
- Can I buy you coffee?
- Can I get your advice?
- I’m having this problem – HELP!
- I’m looking for a job?
- Can you help me network?
- How can I BLANK
If you want to run a successful business YOU DON’T HAVE TIME to answer all of these requests – and it will detract from your paying clients. So what do you do – let them down gently? Find a nice way to say no?
SAY YES TO EVERYTHING!
BUT – include a task for the person to complete first.
Depending on the ask and the person, I usually say – YES – I would love to help!!! Then I give them a small task to complete first. Check out the blog posts I wrote on this and tell me your biggest takeaways or questions. Find 10 people on LinkedIn that I can connect you to.
99% of people won’t complete the task.
The ones that do – those that are willing to invest their own time are worth you investing in. This is a win-win.
SECOND STRATEGY – PUT THEM IN A PROGRAM
I have a program called Digital Marketing Insiders where I answer questions every month for our members and it is only $27/month. So, you want my advice on how to do something or help troubleshooting? Join for a month and ask me on the call.
Look, if someone isn’t willing to invest $27, do I really want to invest my time and energy in giving them free advice? It isn’t so much about the money it is about 1) Having them invest something before I do and 2) Channeling my time to respond to all of these at once. Even if you don’t charge, doing an open Q&A call live on Facebook or something can be a great way to channel these (and create content for you!).
What I’ve found is that 90% of people aren’t willing to invest anything – time or money – when they initially ask for free advice.
If you are like me and you hate to say no, this allows you to always say yes – guilt free and without wasting your time 😉
Hello my dear friend
Jennifer McClure – this was inspired by your question 😉
Love this! Thanks for sharing your great tips!
I do agree – great idea; ‘ask’ for a small task!
So true. Yes and …. Is so good.