I think this is my favorite article so far on Indie Hackers, and definitely my favorite article that I've read anywhere in the last couple of weeks. I will be practicing this starting now.
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Thanks I'm glad it helped you!
1
How much are you typically charging for the consultation?
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Enough that people might think "that's kind of expensive" but they still say yes 😉
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I love the thought in this email template!
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I’m happy to help! I do keep my limited 1-1 time available for my consulting clients, students, and Indy Hall members, so right now the best way for me to help will be to know what questions you have upfront. Try to pick 1-2 that are most important to you, and the more specific the better!
Send those over and I’ll try my best to respond as soon as I can!
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Brilliant and applicable as per usual!
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Yes! This is good. 🙏 I need to get in this habit a bit more too. Too often I get emails from people just wanting to get confirmation, instead of getting my advice.
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YUP a lot of people who want "advice" just want to be told they are right. Having a system to weed that out is so helpful.
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So I would argue that while this is a good idea for busy people with lots of opportunities and more emails and requests for time coming in than they can deal with, it isn't necessarily good advice for new people who are relatively unknown and looking to build their network.
I've only had two people ask me for coffee, both times because they wanted help starting freelancing. Both times I chatted with them for several hours and took a genuine interest in them and had a grand time.
One later directly led to the biggest freelance client of 2018, and the other turned into my strongest freelancing ally I have now for referrals and wingmaning at networking events. And that person is now a close friend. And even if it didn't lead to direct financial gain, I had fun doing it.
However, I also am friends with someone who is very busy and is sitting on 300 emails to respond to. He absolutely would do well to take this advice, as his network is large and his problem is responding to all of the possible opportunities and finding the best ones for his time.
Helping one person at a time - for free - isn’t terribly scalable. But what if the advice you give one person could help two, ten, hundreds, or even thousands of people…without the impossible effort of sit down to coffee with each individual person?
... But second - and this is my absolute favorite part - is that the next time someone asks the same question (or a very similar one) I can link them directly to a answer-on-record that I wrote before they even asked me the question.
This little move saves me hundreds of hours a year
Who are you and why are so many people asking for your advice?
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Peep my bio. ✨
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Ah, after "peeping your bio", I see you've fleshed it out.
Perhaps the attitude is justified, given that you're running podcasts and a coworking space, etc. Not being familiar with your background, the article struck me as something that people not actually under an onslaught of hundreds of requests per week would use as justification for very arrogant behavior.
When you're under a huge load of incoming questions there really isn't much you can do, but for 99% of people on this forum, we can more than handle the effort of dealing with those that come in in a more human, less automated manner. This is also true of the ~1-2 emails I get per week from an old blog asking for help and the 2-3 questions related to my current site.
I think this is my favorite article so far on Indie Hackers, and definitely my favorite article that I've read anywhere in the last couple of weeks. I will be practicing this starting now.
Thanks I'm glad it helped you!
How much are you typically charging for the consultation?
Enough that people might think "that's kind of expensive" but they still say yes 😉
I love the thought in this email template!
----------
I’m happy to help! I do keep my limited 1-1 time available for my consulting clients, students, and Indy Hall members, so right now the best way for me to help will be to know what questions you have upfront. Try to pick 1-2 that are most important to you, and the more specific the better!
Send those over and I’ll try my best to respond as soon as I can!
Brilliant and applicable as per usual!
Yes! This is good. 🙏 I need to get in this habit a bit more too. Too often I get emails from people just wanting to get confirmation, instead of getting my advice.
YUP a lot of people who want "advice" just want to be told they are right. Having a system to weed that out is so helpful.
So I would argue that while this is a good idea for busy people with lots of opportunities and more emails and requests for time coming in than they can deal with, it isn't necessarily good advice for new people who are relatively unknown and looking to build their network.
I've only had two people ask me for coffee, both times because they wanted help starting freelancing. Both times I chatted with them for several hours and took a genuine interest in them and had a grand time.
One later directly led to the biggest freelance client of 2018, and the other turned into my strongest freelancing ally I have now for referrals and wingmaning at networking events. And that person is now a close friend. And even if it didn't lead to direct financial gain, I had fun doing it.
However, I also am friends with someone who is very busy and is sitting on 300 emails to respond to. He absolutely would do well to take this advice, as his network is large and his problem is responding to all of the possible opportunities and finding the best ones for his time.
See also https://sidsavara.com/hell-yeah-hell-why-not/ The idea of "only do things you can say hell yeah to" (https://sivers.org/hellyeah) he notes applies more to people who have lots of options and are overwhelmed.
Who are you and why are so many people asking for your advice?
Peep my bio. ✨
Ah, after "peeping your bio", I see you've fleshed it out.
Perhaps the attitude is justified, given that you're running podcasts and a coworking space, etc. Not being familiar with your background, the article struck me as something that people not actually under an onslaught of hundreds of requests per week would use as justification for very arrogant behavior.
When you're under a huge load of incoming questions there really isn't much you can do, but for 99% of people on this forum, we can more than handle the effort of dealing with those that come in in a more human, less automated manner. This is also true of the ~1-2 emails I get per week from an old blog asking for help and the 2-3 questions related to my current site.