“Hey friend!  Let’s grab some coffee next week.  How’s Wednesday morning?”

Maybe it stops at “Let’s grab some coffee?” and the ending is not included, but you soon find out the part about “…to pick your brain” once you get to Starbucks.

How many times have you heard that?

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Don’t be embarrassed. It happens to the best of the them… — Source: giphy.com

TELLING IT LIKE IT IS

Here’s our thoughts on this:

There are only 24 hours in a day. Your family life and your business will (and should!) take up the majority of it (of course, if you’re the owner). These “pick your brain” meetings are mini-consultation sessions. If what you have to share is so exclusive, charge for it and invest the money into continuing to build your startup or grow your small business. Otherwise, politely decline and tend to your other commitments unless the meeting will also add value to what you’re working on. Eventually, if the requester is really serious about their entrepreneurial quest, they will either “Google it” or find someone else’s brain to pick to retrieve the information they are seeking. 

These “pick your brain” meetings are mini-consultation sessions. If what you have to share is so exclusive, charge for it and invest the money into continuing to build your startup or grow your small business. Click To Tweet

YOU’VE PUT IN THE WORK, NOW THEY HAVE TO

There’s no doubt that there’s A LOT of research and learning involved when you become an entrepreneur and it’s never-ending. Some learning comes from experience while the rest may come from hours of reading or more expensively, formal education like an MBA at a university, a startup school, or other entrepreneurial programs. Either way, you’ve invested a lot of time learning what you know to become a successful entrepreneur and you should value your time. 

alright then
Yes, we said it…”Value your time” — Source: giphy.com

The most common wisdom we share with entrepreneurs (particularly ones with startups): Prioritize spending the majority of your time actually building your business, with a concentration on acquiring paying customers and iterating on your product. This is very important to build your case for the viability of your business in the marketplace. Nothing trumps this.

drops mic
End of story… — Source: giphy.com

Prioritize spending the majority of your time actually building your business, with a concentration on acquiring paying customers and iterating on your product. Click To Tweet

Many times, it’s hard to make this a priority. The best way to combat it is to create a strategic, daily schedule for yourself, including each of your specific priorities for the day. As a consulting company with a variety of clients in various industries and stages of business, we quite often fill a dual role as an accountability partner for many startups founders and leaders of SMB’s alike, and both have this challenge.  However, once the business strategy is in execution mode and they begin seeing the progress in their business, it becomes very hard to put anything else above it. That’s when it becomes easy to politely decline these “Let’s grab some coffee/pick your brain” sessions.

So, the next time someone says, “Let’s grab some coffee”, the best way to overcome the doubt, guilt, and indecisiveness of these types of meeting requests is to begin executing and making real progress in your business. 

Are you an entrepreneur or business leader struggling with this?  If so, you must figure out a plan to maximize your time and assist those who are seeking your services but haven’t yet decided to become a customer. 

There are many ways to do this:

For example, we receive “pick your brain” requests at TPM Focus all the time.  Our response is:  While we don’t provide free consultations, we offer Clarity Calls.  Contact us to schedule one.

Clarity Calls are the best way to receive valuable information from us that will answer the tough questions to help you move forward in your business.  If you are not willing to make this small investment in your business, you can’t expect anyone else to.  There is no way to build a successful business strictly from free consultations and resources.  If that was possible, wouldn’t everyone do it?  Think about it.

There is no way to build a successful business strictly from free consultations and resources. If that was possible, wouldn't everyone do it? Think about it. Click To Tweet

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