I’m done. I’m done with the emails asking for “a quick chat”, I’m done obliging folks who ask me to follow them on Twitter so they can DM “a quick question” and I’m done being suckered into phone calls only for someone to try to steal as much professional information from me as they can. Because while I’m all for passing it on and sharing the wealth, that’s not what’s happening when you ask me to lay out a complete social strategy for your business. That’s not what’s happening when you ask me to review your business proposal. When you ask to “pick my brain”, you’re really asking me to work for free. And while Outspoken Media proudly serves its pro-bono clients, we’re also a business. My creative work and my ideas are that business.

A few months ago I received a phone call from a man about to pitch a business idea to a panel of investors. Before he did, he wanted ME to find him some resources to prove to the board there was a need for his business. Hi, LMGTFY. Before that, there was a gentleman who got my cell phone number and called asking if I’d perform a social media audit on his Web site, while he was the phone with me. He’d wait.

There’s a weird dichotomy that exists – people who obviously respect my expertise, just not my time. At some point we have to start saying no. And I know that I’m not alone in this. I know that there are many freelancers and consultants who are also tired of working for free and the never ending requests for a brain picking session.

Here’s a sampling:

• Chris Brogan wrote about the Audacity of Free back in 2009.
• Tamar Weinberg wrote her own products and services edition this summer.
• Peter Shankman wrote an open letter to Kami Watson Hurse, APR that is so good I want to sleep with it under my pillow.
• Nicole Jordan declared, no, you can’t pick my brain.
• Sandy Jones-Kaminski wants to start the national no brain picking list, which sounds pretty good to me.

We’ve all had enough. We’re all done and it’s time we start protecting our creative work. Below I’ve listed the 15 responses I’ll use the next someone asks for “just ten minutes” so they can get professional advice without actually paying for it. Will you help me add to it?

So…can I pick your brain/brand over coffee?

1. No.
2. I’m so sorry but I’m super swamped right now. May I recommend [Competitors Name]? They’re really great; you should give them a call.
3. Of course, I’d love to chat. I charge in 60 minute increments at $XXX an hour.
4. I’d love to help you create a marketing strategy, check out our blog consulting services, content creation services or any of our other Internet marketing services. Let me know which you’d like us to invoice you for.
5. Sure, let’s talk. Then send drop a link to our Contact page.
6. Write up an invoice and send it to them. Let them know that payment must be received before the chat takes place, but that I truly can’t wait to hear about their idea/problem/situation.
7. Send them a few links to resources, but only if I know how to quickly find the content. I’m not doing research on your behalf. We have the same Google. Use your own.
8. Send them the link to the blog. We have tons of freely available resources they just have to be adapted to your business.
9. Suggest they call Rae and then hide under my new desk. :)
10. Research what they do and ask if I can have a free X.
11. Make it over beers and let them pay my drink tab. I can drink more Sam Adams in a sitting then I can vanilla lattes.
12. Tell them they can speak with my assistant…and then give them my little brother’s phone number.
13. Ask them when they’d like to set up a phone consultation and give them Outspoken’s rates.
14. Get their question upfront and tell them it will take more than 10 minutes to answer. Ask if they’d prefer we create a proposal to send over. And how much that costs.
15. Tell them to follow me on Twitter. You’ll get no better glimpse into my “brain” than that.

I know. It sounds like yet another reason for people to comment that I’m elitist, but that’s not it at all. I live for sharing information. That’s why I blog at Outspoken Media, at SmallBizTrends, and write guest posts for countless other blogs. But there’s a difference between putting someone on the right path and doing the work for them. Every strategy I give you for free takes time away from paying clients, internal Outspoken work and my own personal projects. I’m not saying consultants shouldn’t help people, Outspoken has a number of clients that we’ve helped free of charge, but respect the value of your own time.

As consultants we like to give back and often get trapped undermining our own businesses just because we don’t think we’re allowed to say no. If you’re a freelance who can’t say no, you need to go get bitchslapped because you run a business, not a free clinic. Your time and creative energy are valuable. You can say no. And sometimes you should.

About the Author

Lisa Barone is the Chief Branding Officer of Outspoken Media. She’s also a very active Twitterer, much to the dismay of the rest of the world.

Get social with Lisa at Sphinn | Twitter

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—>

Flashback lots and lots of years ago:

I’m sitting on a balcony of my apartment building looking at the mountains with my friend Kurt who is visiting me in Asheville. In only three days, I’m supposed to head back to Northern Virginia – as my three month visit to the mountains of North Carolina has come to an end.

I sigh very heavy and very deep.

After one of those long pauses that only the best of friends allow in their conversations, I say to Kurt, “I don’t want to go back.”

Without batting an eye, Kurt says matter-of-fact, “So don’t.”

It’s a simple statement. A simple moment. But it changes the course of my whole life.

You mean I have a choice?

That’s all I could think inside my head. A choice?

You mean, I could actually live somewhere I LOVE? You mean I don’t have to listen to the criticism in my head telling me I’m throwing my life away if I don’t have a “serious” city job? You mean I can actually HAVE THIS?

Sometimes it’s just So. Freakin’. Simple.

And the answer is almost always: Yes, you do. And yes, you can.

—>

Tagged as: christine kane, making choices

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Comments: Read Comments (17) or Leave Comment » Share this Article:  Email this to a Friend  Print This Post Related Articles: Upheaval: A Pop Quiz Should You Have Kids? Are You a People Pleaser? (Or an Approval Whore?) Christine’s Proportional Theory of Dread “Hell Maybe!”

Love it….simple, short and to the point. Something I must remember to tell myself everyday….

Filed under: Utilities, Productivity, Browser Tips

StayFocused for Chrome helps you curb time-wasting websites

by Erez Zukerman (RSS feed) Jun 11th 2010 at 1:00PM

LeechBlock is one of the cornerstones of my online life; it is an add-on that lets me set up a list of “time-wasting” websites and forces me to stop using them after some time has elapsed. It’s one of the main add-ons that’s keeping me on Firefox (rather than Chrome or Opera, which I really do like).

StayFocused tries to bring a very similar feature set to Chrome. I looked at this extension a couple of months ago, and a second look this morning shows that, with many new features added, the developer has been hard at work.

In addition to specifying which sites to block, you can now configure active days and hours (meaning, when to apply the blocking), blocked sites, and allowed sites (for white-list functionality). There’s also a “nuclear option” for blocking access to all but the white list (or all including the white list, which would render your browser useless), and there’s a “require challenge” option that forces you to type in a random string before you can change the options.

If any of these seem familiar to you, that’s because StayFocused seems to have taken a page right out of LeechBlock’s book. LeechBlock has all of these features and many more. For example, LeechBlock lets you configure five different blocking sets and control the length of the string. With LeechBlock, I can configure it to let me access my time-wasting websites for “5 minutes every hour.”

Don’t get me wrong, StayFocused is taking steps in the right direction. If you’re serious about blocking distracting websites, though, it doesn’t come close to the versatility and simplicity that LeechBlock offers. Also, I wish that StayFocused would give a bit of credit where credit is due; I could find no mention of LeechBlock in the FAQ or elsewhere.

Tags: extensions, leechblock, productivity, time-wasters

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This is just the type of extension I need on my system. I spend most of my working day on the internet in some form or another and I know how easy it is to get distracted. I’m going to try this applicaition out to see of effective or not it easy and then I’ll follow up with my readers to let you know.

So what do you think?