A while back, I posted about how to avoid someone picking your brain without having to be nasty about it. This weekend, while perusing the Facepage, I saw my friend JR Byrd share this tidbit from A’Tondra Jones on the same topic:
Real Quick,
In the last few hours, I have had MULTIPLE people inbox me and request to “…pick [my] brain…” regarding a post I recently made about the future of the Fitness industry.
Here’s the thing,If I point my Insight in YOUR direction regarding a company matter, that is considered a consultation.
“Pick my brain” you say?
You are asking questions about the future of YOUR industry and receiving my INSIGHT on how you can plan and prepare YOUR company for the future in that industry.
You are asking me to open my brain and allow you to pick and pluck from my experience, my expertise, and my insight that which you DON’T currently have.
Imagine that…
Like REALLY imagine that.Imagine me, LITERALLY OPENING my brain for you as you stand there with your little basket and allow you to LITERALLY pick out of MY BRAIN what YOUR COMPANY needs.
You pick this, maybe a little of that, then pick some of this, and some of that, and OOOOOH yeah, get some of those too. You take all you need and place it in your little basket of picked brains.
Now imagine if I allowed you to do that,
For FREE.
Hold those images in your mind and reflect on the before the next time you fix your thumbs to request some else’s brain for free.
This really struck me. I mean…WOW! That’s a visual, now isn’t it???
So my invitation to you, based on what I wrote a while back and what Ms Jones had to say, is that the next time you want to “pick” someone’s brain, be honest.
- Are you struggling and need to pick that person’s brain because money’s tight and you can’t afford to offer to pay?
- Are you really looking to gain insight into that person’s work ethic and such for a potential collaboration?
- Are you looking for validation behind work you’ve done or to confirm a suspicion that you’re doing something “wrong” or off base?
- Or are you actually looking to gather a basket of all good advice and build your business off of others’ knowledge FOR FREE? (PS – There’s a difference between being broke and being cheap. The first bullet is the former; this bullet is the latter.)