The proof of my book didn’t arrive this afternoon as I had hoped it might. Clearly when they say, ETA 3/11, they mean it. I can’t wait to see how it looks in book format! And I am curious to see how well I nailed it… or not.
I received an interesting message today. And I am kinda torn whether to go into it here or not. At one time I had complete anonymity blogging… not anymore. Most of you are my Facebook friends and the rest have totally surmised everything else. Even though I don’t have an employer, is it right for me to vent here? Especially since it could get out? Who is reading these posts? I have no clue! Why don’t more of you comment!?!
Throwing caution to the wind, here’s the interesting message I received today: “Wanted to know if you had about an hour next week to sit with me – I have a client who I will be [insert everything I do for a living] and I wanted to pick your brain before getting started…can we do an hour consultation? What do you charge?”
Is it just me or is this out and out wrong? And INSULTING? Does she honestly think an hour consultation will provide her with all the information she needs to do what I do for a living? And why should I give her one hour of my time to arm her with the info to do my specialty? I can’t believe she didn’t read the email through and think, maybe this is inappropriate and tactless?
And now I am left wondering how to respond. Am I overacting? How would you respond?
Do it, because after all the person is going to pay you for a 1 hour consultation just like anybody else. I would be insulted if they just asked to get together and pick my brain without paying for the consult.
Like you said, they are not going to be you and learn everything you know in an hour or have your contacts, your research ability, and they are definitely not going to have your style, so how far are they really going to go with what you can provide in an hour? If they are in the same field as you they may just want to bounce ideas off of another head, and you get paid for your time. Best case scenario you will really impress them and they will talk about you and refer business to you.
As long as they have paid you for your time and expertise, you shouldn’t worry about it unless they are completely stealing your Powerpoint presentation or something like that. Anyone who has consulted with you or attended your talks could use your information in the same way, but they can’t be you going in to the future, like that Black Eyed Peas song, they try to copy my swagger, I’m on the NEXT sh*t now, I’m so 3008, they’re so 2000 and LATE.
You probably won’t need to respond after she reads this post of yours.
Relax. We all know who you are. Audra hit it on the head. Take the money and run.