- Now, stop.
Do you know how many people, every single day,
contact me, email me, private message, DM me,
and they say they want to pick my brain for free?
I learned this the hard way.
When I was getting started,
when I was doing consulting,
at first I wanted to help everybody.
And I would let everybody just kind of like a free buffet.
They can pick my brain any time,
we could go to lunch,
and I waste hours and hours and hours of my time.
Have you ever had this experience, right?
Where you want to help people, right,
and then you go to lunch
and you give them your best advice,
you pour your heart out, and then what happens?
They don't use a fucking thing.
Why?
Because there's no skin in the game.
When they're not paying,
they're not paying attention, that's the issue.
I remember, there was a time.
One day, I was on a phone call.
(intense instrumental music)
And I was pouring my heart out,
it was a gentlemen calling me.
He was calling me and he said,
hey, you know, I found you Dan, love what you do,
here's my business, can you help me?
I said sure and I spent two hours,
giving him my best advice,
giving him my best strategies
without charging him anything.
And the time, my girlfriend at the time, before Jenny,
she overheard the conversation.
I was doing the call in my room.
And afterwards, she walked up to me
and she said to me in Chinese, dumb ass!
I said, what?
And she said, why are you giving
all your knowledge away for free?
Well, but you know,
he ask, and he call from the US,
I thought I would help people.
Then she said, well, but, you spent
a lot of time and energy and money
acquiring your knowledge, acquiring what you know.
Why you giving it all away for free?
Why are you giving information away?
Why are you giving people enough information
just to make them dangerous
and not solve their problem?
I thought, you know what, that kind of makes sense.
And from then on, I started charging for advice,
charging for my time,
believing in my own worth,
believing in my value and what I bring to the table.
So the next call,
someone calls me and they said,
oh, you know, I just want to pick your brain for free.
From now here's the mental image I want you to have.
Anyone who calls you and says,
I want to pick your brain for free,
can I ask you a question?
Here's the mental image I want you have.
Imagine someone cut over your head,
your skull, like that,
and then with this long nail like the Grinch
go into your brain.
That's picking your brain for free.
From now on, anyone that tries to pick your brain,
I want you to have that mental image.
So don't do that.
So,
next person calls me.
Yeah, I wanted to pick your brain,
I wanted to ask you some questions.
I simply said, you know what, sir,
I'm more than happy to answer questions but I charge a fee.
You notice when you start charging money,
when you charge for what you're worth,
suddenly people don't ask as many questions.
I have a saying there's no free lunch,
especially with Dan Lok.
I don't do free lunch.
If you're gonna do lunch,
I charge for consulting fee.
Oh, let's just get coffee, let's get together.
You know, if I was to do coffee and do lunch
with every single person who contacts me,
I would have got nothing done.
I would have been drinking coffee
until like I'm 65, right?
You have to protect your time.
Your most valuable resources, your time, your energy,
they are your most valuable resources and commodities.
Why would you give that away for free to people?
It makes no sense.
So don't do it.
So from now on, let me give you some tips.
Someone sends you an email,
someone wants to pick your brain for free.
Can I do lunch, can I do coffee, let's connect,
all this stuff, two things I do.
Number one, my team will send them a Clarity link.
Clarity.fm.
It's a way that they can book the time
with me with my rate.
It's that simple.
You can use other software
where they have to pay before they talk to you.
Oh, but Dan, that feels so rude.
It's not rude, it's being direct.
If they're not going to value your time,
then why would you spend your time trying to help people?
And here's the thing,
you're not helping them by giving them free advice
because how many times you spend time with people
and you give them your best advice
and then what do they do?
Nothing.
You waste your time, you waste their time
because they have not invested in your advice.
Free advice is not worth anything, that's the issue.
That one-on-one time, you must value it.
Second thing that you can do.
They say, oh yeah, let's go grab lunch.
Set the expectation.
Exactly what do you want to happen?
What you want happen during the lunch, right?
What's gonna happen?
Oh, they say, we're gonna talk about shit.
Well, why don't we talk about shit now on the phone?
Tell me how you and I are gonna do business.
Just tell me how you and I are gonna do business today.
And you are that direct,
right?
And you be very direct
and just say, hey, how are you and I gonna do business?
That's all you have to do.
Oh well, this and that, okay, I charge this much.
Here's my fee.
This is how I work.
This is how I do business.
Get them on the phone.
You talk through the phone.
So when you go to meet with someone,
if I'm in a good mood with someone,
if they're doing business,
I'm going there to pick up a check.
I'm not there to have the meeting,
I gonna there to pick up a check.
So that I qualify them up front.
So that's how you limit it,
how you say no to people.
'Cause you want to be liked.
That's why you're afraid to do it.
I can tell you that as you grow,
as your business grows, as you get more exposure,
you get more attention in the marketplace,
you will be bombarded with requests.
You have to learn how to say no,
just for your own sanity.
How to say no to people who want to pick your brain.
Remember, the long nail, pick your brain?
No.
Value yourself, charge for what you're worth.
Ask for money.
Don't be afraid to ask for money.
Eliminates 99% of the wannabes or tie kickers,
the freebie seekers.
For the 1%, the 5% that are serious,
they will pay.