Every now and then—most notably on Black Friday—I run a steep discount on my coaching hours. These sessions don’t include the full developmental edit or other bells and whistles, but they still pack a punch.
Some clients are careful with their hours. They want to get the most out of every minute and I understand that.
But I’ll tell you a secret: It’s not the time spent that’s important; it’s the advice.
You’ve probably heard the story of the engineer who charged $1,000 to fix a machine by tapping it with a hammer—because he knew exactly where to tap.
Rather than trotting out that old saw, let me give you a real-life example.
A friend of mine, Jay, used to solve massive financial messes, usually involving real estate. One day, he got a call from a board member of one of the major banks in the south. The bank was sitting on half a billion dollars in bad commercial loans. (This was the 80s. You know, when half a billion dollars was worth something.)
Jay, being a bit of a you-know-what, showed up in his fishing clothes, just to let them know he had better things to do. The board members were not amused. But the man who had called him in had attended one of Jay’s seminars and vouched for him.
He listened, named his price, $30,000, and offered a simple but powerful solution that pulled in his commercial real estate contacts and a favor from a friend at the Fed window. It took less than half an hour.
The bankers balked. “Thirty grand for thirty minutes?”
But of course, they weren’t paying for the minutes. They were paying for a solution. They were paying for his decades of expertise, connections, and insight.
The solution was simple to him. He didn’t have to spend days looking at spreadsheets and charts.
It didn’t take thirty minutes to solve their problem.
It took over twenty years of experience, his contacts and specialized knowledge, a genius IQ, and a creative mind.
Over the years I have tried to teach him to not give the solutions so quickly—to make it look like he had to actually think about the situation. Not to raise up his fee, but to keep the people asking for his help from feeling stupid. The answers are not simple to most people. It’s not as “easy” as he likes to say. The crux of the problem and the solution are only obvious to someone with his knowledge and experience.
And that’s why you hire a coach or consult with an expert: You are paying for their knowledge, not the time spent on the problem. You are buying their expertise to save you time and money.
More than likely, it took years, decades to build a base level of knowledge and then learn all the ins and outs of an industry. There may have been a few costly mistakes in there that were chalked up to life lessons. True experts have made mistakes and found solutions. They have seen cycles come and go and come again.
Of course I include one-on-one meeting hours in my coaching packages. After all, that’s what coaching involves. The Zoom meetings are important not for the time spent but for the information exchanged. As a coach, my job is to make sure people stay on track, give encouragement, help them over the hurdles they face. I show them where things can be better and how to make it so. Sometimes that doesn’t take a full hour. Sometimes it takes more than an hour.
If I gave you information that saved you hundreds of dollars or a week’s worth of struggle, would you care if it took me one hour or ten minutes to tell you?
For some people, the answer is yes, they do care. They equate time spent with value and that’s fine. In my work, time spent is part of the job because writing is a solitary experience. Having someone to talk over the writing process with is—even for experienced, professional writers—a special kind of connection. But it’s not the most important part for people who want to get their book done and published.
The hours given, the time spent, the labor is important, but it’s only part of the value. The true value is knowing where to tap with the hammer. Define the problem, find the block, advise my client the best way to work around or through it. Give them next steps.
My best clients listen to my feedback, ask any necessary clarifying questions, and then are eager to start writing again. They are like horses with the bit in their teeth. For some people, the time spent is less important than the advice given. For others, the time spent is an important part of the process and I get that, too. People work differently and find value in different things.
Whether you value the time or you value the advice, you want someone who knows where to tap.
Whether we spend ten minutes or an hour, my job is to move you forward. If you’re stuck, I know where to tap. Let’s talk: Barbara@BarbaraGrassey.com
