4 responses when someone asks to PICK YOUR BRAIN

In the past 24 hours I received a similar request from 4 different people. It went something like this:

Can I buy you lunch and pick your brain? 

I don’t know any of these people well. In fact, I only met one of them. The others were strangers. I appreciate their request and I hear their urgency.

Here’s what one person wrote:

As entrepreneurs, we only have so much time. (Like you I have other “hats” too. I’m a father, husband, author, speaker, and coach.)

No joke, I could literally fill up every lunch for the entire month meeting with amazing people. Do I want to help these people? Absolutely. Is a FREE lunch the best place to do it? Nope.

I learned a while back from my other mentors that success is complex. The more successful you become, the less accessible you are. None of us can say YES to every request. If we try, we’ll get burned out, compromise around the edges, and experience slow death.

Because I don’t want to end up as one of these statistics, a while back I prepared for success before it came. I authored my OPUS and clarified my YES. (Most everything else is an easy NO.)

I also created 4 other ways to serve people, besides “brain-picking,” one-on-one lunches.

• (1) Igniting Souls Fellowship

Throughout the month, if someone I don’t know locally asks to meet one-on-one, I invite them to the Igniting Souls Fellowship instead. About 75% of them come. In the past, I’ve designed entire talks based upon the questions they need to be answered. When they arrive I treat them like family. I introduce them to the Igniting Souls Tribe.

Rather than doing 50 lunches with 50 people, I do one Igniting Souls Fellowship with 50 people. I cover the cost of the event. I even stay after for about 60 minutes and coach these people for FREE. After this experience, these individuals know if they want to take another step and enter one of my paid programs.  I’ve been doing this now for 4 years in a row, every month.

Its saved my schedule, my family, my OPUS and its built our business while adding value to people in need. In fact, I’ve had people drive as far as 900 miles just to attend a monthly Fellowship. To date over 1500 people have attended. But what happens if you don’t want to drive 900 miles to come? No worries.

• (2) Igniting Souls Podcast

I created 45 podcast episodes over the past 12 months dedicated to some of the most common “brain picking” questions people ask. I recently celebrated our 1 year podcast anniversary. Tens of thousands of people have downloaded these episodes.

This special 1 year anniversary of the Igniting Souls Podcast features the top 10 learns I’ve discovered over the past 12 months. Forget pretense, in this episode I take you front and center to the raw truth of how we won and loss these past 12 months. Examples, case studies, and stories include:

• When to fire your clients.
• The true price of delaying decisions.
• The Kill 15% Rule (A Golden Lesson I learned from Dan Miller)
• Guard your Yes to guide your No 
• How to Start before you’re Ready
• Why you shouldn’t apologize for your values
• And much more

• (3) Igniting Souls Facebook Videos

A couple years back, I started shooting videos on the fly and posting them on Facebook. Think of these videos as short little coaching bursts. Over 10,000 people have used them to help add a little spark to their day. You can click HERE or on the pic below and have instant access to 44 of them.

(4) Igniting Souls Webinars

People often write in with their questions. Many times they revolve around how to author books or how to turn books into successful businesses. For a long time I wanted to answer these questions, but I didn’t know an effective way to do it. I heard about webinars, but was skeptical about how much time, money, and technology they require.

I’m always looking for ways to Ignite more people and so in December 2014 I gave it a shot. Since then it’s become one of my favorite mediums. Tens of thousands of people have dialed into our webinars. We make these webinars extra special and even create a FREE ebook for each one. The positive feedback from viewers convinces us it’s worth it.

Our last author webinar was mid-June. In 10 days we’ll do our next FREE one. Unfortunately, our webinar provider limits the available seats. We’ll be promoting this webinar soon, but as one of our valued email subscribers you can secure yours before anyone else. I’ll be talking more about this soon, but here’s the link now.

45 Podcasts + 44 FB Videos + 1 Webinar = 90 Ways to Pick My Brain

• 90 FREE opportunities for you to pick my brain

We might never be able to do a one-on-one lunch together. Although this saddens me, at least there are 4 other ways I can invest in you. This thrills me because you’re worth it and quite frankly, I believe in you.