Billy Keels  0:00  

The nightmare business scenario. No informed executive should make today's episode is sponsored by Billy Keels Advisory Services. If you want to learn more about how to make your 99 optional, just go to make it optional.com Once again, that's make it optional.com

Speaker 1  0:19  

helping you build freedom without losing your edge. This is the Going Long Podcast with Billy Keels. The

Billy Keels  0:32  

nightmare business scenario no informed executive should make is absolutely for you if you have ever been told after all of the career capital that you have that you should be doing something for free, if you've been challenged by this, if you've heard this from someone else, or if you know someone who's heard this, like this is going to be a really, really brief episode, and I'm probably going to make some people mad, but I can't in good conscience continue to hear this advice, because quite honestly, it's stupid advice, especially if you are the person who has over a decade and a half of experience, and you have all of this capital that you've built up over your career, over your life, and I just, I'm tired of hearing it, and so I have to share this with you, because I'm very, very passionate about this particular point, and actually it was - it was inspired by some couple of young guys that I actually saw here in Barcelona. I got out of a subway stop, and I saw these three guys, and these three guys were standing out there, and they're really looking like young kids. I think they're at the youngest was like 17 and maybe 16, and they were barbers, and they had this sign, and the sign said free haircuts, and it said it in Spanish, right? Hoy corte gratis. And so I'm a curious guy, so of course I walked out of the subway station, I looked over, I walked around, and I, they were still standing there when I came back, and so I asked them what they were doing, just like being a curious person. Well, they went on to tell me that they had never had any experience, and they were looking to get experience from haircuts, and so, or experience it cutting other people's hair. They had zero experience cutting anyone's hair. This was a brand new skill that they were looking to develop. They were looking to find new clients in the best way that they knew how, because they were in a school, in the school suggested that they create their own marketing, which I thought was phenomenal, and they went to a high traffic area, asked them why they were at this particular subway, and they said, because this is the most number of very new people that we're going to see, I thought, wow, this is really cool, three kids, 16, that I think the oldest was 22 or 23 something like that. So the whole point there was, is these three guys had zero experience cutting hair, they had absolutely no experience cutting hair. They told me that, and the reason that they were asking and giving away their time for free was because they didn't feel like they would be able to attract any new clients, because as soon as they tell other clients that they'd never done this before, what would you do? Like, you would probably be scared out of your brain to sit in the chair of someone who had never ever cut anyone's hair before, but that's the whole point. And this is why I want to talk about this, because this is one of the things that I just, I'm sick and tired of seeing it and hearing it, and when I talk to it, you know, people who become clients, they give me this advice that they're being told from other people, and I just think that it's terrible advice. I think it's horrible, because one of the worst pieces of advice that you can give anyone who is an executive in a company who is thinking about building a business around their particular brand or area of expertise is that they give it away for free. It makes absolutely zero sense to me, but I'm not going to digress. I'm going to dive into this, and I'm going to give you more reasons why, because there are some ideas where I could understand why the whole concept of wanting to give it away for free, because maybe you're not finding yourself having the confidence, or you are really, really, really testing something that you have never ever done, and it should be outside of an area of expertise, because when you give something away for free. Free means that it is no value in my book.

Billy Keels  4:24  

You're giving it away for free, that that is not testing, that is just giving away something for free. You may be testing something if you've never ever done it before at all, but if you're tapping into an area that you have a decade and a half, two decades of expertise in, and you are giving it away for free. Either the concept has not been explained properly, or in my opinion, you're not getting very good advice, whether it's paid or otherwise. So, like I said, I'm probably gonna make some people mad, but I just. Have to speak my mind on this, because I'm tired of hearing it, tired of seeing it, tired of chatting with people in the DMs, or even on strategy calls, because it's just this is how I feel about it. So, just, that's this is it. Yeah, maybe you feel like you don't have experience in a particular way, and what you're really looking for is to gain more experience in this particular way, this particular package, whatever the case may be, but there is intrinsically, there's this fear that you're going to get it wrong, that's something completely different. It's not that you don't have expertise, it's not that you don't have an opinion, a point of view on something, and I'm specifically speaking to you, if you have been doing something for decades, 1517, 1822, years, because the challenge here is, is that when you give something away for free, literally for free, you just want to get feedback, there's varied little probability that you're going to get real feedback. There's very little probability that you're going to give value, or in the person or people or company on the other end is going to get value if it's free, just how it is. I don't want you to be in a position where you feel undervalued, and if that's the case, and that's something that we talk about, that's something that we dive into, that's something that we're going to challenge more than likely in an extremely limiting belief. I'm not going to let you lean into that and believe that what you've been doing for over a decade and a half, at a minimum, has zero value. Are you kidding me? Of course, it's got value. You maybe just need to talk to somebody who's going to help you actually build something of value. That's the whole point of building a profitable business. We talk about it, profitable business, whether it's something you're doing primary or profitable business on the side. You've got to be able to have value, because as you want to build your dream, you've got to be able to build it on a solid foundation, and if it's free, what kind of foundation is that? Right, one thing is the scenario that I mentioned to you in the very beginning, you have three extremely young, ambitious guys with no experience in an area that they want to begin to build a level of experience. If they have never cut hair before, the best way for them to get somebody to sit in a chair and take a major risk is to say, "Hey, listen, I'm not going to charge you any money. There will be zero financial exchange, and I would like for you to trust me that I'm not going to completely butcher your hair, because you have zero experience. If you have been doing something for a decade and a half or more, I'm going to suggest that you have experience in that experience as a value at a minimum, and if you don't believe me, literally, I did an entire episode on this, episode 630 go back and listen to the episode, because it talks about it's your biggest advantage is your career capital, don't throw it away, don't give it away for free, you've invested a lot of time in that, you've got a unique point of view, you've got a specific advantage somewhere. Make the most of that, don't give it away for free. So, and this is the thing, this is where once you understand that it's about how do you build a plan around that, because this is really about, and we talk a lot about, and I know I've done episodes in the past.

Billy Keels  8:42  

I don't have the number off the top of my head, but an entire episode just about how in the third area of the executive edge advisory program we look at control, and how do we start by being able to model, have a map, and be able to model your specific expertise into that model. Right afterwards, we figure out, like, who are the right people for that model, and then how do we do it in a way that's going to be done systematically, so you're not, while you're working your day job, you're trying to figure out how to do 50 different things at one time, right? It's real simple. It's a simple process, that's the entire third pillar of the of the program is to be able to look at that right, so you want to be able to provide value, and if you need to, then you offer some special incentives for anybody who's an early adopter, especially when you have over a decade and a half of career capital, who in their right mind thinks that it's, it's great to give this away for free for absolutely nothing in exchange. How much sense does that make? If you do that, then you're not, you're not. I don't want you to make that mistake. Please don't make that mistake, because that's the nightmare business scenario that. It that no one was an informed executive is going to make, because you are you and your experience that career capital are extremely valuable. Let's think about how we're positioning it. Let's think about how you are able to add value to others, and, and I get it, maybe in the very beginning, you don't feel like that the marketplace values your service, but is that a reality, or is that a limiting belief that you have? Have you tested it? Have you tried it? Are you just assuming because this is something that is a new packaging, a new way of bringing your 15, 2020-five, years of experience to light that has no value. No, I can't believe that. Let's take a look at the mirror. Maybe it's a limiting belief, maybe it's something that someone else has told you, but not for you. Absolutely not for you. You have the scars to prove that you've learned this isn't just theory, this is actual reality, this is practice, practical experience, and so want to move past that, move past that uneasiness that the market could perceive that is no value, they may have a different value, but no value, I don't think so, and so, if you're feeling that way, it's just a part of the process, so but the goal should be to continue to move, because the more that you move in the direction, and you have your first, I would say, paying client, or at least your first client is going to give you some exchange of value, not for free, some exchange of value, that's where the whole point is. That's where you're going to go. I mean, heck, if these guys that were three young men who had never had any experience at all, and they were giving away their most valuable asset, which is their time to stand out there to attract clients and say I'm going to give you this for absolutely free, I get it. In their scenario, but in yours, two decades, almost three decades of experience, day to day hours. I don't know if you're putting in 60 hours, 7080, hours a week. We got to work on getting that to the right size number of hours and really focuses on the outcomes, but that's let me not digress, because once this happens, once you get that first paying client, that first client that's willing to give you an exchange of value, guess what's going to happen, you're confident it is going to like boost it, be boosted out of the out of the stadium, right, your confidence is going to explode, you're going to get, you know, more feedback, more inputs from those clients.

Billy Keels  12:46  

Is going to help you improve your, your solution, is going to help you improve your process, is going to help you to improve their experience, and it's also going to be able to help you to value any increase of price justification moving forward, because you're getting a true feedback, you're getting the right loop, and the next step is for you to be able to get it even better, constantly improving your process, constantly improving the experience of your clients, constantly improving the way that you are attracting new clients to serve them at a better, at a higher level, not at a free level, and that's not for you, that's for the three guys who've never had any experience doing anything, absolutely ever. Figure out what the exchange is, figure out how these, these nightmare business scenarios can happen. Well, I don't want them happening for you, not because, because you're not one of the three guys who has zero experience, you have loads of career capital, like I said. If you want to check it out, check out episode 630 it will absolutely clarify that for you. And if you know anybody who's thinking about contemplating that is in this scenario to give away their services for absolutely free, please, please, please share this episode with them. Do not let them make that mistake. I do not want any informed executive to not make that horrific, terrible nightmare business scenario. I do not want that to happen for them. Please share this, show them that you care. And while you're doing that, also get on the phone, meet him for coffee, meet him for a cold beverage, and talk about the things that we are, that I'm sharing with you in this solo episode. Go from theory, get into practice, so that they're in a position to make the most of their experience to leverage that to serve others, whether it's individuals or companies at the absolute highest level. And while you're doing that, guess where I'll be. I'll be right here preparing for the next episode. So, until then, go ahead and make it a great day. And thank you very, very much.

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