I want to talk to something about something that has been very important to me for quite a few years. And that is paying to pay attention, free coaching and all of those things. So I think it's really important to talk about this in a way that is very, very respectful and thinking about other people's times. So, when I joined a mastermind, four years ago, I started running ads and learning ads. And I had a friend who she became my friend, but she was like, not really a
mentor in the group. She was not getting paid mentor, but she was like, in the group. And I was always very eager to help out like, she would talk to me for so long in Messenger, and answer my questions. And it just didn't feel good. Meaning that was her time. That was her knowledge. That was her expertise. That was her talent. And I just really felt like she should get paid for it. So I asked her one day, I said, Do you have like a link? Like, I felt like I'm taking advantage
of this. And I just doesn't feel good to me. And I really just like I would like to pay you. And so it got to the point where she just sent me like, I was like, Can you give me the link? Can you send me the link and I pay it I've scheduled call, I would go in, we would go over ads for clients or whatever. And that's really how I got better. And the same thing happened recently with a really good
friend. And I was like, I feel like, I'm asking you a lot of like coaching questions, can you just send me a link so I can just have like, an outlet to pay you? Because it just doesn't feel aligned? Right? It doesn't feel good that I'm taking advantage of our friendship. And first of all, there is free content out there for anyone you can Google anything. Let's be honest, right? You can Google anything. There is so much free content
out there. You know, I do a daily podcast so weekday podcast, I do almost a daily video or daily live, I do so much for free. And you know, I have freebies I have free masterclass is again, the it's, I have a YouTube channel, there's so much free content out there. And I think that there's a couple things that I see, especially in this industry of online, online businesses, that everyone wants to get the free advice, right, they want the free help, they need the help.
And there's nothing wrong with asking, Okay, there's nothing wrong with needing to help. But I think a lot of times, energetically, first of all, the, if you're coaching or mentoring someone, and they aren't paying you, it is free advice. It is not coaching or mentorship, and most likely they're not going to do it. And then what happens to you? Well, they're not getting results, like it's not worth it, they they'll just keep coming
back. And asking for more and more and more are friends and family keep asking for more and more and more, but they're never going to almost never, there might be a very small percentage, for the most part eight is free advice, and nobody is going to take it. Right. But on the other hand, as a business owner for us to ask other business owners for free advice. Number one, most of us again, will not implement our take it.
But also it's like, wait a minute, are you unless you're doing a trade a very energetic trade, and you're both spending the exact same amount of time. Like, that's, that's not fair. Right. And truly, you get to pay to pay attention. Like to really embody that knowledge, that advice that training, whatever it is.
If you have zero skin in the game, you're going to ignore it or you're going to go to the next person and ask them the same exact question that you just asked from that experience person who probably gave you gold that you're not going to implement. Now I'm saying you but it's really we because also, if I'm not paying someone, I'm probably not going to implement it either. Right?
So there's this whole energetic exchange that happens when we pay someone or when we're on a recurring payment with someone. We make the most of it right. I'll never forget the first mastermind I was in it was $1,000 a month. It was the scariest payment I'd ever made at that time. That is actually chump change now, what I pay, but it's like it's just like that growth, right? But every time that payment came out, it was a reminder, what have I gotten out of this? Have I
implemented? Have I done my, you know, my due diligence, have I done my execution? Have I done all these things. And I think it just gets to the point that we just get to remember that we're all business owners.
And that the person giving you the tip, or the advice or the guidance, or whatever it is, probably doesn't care, like they most likely don't care, they're gonna give it to you, I do the same thing, and DMS, but at the end of the day, it's actually not doing you as much good as you'd want it to, because you're not paying for it.
And that's just the truth. I remember, when I joined that first mastermind that I talked about, I said, If I could have, like 1%, there were about 50 people in the group of time, if I could have 1% of every single person's knowledge in this, like community, I would be on fire. And then my goal was, I want to pay every single one of these people at some point, I've paid for ads, I've paid for Instagram strategy, I've paid for SEO, I've paid for like creatives, like like videos, and video editing
and things like that. So it's like, if you want something from someone, right, you're gonna appreciate it so much more. If there is an exchange of energy, there's skin in the game, you pay to pay attention, whatever you want to call it, right. And the same thing goes for you giving free advice to people like, I don't want anyone to think that they suck. Because the free advice that they're giving people they aren't implementing, or they're not doing or they're
not taking action. So truly, therefore, you get frustrated, because you know, they're not doing thing or you see them go ask another friend or another coach or another mentor or somebody else, or they go make a Facebook post about it. Not that this happened recently. But I've seen this happen in the past, like asking the same question. And there's nothing wrong with
asking different people. But again, you're looking for an answer, that this person or whoever is looking for an answer, but they're, they're also not taking anything seriously, because they're not paying for it. So I want you to think about this. Number one, pay the people you want to learn from number two, don't offer free coaching for the rest of your life. Because it's just going to, it's going to be frustrating. It's going to, you know, not support you with
your growth. And it also just takes you away from building your business and creating content for your business and all those things. Like honestly, my best advice is if people are asking you questions, and this is a strategy I did for a while and I should go back to doing it is literally like, Hey, that's a great question. Let me go make a video about that. Because it'd be great content that could help a lot of people. And then you can send the link to your YouTube video.
Because that way, you're killing two birds with one stone, so to speak, right? You're not really answering their question, how and but you're also like helping other people that may have that same question. And then if there's somebody that you really want advice from, like, ask them to pay, like, Can I pay you? And they may say, no, no, no, it's no big deal. It's fine, right. And if they do, send them a five $10 Starbucks gift card, like out of the blue that they can't refuse.
It's just the thought that counts. And it's just let people know that you appreciate their mentorship and their coaching. And I just see so many of my friends giving so much of their time away. And it just makes me sad. It makes me sad, because I know how much how valuable they are. And you know, just like three and a half years ago when I when I asked for that link for the Facebook ads. Like I just didn't want to take advantage of
a friendship. I didn't want to take advantage of her willingness to continue to give me answers. Because to me, it wasn't fair. So then she had this program that was like, it's a monthly payment and she's like, you can always ask all your questions his community and I'm like, Oh yeah, Sign me up.
cuz I, that's a way better deal than before because I was like literally like, give me your like, give me your like, and sometimes I need her for 20 minutes sometimes I need her for 30 minutes, but it was just like a genius idea, like so that's another thing that you can do is literally create a community where you answer people's questions and they pay a monthly fee. Like get paid for your time. It's so much more when you pay when they pay. The energetic
exchange is just there. And I believe we are all worth it. I believe we are all knowledgeable. And if people are coming to us, they see us as the expert. And if you needed more validation to get paid for it, why are they coming to you? Right? They're coming to you, because they know you know your stuff. They know what your expertise is, and they want to know more of what you think, or how they can change XYZ or transform or whatever it is
they're looking to do. So I was on my soapbox a little bit for this but I just think it's so important for us to remember not only do we deserve to get paid but we deserve to pay other people to other people deserve us to pay them because it is that energetic exchange and it means so much more when there is a payment involved