Helping Others

Billing by the hour seems to be counter to helping others for free. However, there are loads of examples on how lifting others ultimately lifts you.

Transcript

Welcome back to my podcast, Scaling Out.

I listened to Dorie Clark’s book The Long Game recently and recommend you check it out. She is an extremely motivated and talented individual with a list of amazing accomplishments. One of the topics she discusses was her rule ‘no favors for a year’. She shared stories of failed networking attempts because the connection quickly turned around and asked for huge favors. If you are in it to get something, it makes every personal interaction transactional you just feel dirty or the other person feels used. But if you start from a position of helping others & deploy long term strategies, things always have a way of turning out. So setting this rule for herself to wait a full year has actually taken the ‘whats in it for me’ thought completely out of the equation. She then shared multiple success stories of how building a networking relationship ended up getting her a Grammy and another story of a friend meeting their idol.

When you think about it, what can you help others with? How can you lift others up? What skills and knowledge can you bring to the table to make that person or project a success?

Do you hesitate to help? Have you thought about why?

In consulting, it almost does seem counterintuitive to help others with your knowledge. You get paid per gig. Giving any service away for free directly impacts your bottom line by reducing your billable amount. The authors’ examples backup the idea that if you are thinking long term, this ‘free’ help or advice can expand your own network further – help build your brand, help you Scale Out. She even disclosed in the book that she was a consultant who used her talents to expand & grow her business from $40k a year to 7-figures!

I know over the years I have done the same thing. Writing my technical blog, whitepapers, and now this podcast were all meant to help others. I never expected that the blog would land me a lucrative career in consulting, and now I do not expect this podcast to push me to any celebrity status. But I do them anyway, because they are fun and hopefully they are helping others.

What can you do next to help others around you? How else can you lift up those around you?

Well - until next time, stay safe everyone!