My most famous ever blog post is called “Perry’s Greed.” It’s about how, at an evening seminar in Chicago, a bunch of people asked me out to lunch. I told them, “If you pay my fee I’ll be happy to sit down with you.”
This made a lot of people angry. They retorted that I had no right to decline such requests.
I responded: “I’m a charitable guy, but I don’t consider regular American business people to be charity. There’s all kinds of poor kids in developing countries who need it a lot more than they do.”
Shockingly few people ‘got’ what I was saying.
I think that’s because they didn’t want to.
None of the angry people, by the way, had ever actually bought anything from me. (I checked.) They were all FREELOADERS.
The world is FULL of freeloaders. And the more accomplished you are, the more entitled they’ll feel to chewing up your time.
You must steadfastly refuse their guilt-trips and their whining. The only reason I could afford to travel to China last month and bring a little girl to the United States from a state-run orphanage was because I assign far more value to my time than the freeloaders who demand free business advice.
If I had lunch with the freeloaders, they wouldn’t do anything I told them to do anyway. Some of ’em would stick me with that tab, too.
The only way you’ll be able to accomplish your mission in life is when you tell your own freeloaders “devil take the hindmost” and keep the main thing the main thing.
If making your time exponentially more valuable is high on your list this year, you might consider joining my Private Client group. It’s a 12 month program where I personally and confidentially work with you to get more stretches of $10,000 per hour work in 2012.
It will inevitably mean making less time for less worthy people, so you can make room for what is truly important to you.
What is truly important to you?
http://www.perrymarshall.com/pcg/
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About the Author
Perry Marshall has launched two revolutions in sales and marketing. In Pay-Per-Click advertising, he pioneered best practices and wrote the world's best selling book on Google advertising. And he's driven the 80/20 Principle deeper than any other author, creating a new movement in business.
He is referenced across the Internet and by Harvard Business Review, The New York Times, INC and Forbes Magazine.
14 Comments on “How much do people respect your time?”
Hi Perry,
I’m definitely someone who’s looking to boost their “time value” in 2012. I’m not going to turn this comment into a pitch, I’ve got far too much respect for your work, but yes, I’ve always understood the concept of valuing your time in order to truly help people (since people will almost always ignore you if the advice you give to them is for free).
The concept of getting $10,000/hour is beyond me but I know that I’m working towards that. Thanks again for the post.
Great stuff Perry. Here’s something a friend sent me today about TIME.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aiCeD1B12KA&feature=youtube_gdata_player
Hey Perry this post is spot on, I actually quit main stream consulting due to how many will pay you a LOT of money for advice and still not follow it. Now I seldom turn down lunch with fans and I have never asked them to pay me to go to lunch with them but well, I would understand why you might and in some instances indeed I might have to.
On another note, I came by your site because in a recent episode of my podcast I mentioned that at one time I purchased a guide to adWords eBook that plain kicked ass. Truth be told it was so bad ass it helped me land my first job in Internet Marketing. Anyway it took me a few days to recall it was your guide.
Do you still sell an updated version of it and do you have an affiliate program to sell it. When I click on adWords here I get your list building free course. My folks ain’t freeloaders and if you still sell an eBook on adWords I want to refer my folks to it. Let me know and though I haven’t followed you for many years let me say a belated thank you, your original eBook was worth every dime and more.
We still sell the adwords book http://www.perrymarshall.com/adwords and the aff program is at http://www.perrymarshall.com/affiliates
Thanks!
Mr. Marshall,
I recently realized why you’ve moved into more of a marketing mode than PPC mode.
Then I realized the thirsty crowd is looking for water.
Then I realized that’s why I’m stuck to your list like a magnet and can’t get off.
(Don’t tell Brian Tracy I said this, but honey only works for the first 1 or 2 emails, but it’s not enough to hold their interest.)
Oh, and by the way, do you remember when you said that in order for you to get out of bed, it needed to be at least a $50,000 payday for you?
hahahaha
Anyway, I’ve got some good news for you.
Please contact me at your convenience.
Talk soon,
J
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/01/15/opinion/sunday/the-rise-of-the-new-groupthink.html?_r=1&pagewanted=all
Perry,
Great article on the power of working alone to get great results. Cites morden examples. Author is Susan Cain who a new book here on the power of solitude.
Works wells with how the course is going.
Adam.
http://www.amazon.com/Quiet-Power-Introverts-World-Talking/dp/0307352145
It took me some time to understand this. Maybe as a beginner you are so desperate for business and attention that you fall to this.
Well, that and that some freeloaders have really perfected the art of guilting you into all sort of things (maybe they should write a book…).
Thanks
@Rogelio
if there is one thing I learned when starting out, it was to differentiate between the two. It is definitely something you learn, it isn’t handed to you on a plate: freeloaders do not come with a sign on their foreheads saying “freeloader” – it is a case of recognizing the type.
Only you can do that because you will have your own breed of freeloader that likes your stuff.
Dear Mr. Marshall,
I have a question regarding this post. If I haven’t bought anything from you-I almost signed up for 80/20 Productivity Express, but the I felt like it was a bait and switch because the price changed-do you consider me a “freeloader?” I’m signed up for your free newsletter and I would like to purchase your “Celebrity” course, but it doesn’t come as a book only option and I learn better by reading. I don’t use Google and I have no plans to because I think Google is geared to really large corporations. I plan on using offline and paid media when/if I launch sometime this year. Is there a way you can charge a small fee for just newsletter subscribers so that we won’t be thought of as “freeloaders?” I like and follow your advice sans Google, but I don’t generally ask you for anything…so how should I handle it???
Thanks,
Quantella Owens
Quantella,
We gave a deadline, and raised the price.
That is not bait and switch. That is a lost opportunity for you. Fortunately it’s not too late. It’s still worth the price, even at 30% more. Do the math: If you get 5% more productivity this year because you took the course, how much is it worth?
99% of Google’s AdWords customers are companies with less than 50 employees.
If you only get the free stuff then you’re only getting the appetizers. Less than an hour ago, Gemma Laming, who’d been lurking for a long time, wrote this:
I said that I would be back in business this year, and good to my word
enrolled on your Productivity course. The ideas you guys give just
glow. They warm me through the day when it is cold outside (but not my
feet, sorry, they don’t think very hard!). I thought your free
webinars were good, and thought this course would be at much the same
level. I was wrong: it is on a different plane altogether. To say that
it is amazing is not to do it any justice at all.
I’m sorry if this sounds harsh, but stop cheating yourself out of a good education. Figure out what you need to learn, pay the price and learn it. My wife and I have taken that approach for 20 years: “Good education is never too expensive.” I’m constantly tempted to balk at the price of my education now – it costs a lot of money to stay current at my level – but I pay it anyway. That philosophy is one of the keys to success.
Perry,
I haven’t been lurking, I have been learning!
When I first turned up I knew flat nothing about marketing, save things that came to me as inspiration with our family business (RIP). It takes time to realize who is good, and who is not. I have looked at other marketers – and quite frankly they don’t come near you and your crew. It takes a few emails for me to smell them out.
Perry: I am still a rank beginner. It is why I didn’t go for the big course (plus I couldn’t afford quite that much) because it would have been wasted on me right now. I have to get this into practice, then I will see where I sit at Planet Perry. That will take time.
Hi Quantella,
I can understand you’re skepticism. There are a lot of so called Gurus out there who just want to take your money and really don’t care if you succeed or fail. Perry is most definitely not one of those guys! I have been a member of his mastermind group for 4 months now and have learned more about really successful marketing than in the past 3 years learning from some of the other marketing experts. This guy is one of the few who has real integrity and honesty. He is also fun, inspiring and absolutely brilliant at what he does.
I recently put my prices up by 60% while at the same time increasing the number of clients I’m getting. This is largely due to the advice from Perry. Just to let you know there are only 3 people in my company and most of my new business comes from AdWords. There are very very few businesses who can’t benefit from Adwords. You just need to follow the right steps. If instead of following Perry’s advice to the letter, I had decided that “my business is different”, I would not be where I am now. – making a good living, running my own business, doing what i love.
Good luck and all the best,
Michael
Hey Perry,
[rant]
I saw it done. Last year I gave some good, sound advice to a guy running a struggling shop. Even if my recommendations didn’t work, they were simple enough to change easily. Point for point, he ignored each one, and took the advice of a “marketing professional” friend of his.
His business has declined steadily at a time when it could be growing. The worst of it was that if he had let me take on his online business I could have made him some extra profits – and taken a small cut myself. It would have been a win-win solution. They are the ones I like, by the way!
I don’t like the fact that he ignored me, and is now losing sleep over his bills. That stinks!! I am all for dumping stupidity.[/rant]
I said that I would be back in business this year, and good to my word enrolled on your Productivity course. The ideas you guys give just glow. They warm me through the day when it is cold outside (but not my feet, sorry, they don’t think very hard!). I thought your free webinars were good, and thought this course would be at much the same level. I was wrong: it is on a different plane altogether. To say that it is amazing is not to do it any justice at all.
Glad you like it! Yes, our paid courses are definitely better than the free teleseminars.