Make Your Own Lane: Getting Paid To Read A Book To Execute An Assignment

I am an avid reader – a voracious reader. You may think of any other adjective to describe my reading habit. I can read through various channels – books, blogs, articles, magazines, written notes for seven hours at a stretch. And I will not complain.

I am not an addict. I am definitely not a book worm. Just that I prefer reading to anything else - Reading during transit, reading to prepare for an assignment, reading for self-development, reading for spiritual awareness, reading for skill enhancement, reading to make notes for future reference, reading to understand people, business, market and economies.

Seriously, a significant part of my waking hours is reading.

Here is the project brief of a recent assignment I did. I have a reason to share this experience here. 

Project Brief

The client was from Australia and wanted a presentation for his coaching business.

Background

I have done many of those decks based on adult learning theories to launch first time entrepreneurs coaching business and also for seasoned professionals.

I was ever ready to execute one more as coaching is part of our team’s portfolio too and therefore every line of research I do in this domain is a terrific learning experience. It immensely broadens my thinking horizon to fine tune and refine our offerings.

The twist is he wanted the presentation based on the principles of a particular book, which I had not read. I withdrew my quotation immediately.

He offered to pay for the book.

I categorically stated that I can prepare the deck with concepts and theories that I am already aware of, share a reading list and bibliography in case the presenter wants to deep dive. I assured that the content will suit his coaching requirement. He offered to send the e-book and shared a sample image which was the essence of the book.

I proposed a quote $70 just for reading the book and he was perfectly okay with that. As he had respect for my time, I decided to execute the assignment. I must admit, it was a wonderful book.

So here is a client ready to pay to do what I always do habitually, willingly – read a book.

Image Credit: Canva Design

Write to advocating.outcomes@gmail.com to evaluate your skill sets that can be offered as services in the global market.

Make Your Own Lane: Live Feedback on Choosing Projects and Clients

This is one of the most frequently asked questions from people who are new to online income and are in the beginning stages of bidding.

How do we find a genuine client who will appreciate good work for long term business relationship?

Assess buying behavior

First of all you need to understand why the buyers are outsourcing a particular project instead of doing it themselves or using an in-house team.

1] Is it lack of knowledge, expertise and experience?

2] Is if lack of time?

The one who has knowledge will know what it takes to execute the assignment and will call out his budget accordingly, based on skill, market and industry standards.

He is probably unable to do it himself as he is pre-occupied with more critical activities of the same or another project. He is probably unable to focus due to his travel plans or other priorities.

As he is aware about the amount of time required to complete a project of this nature, he will usually allocate budget to suit seller’s expectations.

How will you know he has knowledge about what he is asking you to do?

1] He will give you the required inputs because he is sure you will need that to complete the project

2] He will be a great facilitator with research material, his rough drafts, his notes before he call out his expectations from you.

Assess language/ responses

I have had buyers who wanted to and fro communication while the project is being executed. That is because they have had past experiences where they lost time and money due to poor execution and they want no such thing to happen again.

I need to think holistically. I ask all my questions before I accept an assignment. I do extensive research, prepare my notes and then begin working on client’s project.

Ongoing communication, therefore, is a huge distraction for me and I do not allow that. I submit the final output with a rationale document. If my clients want even a single revision, they have to beat that rationale first. I do not allow any revision based on whims, fancies and afterthoughts.

When you put across your points one by one, why you are unable to comply with any of buyer’s request, their questions/ language after that is a huge hint regarding the following:

1] How the client will accept your submission?

2] Trust level developed between the two of you

Assess need

You can spot a small minded client based on how he describes his project and the budget he indicates.

Even if I give benefit of doubt to the buyers that they are unaware about prevailing rates and hence allocated budget incorrectly, the project description is such a big give away about what is going on in their mind

Here are two samples you need to immediately discard and choose not to respond as you are getting into a very difficult situation regardless of budget.

Sample One:

1] Need professional and customized presentation.

2] Need 5 such power point design based on company branding for this and future requirements:

Headings (Verdana)

Text (San Serif)

3] Every presentation should be ready within 24 hours.

4] Only experienced, talented and professional designer with good business acumen and market intelligence will be considered

5] I will need business graphics, charts, Smart Art, table and relevant images

6] See attached sample

7] Budget $ 25

Now note my comments/ interpretations of the numbered points

1] Standard template is not acceptable

2] This is a cheap bait - Hinting at ongoing work for seller to consider future business and volume discounted rates for services. 

5 designs for each presentation means he wants variety to choose from and does not have definite sense of color schemes, industry presentation standards and aesthetics. His knowledge of company branding is limited to fonts only. 

3] I prefer not to comment on this. It takes more than 48 hours sometimes to research and another 48 hours even to think of a story board considering the mental caliber of target audience.

4] Pick on seller's brain for free

5] The need is not defined but scattered which is another huge hint that he is not sure what he wants

6] If the sample belongs to his company - that is probably to set standards. If the sample belongs to another company - It is unethical and the buyer has creative crisis even to describe his requirements

7] Do not waste your time even reading the project brief. It is not worth it.

Sample Two:

1] Business plan around 70 to 80 pages on XXXX with the following:

2] Projections required:

One-year 

Three-year 

Five-year 

3] Provide all realistic costs for license, incorporation etc

4] Budget: $50 / $500

Here the budget does not matter.

1] Check what inputs you have received - absolutely nothing. You will not get anything either, even if you ask.

2] Look what his primary need is - Projections. He is clue less about the financial part and due to lack of research, he has no idea when the business will break - even; first year, second or after 5 years?

He wants three different financial plans because he does not know his target audience either - what they are likely to ask?

3] 70 to 80 pages - When an entrepreneur has not done even basic research about a business idea or the market, he tends to ask for more pages in a business plan. The expectation is - the plan will do the selling. 

Will you choose to do the Herculean task to educate this entrepreneur or just discard the project?

How to recognize an entrepreneur who knows his business?

An entrepreneur who has been working on a particular idea for a long time, even if he is an amateur in the startup ecosystem, he will have loads of information, scribbled notes, what he tried to get done from his team to share with you.

As long as he is trying to assist you to the best of his ability so that you can do good work for him, you can let him know based on your experience what works and what doesn't so that he can take an informed decision.

Write to advocating.outcomes@gmail.com if you have a project that you are not sure of - we will share our perspectives, key pointers and even clarification questions you can ask your client to get you started.

Corporation: Does Storytelling Method Really Help In Business?

Let us begin with your story then. If I ask you to remember and share something about your life that matters to you the most - what will that be?

And if I ask you why do you still remember that so distinctly, can you respond to that? 

Let us try and understand how most of us tend to remember things.

School/ Education:

Which period was more fun and more productive – the theory part, taking notes, listening to lectures or practical assignments?

Corporate/ Job

Which part stayed in your mind longer - The 8 hour Class room based training on different subjects or experiential learning from your team lead?

Social media

What are you glued to most – lengthy blogs, podcasts or videos?

Your own work

Remember the power point presentation you did a few years back – You do not quite remember the slides exactly however you do remember what you wanted to say to your audience because you had to brain storm the story board first.

An old book

An old movie

A childhood memory

An incident from the past

A friendly chat

Everything - simple and complex subject - that stays in your mind has a specific sequence and specific structure

What content does to us through different medium is stir our minds by talking about history, an experience, something creative or soft selling an idea

There are four layers of communication:

Connect: Your first connect with your audience – through any medium / any channel?

Relate: Does your subject have any relevance to your target audience and their interest?

Build Trust: Did you take enough efforts to build trust?

Influence: If the first three is not done appropriately, there is no way you can influence one’s learning, decisions, business or sales.

The art of storytelling had good measure of all the above and therefore more effective. It helps retention in one’s memory easily.

The blog title was a question and I could have just answered it here. What I opted to do instead is rope you in and deep dive individual parts of your life – Your school, college, job, social life - so that you know how stories can affect you, impact you, change you  and motivate you.

Now imagine this:

If I wrote this blog with the following headings:

What is Story telling?

The Art of Storytelling

Advantages of Storytelling

Key components of Storytelling

Will you be  awake by the end of it?

A meaningful story stays in one's mind. And that is all that matters.

Storytelling in business:

You establish the agenda

You define the pain point

You offer the solution

You give your audience a reason to do business with you because you are telling them their story and your solution is that “happily ever after” for them. 

Regardless of label - an entry level resource to CXO - the story should address their mental caliber to trigger thinking about what you want them to think - You, your company and your solution.

Write to advocating.outcomes@gmail.com if you are struggling with a story board for a pitch deck, investor deck, corporate overview or any content for that "happily ever after" quotient with your client - We will be glad to assist with an outline.