May 21, 2026
How to stop giving away too much free advice
On today’s Ditcherville LIVE session, I was asked:
How do I stop giving away too much free advice before someone hires me?
Great question.
Here’s how to think about it:
Diagnose before you prescribe.
Here’s what I mean:
Ask enough questions to find out if they’re falling into a classic failure mode.
If they are, then you can say something like:
“It seems like you have $classic_problem. If so, then you’re probably also experiencing other symptoms like $X, $Y, and $Z. Is that the case?”
If they holler, “YES! How did you know?!” it means they’ll think:
This person can definitely help me! They understand the problem even better than I do!
If the prospect then goes on to ask for your specific advice about what to do, then they’re asking for a prescription.
And you can’t ethically give a good prescription without having a full diagnosis.
Which means that you have to respond with some version of:
“It depends.”
For example:
“To give you a really good answer to this, I would have to do a much deeper dive into your overall goals, your business, your value proposition, who you’re trying to attract, what your next milestone is, all of these things.”
If this doesn’t nudge them to inquire about a paid engagement, I still wouldn’t prescribe for free.
So what can you do to continue the conversation and deepen the relationship?
Point them to something you’ve already written on the subject:
- Your podcast
- Your YouTube channel
- Your book
- A blog post or email you already published
Or if you don’t have the content yet, use the conversation as the seed.
Say to them:
“You know what, I need to do a new podcast episode (or a new video or a new blog post) on this subject. I should be able to get it out in the next couple of days. Here’s where you can sign up so it lands on your phone automatically.”
Then go create the piece of content.
This approach puts a pause in the conversation without ending it.
You’re not hitting them in the face with a “pay me to continue the conversation” ultimatum; you’re saying “I’ll get to it when I can.”
In other words...
You’re still willing to help them for free, but only on your own schedule, at a non-specific “best practices” level, and in exchange for some marketing juice.
Win win!
BTW - This is the kind of question that comes up every two weeks on Ditcherville LIVE, my group Q&A session for independent consultants who are done trading time for money.
If you’ve got questions like this rattling around in your head, come get them answered:
Hope to see you inside!
Yours,
—J