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- [00:00]
Jason Pfeiffer
We've had some big wins at my company this year. The kind of wins that mean it's time to expand. Bringing new people onto the team isn't something I take lightly. These people are going to help shape the content that goes out into the world with my brand and my name attached to it. So when I'm hiring, I need to make sure my job listing lands in front of the best possible people. Not just good, the best. Which means this is a job for Indeed Sponsored Jobs. Spend less time searching and more time actually interviewing candidates who check all your boxes. Less stress, less time, more results when you need the right person to cut through the chaos. This is a job for Indeed Sponsored Jobs and listeners of this show will get a $75 sponsored job credit to help get your job the premium status it deserves@ Indeed.com pot podcast just go to Indeed.com podcast right now and support our show by saying you heard about Indeed on this podcast. Indeed.com podcast terms and conditions apply. This isn't your job. This is a job for Indeed Sponsored Jobs.
- [01:19]
Nicole Lapin
How does it feel to get paid?
- [01:20]
Jason Pfeiffer
Great, right? I know. I love it when I see a check hit my bank account. It's great to see those numbers go up. What if you could get that feeling earlier? Here's my favorite way to do it by banking with Chime. With Chime, you can get up to $500 of your pay early. With MyPay, Chime is changing the way people bank. They offer the most rewarding fee free banking. Chime members can benefit from up to $1,150 in annual rewards fee free. Plus you get premium travel perks like airport lounge access and 247 travel concierge included with your Chime Card. You're not just switching banks, you're upgrading to America's number one choice for banking with a Chime checking account. Chime is not just smarter banking, it is the most rewarding way to bank. Join the millions who are already banking fee free today. Head to chime.comhelpwanted that is chime.com helpwanted. It only takes a few minutes to sign up.
- [02:15]
Chime Representative
Chime is a fintech, not a bank. Banking services for MyPay and Chime card provided by Chime's bank partners. Optional products and services may have fees or charges, stated annual percentage yield and cash back for Chime prime only. No minimum balance required. For more information on APY rates, MyPay Spot Me and travel perks, go to Chime.com disclosure when you're at work, you
- [02:28]
Jason Pfeiffer
never Know when you're going to be interrupted. But with the Dell Pro, powered by Intel Core Ultra with vpro, no matter what distracts you, your laptop won't. It's battery optimized for the way you work. With built in intelligence that quiets distractions when you need to focus. Your laptop will help keep you locked in even when it's bring your dog to work day. Built for those who stay in the flow. The Dell Pro built for you Dell.com Dell Pro. This is Help Wanted, the show that makes your work work for you. I'm Jason Pfeiffer, editor in chief of
- [03:13]
Nicole Lapin
Entrepreneur magazine and I'm money expert Nicole Lapin. On Tuesdays, Jason and I answer the helpline and help callers solve their work problems.
- [03:21]
Jason Pfeiffer
And on Thursdays, I give you one way to improve your work and build a career or company you love.
- [03:26]
Nicole Lapin
And it starts now.
- [03:28]
Jason Pfeiffer
Okay, Nicole, you know what? I am calling the helpline today because we're recording this on a Friday. It has been a very busy week for me. I am exhausted and I'm thinking back to the pretty significant amount of time that I spent this week, a week that I did not have a lot of time to spare doing a very specific kind of favor for a whole lot of people. And I started to think about how I'm actually asked to do a lot of work related favors. And a lot of people are asked to do a lot of work related favors, which is to say, you know, it's a thing that you do for work. Maybe it's just a thing you know how to do really well because you are a professional at it or it's something you have access to because of your career and friends are like, oh, can you help me do this? Can you help me? Right? And you want to say yes. But then you start spending all your time helping people for free do a thing that you usually get paid for and then you get really frustrated at yourself and at your friends. You don't want to be frustrated. Your friends. Anyway, does any of this resonate to you? Do you know what I'm talking about?
- [04:30]
Nicole Lapin
Well, before we get going into it, are you a longtime host and a first time caller? Is this the first time you've called the helpline? This is a big deal.
- [04:38]
Jason Pfeiffer
No, because there was one time when I flipped off a lawyer and I
- [04:42]
Nicole Lapin
asked you, how can I forget? Okay, back to business. Business. Yeah. So the thing about you doing favors is that I feel like that is your full time job. I've never seen somebody do more work favors for other people. But I also know you so well and know that there's a sub layer to this in that you like to put good juju out there because it's not transactional. I'm not going to say, like, it's a quid pro quo for you, but when you can and when it's not super, super inconvenient and somebody asks you something, you do it, because maybe you're gonna have to ask them for your next book to do something. And so you try to have a flywheel of goodwill constantly. But I think that flywheel sometimes gets overloaded. I don't know what the right analogy is for a flywheel.
- [05:39]
Jason Pfeiffer
It gets.
- [05:40]
Nicole Lapin
It stops, it gets tossed out, whatever.
- [05:42]
Jason Pfeiffer
The thing is, I don't even know
- [05:43]
Nicole Lapin
what a flywheel is. I've just been saying it lately because it's more PC than circle jerk, which is my ab. Absolute favorite. I think you sometimes do this so much that it is to the detriment of your actual work.
- [06:01]
Jason Pfeiffer
Yeah, I think you're right about that. I do see everybody who I know professionally, even if we're friends, but also have some kind of professional overlap. I see everybody as, I don't want to say a potential resource because that makes it sound too calculated, but everyone's in the same boat, and we're all trying to help each other. And I think what goes around comes around. And you want to support people who support you. And I like supporting people who I like, and I like celebrating people's wins, and I like being along their journeys. And so I always, if I can, will do a favor for someone. Not because I'm thinking like, oh, because then I get to ask them for something. But, yeah, also kind of that. Because what I want to do is create this ecosystem of support. And I like that. And it's also what comes naturally. What comes naturally to me is not saying no. What comes naturally is saying yes. So I want to endorse that. I think it's fine to think about how people are useful to you, even as you are not being transactional with them. But in this particular case, I will tell you what it's been. So as the editor in chief of Entrepreneur magazine, I can post things. I can get something up on entrepreneur.com, which is of value to people. And so particularly people who I know who have books. And there's a wide range of people who I know who have books. Right. There's you, a very close friend who has had many books. But then there's also a person I met At a conference, who has a book, who I don't really know that well. But anyway, people reach out and they want me to run an excerpt of their book on entrepreneur.com because, you know, raises awareness for the book and whatever, and it's not that hard for me to do. And if it is of value to the audience, then it's hard to argue against it. Right? Except that I guess I'm helping them instead of some stranger, but whatever. Strangers get help in other ways. And so I say yes all the time. And then sometimes what I end up with is a week where, like, I've said yes to five or six people, and then I got to spend a whole bunch of time getting all their excerpts online. And this is not really my core job. And I have other things that I have to do. And I'll spend 45 minutes helping somebody get this up because, oh, it needed to be edited. And, oh, they didn't realize that they have to take this part out. And then I just get frustrated. I'm like, why am I doing this? This is so annoying. But then I'll get it up and they'll be so happy, and then I'll think, oh, it was worth it. And then next week, I'll go through this cycle all over again. And it reminds me, for what it's worth, of a friend I was just talking to who's in the food business, who, whenever she is invited to parties or whatever, people would be like, oh, just bring some of your product. As if her product just grows on a magic tree, right? Like, it doesn't. It takes time. And she usually makes money off of this product. And so now you're basically asking her to take a bunch of her work, null it out, and then just give you free product. And she's like, how do I tell friends, no, buy my stuff. Because that sounds like a real dick move. But also buy my stuff, because I'm not running a charity here. I'm running a business, and you're asking me to do my work for free. So anyway, this is the thing. Everybody, in some way or another, we know something. We're good at something. We have some professional connection. We have some professional insight. Maybe we make a product professionally. Maybe we have access to something, and friends or half strangers will ask us for favors, which is really asking us to do something that we get paid for for free. And where's the line?
- [09:24]
Nicole Lapin
Well, I do like the way you delineated this support ecosystem. I think that's a really nice way to think about it. I Think the line is where it goes above and beyond how much the bare minimum of effort it would take for you to get that thing done. In other words, a very, very basic example of somebody who just asked me to write a testimonial. Actually this happened twice in the last week for their website or for their product or whatever. And I was like, sure, can you write it for me? Or like write a draft or something like that for me because I'm not gonna sit and you did the work. Exactly. If they send me back something ridiculous that I have to completely rewrite, I feel like if they're not pulling their side of the deal, this is more important to them than it is to me. And I'm happy to lend name credibility whatever I can, but I'm not here to go away above and beyond. So for yours is like not the same as your friend's baked goods company. Right. You're not sitting in the kitchen and taking this time and you're not selling this product, although you are selling your time. You're quite literally selling your time, which we've workshopped for how much your time should cost. And so that could be more valuable than all the baked goods in all the land. But I think the line is where they have created more work for you in a disrespectful way by not paying attention to the basic criteria. If you say to them, yeah, I'm happy to be helpful. Can you send this to me in a Google Doc that's 300 words and there's no allusion to other chapters or there's nothing that would require a lot of editing? I'm happy to do it. But then if they send you something back that's like 10,000 words and very booky and in a PDF or whatever where it's annoying. Shit, yeah.
- [11:18]
Jason Pfeiffer
Which is exactly all of what happened. Like a book excerpt on a website has to read like a standalone article. It can't feel like it's like some random thing ripped out of a page of a book. It has to feel like a standalone article. There has to be a purpose to it has to have a start and a middle and an end. And it can't say things like in the next chapter we'll discuss because it's not part of a book, it's an article. I always tell people that, I always say, you need to send me something that's like 700 words and it has to feel completely self contained. It has to feel like an article. And they almost never do that. One of the people this Week sent me just a PDF of an entire chapter of a book. And I did what you said here. Well, first I started to read it and I was like, oh, well, I guess I could do this. And then I stopped myself. I was like, no, Jason, you're doing no work on this. This is not your job. This is a favor. So that I just wrote the person back and I said, this is a whole chapter of a book, and it reads like a whole chapter of a book, but it doesn't read like an article. So I need you to find somewhere in the book, 700 words that is a standalone article and do some editing to it, and then send me just that in a Word document. And they did, and it certainly made my job easier. So it's about, in part, shifting as much of the burden onto them as possible. As I think about this, it's like if someone comes to you to ask you to do a thing, it's worth considering. What is the unique thing that you have to bring to it? Because that's all you should have to do. In the case of you writing a blurb for somebody, the unique thing that you have is not actually the writing of the blurb. It's just the allowance of using your name. So just like me, the unique thing is not my ability to edit an excerpt. Anybody can edit an excerpt. My unique ability is just the ability to hit publish. But how does that apply then to my friend with the baked goods? Right, because she can't offload the burden of buying the ingredients and prepping the kitchen and all that. It's just all on her.
- [13:18]
Nicole Lapin
I think that there are a few things that she could potentially say there, but if we zoom out, we also, you and I, have consumer products. We have books and things that we actually sell that are products that you can go on Amazon or wherever you buy your favorite books to purchase. Yes. Can I go to stamps.com and print out a label and then send somebody a free book, so to speak? It always bothers me when somebody asks me to do that. And something to combat that is that anytime somebody else has had a product where they said, I'm happy to send you my candle or whatever, that, I mean, like, no, no, I'm really happy to go to the website and support you. I'd love to support you. And so it's putting out in the support ecosystem that you are in the business of buying other people's things at fair market value, so that presumably, you know, it's not a direct correlation, but when it comes back around and somebody is asking you for stuff. Hopefully the universe is like, oh, you've put your money where your mouth is and you've purchased your friends or your colleagues product through the normal means. And hopefully when they come back to try to get your stuff that has permeated the support ecosystem enough that they're going to say, you know what, no, don't send me the book, I'm obviously going to go on Amazon, whatever and buy it. And so with this baked goods woman, I don't know if she's in the business of doing that or if she's thought about that, like, be the change, you know, start putting out what you want to come back to you. When she really feels like she is going above and beyond with products, time, inventory. I think there's a very kind way of saying, you know what, I'm really slammed or I'm out of inventory or the orders that I have are really impossible to fulfill. I think that there still might be some on the website, but the way I'm trying to scale, I'm not able to take individual orders right now. But I'd love if I can give you a discount code or something.
- [15:27]
Jason Pfeiffer
Yeah, you know, as you said that, I was thinking about two things that I've done that have been useful when somebody asks me for something and it's just too much. So number one, I occasionally get asked to do a keynote for very little or no money.
- [15:48]
Chime Representative
Right.
- [15:49]
Jason Pfeiffer
Like I found a good answer. So if it's a random company or something and they're just not offering me money, that's fine, I can say no, right? No problem. I don't say yes to everything. But when it's a friend, I have a harder time figuring out how to say no. But I came up with the answer. And the answer is that when a friend asks me to do something that is very time consuming, I almost over explain, but in a very earnest way why I cannot because of the personal conflicts that it creates. So if you want me to fly to Las Vegas and speak at your event for a very small amount of money, boy, Jimmy, I really would love to do that. And it's so awesome what you're building there. And that event sounds great. The problem is that when I travel, Jen, my wife, has to stay at home with the kids by herself. And I have a pretty full schedule now. And so we've made this decision as a family that it makes sense for me to create that burden upon the family of Jen managing the kids, which means not doing whatever else she was going to do that evening. And, and also the kids not having their dad around for a day because it is financially useful for the family. Right? Like I'm going to leave and create that situation because I'm going to bring back enough money that the balance works. But because of that, even though if this was 10 years from now and my kids were older and this wasn't a burden, I would totally hop on a plane and go to your Vegas event and do it for next to nothing because it would be fun to hang out. I can't do that right now because that's just not the place in my life that I'm at. I have given a version of that speech a number of times. It has never not gone well. Everyone always understands. Because I think that people don't really think about what kind of burden their request is.
- [17:43]
Nicole Lapin
Well, it's not a burden so much potentially as an opportunity cost.
- [17:47]
Jason Pfeiffer
That's a great way of saying it. You're right. They don't think about the kind of opportunity cost that it is. They don't think about what it takes, I guess. You know, even my, my friend who makes baked goods, I bet that when her friends ask, hey, can you bring some baked goods? What they're thinking is, ah, she's probably got plenty lying around, right? Like, ah, she probably should make them all day. It's gotta just be extra, right? But no, she doesn't just make them all day. She makes them to order. And so it actually takes a lot of time. And I bet that if she explained that, oh, you know, look, I would love to do that, but thing is, it's an incredibly busy week. All of my baking time is already filled with customers. And to do any more would be to eat into time that I need for these other things. But that leads to the second thing that I found, which is what else can I do that's easier, right? Because here's the thing. Yeah, they would love if she brought her baked goods to a party, but maybe she just goes to the store and buy some cookies. Can I do that? You know, you guys need some wine? I'll get some wine. I would love to get some wine, right? Like, what else can I do that's just of lower opportunity cost? And I found making offers like that, right? Like, oh, I can't do that complicated thing that you're asking me to do, but I could take a look at this thing or I could give you some advice on that, or whatever. People, they generally are happy that you're offering something at all.
- [19:07]
Nicole Lapin
Yeah. And I don't think, like, a reasonable person is going to want to put you out. Perhaps they thought to the baked goods lady, maybe legitimately they do think she makes the best muffin ever. Or they just think, like, oh, that would be the easiest. I don't think anyone who's asking you for a favor is going to want to completely inconvenience you, which is why your approach resonates. So perhaps the person asking your friend for the baked goods thinks that's just easy. There are piles and piles of muffins in her kitchen just waiting to be taken to the party. And so I think you can do it in a really kind way and sort of educate on the idea that that is not the easy, convenient way, that that does require more inconvenience than you might think. And so, yeah, I don't know if people are fully thinking through what goes into their request, which, yes, some of the burden is on us to sort of put boundaries around it, right? Like, hey, send me a word document with 300 words and a little bit of criteria. You know, now that I think about it, those two people that asked me for testimonials never sent it, you know, and so, like, I'm not gonna go out of my way to do the work and I'm not gonna follow up with that being like, yeah, hey, did you make a testimonial? Which, to your point, nobody ever reads testimonials. They just scan for the names or whatever in two seconds. And so before we started recording, our producer Morgan also gave an example of people asking for her help, and she responding to them with a basic thing that she would need in order to facilitate an introduction or whatever.
- [20:57]
Jason Pfeiffer
And, like, write up all. Write up a thing. Write up a thing and send it to me so I can forward it totally.
- [21:01]
Nicole Lapin
So it's easy for me to forward what this request is. And I've found that when I approach it, like, you know, I want to do this justice to you. I don't know all the details, but I want to make sure that this is a win for you. Can you just write it exactly how you want it? Because the only reason I'm doing this is for it to be a win for you. Like, period, the end. And so she said that 1% of people actually follow up with that. So what is the psychology behind that?
- [21:27]
Jason Pfeiffer
That reminds me. And this maybe takes us slightly adjacent to the subject, but I guess it's related. Stick around. Help Want will be right back. Welcome back to Help Wanted. Let's get to it. Something That I always found fascinating. I would be speaking at a conference, and then afterwards, a ton of people come up to me and they all ask me for something, right? So I'm like, oh, well, I'd love your thoughts on this, or I'd love to write for you or something. And actually, I don't have business cards anymore. It's not a thing that I own. I don't have a business card. But a little while ago I did, and I would go to conferences with, like a bunch of them in my pocket, and I would just hand them out, reach out to me, here's my business card. And almost nobody did could hand out 50 business cards. Maybe one person reaches out, which is very interesting. And I think that the reason this happens is because I think a lot of people move through their professional and maybe even personal lives kind of like they're just knocking on every door to see which one opens and they're not committing themselves that much to which one. And so it's pretty easy to just go wandering around a conference and ask people for things. It's much harder to then sit down, think about the follow up, think about the engagement, think about what you're going to send them. And a lot of people don't do that because the ask wasn't that important to them in the first place.
- [22:55]
Chime Representative
This is.
- [22:55]
Jason Pfeiffer
As I'm speaking out loud, you're answering your own question. Yeah. Nicole, you're a genius. What you were telling me right now, coming out of my own mouth, is that when people ask things, they may not be communicating the weight in which you receive the ask. To them, it might be a really casual ask. Oh, hey, can you do this? And you know what? If the answer is no, like, that's totally fine, but you receive it and you're like, oh, no, they want this thing. Whereas they were just feeling it out in the way that somebody came up to me at a conference and they were like, oh, would you talk about this? And the answer that they got was like, yeah, you know, sure, if you'll do some work. And they didn't want to do some work. They were just feeling it out and so on. They go, it's like, totally fine. It's not a problem. And I think that's kind of the same. Like a lot of people, when they make an ask of you, if you say yes, that's wonderful. If you say no, it's totally fine. But if you are the kind of person who likes to say yes, and I am, and I know a lot of people are Then when somebody asks you for something, you take it very seriously. And then you have to consider, well, how could I make this happen? What sacrifice could I make to do it? And I don't think that they ever meant that. I don't think they ever intended that. And maybe that's the misalignment here. And so it's worth, if you're the person being asked for something, finding out how serious it is and finding out how much it matters to them and finding out what. What they really need. Because maybe what they were asking you for was just. It was a nice to have. It'd be great if you brought your muffins, but you don't need to bring your muffins. It's not a need. Everyone's fine without it. And I think we might misunderstand that about each other, about how important an ask is and therefore how important it is to fulfill the ask. And you shouldn't overburden yourself to fulfill something that didn't matter that much to the person who was asking it in the first place.
- [24:43]
Nicole Lapin
Yeah, it's like little kids poking boundaries or men that you start dating poking boundaries.
- [24:50]
Jason Pfeiffer
Also poking boundaries. A lot of people poke boundaries.
- [24:53]
Nicole Lapin
You know, anyone is, like, trying to see, like, how much they can get away with. And I think you're right. There is something nice about offering grace to people who are just poking around to see what the boundaries are because, you know, they haven't been set. And if they don't follow through, what do you normally think or do you think at all about them? I didn't think about these testimonial people until we did an episode about it. And if they didn't follow through, like, I don't hate them. Maybe could I think they're flighty a little bit. But I started to get into the mindset of going above and beyond to give people the benefit of the doubt for, like, whatever heavy shit they're carrying currently. This has come into play in my driving life around Los Angeles, where there are slow drivers, and I want to get annoyed or, like, they do stupid things. And then I imagine that they have, you know, a birthday cake in the backseat of their car for their kid. That's the reason that they're driving slow. Like, there could be reasons that we don't even know. And so I've been trying to operate from that perspective, too. I don't really think about the people that don't follow through, but I don't know if I would ask for somebody's help and not follow through. And I also don't have business cards, so I don't know. And I don't take business cards.
- [26:13]
Jason Pfeiffer
But I think we have. You and I have a different threshold for asking people for things than other people do. I mean, my threshold is very high. I only ask for something after pretty careful consideration. And I think a lot of people don't. And you know what? I'm not sure that one is better than the other. Because what I have learned in asking people for things when I do it is that I don't do it enough that people are very happy to help. And sometimes they're like, why didn't you ever ask for help before? And so maybe there should be a lower threshold for asking. That seems maybe that's fine. And the result of that is that you're going to ask for things that you only 50% need or care about. But then also other people should recognize that they don't have to do it every time. They don't have to put themselves out. Maybe we all just need to understand what each other needs a little better and just be there when we can.
- [27:04]
Nicole Lapin
Yeah, I think there is a lot of grace to that. And I do think that there's a differentiation in this conversation between free shit, like, tangible shit that you can buy on the open market and your credibility, your time. Something that you cannot buy. Publish on entrepreneur.com on Amazon. That does not come today. Free shipping. And so is the person that's asking for baked goods asking for help? No, they're not. They're asking for free shit unless they're homeless or like, hungry or something in which they would be asking for help, but chances are they're not. So they're asking just for, like, a hookup. And I have found that people love free shit. Very rich people love a free fucking muffin or.
- [27:51]
Jason Pfeiffer
Oh yeah, they sure do.
- [27:52]
Nicole Lapin
A book or whatever. Like, it confuses me. This is a different conversation. But there are rich people who are stingy and there are broke people who are very generous. Anyway, so I think that the boundaries can be much clearer when the free shit comes to play versus, like, the asking for help. Because I think that that's a really vulnerable position. And even when you and I ask for help, it's vulnerable. We don't do it often, hopefully. And you hope that the other person sees that in the ask.
- [28:25]
Jason Pfeiffer
I feel better about this.
- [28:26]
Nicole Lapin
You helped your own damn self.
- [28:28]
Jason Pfeiffer
You helped me get there.
- [28:29]
Nicole Lapin
Oh, I have an idea for you. What's that shortcut that you have for your emails?
- [28:35]
Jason Pfeiffer
It's DDD So for those who don't follow the ins and outs of my keyword shortcuts, when I type DDD into my phone, it immediately auto fills with I appreciate the invitation and interest. Unfortunately, my schedule is so tight that I have to decline most opportunities. Wishing you the best, which is a thing that I send, particularly by LinkedIn DM all the time because people ask for all sorts of things.
- [28:59]
Nicole Lapin
Can I write one for you where the shortcut is sos and when people ask you for excerpts or something, you've already listed out the criteria like happy to help. Here's what would be helpful to me. Number one, can you please put this in a Word document? Number two, could you please edit it? Number three, can you please spell check it? Number four, can you cut it down to so many words? Number five, please don't include any allusion to another chapter. Thank you so much.
- [29:26]
Jason Pfeiffer
That's a great idea. Because what you've just proposed here is formalizing a work thing that had become informal. That's actually kind of part of the problem here. Like, it's like we have these work things and there's a structure for them. This is the amount of money that I get paid to do this thing, or this is the amount of time that I have for it because it's part of my daily work tasks or whatever. And then a friend comes along and asks for some access to it or some free version of or something, and it disrupts it. Because you have a professional way to do the professional thing. But how do you navigate the personal delivery of the professional thing, which is sometimes a sacrifice and what you have just inserted into this is a way to be friendly and helpful to your friend, but take some of the burden off of me or whoever by creating a professional structure for it. It's like plugging in this little hole that got filled because, yeah, I have to explain this to people every single time and then I go back and forth with them every time. But if I had a form and I even sent it as a form and I said, yeah, I would love to do that. I do this for a lot of people whose books I believe in. Here's a forum that explains exactly what I need. I think that they would actually then be in a bit more of a professional mindset themselves. They'd be like, oh, I'm part of a professional process here.
- [30:46]
Nicole Lapin
I think that something like that, some sort of formalized little rubric, bullets, whatever, is like a scarecrow. It's going to scare the people that just are like poking around are not completely genuine or serious or doesn't mean that much to them. So here's the scarecrow. And for people that do, they're gonna follow word for word what this is because it's that important to them. And if you then type that out, it's easier for you. So instead of maybe sos, I would do H E L P. Because H E L P, it came from Help wanted. And it's a time when people are asking you for help.
- [31:25]
Jason Pfeiffer
Well, Nicole, for your next book, I'm happy to run an excerpt.
- [31:30]
Nicole Lapin
I know that it doesn't help sell books. The funny part about all of this shit is that, like, how hilarious it is just knowing how not useful it is.
- [31:41]
Jason Pfeiffer
That's a really good point.
- [31:43]
Nicole Lapin
I love you, Jason, and thank you for that. But also, you don't need it because it's totally pointless. Like, who the fuck is gonna find it? You're not publishing it on the COVID It's there. The publish is going to know. So they're going to send it to their sales team, who doesn't realize that no one's going to find it because there's so many things on the Internet. Sorry, I Real talk.
- [32:03]
Jason Pfeiffer
You're right. No, you're right. Because what I was actually trying to do in that moment was just wrap up the episode with a funny little thing about how, like, I will still run your book excerpt, but I'm going to send you a form, but instead, actually, don't ask me. Because it doesn't matter. Because it doesn't matter. Nobody realizes this. But this whole thing, this whole. We've had a whole long conversation about doing the thing that actually doesn't matter. It sells zero books. There was no reason to run the excerpt. So I think that we've done some good work here.
- [32:27]
Nicole Lapin
But the thing is, like, for your real friends, me, the nice thing to do is, yeah, I'll do this. Here's the rubric. The really kind, super good friend thing to say is, happy to do it whether you do these things or not. Like, maybe I'll go above and beyond for you. But also the truth is, this is not gonna fucking help. And I'm happy to jump on the phone with you for five minutes to give you, like, some things that will actually help sell books.
- [32:50]
Jason Pfeiffer
That is really, really true. That is really, really good advice. Do you want to just do the thing or do you want to deliver actual benefit? Because sometimes those are different, right?
- [33:02]
Nicole Lapin
Because it actually takes way more time for you to tell them that.
- [33:08]
Jason Pfeiffer
Yeah, that's true. All right. Well, now everyone knows. Don't ask me for an excerpt. Not because I'm a jerk. I'm happy to help, but because it is completely useless to you. It will not sell a single book. You are wasting everybody' vibe. But, you know, happy to help. Help Wanted is a production of Money News Network. Help Wanted is hosted by me, Jason
- [33:31]
Nicole Lapin
Pfeiffer, and me, Nicole Lapin. Our executive producer is Morgan Lavoy. Do you want some help? Email our helpline@help wantedoneynewsnetwork.com for the chance to have some of your questions answered on the show. And follow us on Instagram at Money News and TikTok at Money News Network for exclusive content and to see our beautiful faces. Maybe a little dance?
- [33:51]
Jason Pfeiffer
Oh, I didn't sign up for that.
- [33:52]
Nicole Lapin
All right, well, talk to you soon.