Why I selfishly want to give away more coaching this month

I want to give away more coaching calls this month, and not because I’m feeling generous.

Every call I get on gives me something I can’t get while writing alone inside my office. The actual problems you’re experiencing. The actual words you use describe what isn’t working. The actual reasons that you tell yourself about why your business is the way that it is.

That’s where my most valuable educational content comes from.

The majority of what you’ll find in the classroom came from a question someone asked while we were on a coaching call together, or in reply to one of these daily emails.

In fact, while we’re at it…

It would really benefit me if you could reply to this email and tell me the one thing in your business that’s really jammed up right now.

Not because I’m trying to sell you something. But because I just need to know what to write about in tomorrow’s email. One sentence is plenty. Two sentences is plentiful.

I mean it. Write back.

Anyway, as I was saying…

Back when Ben Franklin was performing a rather unglamorous job as the Clerk of the Pennsylvania assembly, a new member joined and opposed his re-election.

Unglamorous as the title was, it was valuable to him. And it was also important to the success and survival of his printshop.

After a long and eloquent speech from the man who opposed him, Franklin was re-elected.

But rather than stewing amidst a long-term rivalry with a man that was going to be in the same room as him every working day for the next 14 years, Franklin decided to win him over. And rather than trying to do it with flattery, gifts, or favors, he tried something almost no one would think to do.

He heard the man was in possession of a rare and desirable book, so he wrote a short note asking if he could borrow it.

The book arrived immediately.

Franklin hung onto it for about a week then sent it back with a note of thanks.

Afterwards, the man did something he’s never done before: he walked up to Franklin and spoke to him, warm and kindly.

They stayed friends until the man died.

Franklin's own conclusion was more or less this:

===

Someone who's already helped you once is more likely to help you again than someone you've helped.

===

Which is the opposite of how most of us would think to operate. The version I was taught goes: give value, give more value, keep giving, never ask for anything, and eventually people will like you enough to buy something.

I’ve done this for years.

Free guides, free calls, answering every question that comes in, over-delivering on all of it. And it works. But there’s a ceiling on it, and I think the ceiling is this…

When you give someone something, they owe you.

Nobody wants to owe you. It’s debt, and people avoid their creditors. But when someone does something for you, however small, they have to explain it to themselves afterward. And the explanation our brains often reach for is: I guess I like this person.

Because effort is what creates attachment.

Not the receiving, but the doing.

Which is why the most valuable number on my email list isn’t the open rate, it’s the replies.

But it’s not a clean line. Plenty of people reply and never become community members, or clients. Some reply a bunch and then unsubscribe a month later. But nearly every client I’ve ever had from email replied to an email first.

Then that reply, and the work we did together that followed, all became content you can now find inside the community.

Which is why, selfishly, I want to give away more coaching.

It’s not free, but it is a fraction of what I charge for one-on-one work, and the reason for that is because it helps me create more content.

So here’s how it works:

There are three spots left on the VIP tier inside Email Sanctuary. You get a 1:1 call with me every month, you get me in your DMs anytime something comes up in between, and you get the benefit of having your precise problems solved on a regular basis inside the Email Sanctuary.

You even get the benefit of becoming my friend.

And I’m biased, but I like me.

Maybe you will too?

So like I said, reply back and tell me the biggest challenge you’re facing in your business right now. The emails that aren’t working. The offer that isn’t landing. The email list that won’t grow. Or whatever it actually is.

If you do, I’ll write back.

And if it turns out that the VIP tier is the place to solve it, you’ll know. And if not, no hard feelings either way.

Talk soon,

Kevin Hood

P.S. Franklin asked to borrow a rare book. All I'm asking for is a single sentence. I'd say I'm being pretty reasonable about this.