Thanks to Rory Sutherland for sharing this (Rory’s guest spot on WhatComesNextLive is here)
This quote from Rick Rubin reminds me of the story of the old man in the hammer, a tale I told in “Price is what you pay, value is what you get”
I’d also flip this somewhat. When I work with clients on retainers, I tell them from the beginning that “I am not on the clock”, sometimes I will provide them with lots of my time, and sometimes they won’t need that much. As Rick Rubin notes “the amount of time it takes is irrelevant”.
As an example, last week I met with one client for four separate meetings while in Cayman, another one also four times. When I am not in Cayman and can see them in person, I tend to talk to them only once per week on one video call.
Yes, this may blow the mind of people who bill based on time, but it works for me, and, most importantly, my clients.