Consulting for Equity: The Simple Way to Stop Trading Your Time for Money

One of the absolute best ways to create massive amounts of wealth in a short period of time is utilizing your knowledge and expertise to gain equity in companies.

 

In today’s episode, we switch things up a little bit. Host Roland Frasier becomes the interviewee, while Ed O’Keefe sits in the interviewer’s chair. Ed is an absolute legend in the internet marketing space and has helped transform countless businesses and industries. One of Roland’s favorite topics, consulting for equity, has quickly become one of Ed’s as well. The two sit down to explore Roland’s journey through creating this path to wealth and lay out a vision for others who want to go down that path too.

 

Listen in to see if consulting for equity is something you might be qualified to do.

 

The 5 Levels of Compensation

 

As Roland sees it, there are a lot of ways you can be compensated for something. He explains them in levels that build on each other.

 

Level #1: Give free advice. People ask us questions, want our expertise, and because we’re good humans and want to help people, we share. Yes, you should share, but where do you draw the line so you’re not spending all of your time giving things away for free? There has to be a point at which you say, I’m willing to share, but in the context of a short exchange. 

 

Level #2: Turn that knowledge into an actual, compensable skill. Roland did that for years as an attorney. But even if you can bill, say, $1000/hour and bill 2000 hours a year, you’re only making $2 million. That’s where you're capped out. Roland calls this the Dancing Bear. As long as you dance, people throw money, but the minute you stop, no money. That’s the dollars-for hours-trap. 

 

Level #3: Charge a flat fee. Maybe you could charge $1000 for something that doesn’t take you long to do. You’re making more than you would with an hourly rate, but you’re still really limited.

 

Level #4: Revenue share. Someone has a project you’re going to consult on. You’ll talk about it together, and you’ll make it happen for them. They know you’ll create a continuing value for them through that thing. Anything that comes through that effort you’ve made to create that intellectual property asset you own, you’re effectively licensing it to them and receiving some of the revenue from it.

 

Level #5: Consulting for equity. Over the years, Roland has helped people build a brand, then watched them sell their businesses over and over for multiples of what he received. Any time you’re a consultant, the rev share goes away at some point or doesn’t pan out like you thought. Or maybe it’s a campaign that only lasts for a year. How can you get compensated on a continuing basis for things you did? You become a part of the whole company. You get a piece of equity/ownership in the company in exchange for your knowledge and expertise. He started saying: “I’ll help you with this problem or challenge, but if I do, I want some ownership in the company.” And now he does that to scale.

 

Filtering Out People Who Aren’t Ready to Invest

 

When you help people for free, free has no value. People don’t have skin in the game, so they’re less likely to take action on the things you help them with. Roland had a friend who he had given free advice to over the years and nothing had changed. The friend called again recently and asked what he should do, and Roland said, “You need to hire me. If you don’t, you won’t take action.” With love, the best thing he can do is have them invest in themselves. This friend paid $25k for four hours on Roland’s couch. 

 

Sometimes you offer free advice in the hopes that it will lead to a...