Charging a fee for advice signals openness, removing social awkwardness and letting askers pay to ask, which actually boosts engagement.
Pricing advice flips the conversation: a small charge becomes a clear signal that the expert is open to questions, and the asker feels justified in reaching out without guilt. The author realized that the friction was not the expert's time but the social awkwardness of asking for free help. By framing the interaction as a paid exchange, both sides get a psychological cue that the interaction is acceptable.
The platform they are building, mindpick.me, leverages this insight with an async Q&A model. Experts answer when they have ten minutes, avoiding calendar conflicts, while askers can submit questions without fearing they are imposing. The async nature removes scheduling pain entirely, making it easy for busy professionals to contribute knowledge without sacrificing productivity.
The takeaway for founders and leaders is to examine the hidden social costs of their product narrative. If the problem you solve is real but the story you tell focuses on the wrong pain point, you may miss the market. Reframing the problem as one of social signaling and friction reduction can unlock demand that was previously hidden.
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