… spoke with a lawyer.

My regular lawyer, Marijo, had referred me to him because I had a bunch of documents/questions that were very specific to a particular topic. She thought it made sense to talk to a specialist.

So she sent one of those “Michael meet Joe, Joe meet Michael” emails. I called him 10 minutes later.

I explained the situation and he told me to send it all over and he’d be happy to give it a look.

The next day he called me back. We spent about 10 minutes on the phone together – enough for him to offer suggestions and provide some much needed context. It was exactly what I was looking for.

I told him I’d send him my particulars so he could send me an invoice. He said, “No invoice, give my regards to Marijo.”

Two lessons here:

1. Easy, productive, profitable business is all about relationships. If you wait until you have a problem to reach out to your network, you’ve waited too long.

2. Joe could have easily made a couple of hundred bucks the other day and maybe, when I had a future, larger need on this topic, I’d again give him a call. By refusing to bill me today, however, he all but guaranteed it.