Alan Weiss’s Monday Morning Memo® – 10/20/25
I frequently receive notices in my email (and today a notification from someone on Linkedin) that some of my work has been pirated and is selling for a few bucks on various internet sites. The writers offer to expunge them for me for a fee.
I quickly determined that many of these good Samaritans are the pirates themselves! I also understand that the people who would spend a few bucks to get obviously stolen material from crooks are not the people who will ever be my clients. (I threw an actual client out of my community when I discovered that he had written a book in German with the same title as one of mine, and with my own IP inside with no attribution. He self-published it, of course. Such is life.)
When a secretary who was at Apple since the beginning retired some years ago with tens of millions of stock, a reporter asked her how her life had changed. She said, “Well, I’ve stopped balancing my personal check book.”
BANG! I asked myself, why am I spending 45 confused minutes monthly to balance my personal check book when any error I find is mine, and I can easily just change my balances? Great learning point. Why should I bother, with my brand, worrying about lowlifes?
The benefit of a strong brand is that people who matter (your ideal buyers in your “public square”) know you, know your work, and know the origins of your work if it appears somewhere else. The best defense is a great offense, not the other way around. Diligently pursue building your brand, not trying to sue people or purchase phony services to avoid the thieves who are making a few bucks.
If crooks were smart, they wouldn’t be crooks. They aren’t really stealing your money, so don’t let them steal your time. I can always make another dollar, but I can’t make another minute.
That’s in several of my books. Feel free to use it!
If you steal from one author it's plagiarism; if you steal from many it's research. —Wilson Mizner
Art is either plagiarism or revolution. —Paul Gauguin
No, generally I think influence is used as a nice word for plagiarism. —Gilbert Gottfried
The Fishbowl: In January I’ll be starting a year-long, monthly, “live” coaching session whereby one member of the group will be coached by me for 45 minutes on a current issue of theirs, we’ll deconstruct what happened, and then have 45 minutes of Q&A. This is a variation of the very popular “fishbowl” technique I ran a few years ago.
You may volunteer to be the person coached or simply watch. You needn’t attend every session and I will provide video to everyone afterwards along with written commentary. This should build your coaching prowess considerably.
This will be $500 for the year and I’m offering it to you, here, first, because I’ll obviously have limited participation. My offer to you is $400. (An hour of my “situational coaching” on my site is $2,500, so this is a hell of a deal if you choose to be coached or even just observe.)
You can register here: https://alanweiss.com/store/quick-pay/
I can only accept a few more and I’ll cut off registration on December 1, but if you wait and we’re filled, I can only put you on a waiting list.
BOOK SPRINT begins Nov. 3, 60-minute weekly call to create a completed, professional book proposal in the following 60 days. I have an 80%+ record placing these books with publishers for the last five years. I will introduce the proposal to agents and publishers (and so can you) and provide an additional 30 days of support for the book. The fee is only $4,500. Stop procrastinating and produce your first (or next) book, which is how I’ve attracted well over 90% of my business over the years. Register here and I’ll send the simple prep work: https://alanweiss.com/store/quick-pay/ Note: I can take one more person and we begin in just about two weeks.
AI: Alan Intelligence™ My unique AI resource which will direct you to the relevant aspects of my entire body of work to answer your “real time” questions about proposals, value based fees, conceptual agreement, avoiding “ghosting,” and thousands of other issues with text, audio, and video resources, all of which you can download. Please go here to gain lifelong, constantly growing access to my work, including referral to specific pages in my books which you can access online: https://alanweiss.com/ai-alan-intelligence/ If you decide at any time to engage in one of my two elite, personal coaching relationships, I'll deduct the full fee you've paid for this resource.
Zoom Workshops 2025: Join me on November 4 for our next installment, Questions You Always Wanted to Ask (Me). If you can’t attend “live” you’ll still receive the video and the AI Companion transcript. https://alanweiss.com/growth-experiences/zoom-workshops-2025/ I'll take questions in writing in advance if you'd like to remain anonymous. $450. Consider it AI: Alan Intelligence® in person!!
Million Dollar Consulting® for the World: I’ve provided 14 modules with videos from me, from your colleagues globally, slides, and text. They include everything from launch to self-esteem, proposals to fees, closing business to creating a brand. No upsells! It’s only $115. What do you think about a 10,000:1 ROI? We have over 500 people from 47 countries. https://milliondollarconsultingcourse.com
Million Dollar Consulting® for the World ADVANCED: The new program contains over 60 videos and has 15 modules focusing on what to do in the buyer’s office, overcoming crises, financial planning, and much, much more. https://alanweiss.com/growth-experiences/advanced-global-learning-program/
Million Dollar Consulting® for the World GRADUATE: Another 12 modules with videos by me and your peers on contemporary issues such as Raising Fees Aggressively, How to Be Consistently Interviewed, Maximizing Happiness, and Managing Multiple projects. Join the people from 57 countries who are availing themselves of this inexpensive way to dramatically grow their businesses in any economic times. How does 100:1 ROI sound? https://milliondollarconsultingcourse.com/graduate-learning-program/
London: For those of you who read down here, a special offer. I'm planning to be in London in late May offering a 1.5-day program based on my new book The Seven-Figure Consultant (which will be released in February and which I'll send for free to registrants at that time). The program is about the philosophy, leverage, and opportunity acquisition you need to make seven figures annually and sustain it. It is a brand new offering (it is not “Six Figures to Seven”). If you're interested: The fee will be $4,500, which includes a reception evening, a light breakfast and lunch. If you register in November the fee is $3,500. Write me at [email protected] or register here: https://alanweiss.com/store/quick-pay/ Read this far? It's May 18-19.