[consulting] Established clients seeking technical training.

[Trevor Twining]

I'll tell you a bit about my experience.

About a year ago I decided that I would mentor one person in Drupal  
for a period of one year. They already had to know a bit about it, and  
be open to learning and making mistakes. They had to agree to be a  
good student, and I, in turn, would teach them whatever I could about  
project management, development, theming, config, and dealing with  
clients. We would spend lots of time on IM and co-working (locally,  
although probably not required) and in that time I basically trained  
him how to do my job.

A few really amazing things happened during that process.

  * He learned things about Drupal that I didn't know, and shared them  
with me.
  * I learned things about Drupal that I didn't know, and I shared  
them with him as well.
  * Once he reached a certain level of competence, we were able to do  
things together with Drupal that neither of us would have been able to  
separately.
  * He's become a really good friend, and now our entire families are  
very close.

That's the experience I've had with sharing my skills in Drupal.  
There's an abundance of opportunities out there. If you're not  
sharing, you're not seeing those opportunities for what they are. If  
you don't see them, then you're not looking hard enough.

PS: I'm at the point where I'm considering a new mentoring  
relationship, so If you know of anyone that's interested, please let  
me know.

Trevor Twining
Points of Light Institute
http://pointsoflight.org

Sharing == Growth == Profit. It's the new open source math. :D


On 2009-11-17, at 1:46 PM, David Hazel wrote:

> I think you may find that said training may end up bringing you more  
> work.
>
> I've had a few clients that get excited about doing more technical  
> work on their website, often they break something that I then fix,  
> or realize that a few training sessions does not an expert make.
>
> Either way, if this "friend" wants to get trained, they will.  
> Regardless of if you do the training or not.
>
> If your just not interested in training them, you could recommend  
> they take a course from a firm that specializes in that.
>
> my two cents
>
> -Dave
>
> On Tue, Nov 17, 2009 at 10:42 AM, Chris Miller <chris at trailheadinteractive.com 
> > wrote:
> Hello all,
>
> I have a friend employed by an established and profitable client of  
> 3 years, that is asking for independent training and instruction on  
> Drupal development.  This friend has a few basic technical skills,  
> and dabbles in side projects.  We're using Drupal for several  
> projects at said friend's job.  I've heard the analogy that "A  
> plumber wouldn't teach you how to fix the pipes", and I'm looking  
> for a nice way to say that to my friend.  Has anyone else had to  
> deal with this situation?  How did it turn out?
>
> Honestly I have no interest in training anyone to independently do  
> the work that puts food on my table.  I've thought about just  
> charging 3x my normal rate and milking it.  Is that wrong?
>
> -- 
>  Chris Miller
>  Trailhead Interactive
>  http://www.trailheadinteractive.com
>  406-750-0107
>
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>
>
> -- 
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>
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