NEW post: https://sparktoro.com/blog/should-you-raise-your-rates-and-only-take-paid-speaking-gigs-not-so-fast/
Alongside coauthors @amandanat and @wilreynolds, we tackled the problematic but oft-given advice in the consulting & speaking worlds:
"Raise your rates!"
"Never speak for free!"
We mostly disagree.
@randfish @amandanat @wilreynolds
The speeches of speakers who speak for free are advertisements for something.
The speeches of speakers who get paid to speak are the products themselves.
@samueljscott @randfish @wilreynolds I wonder if we’re comparing apples and oranges here.
Is your perspective coming from professional public speaking — like, people who hone public speaking as a craft and pitch themselves as keynotes keynoting about meaningful problems vs tactical solutions?
@amandanat @randfish @wilreynolds
Another point: Should caterers, venues, A/V teams, event staff, security people, and cleaners all work for free for the "exposure" too?
@samueljscott @amandanat @wilreynolds if they received the same value Wil, Amanda, and I did (along with countless others in similar types of professions), sure.
But they don't. Hence, this is a false dichotomy.
I might recommend this list of logical fallacies https://thebestschools.org/magazine/15-logical-fallacies-know/. Both arguments you put forward so far fall under these categories.
There are reasonable points in favor of paying speakers, but these are not they.
@randfish @amandanat @wilreynolds
My point is that not everyone wants to use speaking as a way to sell books, get customers, or gain clients.
Many people do that as the job in and of itself.
Rand Fishkin
Samuel Scott
Amanda Natividad