2 Important Questions to Ask Yourself Before Inviting Professionals to Speak or Write for Free
When professionals are starting out in their careers, it may make sense for them to speak or write for free to gain experience and exposure. Everyone has to start somewhere.
Once an individual has a lot of experience under their belt (20+ years) is it reasonable to expect them to accept free engagements?
Speaking and writing for free can be a way of giving back to one's profession and the community or supporting a charity. Bloggers sometimes guest blog for or with other bloggers for a number of reasons including building their brand or getting a specific message out there. Speakers do this too, especially as a way of supporting a shared cause.
Working for Free: Shining the Light on an Abusive Practice
Unfortunately, there are many organizations that take advantage of the free labour of professionals. For example, many conference organizers expect almost everyone to speak for free and pay top dollar only to a couple of keynoters (usually male and from another country).
There are some portals that don't pay writers or bloggers but pocket the substantial amount of revenue they generate through advertising. If it is a huge portal with a substantial reach, it may be a win-win scenario to work together. Other than that, it is actually quite disrespectful to expect experienced professionals to work for free.
One would never think of asking a caterer to cater your corporate event or wedding for free. This would never happen.
"Provide me with catering and when all the guests see how great your food is, they will order from you."
So why are facilitators, speakers, bloggers, and writers fair game? Is what they offer perceived as having no value?
Working for Discounts
Working for free has an equally ugly twin sister. Here name is .....working for discounts. Preston R. Bailey, Celebrity Wedding and Event Designer Extraordinaire, addressed the perils of working for discounts so beautifully that I can't possibly top him.
Two Important Questions to Ask Yourself
The next time you consider asking someone to speak or write for free, ask yourself these 2 questions:
- Are you working for free?
Some professional organizations host conferences where everyone is working for free, the conference planning committee, those who handle registration and check-in, and the set-up crew.
Under any other scenario, if you aren't working for free, why do you expect other professionals to work for free?
- Does the professional earn their livelihood through speaking or writing?
Newsflash: Professional facilitators, speakers, and writers can't buy groceries, put gas in the car, pay rent or the mortgage by accepting free engagements.
Professionals who don't charge for business eventually go out of business.
The "do it for free for exposure" line doesn't cut it either. Unless it is a showcase, conference participants aren't in the business of talent scouting. They expect to receive value.
Rarely do readers say, this free article is excellent, let me reach out to the writer and offer them a paid engagement. (In the case of writing, it does happen. It has happened to me but it is rare.)
Alternatives
Rather than expecting professional facilitators, speakers or writers to work for free, consider the following options:
- Assess the scope of your conference or publication. It's better to offer a superb 1-day conference than to stretch it to 3 days if there are budget constraints.
- Consider increasing the admission price. If you are expecting even 100 participants, the difference in price is not significant.
- Re-allocate your budget. Participants come to conferences for the content and networking. They will get just as much value out of the event if you opt for a less expensive venue and more affordable menu.
- Recruit more sponsors to underwrite facilitator, speaker, writer, and blogger fees.
- Offer something of tangible value to speakers and writers (e.g. ads, a complimentary booth at the trade show, distribution of promotional material through snail mail or e-mail - just lining the delegate bags with brochures doesn't work as they get lost in a pile and end up in the garbage)
- Engage executives or full-time employees to fill some spots in exchange for a listing as a sponsor. Don't overdo this as participants will perceive the conference or publication as a wall-to-wall sales pitch.
- Reserve a couple of spots for emerging professionals and let them share their experiences and tips with other emerging professionals.
Abuse is rampant and the time is overdue to re-think speaker, blogger, and writer engagement. It is not reasonable to expect professionals to just give away expertise gained over many years and, in some cases, decades
Photo Credit: Alden, BIAU Guillaume (Flickr)
For more thoughts, also consult this post that I wrote for a client:
- Do you engage speakers or writers for free? If so what are your reactions to this article. Are you an independent speaker, facilitator or writer?
- What abuses have you seen and what results have you achieved by speaking or writing for free?
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Comments
Anne 🐝 Thornley-Brown, MBA
6 years ago #16
Anne 🐝 Thornley-Brown, MBA
6 years ago #15
An example might help. I was very active in the Canadian Association of Professional Speakers (CAPS). In fact, I was on the board of their Toronto Chapter. They would have a conference once a year and once a year a speaker's school for emerging professionals. Everyone who worked on those events worked for free. It was a collaborative effort. So, the organizing committee, those who did set-up and logistics, and all of the speakers and facilitators donated their services. It was a way of giving back to the profession. The hotel was paid and they didn't pick expensive downtown luxury hotels. They picked affordable but nice hotels with ample meetings space usually near the airport. They also paid for AV and catering. I have no issue with that. Ditto when bloggers get together and do a collaborative piece of writers and bloggers guest blog for each other. Where I do have concerns is when someone is getting paid to plan an event at a top luxury property or the most expensive convention centre in Toronto and they expect people to work for free. Then they turn around may fly in a speaker from the USA (always male) to talk about his bungee jumping adventures in the Himalayas. They pay him top dollar. How is that even relevant to the day-to-day experiences of the participants? That is where I have a problem.
Anne 🐝 Thornley-Brown, MBA
6 years ago #14
Individuals who are in other businesses and professions are not the focus of this blog post or discussion. Tarran Dean also made it clear that when she was a full-time employee generating an income, she spoke for free. I did too. My income was already taken care of and speaking, facilitating breakouts, or serving as a member of a panel was of benefit to my employer. I hope you didn't get the impression that I was speaking about you when I wrote this.Not at all. You never even entered my mind. I had no issue with you inviting me to blog on John's blog. It was a pleasure and a win-win scenario for all concerned. That fits into the category of " Bloggers sometimes guest blog for or with other bloggers for a number of reasons including building their brand or getting a specific message out there." No, I was thinking of some recent events in Toronto where they have flown in people from overseas, put them up at top hotels and then expected the local speakers to speak for free. Also, I have had a number of requests from people who are selling compilations of articles approach me and expect me to write for free when they will be generating revenue from it. I received one too many of those and wrote this post. As you can see, it really gets my goat. In my case, I make the services I offer really, really clear on all of my profiles. Not sure why people are bombarding me with requests to work for free. Perhaps they think I am independently wealthy or that I don't need to pay rent, put food on the table, and fill up my car. Trust me my landlord, the grocers, and gas stations aren't giving me any freebies or credit for work that is done for free. Some other time I should do a post about people who ask professionals to "pay" to speak, write, or appear on their TV shows. That is the ugly triplet in this scenario. I have been getting a lot of requests for those lately too.
Anne 🐝 Thornley-Brown, MBA
6 years ago #13
With respect to the question of working for free, everyone volunteers sometimes. That is not the focus of this article or discussion. The whole universe is not up for grabs here. I wrote the post and started this discussion with a very specific focus: professionals who earn their livelihood by speaking and writing. So with that in mind am I to take it that in all of these instances when event organizers are asking professional speakers to speak for free they are also working for free? Is that what you are saying? I know for a fact that this is not the case. It is abusive and exploitative to expect professional speakers and writers to work for free unless everyone involved in the endeavour is working for free.Tarran Dean was on point with her post. If anyone knows her, please invite her to join us. Given the fact that so many seem to think that this type of exploitation is okay, it is going to take lobbying by professional associations for legislation to put a stop to this. I hope that this post and conversation have made my feelings on this matter clear and that I will no longer be bombarded with requests to speak and write for free. It is totally out of hand.
Anne 🐝 Thornley-Brown, MBA
6 years ago #12
I am not ignoring your point. It has been addressed many times including in the original post at length. "The "do it for free for exposure" line doesn't cut it either. Unless it is a showcase, conference participants aren't in the business of talent scouting. They expect to receive value. Rarely do readers say, this free article is excellent, let me reach out to the writer and offer them a paid engagement. (In the case of writing, it does happen. It has happened to me but it is rare.)"
Anne 🐝 Thornley-Brown, MBA
6 years ago #11
You are missing the point Sandra Smith but that's okay, let's leave it at that. By the way, do you work for free?
Anne 🐝 Thornley-Brown, MBA
6 years ago #10
Anne 🐝 Thornley-Brown, MBA
6 years ago #9
Anne 🐝 Thornley-Brown, MBA
6 years ago #8
Jerry Fletcher
6 years ago #7
Anne 🐝 Thornley-Brown, MBA
6 years ago #6
Jerry Fletcher
6 years ago #5
Phil Friedman
6 years ago #4
Anne \ud83d\udc1d Thornley-Brown, MBA, I have no doubt that it is frustrating. Sometimes, though, it is the result of too high a profile on social media, when the ethos of "giving and sharing" nominally holds sway. And many people who claim to be in business don't have a clue what it's really about. On LinkedIn, I once had a shipyard naval architect who was being paid to do his job ask me to review a set of his plans (for which he was being paid) for free. And he seemed miffed when I declined, for after all, this was social media where we're all supposed to help each other. But asking for free work comes in many forms. One of the chapters in my upcoming book on operating a small business is titled "The Devil Often Wears Entrepreneur". Watch for it to appear next week on beBee and LinkedIn. Cheers!
Anne 🐝 Thornley-Brown, MBA
6 years ago #3
Phil Friedman
6 years ago #2
Zacharias 🐝 Voulgaris
6 years ago #1