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:

• Should event planners engage speakers for free?

• 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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