We never speak for free

A quick word about free talks for aspiring speakers. Here at Red Jacket and amongst a number of our colleagues, we never refer to free talks. We do talk about showcase events though. If you are an aspiring professional speaker but you're still at the point where you are not being financially compensated for your talks but you need to move into that space, then here's the best advice I ever received. Work out for yourself what your speaking fee should be, and you'll know it because it'll be the part that settles in your tummy and that goes, oh, this would be great, as opposed to, I wouldn't do it for such a small amount of money, or, that is far too outrageous, I couldn't possibly ever charge that. So you start with the figure that, that makes sense to you. And you create an invoice for that for the client that you're going to speak at, and you discount it by 100%, and you print it out, and you give it to that client before you speak. They need to know what you believe you are worth before you speak, and they need to know that there's a financial value to that, and that you have, because you've agreed and discussed this, you have agreed to do this on this occasion at no charge. But you are not a free speaker. You need to know that in your mind as you stand on that stage and you speak. Your client, the organizer, they need to know that. They need to know what you are worth as they make arrangements around you. And if you're good, and I hope you are, when somebody goes up to that organizer and says, how much was that speaker? Because we'd really love to invite them back to, you know, to our event, you do not want the organizer to say, uh, they're a free speaker, you can, yeah, just sign them up if you want to. You want this organizer to say, this is what the speaker is worth. We got the speaker at no fee because we negotiated, but this is what the speaker is worth. That will mean you take your speaking seriously, your client will take you seriously, the audience will take you seriously, and your progress towards a fully financially compensated speech will be so much closer. So showcase speaking, yes, do it often, as many times as you can and as you need to, and throughout your career as well. But make sure your client always knows what you're worth and knows that on this occasion and this occasion only, you've discounted by 100% for whatever your good reason is for doing so.