The Exposure Trap Young Creatives Keep Falling For

Doing gigs for exposure is also a marketing strategy. Some people limit how many they do for free per year and how many in total they'll do per year, because you have to manage your time, your energy, what you're saying. And I know a lot of the time in the gig world or the arts world, it's hard to monetize what you're doing. Go and see who is the best in the world at what you do and how much are they charging and why are they charging that. It means someone is willing to pay them that. The more information you have, the more experience you have, the more informed you are. You need the experience. There's no shortcut to that. You can be super talented, but without experience experience, you won't have the confidence to now command a high price. Let's talk about exposure gigs today. I think this is such an interesting topic. It's about finding like the balance in your career on things that you do for free, where you're trying to get the PR, get yourself out there, but also make sure you're not being exploited. You have to have a limit. Generally, I think an easy rule of thumb is at the beginning, say yes to everything. Especially when you're young, your 20s. Honestly, you have so much time and energy to burn, make the most of it. I feel like that's when you should try as many things as possible, cuz you don't know till you've done it, right? And I always say try any new thing twice. The first time you're just seeing what it is, you don't know what to expect, you don't know how it's going to be, what kind of an experience. And the second time you can now prepare for it and give it your all, be more aware, be more present and intentional. Then you decide, is this for me, is it not for me? So I think say yes to as many things as you can. Be tired. That's good. That's a good use of your day and your energy. Say yes to different things, different ideas, different sectors, different people, things you would not normally say yes to, things you don't think you like. Just try it once or twice. Try it because you expose yourself to different kinds of audiences, different kinds of opportunities, and you learn a lot about yourself, about what you're comfortable with, where you excel, what you struggle with, what you can improve at. How you like to run yourself. It can be very useful if you're not difficult in the beginning. And then as you gain more experience, more momentum, you start to find your niche. You start to see where you fit better, where you add more value, where you have more impact, and also where you excel as a person, where you're growing, where you're learning, where your efforts are giving you better outcomes. So once you get to that point, now you're sure you're giving value. When you're just saying yes to everything, yeah, you're kind of helping people out, but you're more of like a crowd filler. You're like the opener at a concert or at a conference. You're not the main guy, but you're there to keep the people people entertained, they learn something, maybe they like you, they don't like you, it's not high stakes. Once you're sure about what you're delivering, now you start to charge people, right? You start to make money, you start to grow your career from this, but also you're very confident about what you're going to deliver. I know that when I come and I show you up and I speak for 2 hours, you're all going to be very satisfied with the final product, so I'm worth the money you're going to pay me. Once you get to that point, it's much easier to book yourself for specific gigs where it's in your niche. You build a brand within your niche, you build a name, a reputation where they're like, you want to talk about this, this is the person. You want this kind of photography, this is the person. You want this kind of music, this is the person. You become a go-to for the specific niche that you work in, and people are left happy with the results. So that's when you have to start to say no to things that are going to waste your time, your energy. You've already been there, you've done that. You know you don't fit in that circle. You know that you're not going to get paid enough here. You know that this isn't going to add value to you. It's because you've experienced it, because you said yes to many things. I think at every level there's still things you do for exposure because there are things that open doors for you. At my level with public speaking, for example, I will still do a free event if it's to a new audience or a new network that will add value to my career, because I'm confident I'll add value to the speaking event that I'm doing. But it also has to add value to me because my time is valuable. I could be doing other things rather than your event. So I need to make sure that the event that I'm speaking at is going to open new doors for me, to bring new customers, new clients, a new network, new gigs which are going to pay me, or it's going to teach me something. That's when it's worth it for me, when it's something I am invested in. If not, it's very easy for me to now say no, it has to be worth my time. If you don't want to pay my minimum fee, then why would I do that? So you want to make sure that you're also confident in what you're doing. I think Too many times people feel like they're giving away value for free, but you should also be confident that you're always going to create more. So many creators give a free PDF, a free course, a free session, a free consultation, and that shows it's like a snippet, like a bite of the value that you can bring. So that's a marketing strategy. Doing gigs for exposure is also a marketing strategy. Some people limit how many they do for free per year and how many in total they'll do per year, cuz you have to manage your time, your energy, what you're saying. You want to have the same niche so that you've built a brand, you're an expert, you're giving good information, but not that you're just repeating the exact same thing all the time, right? So you kind of have to figure out how to make that balance once you're in the expert zone, when you're being paid to do something. And as you gain experience in time, you get to gain experience in quality and how you're delivering. You're improving in what you're doing, you're adding more value. So you can add more money, your rate becomes higher. So when you look at experts in your field, and I really encourage you to go and see what— who is the best in the world at what you do and how much are they charging, because that's like the limit, the current ceiling in the world. And why are they charging that? It means someone is willing to pay them that. How do you improve your own skill set that one day someone can pay you that amount to deliver that service, to deliver that product, to give your art or your music or your content because we're now living in a world where many people are working with gigs. So it's an important area to learn, and there's also structure, there's also a ladder, there's also a system. Yeah, some people get famous very fast, but you don't want to end up in a loop and you have a limit, your glass ceiling for yourself, because you've not grown. It's like someone in a job where they're not doing the certifications or the training so they can't get promoted. So you want to make sure that you're growing in experience. So make sure that when you're assessing, you have a clear filter. Is this something that's going to add value to me? Am I adding value to them? Is this a new audience? Is this my existing audience? Am I adding something new? Am I trying a new product? Am I trying a new speech? What am I doing differently this time that it makes it worth it for me? I think the most recent free gig that I did, I did a speaking event at Yale University. So I agreed to do it for free because one, I was coming out of a year of maternity leave. I was very rusty and I knew I needed like a goal so that I could prep, I could get organized, I could get my life together, I could get my brain ready for this. It was like me coming back and trying to see where I'm at. I also don't know how rusty I am. Should I really be charging people money for me to speak right now when I haven't been reading books, I haven't been on reading articles, I don't know what's going on in the world, like I'm a bit out of it. So it gave me like enough time. They asked me in advance that I could prep for it properly so that I still add some value and I get there and I'm not I'm offside and I don't know what I'm doing. Also, it was a new audience. I've never spoken at an Ivy League university in America before. I've attended classes, I've attended events, but now I was the one being invited. So I got to meet a whole other network. I'm treated in a whole other way. They paid for me to go there, they hosted me very well. It was also very stimulating for me. So I got to interact with students, with professors, with alumni. It was so interesting, and it got my mind to start start working again. And so for me, it was an event that was worth it. If it had been a normal time in my life, I don't know, I would have assessed differently. It's a far place to travel, they're not gonna pay you, it's students, is that what you want to do? It's in a different country, is that the audience you want? But it was in my niche, I was talking about entrepreneurship in Africa. So for me, it was validating because when you're talking about entrepreneurship in Africa, the fact that that's what they were looking for and they found me means that my brand is on track. It's in alignment with what I already speak about. So it was easy for them to find me and choose me as a guest speaker. And then it was a good opportunity for me to plan, to organize myself, to assess where I'm at, and to make sure that I deliver, and to get me back in the game. So since then, now I can work again. I started filming again. I started attending things. I started reading again. So you have to sort of have your own criteria and filters for how you're measuring your gigs. What's your benchmark? What's your rate card? How much are you doing? How much are you giving? And learn how to balance that for yourself, because you don't want to give, give, give and be resentful, run out of energy, run out of steam, give up, or feel like you're not being compensated fairly. And I know a lot of the time in the gig world or the arts world, it's hard to monetize what you're doing, but the more information you have, the more experience you have, the more informed you are. So it's easier for you to demand a certain fee because you know what you're worth. You know what other people are paying. You know what other people are charging, especially given your own background, whether you're an African, you're a woman, you're an artist. Sometimes people try to lower your rate or to cheat you or to exploit you. So it's up to you to be informed and to know your value. But you can't do that if you never do it. If you don't have enough gigs, you don't have enough exposure. I remember Tony Robbins said he learned from Jim Rohn And he went to a Jim Rohn seminar, and Jim Rohn advised him, if you want to become a public speaker, you need to do it more often. You can't do it once a month and think you're gonna get good. Try and do it at least once a week or once every 2 weeks. Find a place you can do it, even if it's for free at first, so that you get practice, you get comfortable, you get comfortable on the stage, you get comfortable with your material, you know what you're doing, you build better connection with the audience. What did Tony Robbins do? He started doing it 3 times a day. He would teach his seminar. Sometimes only one person shows up, sometimes the room is full, but he would do it every day and he did it for months until he became better at it. I remember reading that the Beatles did that. The Beatles are a British band and they're one of the bands that has broken the most records in the world in history. Even now it's hard to beat them. But what they did is in the UK they were not given stage time, they were not given enough time because they were not famous, no one knew them. The nightclubs, the bars, they want to play them. They moved to Germany for a year and they would play 8-hour sets. Imagine going for a concert and they play for 8 hours. They'd stay in one bar, in one gig, in one restaurant, playing for 8 hours nonstop. And that's how they became as good as they did, because they had that experience. So now when they came back to the UK, in 2 hours they were amazing— what they could produce, what they could deliver. They knew how to work as a team, they knew how to work together, they knew what songs were the most popular, how to get the crowd moving, because they had experience that other people didn't have, and that was from playing free gigs in Germany for a year. So you need the experience. There's no shortcut to that. You can be super talented, but without experience, without the hours, the time, the 10,000-hour principle, without logging that for yourself, you won't have the experience, the confidence, or the information to now command a high price, to now be a sought-out speaker or a sought-out artist or a sought-out musician. So try not to cut corners. Try to gain the experience for yourself. Because no one will know better than you what your value is and what your product is worth and what you can deliver. And as you move up that gig career ladder, you will be able to see what's the next step, what's the next level, what do I need to do, because you feel it for yourself. Today was a good day, today was an okay day, today I was off my game. So you need to learn that about yourself like an athlete. Repeat it, check it, play it back, assess yourself, reflect, and see how to keep pushing yourself And that way you'll keep growing and you don't have to be worried about overexposure or exploit— being exploited because you're the one in control of your career ladder.