29/05/2017
SPEAK FOR FREE: Welcome to Money Monday! You might be surprised at the opener. how would speaking for free make YOU a High Income Speaker. The answer, is - it depends! Many experts who speak to share some of their expertise speak for "free" and make a lot of $$. Here's how to do it:
1) qualify the opportunity - will the session be attended by many prospects who are exactly the kind of people who can buy your products or services? many years ago, I did a low fee gig once (almost an honorarium vs a fee). Organiser slot put me at the end of a day of a large (free) publc event. Expected audience was half of what was promised. But ONE, just one parent sitting there worked for a major bank, and this led to several five figure gigs. BUt then, you could say I got lucky. i should have pre-qualified the opportunity even more stringently.Those new to this business are also taken in my many "free" opportunities -if you get in front of the right people...
2) ask for an exchange of value. If you normally charge $5000, but the opportunity for spin off looks good as determined by your yardastick and NOT the organisers' - ask for a whole lot of in-kind value that would come up to or exceed $5000 - i have received in the past exhibition booths ( normally $2k - $10K each), mailshots to all attending with a summary of my session (and some advertising collaterals), onsite advertisng and marketing; iron clad testimonials, a large shipment of chocolate (yes - that went to my favured charity later), hotel rooms, flight upgrades - the list is endless
3) Never say it's for free. Say you'll speak for an exchange of value (see above). This creates a sense of value in the clients' mind
4) leverage the opportunity - maybe it's an not-for-fee gig but is supported heavily by publicity created by sponsors and the organisers. this might give you a different story to sell to the media, curry media opportunities and so on ( Andrew Chow is great at this)
The biggest mistake speakers make - go to #1 - they never pre-qualify the opportunity, or get clarity as to why they are doing it. You could create your own criteris like a) is it fun? b) is it profitable from spiritual or money perspective, c) will I make a difference to the event? usually, two out of three of these does it for me at this stage of my career
So - how often have you spoken for "free" and what's transpired. Share some bombs and some wins ( Andrea Edwards!) on this topic here
