I was recently asked by a trade association to give a
\npresentation at their national meeting, which is out of town and
\nwould require a plane trip to reach.<\/p>\n
As a member of the organization, I know they do not pay speakers.<\/p>\n
And out of loyalty and fondness for them, I offered to waive my
\nusual 4-figure speaking fee and do it for free, as long as they
\ncovered my expenses — and of course let me attend the event on
\nthe day of my talk free of charge.<\/p>\n
They immediately responded:<\/p>\n
“Bob, the terms you specify are eminently reasonable. However,
\nthey are not what we had in mind.<\/p>\n
“Paying your travel expenses would not be possible, and we also
\nnormally expect speakers to attend the conference at a reduced
\nfee — though there is possible flexibility there.”<\/p>\n
I quickly sent off a quick email:<\/p>\n
“Thanks for the kind invite, but I have to pass.”<\/p>\n
Was I insulted?<\/p>\n
Not really.<\/p>\n
Many organizations don’t pay their breakout session speakers …
\nand many people accept these invitations gladly.<\/p>\n
In my early days, I did too, because speaking at meetings
\nattended by potential clients was a good way to promote my
\nservices.<\/p>\n
However, for many years, the demand for my copywriting has
\ngreatly outweighed the supply, which is sharply limited by time.<\/p>\n
And so the incentive to speak without fee is no longer present.<\/p>\n
In fact, when the group first invited me to present at their
\nupcoming event, my original response was as follows:<\/p>\n
“Thanks for asking me. I’d love to do it.<\/p>\n
“When I speak without my usual fee, I attend the conference … on
\nthe day of my presentation only … for free.<\/p>\n
“The sponsor organization pays all my expenses including airfare,
\nground transportation, food, and lodging.<\/p>\n
“If the presentation is videotaped, I get a copy of the mp4 and
\nthe right to use it however I wish.<\/p>\n
“I also get one ad in the organization’s e-newsletter, also for
\nfree.”<\/p>\n
But they would have none of it.<\/p>\n
So there’s little or no motivation for me to go.<\/p>\n
And that’s the end of the story.<\/p>\n
Except for this:<\/p>\n
I am still a member. And will be for as long as I live.<\/p>\n
I love the people in the association — both those running it and
\nmy fellow members.<\/p>\n
And if they ever have the meeting in NYC, which is just an hour’s
\ndrive for me, I’ll do it for free in a flash.<\/p>\n
But pay for my own airline ticket and hotel?<\/p>\n
That’s where, rightly or wrongly, I draw the line.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
I was recently asked by a trade association to give a presentation at their national meeting, which is out of town and would require a plane trip to reach. As a member of the organization, I know they do not pay speakers. And out of loyalty and fondness for them, I offered to waive my […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1848,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1,7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1379","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general","category-pr"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bly.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1379","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bly.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bly.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bly.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1848"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bly.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1379"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.bly.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1379\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1384,"href":"https:\/\/www.bly.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1379\/revisions\/1384"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bly.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1379"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bly.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1379"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bly.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1379"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}