If I asked you right now, “Is your revenue goal high enough to pay yourself…
If you’ve ever been asked to speak for free, you are not alone, but speaking for free isn’t always a bad business decision. I’ve lost count of the times I seen a post on social media with a business owner complaining about being asked to speak for free. Now, don’t get me wrong, there are times when someone has approached me to speak and when I find out there is no fee, I think “Really?”, but I also learnt a long time ago that when it comes to events and speaking, people are playing wildly different games. You need to be clear on your purpose for speaking and stick to your game. In this blog post, I’ll dive deeper into why speaking for free isn’t always a bad decision.
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WHY SPEAKING FOR FREE ISN’T ALWAYS A BAD BUSINESS DECISION
Why most people think speaking for free is a bad business decision and are outraged when asked to speak for free
There are plenty of people who believe that you should “never speak for free” and when asked to speak for free (and the organiser says it’s great exposure) they’ll turn around and say “exposure doesn’t pay the bills”. Firstly, I want to make it clear as a business owner you have a choice what you say yes and no too. And you absolutely have the right to not speak for free and refuse to speak anywhere that won’t pay you. However, just because something isn’t right for you, doesn’t mean it isn’t right for everyone.
With speaking and events, people and businesses are playing different games. There are people who are professional speakers. Speaking might be their only income stream or it may be a considerable income stream. Then there are business owners who are using speaking for marketing purposes whether that be for lead generation, authority building or positioning.
The people who are outraged about speaking for free (and let’s not even mention paying to speak) will be people who see speaking as an income stream and therefore they have every right to be outraged at someone asking them to work for free. However, if you are using speaking for marketing purposes then it can, in some situations, make sense to speak for free.
Speaking for money versus speaking for marketing
As already mentioned there are different games (or approaches) to speaking. It is important for you to understand the difference and work out which game(s) you are playing.
Speaking for money – In this scenario, you see yourself as a professional speaker. You speak in order to make money and therefore getting the right fee is vital. On the whole, the aim will always be to get the highest fee possible, unless there is a very specific reason. For example, you might be trying out a new talk and so willing to take a lower fee or you might decide that a certain event will help open new opportunities so again willing to take a slightly lower free. But on the whole the focus will also be on making the most possible fee wise.
Speaking for marketing – In this scenario, if the primary aim is to use speaking for lead generation then the audience is what matters. You want to be confident that the audience is filled with your ideal client and customer. And if it will be then you’ll choose how valuable that opportunity is and that wil determine whether you are happy to pay to speak, speak for free or be paid to speak. If you are speaking for authority building or positioning you’ll care about the audience, but it might also be the event that matters. For example, speaking at the right conference and being able to say you spoke at X might be valuable to you and your business.
| WHEN YOU SPEAK FOR MARKETING PURPOSES YOU NEED TO HAVE A SOLID MARKETING STRATEGY
If you want to speak for marketing purposes, and are willing to speak for free or pay to speak, then you best have a solid marketing strategy so you make the most of every speaking opportunity. That means having a talk that is perfectly aligned with your offers, that means having a marketing plan for what happens pre and post each speaking gig, and, of course, having a clear strategy on how you sell (either on stage or afterwards). These are all things I can help you with inside my 1:1 mentoring. |
How to decide whether you should speak for free or not
Speaking for free isn’t always a bad decision in fact it can be a great decision, so how do you know when you should and when you shouldn’t speak for free.
Firstly, you’ll want to decide what your primary purpose for speaking is. You can speak for both, for money and for marketing, but it’s useful to have a primary purpose. But regardless of whether you decide you primarily want to speak for money or marketing, there might still be an opportunity that interests you, but there is no fee so here are some questions to help you decide.
- Who is in the audience? Will the audience be filled with people that you’d love to be in front of or not? Will the audience be filled with ideal clients or customers, or other people who could hire you as a speaker in the future?
- What is the event? Will speaking at the event add credibility or help with your positioning? Will be able to say you spoke at X or use the logo be valuable?
- Will you be able to make sales? Are you able to directly sell on the stage? Are you able to share a lead magnet so you’ll be able to move some people in the audience onto your mailing list and then sell to them via emails?
- How much time and energy is required? There is a big difference between creating a new talk for an in-person event that involves hours of travelling and an overnight stay versus delivering a talk you’ve already created in an online conference. Think about how much time and energy will be evolved from beginning to end, not just the speaking part
Asking yourself these questions will help you properly consider what you’ll need to put in and what you could possible get out of the speaking opportunity. This should help you to be able to make a confident decision about whether speaking for free is a good or bad business decision.
My approach to speaking
My primary aim is speaking for money. I love public speaking and have plenty of proof that people love to watch me and get a lot out of my talks. I’ve spent years “speaking” on the PropelHer YouTube channel, the Free and Figuring It Out podcast, going live weekly on Instagram and LinkedIn, as well as delivering free workshops and trainings in my own business and for other businesses.
In 2024, I secured my first keynote speech at the Ticketing Professionals Conference. This was a landmark moment in my speaking career and marked when mentally I transitioned from focusing on speaking for marketing to speaking for money.
In 2025, I was at an event and multiple people asked me “Are you speaking?”. It was clear many people thought I should be speaking at that event and I didn’t want to publicly say “They don’t pay their speakers”. But they weren’t and I rarely speak for free.
I say RARELY because I don’t have as a rule “I don’t speak for free”. I allow myself one free talk per quarter, which I will usually set aside for charities. There are also some online summits that I take part in due to the relationship I have with the event organiser or the fact I can use it is as a speaking for marketing opportunity.
Where I am speaking for marketing, I have set talks with a lead magnet ready to go and an automated email sequence so people will get the lead magnet and then a series of emails where I will multiple times sell (an offer that is aligned to the talk).
You can check out my speaker page here.
That’s it. You now know why speaking for free isn’t always a bad business decision.
Hopefully, you can now see that speaking for free isn’t always a bad business decision. It’s a bad business decision if speaking is your main or considerable income source, but if you are using speaking for marketing you can actually think that speaking for free is cheaper actually a cheap way to market your business. But the key thing to remember is if you are going to speak for free you need to have a clear strategy around making the most of that opportunity. This often means sharing publicly before and after the event, crafting a pitch that means you can sell from the stage with ease, or having a great lead magnet and follow up sales process.
I hope reading this has helped you to get clear on your purpose for speaking. Knowing what game you are playing and understanding the rules that go along with that game are key. And if you are using speaking as a marketing opportunity, then I can help ensure you make the most of your speaking gigs from a marketing perspective.
| WHEN YOU SPEAK FOR MARKETING PURPOSES YOU NEED TO HAVE A SOLID MARKETING STRATEGY
If you want to speak for marketing purposes, and are willing to speak for free or pay to speak, then you best have a solid marketing strategy so you make the most of every speaking opportunity. That means having a talk that is perfectly aligned with your offers, that means having a marketing plan for what happens pre and post each speaking gig, and, of course, having a clear strategy on how you sell (either on stage or afterwards). These are all things I can help you with inside my 1:1 mentoring. |
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