Are We Sharing Or Speaking?
I wrote a post about a formula to use for calculating a speaker fee if you are looking to charge one. There’s been great, open dialogue surrounding this topic lately. This is awesome as money is always a tough subject to discuss. I’ve enjoyed reading different responses and takes on the subject. This is always going to boil down to what you feel comfortable with. Web designers, plumbers, singers, we all charge different rates based on many factors, so remember that in the end, you can be informed what others do but ultimately need to find what works for you. There is no one right answer.
In response to speaking fees, two of the more common responses against charging them have been, “conferences are about sharing” and “conferences pay for themselves”. Let’s look at these and ask a few more questions for discussion:
“Don’t conferences pay for themselves?”
I’m assuming the extreme thinking here is that by speaking at a conference you are then greeted with job offers, freelance projects, and millions of Twitter followers. I hope this is true for some of you, but for lots of us, it is not. Let me ask you this loaded question:
Is speaking for free, in hopes to land a job, any different than spec work?
I’m not 100% sure how I feel about spec work in general. But I do know the majority of us are not up there giving product pitches. We are spending time creating content, designing slides, and practicing to try to teach and inform our audiences.
If we are saying the hard work of public speaking has no paid value, are we essentially creating a new spec work situation?
“Aren't conferences for sharing information, not getting paid?”
What if we altered the language we use to describe speaking at conferences. When you read these statements, do they invoke different ideas of the requirements involved in public speaking:
“I am sharing at an event”
“I am presenting at an event”
“I am performing at an event”
“I am teaching at an event”
Would you pay some of these people, but not all of them? Is there a difference?
Let’s step away from the tech field and look at a stand-up comedian. A stand-up comedian goes on stage and jokes come out of her mouth for 45 minutes. Do we pay her for this time? Is she sharing the jokes? Is she performing? If we don’t like the jokes she is telling, does that change our perception? If her jokes are about her own personal experiences, is she selling herself too much? If she’s only been telling jokes for 6 months do we pay her less than someone that tells jokes for 5 years? If she’s performing locally do we not pay her? If she had to travel far, should we pay her? If she goes on stage and improvs the jokes with no prep, do we leave money out of the equation? If she spent a week or two forming the jokes, crafting them, practicing them, should we pay her for that time?
Are larger comedy performances like a tech conference? Are open mic nights like local meetups?
Here’s how it works for me
When I share through blog posts like this one or record podcasts like the one for ladiesintech.com, those are done on my schedule and are personal projects with myself as the client.
I treat speaking at conferences the same as working for clients. The conference organizers and attendees are my clients.
Again, how you see this or anything in life is going to be personal for you. You can make your own formula for this. Just as there are plenty of ways to code a site navigation, there are a lot of ways to handle your speaking endeavors.
(Thanks to that radical Ethan Marcotte for post feedback)