by Bryan Caplovitz

Public speaking can be a great way to gain credibility as an expert, build your brand, and market your services. When you focus on the end goal, the immediate reward of a paycheck for speaking often becomes much less important. Sometimes it makes perfect sense to waive your speaking fee altogether. Here are five great reasons you may not want to focus on the speaking fee too much next time you apply for a gig.

1.     Exposure

If you’re an unknown commodity in a particular speaking circuit, you're a risk. Meeting planners worry that your performance might make them look bad. Remember: your goal is to become a known commodity, which will lead to greater demand. By offering your services at a substantially reduced rate (or for free), the meeting planner may feel that the possible upside outweighs the downside.

Of here's a scenario: you establish yourself as an authority as a speaker at a local business college by speaking for free. Students who have been exposed to your style and your information might need a speaker themselves or the companies they work for someday. As someone who demonstrated value to them long before they began their career, you might be at the top of their list.

Think of your "lost" fees as an advertising/PR expense.

2.     Connections and Goodwill

Like exposure, you’ll get speaking gigs if you know the people who make decisions. How do you find those people? By getting out there and meeting them. Public speaking is one of the only art forms where you can literally get interested parties coming to you to hire you. Take advantage of this. Take on free engagements, and use them as networking experiences. Take a handful of business cards with you, and you’ll be on your way.

There’s also a certain amount of goodwill that goes into donating your time and services .. Essentially, you are saying to the world, “I am willing to work for a good cause, whether I get paid or not.” This instills trustworthiness and charitable feelings towards your growing brand, which is invaluable.

3.     Sell More

One of the speaking industry's best kept secrets is that many of the highest-income speakers don't charge a fee to speak. What?!?  Yep – they make money selling from stage. Sometimes they sell at the event, and sometimes they just plant seeds for later sales. For the most part, meeting planners are much more willing to let you do a 5-minute "pitch" from the stage if they aren't paying a large speaking fee. Some planners can buy your books or other materials as a part of their training budget, even if they don’t' have a speaking fee.

4.     Get More

This goes along with number 3 above. If a meeting planner isn't paying a speaking fee, they will be more willing to trade for valuable resources. Travel expenses can be negotiated. Perhaps a vendor table at their exhibit area. If the planner has media connections, they may be able to offer you valuable press exposure. If they have a professional videographer at the event, getting that footage for free can easily make a free speech worth your time. BONUS TIP: Ask the videographer about getting an edited promo video – many will be willing to do it for a substantial discount because they can tag it on to other editing they are doing for the event.

5.     Practice Makes Perfect

The higher your speaking fee, the less you can afford to bomb with an audience. So even the top speakers practice where it's safe. Small audiences who pay low or no fee. It's a fact of life as a speaker: you need to try out new material. The more comfortable you are with your material, the better you'll perform and the better the response will be from your audience. It's essential that you practice in front of others and get their invaluable feedback. In the long run, this leads to higher fees for your other bookings. Meeting planners pay more for a well-polished performance.

BONUS TIP: Did you know that you might be able to claim a tax deduction when offering a free or reduced fee? If you speak to a non-profit group, write up an invoice showing your full fee, and add a line item for your "donation" to the organization in the form of a fee reduction. Be sure to check with a tax professional to see if this technique will work for you.

As we continue through this Thanksgiving and holiday season, perhaps reach out to some of your favorite local charities or non-profit groups to see if there might be an opportunity for you to give back. A true win-win.

If you’re not sure where to start in building your speaking business, SpeakerMatch is full of further education opportunities to help you fine-tune your skills.  Visit https://www.speakermatch.com/special for more information.