The voice on the other end of the phone has a familiar request. They have heard that you are a powerful presenter with great content, but We are a small group (substitute nonprofit, association, club, organization) and dont have any money in our limited budget for speakers. It would be great exposure for you. Would you be willing to speak to us for free?

My answer for you is, It depends! I have been on both sides of the phone. Because I have a wide network of friends and associates, I am often picked to be a chair of programs and programming for groups with no funds for presenters. I have also presented both for free and for compensation. When I first aspired to becoming a professional speaker, I was willing to speak free for anyone, anytime and anywhere. No longer!

In what situations would I suggest speaking for free and why?

• You would be speaking about your business to a group of potential clients. Some presenters I know do quite well with Chambers of Commerce. I never got repeat presentation business that included compensation from them, but I usually spoke about topics like creativity and storytelling. Today, I have the goal to collect e-mail addresses and names of people to contact. And this works!

• You have a terrific product that sells well from the platform and the meeting planner has given you permission to bring it along for selling purposes.

• You decide, for charity, to give a certain number of free presentations a year. The amount of your donated talk is included in the contract, so the group realizes what they are receiving.

• You are writing a book and pick topics and groups that will be helpful to your research.

• You want to record a presentation - on tape, on a CD, on video, or, at least get some terrific photographs of you in action. You will be more authentic in front of an adoring audience than if you just perform in a recording studio.

Final Warning. Dont speak for free, unless you have a well-thought-out reason. I also suggest not ever negotiating your fees downward. Set them and stay firm. You can have different levels for time and distance, but if you start giving in because you want the job, word will get around and hurt you more than help you. Personally, I feel strongly that playing with our fees just robs us of credibility and integrity. In those cases, I would prefer to speak for free.