As a freelance service designer, who runs their own business, public speaking is both a revenue stream and a marketing channel for me. I’ve been doing it fairly consistently now for the last two years and I wanted to be open and honest about my approach to charging. I also wanted to share a few things I’d like to see change in the industry to ensure speakers are appropriately compensated for their time and experience.
Thank you for being so generous in sharing your experiences and disquiet. I have recently started on my own journey of getting into doing design talks, and I think I am at the point where the initial excitement of being asked for absolutely anyone has evaporated, and I now react with "Hang on. You're charging X amount for each ticket, I'm helping your team learn in 45 minutes something that took me years to figure out, and I'm supposed to be happy with my BFH [Nicked from Bullseye, lol = Bus Fare Home]".
Maybe its a combination of the British cultural squeamish to address money-talk, plus the wider denigration of The Arts that trickles down from government that anything Arts-adjacent is "not a proper career", and the annoyingly stubborn belief that it is reasonable for creative labour to be given away for free (compare fashion/music/publishing/any other type of creative internship), and the social immobility that engenders.
Your one new talk per year approach was really encouraging to read. I have settled on a similar approach more by accident than intention, because of my preference to really practice delivery, refine, practice again, and so on.
Love your BFH. Not heard that before! I think you’re right about there being many contributing factors. I do hope if more people speak about it things will start to change.
The one talk a year thing really helped me refine my delivery. It’s a great approach.
Thank you for being so generous in sharing your experiences and disquiet. I have recently started on my own journey of getting into doing design talks, and I think I am at the point where the initial excitement of being asked for absolutely anyone has evaporated, and I now react with "Hang on. You're charging X amount for each ticket, I'm helping your team learn in 45 minutes something that took me years to figure out, and I'm supposed to be happy with my BFH [Nicked from Bullseye, lol = Bus Fare Home]".
Maybe its a combination of the British cultural squeamish to address money-talk, plus the wider denigration of The Arts that trickles down from government that anything Arts-adjacent is "not a proper career", and the annoyingly stubborn belief that it is reasonable for creative labour to be given away for free (compare fashion/music/publishing/any other type of creative internship), and the social immobility that engenders.
Your one new talk per year approach was really encouraging to read. I have settled on a similar approach more by accident than intention, because of my preference to really practice delivery, refine, practice again, and so on.
Love your BFH. Not heard that before! I think you’re right about there being many contributing factors. I do hope if more people speak about it things will start to change.
The one talk a year thing really helped me refine my delivery. It’s a great approach.