When I first started charging for my keynotes I did it wrong: I talked about how much time I’d need to take off my other work + jobs. This was a mistake because it pins the price to something quite low.
Then I began to talk about the amount of time it takes to develop and create a keynote. Again this pins it to something small because often I’m able to build even a custom-made keynote out of my past experiences and material.
Then I began to talk about ticket sales and the power a good keynote has over that. For example: If my keynote drives at least 6 ticket sales then it pays for itself. But again this pins it to something lower than what the real value is: It’s not the whole story.
So then I began to think more about scarcity: It’s quite hard to find truly stand-out keynote speakers. This scarcity means that you can charge higher amounts. I’ve had to turn down things this year due to having too much booked. What this tells me is that I haven’t been charging enough.
But finally, the most valuable thing seems to be “association”. ie: Some organisations and events want to associate themselves with me and my “brand”. Unfortunately, the events that pay most for this are ones that don’t align with my values. There was one event in particular that seemed to recruit tens of people who know me to message me, asking for me to be the MC of a large London tech event. I blanked them all but I wish I had replied to each one, telling them why my answer was no.
Anyway, I’m really excited to be speaking at a bunch of events that are run by people I trust: Peckham Digital, YOW Melbourne, YOW Brisbane, GOTO Copenhagen, XConf London. If you’re at one of these, come say hi!