The Laylee Emadi Podcast — For Speakers, Coaches, and Course Creators · Laylee Emadi

224: Are Unpaid Speaking Gigs Worth It?

October 20, 2025·27 min·5 clips

Lely Amadi opens by asking a question a lot of speakers quietly carry: when does an unpaid gig actually make sense? She treats the answer like a strategic business decision, and she keeps coming back to the real costs behind a yes, including travel, the audience you will meet, and the relationships you might build. The pace stays brisk. She keeps turning the conversation back to fit, because a free stage with the wrong audience may not be worth the tradeoff. She also makes room for the upside. A strong room, the right organizer, and a useful audience can turn an unpaid appearance into future opportunities and better relationships. The episode does not pretend that every opportunity is equal. Instead, it keeps asking what the speaker is actually getting in return for the investment. Amber's story adds a concrete example of presence paying off. Lely reacts to the idea that a speaker should stay for the whole event, not just grab the mic and leave. That detail matters because the hallway conversations, the table talk, and the shared time after a session can be where the real connection happens. Lely frames that behavior as both generous and smart. Christina Bartold then brings in another criterion that feels easy to miss. For her, access to other speakers and attendees can make an unpaid opportunity worthwhile all by itself, especially when the event includes dinners or built-in networking. Those moments have led to other speaking opportunities for her. The episode keeps circling back to decision criteria. Who will be in the room, what will the speaker have to spend, and what might this open up later? Lely's answer is practical and unsentimental. Say yes when the room can genuinely move your business forward, and be honest when it cannot. That makes the conversation especially useful for speakers who want to grow without mistaking visibility for value.

As heard by us

Unpaid speaking works when the room and the relationships earn their keep.

This episode treats unpaid speaking gigs as a practical tradeoff, not a moral test. It brings in speakers and event hosts to weigh travel costs, the people in the room, and the relationships that can come from staying engaged after the talk.

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Why you'd press play

Decide whether a free stage can still pay you back.

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