What to Charge for your Speaking Fee | Episode 16

How to Answer “What’s Your Speaking Fee?” and Get Paid What You’re Worth

The episode explains how speakers can confidently answer “What’s your speaking fee?” and avoid blurting out an unaligned number by using three approaches: replacement cost, honorarium/starter fee, and the “budge or barter” method to avoid. 

For replacement cost, speakers (especially coaches/consultants) can base fees on their hourly rate plus preparation, pre-event calls, and post-event follow-up, emphasizing they’re paid for delivering a problem-solving program, not just a 60-minute talk. 

For honorariums, speakers can ask early if there’s a budget, then negotiate other compensation like travel, books, video footage, attendee lists, sponsorship/table space, promotion, or discounted tickets, and invoice the full fee with discounts. 

The script shares typical fee ranges (emerging $0–$3,000; experienced/industry $3,000–$7,000; professional/celebrity $7,000–$100,000), suggests stating ranges, discusses whether to list fees on a website, and underscores saying no when it isn’t worth it.

00:00 The Speaking Fee Question

00:56 Avoiding the Bread Game

01:48 Replacement Cost Method

03:52 Prep Time and Add Ons

07:00 Lead with Value

07:37 Honorarium and Low Budget Gigs

09:09 Negotiating Non Cash Perks

11:06 Sponsorship and Tabling Example

14:02 Budge or Barter Pitfalls

15:25 Typical Fee Ranges

17:34 Using Ranges and Calculators

19:21 Posting Fees and Wrap Up

20:34 Final Thanks and Call to Action

Have a question or suggestion for a future episode topic? Email me jenn@jennspingo.com.

Ready to deliver mic drop moments in your next presentation? Schedule a call to learn more about coaching www.calendly.com/jennchat

Looking to book a speaker for your corporate or association event on topics including leadership and communication? View my programs at www.jennspingo.com

Transcript

The Speaking Fee Question

SPEAKER_01 0:00

There is one scenario that creates a sense of dread and fear in every speaker's heart. That is when you're in a meeting and the planner asks you, How much is your speaking fee? Today's episode is about how to answer the question of how much do you charge for your speaking and how to make sure that you're getting paid what you're worth. Let's jump into mic drop mindset right now. If you've never put a price on your passion before, you can get startled into a conversation with someone who suddenly has money and says, We would love to have you come on stage. How much do you charge? So there are a couple of different scenarios we could use to answer this question. Almost every scenario we're talking about today is one that I've done or my clients have done.

Avoiding the Bread Game

SPEAKER_01 0:56

A lot of people, when they're asking you, how much should your speaking fee be? They want you just to list a straight up number. It's like if you go into the grocery store and they're like, How much is the cost of bread? Somebody doesn't go back and say, Well, I don't know, how much money do you have? How much did you get paid this week? Like, you don't want someone to dance around the topic. Bread has a certain cost, right? So you're like, okay, how much is the bread? And they're like, okay, which kind of bread? Like sourdough, how much is the sourdough bread? Well, the one from yesterday or the one from today. You could literally go back and forth for eons of time in terms of determining what that speaking fee is going to be. So let's talk about some scenarios that can help you get clearer so that you don't stumble, you don't freak out, and you don't blurt out a number without even knowing what your value is as a speaker.

Replacement Cost Method

SPEAKER_01 1:48

So, scenario number one: the replacement cost of you speaking. Now, this was an idea that was brought in front of me by someone who hired speakers for a networking group. So she didn't hire them, it wasn't a paid speaking opportunity, but she was someone who books speakers. And this is for a monthly networking group here in the Twin Cities. This was a few years ago, so I'm sure she's not in that role anymore. But she told me that how she approaches her speaking opportunities, because not only does she book other speakers, she herself is a speaker. Side note: a lot of people who book speakers have experience with booking speakers and being on stage, so that's something important to pay attention to. She said that she looked at how much would it cost a client to work with her for an hour, and that's how she would approach her speaking fee. Let's not get too excited about this. So, this is only applicable to you if you're a coach or consultant or you have an hourly fee, and there's a certain number that is tied to that fee. Now, for me, I am a coach and I do have an hourly fee, but I wouldn't charge an hourly fee that I offer with my coaching clients as my speaking fee. There's a vast difference between those things. So she was looking at it as this is what I would lose in coaching or consulting money if I showed up on stage instead. So that's an interesting approach. It might be something that you would consider depending on what your consulting fees look like. Now, if you're not a coach or consultant, obviously this is not going to be useful for you. Or if you're a coach or consultant who offers premium pricing or even offers really low-cost programming, like if you have a group program that's $500 for six weeks, that would not make sense for you to isolate a single hour of that and say, well, it's only $50 for me to speak on your stage here because that's how much I would charge for my group program. So there are certain models where this absolutely would not get you anywhere near what you're worth as a speaker. Let's look at a very

Prep Time and Add Ons

SPEAKER_01 3:52

specific example. If you normally charge as a coach or consultant $500 an hour, which is kind of at the high end for coaching, but maybe the low end for consulting, you would also factor in how many hours it would take you to prepare for that presentation. Not just the time you're on stage, an hour-long presentation, and that's our default, an hour-long presentation, but also how long it takes you to prepare. So the pre-speaking event calls, if you're offering those, if you're getting with the event planner, if you're doing surveys, audience polling, that sort of thing, if you're creating slides from scratch, or if it's already a presentation you have in your back pocket, you should always have a presentation in your back pocket. It's called a signature speech. But if you're creating something more custom, if you're including some different information, you might want to do some due diligence, then that's prep time. There also might be follow-up time after you're done speaking. And if you're not already including pre-speaking or post-speaking work, you may be selling yourself short when it comes to your speaking fee. But your post-speaking work could include a refresher session, an accountability session, a group program that you kick off to implement the things that you talk about in your speaking. So these are all things that could be included as part of your speaking fee. If you're just getting started, you might be like, well, Jen, I just do a 60-minute presentation. Like, how would I charge? How much time does it take for me to prepare that? I can't really tell you that answer. But I would say 10 hours is a sufficient amount for a first-time presentation. That includes rehearsing the talk, getting the slides ready and delivered to the client on time, making sure that you hit your targets from a presentation standpoint. So rehearsal is included within that. Yes, you want to rehearse before you show up on stage, and that's part of your work for the speaking fee. And then some of the things you might include for the client as aftercare after you're done being on stage. So five $500 an hour, if that's what your coaching consultant might be, or in the ballpark, plus 10 hours of preparation for that presentation. So your speaking fee might start at $3,000, and that is a fair amount. Now, if you're hearing that number, $3,000, and you're like, well, Jen, that feels like a lot, or Jen, that's not nearly enough, then this may not be the model for you. But as you're just getting started, this might be a good way to set your fees in a way that feels aligned with your current business model or where you want to be within your business model. And I'll put this out here. When it comes to replacement cost, you can always set the number a little bit higher than you feel comfortable with because you might have to negotiate it lower. But if you put it lower to kick off the conversation, you probably can't negotiate it higher. So when it comes to replacement cost, know your numbers in your business. Know what kind of preparation it takes to deliver an amazing experience for that client. Once you know those two numbers, you can conceive of a good replacement cost that would set your speaking fee for an hour-long presentation. So replacement costs.

Lead with Value

SPEAKER_01 7:00

I want to put this out here because this needs repeating over and over. You are not being paid for just a 60-minute talk. You are more than just a 60-minute talk. You're delivering a program that solves a problem. And what it takes to deliver that program is something that you determine, and the client is waiting for you to lead that conversation as to what needs to happen in order for you to deliver that solution. So you are the one leading this conversation. Make sure that you are ready to lead the conversation with real numbers because they'll be expect to know what goes into that number.

Honorarium and Low Budget Gigs

SPEAKER_01 7:37

Now, the second scenario we could talk about when it comes to a speaking fee, and this might be good for some of you who don't really care if you get paid to speak. Maybe it's a nice bonus, it's an add-on, a value add, but it's not something that you're specifically looking for. This is the honorarium scenario or starter fee scenario. So you need to get started with something. Supposing somebody offers you money, you're not going to just say no, I'm not going to take the money. But what number do you throw out there? So you don't sound like a complete like someone who has no idea. We have to have something to say in this conversation, right? After a big pause. So the honorarium scenario is, especially for those of you who don't care if you get paid to speak, because you know that you have a decent amount of clients that you might get from the room. Now, if you haven't been on stages, you might not have a guarantee of this, but you might have a belief that you have done it before. You can negotiate certain things with a very low budget. So if you're talking to a nonprofit, if you're talking to an association, and there's no signal on the application or in your conversations that they pay a speaking fee, first of all, ask them if they pay a speaking fee before you even get deep into the conversation. Just ask them, is there a budget to pay speakers? They will usually be pretty open with you because they don't want to waste your time or their time. So make sure you ask, because if you don't ask, you will never be told until you're further along in the process.

Negotiating Non Cash Perks

SPEAKER_01 9:09

So those organizations that have minimal budgets or might have no budgets to pay you a speaking fee, but they might have budgets from other places, like they might pay for your travel, your lodging, they might pay for books if you provide a copy of a book for everyone in the room, printing costs. There are things you can negotiate outside of your speaking fee that can still be monetary compensation. What else would be included as part of monetary compensation that is not a speaking fee? Well, this could include video footage. If they already have a videographer in the room and they've already paid this person, you can ask them if they will send you a copy of your video footage. Because guess what? Every other speaking opportunity will ask you for video footage. If you don't want to pay thousands of dollars to hire a videographer and to create a scenario of you being on stage, then get access to footage whenever you can. So most often they will be willing to introduce you to the videographer andor cover the cost of that and give you a raw copy of that footage, unless it's a private event. And in that case, you might have to negotiate something else. They might also, if it's an entrepreneurial event, an association, an industry event, they might give you access to an attendee list. So if you're on an event with a thousand people and suddenly you have a thousand email addresses or phone numbers that you can follow up on and you have reason to believe that they're interested in your content, then you would be able to follow up and perhaps monetize on the back end. This is a legitimate way to build your business and find the right clients for you. I'm not saying you're gonna spam them. I'm not saying you're gonna harass them or add them to your email list. They have to opt into your email list. But when you have access to the attendee list, you can at least reach out and see who reaches back to you. You could also negotiate in-kind sponsorship.

Sponsorship and Tabling Example

SPEAKER_01 11:06

Recently, I was asked to speak for an event, and I'm very excited about this event. It's a Broadway-themed event. I love Broadway. I even know what song it's gonna be for. They don't have a huge budget to pay speakers. So I negotiated with them to get a table at the room. I'm able to say a few minutes in the opening remarks of the second day where I'm presenting. I'm able to offer my programs at the registration table. This was something they offer their sponsors because they know that my typical speaking fee is above what they were able to pay me. So they were willing to include sponsorship as part of my compensation for this event. That is something that sometimes they have wiggle room on if they have plenty of other sponsors or want to promote your event and bring you on as a speaker. This could be something you can negotiate. Of course, there are things like will they bring you on the podcast? Will they promote you? Will they give you discounted tickets so you can invite your people into the room? Do they offer you a table at the event where you could provide, you know, resources for people to download books or sell something else at the table? It's a very different skill set to have a table at an event than it is to speak at an event. So make sure you know some basics on what to do with tabling an event. I've tabled many events. I don't necessarily enjoy the process of tabling an event, and it's good to have an assistant, but it's a good way for you to share your programs because often when you're on stage, you're not allowed to promote from the stage. So if you have a table, you can promote something and then receive compensation on the back end. So this is the honorarium scenario where maybe they have some money, and an honorarium is less than you would pay a speaking fee. So it could be a thousand dollars, it could be a few hundred dollars. It varies depending on the organization you're talking to. The honorarium is less than a speaking fee. So a typical speaking fee might be 4,500, 5,000, something like that. Honorarium is less than that. What's important to know about if you negotiate beyond an honorarium. So you get an honorarium of a few hundred dollars, you negotiate some other monetary compensation through attendee lists or video footage. What's important is when you invoice that client, you are sending them your full fee on the invoice and then discounting it down however you need to. So you would add those other things that you negotiated as part of your contract so they can see what your typical fee would have been if you didn't negotiate that fee. Now, there's a certain point at which we don't want to negotiate anything or it doesn't make sense to negotiate anything, and you may not receive enough compensation either through money or through other ways to make that event worth your while. No is a complete sentence. And when you say no, you can say yes to the right events for you. So that's the honorarium scenario.

Budge or Barter Pitfalls

SPEAKER_01 14:02

Last, let's talk about the budge or barter system. And this is something that I did for way too many years before I felt comfortable enough with a sales conversation. If you feel that way where you're like, ooh, sales are not my thing, Jen, I'm right there with you. I've experienced so many of these conversations. And I wouldn't call myself a really good salesperson, but as a speaker, you will be doing some selling. So get used to it or find a different industry to be in. You will have sales conversations. So bud your barter. This is where you make up a number. You know, you've reached a point where they're like, yes, we're bringing you on. We're so excited to have you. What's your speaking fee? And you're like, oh, I don't know. I never thought about that. I what? Well, how much do you have? And you play the chicken game or the bread game that we talked about in the beginning, where you're like, what's the cost of bread? What kind of bread? And you go back and forth. Frustrating for everyone. Or you just make up a number where you're like, oh yeah, yeah, I get paid uh $800. And you're like, and they say, absolutely, we can't wait to bring you on. And you're like, gosh darn it. They had more money than that in their coffer there. They were willing to pay me more. And that was just the number that came top of mind. As someone who works with a lot of women speakers, I will say that women do not get compensated as well as men do, just in general. I mean, look at corporate, that happens too. But I will say that women are less likely to state a number that is more in line with the speaking industry.

Typical Fee Ranges

SPEAKER_01 15:25

So let's talk about some of those numbers, right? Because if you don't know, how are you going to figure it out? Um, so if you are an amateur or emerging speaker, anywhere from no compensation to $3,000 in a speaking fee plus travel, lodging, and other things is typical, is expected. Now, there's a big difference between zero and $3,000. So you have to find your comfort level within that range. If you're a more experienced speaker or an industry speaker, so an industry speaker is someone who's not known beyond their industry, but they're famous, if you will, in their industry, or they always show up on stage for certain events every year, they are famous in their field. So that could be anywhere from 3,000 to 7,000 for a 60-minute keynote in their industry. Or if you're experienced, maybe you have some other things going on, you have a podcast, you have a book, but maybe you're not an Amazon best-selling author. Maybe your podcast is just getting started. Maybe you've never done a keynote, but you've done plenty of breakout sessions. You might find yourself in the 3,000 to 7,000 range. And that's normal. And then we have professional or celebrity speakers. And they would be anywhere from 7,000 to 100,000 per presentation. Celebrity speakers are the people you think of, like Michelle Obama, um, famous athletes, basketball players, former presidents, people like that. Most of us are not going to be celebrity speakers. If you are and you're listening to this, shout out to me because I'd love to say hi back to you. And how did you find me? I would love to hear from you. But most of us won't reach this until we've reached a certain level in our business. By the time you've reached professional or celebrity speaker status, you are probably working with a speaker bureau or a speaker agent. You have more business than you know what to do with. You're saying no more often than you're saying yes because you do not have the capacity. So I'm guessing most of us listening are not in that range, but if you are, awesome. You are a professional. Own that status, claim that fee. You are worth way more than that because somebody is earning $100,000 for the same presentation you're giving for $7,000. So shoot for the sky because somebody is getting it, if not you.

Using Ranges and Calculators

SPEAKER_01 17:34

So let's talk about what do you do with these fees? These are just some bucket fees that you could list. And by the way, I'm aware of other people out there. For example, Grant Baldwin of the Speaker Lab Podcast and the Speaker Lab company has a calculator that kind of plugs in some things. I tried that calculator, and what I found really interesting about it was he plugged in how much the event charges their attendees, how many people are in the room, and some other factors that you may or may not know when you're in a conversation with the event planner. This is not helpful for you. If you're at an instrument event and people are being charged $1,000 to show up, that doesn't necessarily mean they have money in their budget for their speakers, especially if you're not an opening or closing keynote speaker. So I personally didn't find the calculator helpful for me because of my unique speaking style. You can certainly play around with that calculator if you want. I've just given you some fee ranges to get an idea. Before we close out today's episode, I do want to say you can list a fee range in these conversations with event organizers. If you reached a point where they said they want you and they ask you your fee, if you kind of stumble or struggle with saying $7,500 is my fee, you could state a range and kind of soften that blow and also maybe guesstimate where their budget might be. You may or may not have that information before you get to that point of making the sale. So it's okay to list a fee range, but just know that the more confident you are in stating your fee, the easier it is for them to say yes or no, and for you to know whether your program was the right fit for them. They can usually find money for the perfect fit program. I've heard it happen before, it's happened for me, it can happen for

Posting Fees and Wrap Up

SPEAKER_01 19:21

you. And last, one more consideration before we close out today is do you list your fee on your website? Some people do, some people don't. Personally, I don't do it because I'd rather be in a conversation with someone and weigh some pre-event information in the balance before making a determination. That doesn't mean my fee changes. It just means it depends on the mix of business I have. I might accept a lower fee speaking engagement if I don't have any other bookings that month. I still have fee integrity because I have a certain fee that I list, but I might accept something at a lower amount, just as I might offer a showcase presentation where I get paid nothing once a quarter. And that's something I typically give away as an experienced speaker. So you might have your own unique mix of speaking, regardless of what your mix looks like. Know that you deserve to be paid for your value and for what you're delivering as a speaker. And if you'd like to continue this conversation on fees, you know where to reach me. I'm here every Friday, or you can come find me on social. Until then, I'll see you on a well-paid stage.

Final Thanks and Call to Action

SPEAKER_00 20:48

Spingo.com.