Don’t Expose Me
Here’s a request placed on the web recently, which is all too common:
“I am looking for a speaker to present an hour-long audio conference on: ‘No Pay Raise for You this Year! How to Handle This Conversation with Your Employees.’ Our audience is made up of management and HR professionals across the country. The presentation is delivered virtually, so there’s no need to travel. The speaker will be required to submit a PowerPoint presentation that will be sent to the attendees in advance. While speakers will not be compensated for their participation, these audio conferences can provide them with valuable professional exposure, and we encourage speakers to include contact information in our promotions and in their presentation materials.”
Let me ask you two questions:
1. What successful person would want to share their intellectual property for the gain of a third party in return for dubious “exposure”?
2. What kind of “expert” do you think you’ll attract who is desperately seeking the “E-word” and wants to do this?
The audience is cheated, the quality is low, and the concept is dumb. This is what happens when people want to make money without investing in proper resources and trying to do things “on the cheap.” You get what you pay for, and when you pay nothing you get nothing. Don’t enable this kind of stupidity.
If you’re desperate for “exposure,” leave your windows open.
© Alan Weiss 2011. All rights reserved.
