Speaker - December 2007

Casting a reality check on real-world conundrums
Paying it forward—or paying
for it forever?

Note to Readers: In November, What Would You Do? featured a travel reimbursement scenario with feedback by members on how they would handle the situation. Speaker magazine received this letter in response:

“Yes. Never forget who brought you to the party.”

“Depends entirely on my agreement with the bureau. In any case, I owe them a debt of gratitude and would find a way to acknowledge it appropriately even if our agreement doesn't extend this far.”

In the same package as a report showing most NSA speakers are making relatively little money in the profession, I find a Speaker article that quotes some anonymous speakers as charging for air fare reimbursement when they actually flew for free on frequent flyer points. (Fair disclosure: Some of the interviewees found the practice abhorrent, and good for them.)

In the event that there are newer people reading this stuff who believe that it is established practice because it’s printed in the magazine, let me chime in from another precinct: Charging a client for expense reimbursement for fictitious expenditures is unethical and fraudulent. If you drove instead of taking a plane, would you still charge for air fare? Frequent flyer miles are neither “hard earned”—you get them by flying when someone ELSE is paying your expenses—nor “cash equivalents”—try to make your car payments with them.

It’s time we shone a bright light on these and similar (e.g., charging two clients on the same trip 100 percent of the expenses each) practices. Expenses are to be reimbursed to make you “whole,” not to form a new profit center through cheating, and that’s what it is.

Maybe if speakers put that same energy and inventiveness into expanding and diversifying their businesses, they could simply afford to fly first class and stop looking for bizarre ways to make a few bucks. Why aren’t you charging your clients first-class fare for travel, which is common in the profession?

We’re supposed to be the class of the

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A bureau books you and four years later someone who was in

the audience calls to book you. Do you still owe the bureau?

““Absolutely not. This is the way speakers generate their own clients, by making a favorable impression on audience members. Besides, four years?!!”

“It depends on my agreement with the bureau, but I wouldn’t be thrilled about working with a bureau that expected to get paid on this one.”

“Yes. Ditto. The original lead and client came through the bureau; it’s their client.”

“Technically, yes, you still owe them. In practicality it would be hard to make this connection unless you keep records really well. If you ask the question, ‘How did you hear about me?’ and they answer truthfully then you’ll know to contact the bureau. If they say, ‘I bought your book’ and do not say where they bought it, you might not make the connection and figure out that the bureau should be paid.”

“If the bureau involved is actively working with me, actively promotes me and gets business for me, I would always give it to them. If they hadn’t done anything for me recently and I wanted to get their attention, I might bring it to them as a way to get back on the radar screen. Otherwise, I probably would not.”