How Gary Vee just showed me the massive value of Free

I would hear public speakers getting paid $10K, 20K, 50K and up for a 1 hour keynote and would think “how can they possibly justify this fee?”

That was until last week…

During a call with my business coach, he mentioned he’s speaking at a business event the next week and that it could be a good opportunity to attend to build joint venture partners.

I listened and said no, as it’s a 4-Day event, I’d have to fly out to Vegas, and I’ve spent the past few years going to these types of business events, now I’m more focused on executing the information gained.

He understood and mentioned that a big thrill for him will be that he’ll speak at the same event as Gary Vaynerchuk.

Hold on, wait a minute!!!

Gary Vee is speaking at this event?

This completely changes the decision making process as I’m a huge fan and have never seen him speak live. Within the next hour, had hotel, flight, and event ticket purchased.

I reflected the next day and thought, how amazing is it that with the mention of 1 person being there, my decision process went from a “no” to a “I can’t miss this.”

In that moment, I truly understood the massive value of FREE.

My connection with Gary Vee started 6 years ago. I had just lost my job and knew my heart wasn’t in going back to Finance.

After struggling with anxiety and panic attacks for the previous 15 years, I hit a point where I could no longer pretend that it wasn’t a big problem. Opening up and getting help was a big shift as being that vulnerable brought on a major fear of being rejected.

As I was going through my journey, I started blogging about my experiences and wanted to let other people struggling in silence to know they were not alone and they had choices to improve their lives.

I continued to write, but it was coming from a mixed place. On one hand, it was exciting to know I could help people, but the other side represented significant fear, both of judgement and also doing what you love is great, but this is a passion, not a career.

That’s when I say my first Gary Vee video, it was a talk he gave at Web 2.0, where he spoke about building a personal brand. (Video link)

As I watched his presentation, I instantly connected to his charisma and authenticity. The main message I got was: if you work hard and hustle, you can monetize your passion.

This flipped the switch as it gave me hope that I could make a living doing what I’m passionate about and fast forward 6 years, I have a successful business training business professionals to overcome public speaking anxiety so they can communicate with confidence.

So where’s the value of Free?

Reflecting back to the decision to attend this conference, I looked at my history with Gary Vee.

He’s my favourite business speaker and I’ve watched many of his videos over the years as an active follower on social media, but my actual purchase history has been only 3 of his books.

The reason is he gives most of his content away for free. I have massive trust in Gary and if he ever created a course, it would be an automatic purchase.

What was interesting to experience, was I have received so much value from his free videos that I feel a bit guilty as I’ve personally profited so much from his videos that I will buy anything he offers.

This brings me back to the value of free and speaker fees.

The only reason I’m going to this event is to see him live. It will cost me close to $2,000 and involved moving 4 days of meetings and commitments, but it’s an automatic yes to see him live.

When I think of a speaker getting for example $15,000 for a keynote, it makes sense depending on if they’re a draw as I’m just one person, how many hundreds of others will be attending because of specific speakers.

Now I have a more well-rounded perspective on speaker fees as am looking at it from a total return on investment perspective.

3 Questions For Event Organizers To Determine Value For Speakers

How many tickets will this person be able to attract to the event?

Of these people, how many will buy products at the event, getting the organizer affiliate commissions?

How will my reputation and personal brand improve through association with this speaker?

Looking at these questions, depending on the draw power of the speaker, these fees can be a relative bargain compared to what they can pull in for the organizer.

This has been a game changing experience as now on a personal level, I see the value of putting free content. It’s about creating exposure, a fan base and a following to influence change and take action.

I’m planning out a series of content pieces to follow the Gary Vee model and hope you are too.

What’s been the biggest action you’ve taken based on receiving free content?