Paid work and free work

I think it was on an episode of Seth Godins Podcast, Akimbo, that he spoke about deciding what you want to get paid for and what you’ll do for free.

It isn’t something I’ve heard spoken about often but I think it’s quite important.

These days most of us put stuff out for free whether it’s through blogging, a podcast, YouTube, Instagram etc.

But if you’re constantly creating on multiple platforms it might feel difficult to identify what you want to be paid for. It could be that you’re blog posts are free and you decide to put your podcast out on a site like Patreon.

If we look at it in terms of doing work for a company or organisation (not your listeners/readers directly), I’ve heard speakers say they’ll speak for free in schools or for charities but everything else is paid work.

I think Seth mentioned his blog and podcast are his free work but that he never speaks for free.

I think it’s important to establish early on what you want to be paid for, that way you’re less likely to be persuaded to work for free.