287. Chris Do on How Consultants Can Double Their Fees

Chris Do: How Consultants Can Double Their Fees

Do you feel like you should be charging more for what you do? I asked Chris Do how he went from charging a couple of hundred dollars an hour to $30,000 for a 45-minute talk.

Chris put in the reps and grew a following, and then the pandemic showed event organisers that the speakers are the event. When he raised his fee, he didn't go up in small steps but doubled it from $15,000 to $30,000 and asked for half up front.

The lesson works for any consultant, lawyer or fractional CFO who wants to double their fees. Be worth more than you charge, let the right people see your work before they hire you, then name your price and let them decide.

0:00 — You don't get what you don't ask for

0:41 — From a couple of hundred an hour to 30K a talk

1:09 — Put in the reps first

1:31 — Get the worksheet for this video

1:45 — Why a following changes how buyers see you

2:47 — How the pandemic changed the negotiation

3:52 — "That's the price": name it, then ask for a deposit

4:32 — Doubling from 15K to 30K in one jump

5:33 — If you don't ask, they won't pay you more

5:40 — Bring more value than you charge

6:01 — Buyers watch you before they book you

6:56 — The three things that need to be true

7:15 — The full conversation with Chris

Ash Roy  and Chris Do's Video Transcript (This transcript has been auto-generated. Artificial Intelligence is still in the process of perfecting itself. There may be some errors in transcription):

Chris Do: Here's the thing about life, you don't get what you don't ask for, Ash.

Ash Roy: Do you ever feel like you should be charging more for what you do? I asked Chris Do how he doubled his speaking fees from $15,000 to $30,000. Now, Chris's answer works for anybody who sells their services, not just speakers. It could be a fractional CFO, a lawyer, a fractional CMO. And in this video, we're gonna talk about the three things that need to be true for you to double your fees.

I'm Ash Roy, I'm a CPA with an MBA from the Australian Graduate School of Management. I've hosted the Productive Insights Podcast for over 280 episodes. And in this video, I'll be speaking to Chris Do about how he doubled his prices. How do you increase your prices from a couple of hundred dollars an hour to 30 grand for a 45 minute talk? I'm sure it helps that you've got an Emmy Award.

If someone's listening to this and they wanna charge higher prices, what's your best advice?

Chris Do: If you're a creative service provider, which is what I was for 20 plus years, that's one answer. And then if I'm a public speaker, there's a different answer. I'll go with the easier question first, if you wanna be a public speaker and you want to be able to charge more. First of all, you have to put in the reps. This is very important. So there's the part that nobody knows you, nobody pays for anything.

And actually I pay to speak, meaning they pay you nothing. I have to get myself in a car, drive, pay for gas, pay for parking, pay for food, and then speak, and then get myself and then leave 'cause there's zero budget for you. And you do that for a while and you suck for a while and you're learning your craft and that's important.

Ash Roy: If you'd like the worksheet that goes with this video, then just email team@productiveinsights.com with the words Episode 287, three steps in the subject line and we'll get the cheat sheet to you.

Chris Do: But the biggest game changer for me are two things that you probably cannot control. Number one is me growing my social following. Because the number of social followers, whether you like it or not, has an impact on the perception of who you are. I think the Emmy is less important here 'cause I know a lot of people who've won prestigious awards but aren't invited to speak and aren't paid anything.

'Cause I think it from the lens of the event organizer, they need to put butts in seats. You need to draw people. So they, I think falsely assume because you have a big following that when you announce that there's some cachet and then people like say, "Oh, I need to see this person speak." It's like your favorite band playing one song and you wanna hear them speak in a small venue.

So I get that part. And then what I see is then there's demand and I get better speaking slots. At first you get the worst speaking slots as we usually like after lunch whenever it's comatose or something like that. I don't know what the worst speaking spots are but I do know the best speaking spot is the closing keynote or the opening keynote. So I start moving away from the center and I start going to opening keynote, opening keynote and then closing keynote.

So I'm like, what is going on? Such a big responsibility. The second component of it outside of growing a larger social following is when the pandemic hit, it made it a lot easier for me to negotiate 'cause before event organizers, they have a lot of expenses. The venue, hotels, logistics, production, AV, even though it looks like they're making a lot of money, most of them, as far as I know, break even or lose money and it's a passion project, right?

Ash Roy: Absolutely.

Chris Do: And so when we went over to the pandemic, well, they had to reinvent their business model. So they're doing Zoom conferences. Well, what are your expenses? Kind of like nothing, $30 a month. I don't know what Zoom costs. It can't be that much. And so now they realize something that they should have known all along. What is an event or a conference without the talent? And you and I, my friend, are the talent.

So then I start negotiating and say, well, it's $10,000 to speak. They're like, for a Zoom call, Chris? I'm like, yep, it's not about the Zoom call. It's not about me getting my car. In fact, I should charge you even more for getting my car. So then they all of a sudden start to agree. And that changes the whole pay structure because I was trying to get $10,000, $15,000 pretty consistently and I wasn't getting it until the pandemic happened.

Afterwards, I realized something. It is easier people to get them to say yes when they have no other choice. And if you stand your ground, they either decide you're worth it or you're not. And I'm not going to sell you that I'm worth it. You have to decide. I just say, that's the price. Why is that? Because that's the price. I have other things I can do.

If you want me, let me know. And the way you want me is you give me a deposit for half. Otherwise, I'll book something else. And so that started to rewire my brain. And then sooner than later, I'm like 10,000. I'm speaking too much now. I'm on the road all the time. And then when I calculate the time in which I'm on the road preparing and building the keynotes and then the after stuff, the VIP events and the parties, it's a lot of me I'm giving away.

So then I said, you know what? That's not enough. I need to just do the next big jump. The next big jump, I don't go in small increments. I go in two Xs. So from 15 grand, I just say it's 30 grand. Here's something that I don't say that often, Ash, which is this. I go to conferences. I'm a really critical person. I'm in the backstage. I'm in the green room.

I'm in the audience. And I'm listening to people bomb, talk about themselves, show you their portfolio and just go blah, blah, blah. Not entertaining, not engaging, super awkward. And here I am putting my heart and soul, trying to deliver value, be engaging, helping them with social promotion, hanging out. 'Cause a lot of speakers, what they do is they speak and they disappear. 'Cause you know, I don't blame them.

They're equally awkward and shy. They don't want to be around people. But I'm already here. I'm already bought and paid for. I wanna go talk to the people now. So that's when I realized, you know what, it's 30K. It has to be 30K. And I think now it's even low because I hear people getting paid way more than that. And I think, do I bring more value?

Do I move more butts in seats? And I think I do. And if that's the case, then I need to be paid more. And here's the thing about life. You don't get what you don't ask for, Ash. And if you don't ask for it, they're not gonna volunteer to pay you more. Here's the other part to this equation before somebody misunderstands what I'm saying. If you charge $20,000, if you charge $80,000, I don't care what you charge, bring more value than you charge.

You get booked all the time. So what people do is they'll say, I heard Chris say it should be 15 grand. They ask for it and they go and they don't prepare and they're not that good. They haven't put in their time in the craft and they suck. That's kind of the end of it.

Ash Roy: But how do you demonstrate the value to the person hosting the event before they book you?

Chris Do: The way that you do that is what they do is they're auditing you. And you know where they find you? At another event. Event organizers and producers go to other people's events 'cause what are they doing? Very safely, they're picking who they think are good, who brings the goods so that they're learning on someone else's time. So of the 15, 20 speakers that have an event, they're like, those four I like, I'm gonna reach out to them.

They got a sample. It's like the Mrs. Fields thing, like taste the cookie. If you like it, buy the whole cookie. And so I make sure I'm not just showing up and showing up is not giving a talk, it's a performance. It's an audio visual human performance in a connection. And they see me at the parties talking to people, not being weird and saying, oh, I'm happy to take pictures and sign things.

I'm game. So they see that, they're like, okay, this person knows how to show up and deliver and they're mapping it to their audience and what they think.

Ash Roy: So if you're a consultant, a lawyer or a fractional CFO and you're looking to double your fees, then these three things need to be true. One, be worth more than you charge. Two, let the right people see your work before they hire you. And three, name your price and let them decide. You see, Chris didn't just edge his fee up. He doubled it. The full conversation with Chris Do is linked in the description below. Thanks for watching and I'll see you in the next video. Ciao for now.