How to Not Get Burned Doing Free Speeches

Larry Chiang is an instructive humorist who used to blog at GigaOm. If you liked “9 Things They Don’t Teach You at Business School “, “Man Charm a Room“, and “10 Lies Told at NSA”. He mentions his mentor, Mark McCormack, in nearly every post. His current gig at Bloomberg BusinessWeek focuses “What They Don’t Teach You at Business School”.

What They Don't Teach You at NSA Photo credit Vinh Chung Larry Chiang NSA Nat’l Convention Concurrent Session

You’ll love his newest post: How to Not Get Burned Doing Free Speeches

By Larry Chiang

I just got burned not doing what I teach.

Let me repeat that.

Doing free speeches can burn pro speakers. I have a countermeasure where I take a deposit on a free speech. The organization that gets me for free has to pay a deposit with the contract or letter of intent.

If they don’t change the parameters of my speaking appearance, they get their money back.
Well, here at Stanford, I got fired from my own panel.

I lined up major tech celebrities Mike Arrington, Robert Scoble and the rap star, tech thought leader Chamillionaire onto a marquee panel that I was to moderate.

I got fired from my own panel.

Yikes.

I had countermeasures but I did not pull my celebs off the panel.

I wish I had charged a deposit.

Text me if u need me

650-283-8008

If you see a typo, email it to me larry @larrychiang dot com with your cell in the subject line

I’m giving away 10 copies of Laura Stack’s book, “Super Competent” http://amzn.to/a3pdP5 to #nsa10 attendees. 1st 10 to RT the article of mine u like best WILL winSee this on Twitter

Larry Chiang is the founder of Duck9, which educates college students on how to establish and maintain a FICO score over 750. He has testified before Congress and World Bank on credit.

He is a frequent contributor to Business Week’s blog on “What They Don’t Teach You at Business School“. For fun, writes in a journal, cooks on a hot plate and plays basketball on college campuses across

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