1282: Should You Work For Free by Seth Godin on the Strategic Choice of Unpaid Work

[00:00:00] This is Optimal Work Daily, Episode 1282. Should you work for free? By Seth Goden of Seth.blog.

[00:00:08] And welcome to this Thursday edition of Optimal Work Daily. Hope your April has been getting

[00:00:13] off to a good start this week and today we're going to hear from one of our regular authors,

[00:00:17] Seth Goden. I'll tell you more about Seth and his site after the post. But for now, let's get

[00:00:22] it going and start optimizing your life. Should you work for free by Seth Goden of Seth.blog?

[00:00:32] That depends on what you mean by work and by free. Work is what you do as a professional when

[00:00:39] you make a promise that involves rigor and labor, physical and emotional, and risk. Work is showing up

[00:00:45] at the appointed time whether or not you feel like it. Work is creating value on demand and work

[00:00:52] for the artist means putting all of it or most of it on the line. So it's not work when you

[00:00:57] indulge your hobby and paint an oil landscape, but it is work when you agree to paint someone's

[00:01:02] house by next week. And it's not work when you cook dinner for friends, but it is work when

[00:01:08] you're a sous chef on the line on Saturday night. And free? Well, you're certainly not working for

[00:01:14] free if you get some cash at the end of the night, but what about a nine minute segment on 60 minutes

[00:01:19] about your new project or a long interview with Krista Tippett on her radio show. Should you get

[00:01:23] paid for that? Clearly not, not if you think you'll be able to turn that platform into positive

[00:01:28] change into increased trust into something that moves you forward. As more of us work with abundant

[00:01:35] ideas, not scarce resources, the question comes up more often. I'm not delving it all into the idea

[00:01:41] of donating your work to a cause you believe in. That's not a selfish calculation, it's a generous

[00:01:46] one and I'm all for it. But to do it for that reason, because paying your work forward is the

[00:01:52] right thing to do. Harlan Ellison is gifted, inspired and entertaining, but his profane refusal

[00:01:59] to work for free confuses work for money with work for actually valuable attention. In his case,

[00:02:06] he's right, the attention on the DVD had no real value to him. Yes, they could pay for that,

[00:02:11] but see the point about positive externalities in just a minute. Of course, many people who

[00:02:16] would have you work for free value attention far differently than you or I might. No, writing a

[00:02:22] guest blog post for a little blog is probably not valuable enough to you. No, designing a logo for

[00:02:28] the zoo for free is probably not valuable either. And the argument that it is valuable,

[00:02:33] it's good for your portfolio, is inevitably selfish and irrational. The lions get their food,

[00:02:38] the vets get paid, and even the guy selling peanuts doesn't do it for free. On the other hand,

[00:02:44] for a long time, it made perfect sense for opinion leaders without big blog followings to write

[00:02:49] for free for the Huffington Post. And there's still a line of people eager to write for the New

[00:02:54] York Times op-ed page, not for the money. And if Oprah calls, sure answer her even though her show

[00:03:00] isn't what it used to be. The more generous you are with your ideas and the more they spread,

[00:03:04] the more likely it is your perceived value goes up. There are double standards all over the place

[00:03:11] here. There was a national kerfuffle from people who should be doing something more productive,

[00:03:14] about Amanda Palmer giving musicians a chance to practice their hobby or voluntarily gain exposure.

[00:03:20] But no one complains about all the showcases and music festivals that don't pay musicians a penny.

[00:03:25] There's a law against having interns do work that ought to be paid for, but college football

[00:03:30] players give up their health and their time to participate for free in a billion dollar industry.

[00:03:35] Positive externalities are one of the magical building blocks of the web.

[00:03:40] When the work you do creates useful side effects, like the smell wafting from the bakery down the street,

[00:03:45] it's not only selfish to prevent others from partaking, it's actually stupid.

[00:03:50] The infrastructure we all depend on only works because we've made it easier than ever for ideas

[00:03:55] to spread and be shared. That's different though from bespoke work and live work and risky work

[00:04:01] on demand. The challenge of this calculus is that it keeps changing, the landscape changes and so does

[00:04:07] your work. When I started my professional speaking career 15 years ago, not only did I speak for free,

[00:04:13] my company even paid money to sponsor events so I could speak for free. When Ted offered me a chance

[00:04:18] to speak for free years later, I took it because in fact the quality of the audience, the attention

[00:04:24] to detail and the chance to make an impact all made it worth it. But when SXSW, a corporation

[00:04:30] that makes millions of dollars a year offers me a chance to be a speaker, pay my own way,

[00:04:35] and hope to get some attention from their very overloaded audience, it's easier for me to say

[00:04:40] free makes no sense here. Some of the factors to consider, do they pay other people who do this work,

[00:04:47] do their competitors? Am I learning enough from this interaction to call this part of my education?

[00:04:53] Is this public work with my name on it or am I just saving them cash to do a job they should pay for?

[00:04:58] If I get paid, is it more likely the organization will pay closer attention,

[00:05:02] promote it better and treat it more seriously? Do I care about their mission?

[00:05:07] Can they afford to do this professionally? Will I get noticed by the right people,

[00:05:11] people who will help me spread the word to the point where I can get hired to do this professionally?

[00:05:17] What's the risk to me, my internal monologue, and my reputation if I do this work?

[00:05:22] If you're an up-and-coming band building an audience, then yeah, free, free, free.

[00:05:27] It's always worth it for you to gig because you get at least as much out of the gig as the organizer

[00:05:32] and the audience do. But when you've upped in come, then no, it's not clear you ought to bring your

[00:05:37] light and your soul and your reputation along just because some promoter asked you to.

[00:05:43] Here's the heart of it. If you're busy doing free work because it's a good way to hide from

[00:05:47] the difficult job of getting paid for your work, stop. When you confuse busy for productive,

[00:05:53] you're sabotaging your ability to do important work in the future.

[00:05:57] On the other hand, if you're turning down free gigs because the exposure

[00:06:00] frightens you, the same is true. You're ducking behind the need to get paid as a way to hide your art.

[00:06:10] You just listened to the post titled, Should You Work For Free by Seth Goden of Seth's Dot Blog.

[00:06:17] We're driven by the search for better. But when it comes to hiring, the best way to search for a

[00:06:22] candidate isn't to search at all. Don't search, match. With indeed, indeed is your matching and

[00:06:29] hiring platform with over 350 million global monthly visitors and a matching engine that helps

[00:06:35] you find quality candidates fast. Ditch the busy work using deed for scheduling, screening,

[00:06:40] and messaging. 93% of employers agree. Indeed delivers the highest quality matches compared to

[00:06:47] other job sites. One of the things I love about indeed is that it filters out those incompatible

[00:06:52] applicants, so when you're hiring, the process is much faster and you only have to consider

[00:06:56] applicants that are already likely to be a great fit. And listeners of this show will get a $75

[00:07:02] sponsored job credit to get your jobs more visibility at indeed.com slash startup. So just go to indeed.com slash startup

[00:07:10] right now and support our show by saying you heard about indeed on this podcast. Indeed.com slash startup

[00:07:17] terms and conditions apply need to hire you need indeed. You don't need me to tell you that

[00:07:23] something always comes up when you're running a small business. Take the pain out of payroll

[00:07:28] benefits and HR and put the joy back in running your business with gusto. Gusto's payroll and HR

[00:07:34] services can make it a little easier. Gusto was designed for you, the small business owner.

[00:07:40] They take the pain out of running a business automatically calculating paychecks filing payroll

[00:07:45] taxes setting up open enrollment. Gusto does it all want more time tracking health insurance 401k

[00:07:54] onboarding commuter benefits offer letters access to HR experts who you get the idea with gusto. You

[00:08:01] can focus on the joy of running your business and it's super easy to set up and get started.

[00:08:05] And if you're moving from another provider, gusto can transfer all your data for you. So it's no

[00:08:11] surprise 94% of customers are likely to recommend gusto 94. And here's the best part because you're a

[00:08:18] listener. You get three months totally free. All you have to do is go to gusto.com slash owd again that's

[00:08:25] gusto.com slash owd and I'm telling you you're going to love gusto get started today.

[00:08:34] And thanks to Seth for letting us share his work today he is a super popular writer. He's got 19

[00:08:39] best selling books and he's also the creator of alt mba an online leadership and management

[00:08:44] workshop. So what alt mba does is it uses digital tools to engage with small groups of 120 students

[00:08:52] in an intense four week process. It's been going on since 2015 and it's transformed the lives of

[00:08:57] more than 4500 people in more than 70 countries. And a little bit more about Seth he has been writing

[00:09:04] daily on his blog for over a decade more than 60,000 people have taken his online courses and he's

[00:09:10] got five TED talks. His site is definitely worth checking out. He's got a lot to offer there. You

[00:09:15] can find his huge blog but also those books I mentioned as well as podcasts, speaking engagements

[00:09:21] and so much more right there on his site. So come by Seth's dot blog to check it all out

[00:09:26] and I do have that linked in this episode's description. But I think that's going to do it for today

[00:09:31] hope you have had a great one. Hope you enjoyed the post from Seth and thanks so much for being a

[00:09:36] subscriber to our show and I'll see you back here tomorrow where your optimal life awaits.