Dorie Clark

Because I was willing to say no, which is a really hard thing to do early on because you're so covetous of the opportunities and the experience.

But I had gotten a referral from some casual acquaintance that a keynote speaker was needed.

for a big convention in Washington.

And it was for an association.

It was going to be speaking to 2,700 people.

So it was a really large audience.

And so they wrote to me.

They said, you know, are you free?

We'd be interested in having you speak.

And I wrote back and I said, yes, you know, in theory, I'm free that date.

This sounds like a great event.

You know, how can we do this?

What's, you know, what's your budget?

What is that looking like?

And so, of course, they email back and they say, oh, well, you know, we're a nonprofit association

So we were really hoping that you could do it for free.

Exactly.

And I mean, if you think about it logically, this is a conference with 2,700 people.

I mean, they're spending more money on the flowers or the peanuts that they're handing out, and they want a keynote speaker who's going to be creating the experience for their attendees for free.

So it was a little bit disingenuous.