What Free Work Actually Costs You (Solo Episode)

If you're thinking about writing an authority building book, and I really hope you are, and you don't want to be counting pennies or checking your book sales all the time, you actually want a book that's going to change your life, I can tell you how. Just go to sevenfigurebooks.com. I'm not trying to capture your email or anything. You can just download this PDF that's going to tell you exactly how to turn an authority building book into revenue, speaking, authority, and no exaggeration, a whole new life.

THE EPISODE ABOVE WAS INSPIRED BY THE ESSAY BELOW. FEEL FREE TO READ OR LISTEN (OR BOTH!)

Essay link 👉 https://behindthebookcover.substack.com/p/958c2e88-1b22-49b0-be41-28205d37b393

Doing your work for free can feel great.

It can also feel terrible.

It really depends on what you’re giving away and whether or not you’re treating the work and yourself like it’s valuable.

I learned this long ago but recently had the opportunity to, let’s say, re-learn it.

This is a solo episode, recorded straight from the Substack piece I wrote this week called "The High Cost of Free". The thing is: doing free work can be extremely rewarding. I’m doing this right now for free (meta!). What I got wrong recently was treating an agreement to do something for free as if it didn't need to be an agreement at all.

I planned a recovery-writing workshop with Carly Schwartz, a bestselling author who opened the San Francisco bureau of HuffPost and was the Editor in Chief of the city's biggest paper. We spent three months planning it as a pilot, unpaid, for a wellness center's community. Then, the day before, the guy running it canceled on us with no real plan to fix it, and I realized the problem wasn't the free part. It was that we never protected our own time.

In this episode:

Why doing something for free isn't the issue, and what actually went wrong with this particular agreementThe conversation I should have had before agreeing to the workshop, and the cancellation terms we skippedWhy authority doesn't exist in a vacuum, and how people learn what your expertise is worth by watching how you treat itThe difference between generosity and the absence of an agreement, and why confusing the two costs you more than moneyWhat I'd tell you to do right now if you've agreed to do something for free and haven't set the terms yetWant to know more about my company? Legacy Launch Pad Publishing is a boutique hybrid publisher for entrepreneurs and established founders. We help clients