Tori Dunlap’s Post

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Financial Feminist | CEO/Founder: Her First $100K | NYT Bestselling Author | #1 Money Podcast for Women | Forbes 30U30

Last week, I was asked to speak at an international marketing conference in a European country, about how I've grown our company to $5M revenue/year. "We don't have a lot of women speakers at these events typically, and we'd LOVE to highlight your work and increase diversity!" they told me. Speaking is my bread and butter -- and I'm VERY good at it -- and this event sounded great. Until the topic of budget came up. "We don't pay our speakers," they told me. "Huh. Well, surely you pay for travel and accommodations." "Um, no we don't. Typically, speakers are just excited to be there attending." So you're telling me, that you didn't pay your previous speaker Ryan Holiday? Or Neil Patel? And not only did you not pay them, they flew THEMSELVES across an ocean? This is not a non-profit. This is not a small event (the starter ticket for their conference was over $1,000.) You'd like me to pay to make you money. If increasing diversity and highlighting women is important to you as you mentioned in our call, act like it. I'm over it. I'm over the sexism of the online business world. I'm over hearing "we want to highlight women" with no action to back it up. I'm done not getting the respect I deserve, the respect a man would get if they also got 100,000 email subscribers in a week off one video, made millions in profit, or had 5 million followers without ever paying for an ad. I'm over women doing the most and being the best, just to be devalued over and over and over again. I'm over companies making money off the backs of women's unpaid labor. I'm done. Affiliate World Conferences, do better.

Cindy Gallop

I like to blow shit up. I am the Michael Bay of business.

1mo

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I cannot tell you how many times people play in my face with this.

Comments like "you should just be excited to get exposure" comes from a place of privilege and exposure doesn't pay your bills and expenses.

Fiona Simpson, CAPM

Sales Enablement Leader| Process & Project Management Maven | Podcast Host | Speaker

1mo

I’ll just leave this riiiiiiiiiight here

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Cate Hollowitsch, MBA

Chief Marketing Officer | Author | TEDx Speaker | FEAR Framework

1mo

I had a podcaster that has had 4 BILLIONAIRES (he typed important words meant to impress me in all caps) on his podcast DM me today and offer me the opportunity to be a guest on his podcast for the low, low rate of $199, when he usually charges guests $1,000 or more. I think I was supposed to feel honored or flattered or something??

Kimberly Bedeau, MBA

US Head of Diversity, Equity & Inclusion @ HelloFresh

1mo

I had the pleasure of taking my twin daughters to one of your events when they were teens in Seattle years ago. I wanted them to see a young person who took control of their lives and finances. At the time, I wasn’t sure if they would fully absorb the message, but I wanted them to know that it was possible. Representation matters and comes in many forms. I’m excited to continue seeing you do the work you were meant for and empower others and it goes without saying you should be paid for the work you do. Cheers to you for your conviction and HOW you do it!

Jon Gruda

Professor in Org Behavior | Anxiety, Leadership and Personality Research

1mo

"just excited to be there" 🤣 Hilarious that these people are still in business! I've found this response all too common, especially for women speakers. Good for you for naming names and calling them out! My first question to organizers when they ask me if I know someone I could recommend for their panel: How much do you pay? The enthusiasm on the other end usually dies down veery quickly. Tells you everything you need to know.

Leslie Greenwood

Chief Evangelist, Community Strategist, Co-Founder of Wednesday Women, Startup Advisor, Ex-Stay-At-Home Mom

1mo

First they have to find us because often there are “no women experts in their field”. Then they have to pay us? Gosh, Thats. So. Much. Work. Good for you. We’re building Wednesday Women for the find us part. I think we’ll have to add a caveat to our soon to be published public directory that payment and travel is usually expected.

Lauren Hasson

Senior Engineering Leader: Web, Mobile, AI/ML, and InfoSec | 0 to 1 and Enterprise At-Scale Systems | Social Impact Entrepreneur | Award-Winning Founder, DevelopHer | Keynote Speaker | Best-Selling Author

1mo

Sadly, this is not surprising and also very common. The dirty little secret of the women’s empowerment space is that the women on stage doing the empowering are not the empowered themselves, they are usually unpaid! I’ve been speaking for 7 years on some big stages through DevelopHer teaching women how to negotiate for higher salaries. Women have walked away with the skills to earn $30k-$100k more in a single negotiation. I know this because they come back years later and share their stories. Yet I was often compensated $0 for my valuable keynote. The clincher for me was when an executive women’s group invited me to speak to their women at my own expense on salary negotiation. The women in the room each paid $6k for their ticket!!! The acknowledged the value of my program then immediately told me they had no budget. I still gave this email to remind me what I’m worth. I’m right there with you. Good for you for declining them.

Stephanie Melodia

Top 20 Female Founder ⚡ Motivational Speaker 🎤 Podcast Host 🎧 Advisor 💼 Big Sis 💘

1mo

BRAVO Tori!! 👏 I'm so over it too - my worst experience was for a women in tech conference. Like, you're literally meant to be empowering women, but you're selling tickets and have huge name sponsors, yet don't want to pay us? No thanks

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