What to do, when youre asked to work for FREE

Today alone, I got two requests to work for FREE. 1. The first person said they were putting together a deep research project on white paper that was going out to high-tier Fortune 500 organisations. Would I kindly contribute 30 minutes of my time to be interviewed to have my knowledge included in the white paper? 2. The second one was somebody asking me to speak at their conference for free, where they were selling tickets for the conference. On both occasions, I have one very simple response..... Now, let me pre-frame this by saying I am not anti doing stuff for free. Doing stuff for free has been an incredible strategy for me in the past, in my early days, and still is. To this day I will make very selective decisions about things I give my time to free of charge. Usually, these days they are for charities and non-profits.... ooorrrr...... where there is a significant exposure opportunity to an audience that I don't have access to yet myself AND I can promote to them directly. If you are constantly being asked if someone can - pick your brains. - or if you can do stuff for free, - or speak for free.. ... and you don't feel like it is an amazing opportunity that is worth a free contribution.. ...then here is the one single thing that you can do to respond in a way that is loving, grateful, caring, and supportive whilst at the same time protecting your time and your bottom line.. See video to the end for the EXACT way to respond to these requests and a way that doesnt make you look, or feel like an A-HOLE. You cant pay your bills with coffees. Hope this helps 💜