For the past couple of years one of my mantras has been, if I don’t value my time nobody will. Which is important because the main benefit I bring to my consulting clients is my years of experience, my diverse radio background and the time I can devote to solving their problems. While prospecting and finding potential new clients is an important part of any consultant’s business model, we all must learn to strike a healthy balance as we scale and our client list grows. That’s important to me because I never want to become one of those stereotypical radio consultants that has so many clients that they can’t visit a market without spending half of their day in calls and zooms with their other clients. Similarly, while I love speaking at conventions, especially broadcast conventions, I can no longer justify doing so in exchange for the marketing value alone. So, going forward I’ll be charging a speaking fee of $2,000 to $5,000 depending on the circumstances and a minimum $199 consultation fee for meetings with non-clients. Here’s what that money covers.

When I speak at a convention I don’t just show up and read a PowerPoint I changed out the title slide on. I give convention planners a list of topics I can cover. Then once they pick one, I create a custom thirty-minute to one hour presentation complete with statistics, case studies and a couple interactive components (Including a giveaway if allowed). I also don’t rely solely on their marketing efforts. I promote it with a boosted and targeted video on social media and in both weekly newsletters I send out that go to 6k and 8k radio decision makers and currently average a 35% open rate. Plus, I bring my own multicamera setup to the event so I can record it and publish it as an audio/video episode of my Radio Influencers podcast for Radio Update and, if the event wants to, I can even livestream it. For all of those reasons I’m confident charging a reasonable speaking fee going forward.

When a non-client schedules a consultation through the scheduling link on my consulting website it isn’t simply a sales pitch for my services. I research their stations and all of their digital assets as well as their competitors. I run a report to look at the market level song data we would use to recommend adds, moves and refreshes if they come on board as a client. In the meeting, I ask them several questions about the history of their stations, some of the successes they’ve had recently, their current pain points and the key areas they’d like to improve. After which I share my initial feedback on their operation and a couple things they can do to see immediate improvement and work toward growing their total audience and company revenue. Then, if they want, I send them a follow up hitting all of the highlights and sharing a sneak peek at the song data for their market as well as a proposal for putting us on a retainer to help them execute that growth plan. While we will roll the cost of that initial meeting into the first month’s payment for new clients, we will no longer offer those initial consultations free of charge. With the final exception of the remaining in-person meeting slots available at NAB in Vegas next week which can be booked using that same scheduling link. For on-air talent looking for a one-time coaching session contact me for pricing.

I know that my unique radio background, having spent virtually my entire life in the industry, and my willingness to constantly evolve and adapt my approach warrants charging these fees. But, what do you think? Comment below or email me at Andy@RadioStationConsultant.com.