Free tool
How many inquiries it takes to fill your speaking year
Set the number of paid dates you want and your real conversion at each stage, and see the weekly inquiry volume that has to exist for that calendar to happen.
Free tool, no sign up
What a keynote really nets after travel and prep
Enter the quoted fee and the true cost of getting to the stage, and see the effective hourly rate hiding behind a date you were about to accept.
A cross country keynote is rarely a one hour job. It is a travel day out, a stage morning, a travel day back, and somewhere between four and fifteen hours of prep spread over the six weeks before it: the discovery call with the program chair, the pre event survey, the deck customization for their industry, the run through with the AV lead. None of that is billed separately, so all of it comes out of the fee.
This calculator counts the whole engagement. Expenses come off first, then every hour the date consumed, including the airport time you will never get back. What comes out the other side is one honest number you can compare against a half day workshop close to home, or against the virtual session that pays less and costs you almost nothing.
Your result
Out of pocket cost of the trip
$1,430
What the date costs you before anyone reimburses anything.
Fee left after expenses
$6,070
The real revenue of the engagement if travel is not reimbursed separately.
Total hours the date consumed
31.0
Every working hour the booking took, not just the time on stage.
Effective rate per working hour
$196
Compare this against a local half day workshop before you accept.
If travel is billed to the client separately, set the expense fields to zero to see the clean fee against the same hour count.
The hours speakers forget to count
Ask a speaker how long a keynote takes and she says an hour. Ask her to reconstruct the week and it turns into three days. The forgotten hours are always the same ones: the ninety minute discovery call with the planning committee, the pre event attendee survey you offered and now have to read, the rebuild of eleven slides so the examples come from their industry, and the six in the morning AV check that means an early night before and a wasted evening.
Count them once for a real booking and you will price differently forever. Most speakers find the customization work is the largest hidden block, which is a clue: either build topic versions you can reuse across an industry, or quote customization as its own line so the buyer decides whether she wants it.
Using the number to shape your fee bands
This calculator is most useful across three bookings, not one. Run a local half day workshop, a cross country keynote and a virtual session, and look at the effective hourly rates side by side. Most working speakers discover the far away single keynote is their weakest engagement per hour and the repeat regional client is their strongest.
That is exactly what a fee band structure is meant to correct. A band tied to travel radius says a date beyond a certain distance costs more because it consumes two extra days, and a band tied to format says a half day costs more than a keynote because it consumes a morning and a workbook. Publishing that logic on your page means the buyer self selects before she calls.
Questions about this calculator
Should I include reimbursed travel in the expense fields?
Only include what you actually absorb. If the client books the flight and hotel directly, set those fields to zero and the calculator shows your fee against the true hour count. If you are quoting an all inclusive fee that covers travel, leave the expenses in, because that is money leaving your account.
How do I value my own prep time?
Do not put a rate on it, just count the hours honestly and read the effective rate that comes out. The number is only useful for comparison. When you see a cross country keynote paying less per working hour than a local workshop, the fee band, not the hourly rate, is what needs to change.
Does this work for a virtual session?
Yes, and it is worth running. Set travel and lodging to zero, set door to door hours to the actual session plus the tech check, and keep your prep hours honest. Virtual sessions usually show a strong hourly rate even at a lower fee, which is the argument for keeping a remote band on your page.
More free tools and working documents
Working document
The speaker one sheet checklist
Twenty items that turn a page about you into a page a program committee can act on in one sitting.
The number is only half the work
You now know what this format really pays per working hour once the travel days and the deck customization are counted. The next step is making sure the planner who writes to you in March meets the band that reflects it, before her committee builds an expectation you cannot meet. Book a demo and we will set your bands and your availability on one live page in about twenty minutes.