259. Should You Ever Work For Free? How Strategic Pro Bono Projects Have Generated Millions In ROI For This Agency

Cubicle to CEO

Ellen Yin

Business, Marketing, Entrepreneurship

5.0 • 580 Ratings

🗓️ 12 August 2024

⏱️ 52 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Is it ever a good idea to work for free? Many entrepreneurs wouldn’t consider it, especially after being in business for years, but this CEO makes a solid case for why selective pro bono work pays off - sometimes more than you would have even netted from charging for the original service. Tracy Marlowe, founder of marketing agency Creative Noggin, has consistently taken on 1-2 pro bono projects a year. In today’s case study, Tracy details how she’s made MILLIONS of dollars in ROI over the years with this unconventional marketing strategy, either landing paid contracts with satisfied pro bono clients, or referrals from other businesses who were impressed with her work. View the transcript for this episode at: https://otter.ai/u/BziZqzdteytTGuT3X37PW8nCgeo?utm_source=copy_url Thank you to our sponsor! FOR A LIMITED TIME: Get 60% off your Babbel subscription at https://babbel.com/ellen Connect with Tracy: Email her 👉 tracy@creativenoggin.com https://www.creativenoggin.com/ Instagram: @creative_noggin @tracymmarlowe Connect on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/creative-noggin https://www.linkedin.com/in/tracy-marlowe/ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/creativenoggin YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/TheCreativeNoggins Iconic business leaders all have their own unique genius. Take this quick 10 question quiz to uncover your specific CEO style advantage: https://ellenyin.com/quiz If you enjoyed today's episode, please: Post a screenshot & key takeaway on your IG story and tag me @missellenyin & @cubicletoceo so we can repost you. Leave a positive review or rating at www.ratethispodcast.com/cubicletoceo Subscribe for new episodes every Monday. Join our C-Suite membership to get bonus episodes! Check out everything our members get at https://ellenyin.com/csuite Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	You're listening to Kivocalda CEO, Episode 259. Is it ever a good idea to work for free?
0:06.3	Many entrepreneurs wouldn't consider it, especially after being in business for years,
0:10.8	but this CEO makes a solid case for why selective pro bono work pays off, sometimes more than
0:17.4	you would have even netted from charging for the original service. Tracy Marlowe, founder of marketing agency Creative Noggin, has consistently taken on one to two
0:26.6	pro bono projects a year. In today's case study, Tracy details how she's made millions of dollars
0:32.5	in ROI over the years with this unconventional marketing strategy, either landing paid
0:37.3	contracts with
0:38.1	satisfied pro bono clients or referrals from other businesses who were impressed by their work.
0:47.1	Welcome to Cubicle to CEO, the podcast where we ask successful founders and CEOs the business
0:53.1	questions you can't Google.
0:55.3	I'm your host, Ellen Yin. Every Monday, go behind the business in a case study style interview
1:00.4	with a leading entrepreneur who shares one specific growth strategy they've tested in their
1:05.3	own business, exactly how they implemented it, and what the results and revenue were. You'll also hear
1:12.2	financially transparent insights from my own journey bootstrapping our media company from a
1:17.2	$300 freelance project into millions in revenue.
1:31.3	Hey everyone, welcome back to the show.
1:34.1	Today we have Tracy Marlowe joining us.
1:40.6	And this case study is one of the most interesting ones I've seen come across our desk for a while.
1:42.1	It's never been covered on the show.
1:45.8	And it's actually kind of rooted in, I think,
1:50.5	somewhat of a philosophical debate for a lot of entrepreneurs, which is this concept of should you ever work for free, is there ever a time where that's valuable or should you always charge?
1:55.6	And so we're going to be answering that from Tracy's perspective today with her experience doing one to two
	...

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