This afternoon, another person asked me if they could work for free, just to get some experience in digital marketing.

I said NO and here’s why…

If you’re doing work, even as part of an internship, you should be getting paid something.

Even if it’s not much money, even a token payment shows that they and we are serious about projects.

Our experience has been that when we’ve let people work “for free”, they often flake out and do not put priority on the projects.

When our clients are unhappy, their excuse is that they were working for free.

If you’re going do a job, do it well. That said, we hire a lot of young adults with zero experience. So our company pays for their education, much like you’d pay to provide someone a master’s degree in marketing plus one-on-one coaching.

If you went to study digital marketing at Stanford and get coaching, you’d have to pay them– Stanford wouldn’t pay you.

So we must strike a careful balance– to have a high bar that only lets through the highest quality folks worthy of the effort that is a big expense in the short run, but a great investment if they produce in the long run.

So do pay your people– no free work!

Dennis Yu

Dennis Yu is co-author of the #1 best selling book on Amazon in social media, The Definitive Guide to TikTok Ads. He has spent a billion dollars on Facebook ads across his agencies and agencies he advises. Mr. Yu is the "million jobs" guy-- on a mission to create one million jobs via hands-on social media training, partnering with universities and professional organizations. You can find him quoted in major publications and on television such as CNN, the Wall Street Journal, Washington Post, NPR, and LA Times. Clients have included Nike, Red Bull, the Golden State Warriors, Ashley Furniture, Quiznos-- down to local service businesses like real estate agents and dentists. He's spoken at over 750 conferences in 20 countries, having flown over 6 million miles in the last 30 years to train up young adults and business owners. He speaks for free as long as the organization believes in the job-creation mission and covers business class travel. You can find him hiking tall mountains, eating chicken wings, and taking Kaqun oxygen baths-- likely in a city near you.

Dennis Yu