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A FREE E-BOOK ON

WHY YOU
SHOULDN’T
DO THINGS FOR FREE

Written by: Peace Omodara


Copyright © Peaceful Peace 2022.

ALL RIGHTS RESERVED


No portion of this document should be reproduced, stored,
shared, printed, recorded or transmitted in any form or by
any means, electronic, mechanical or otherwise without
the written permission of Peaceful Peace .
TABLE OF CONTENT

A FREE E-BOOK ON
WHY YOU SHOULDN’T
DO THINGS FOR FREE

TABLE OF CONTENT
• ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
• MEET PEACE
• INTRODUCTION
• WHAT DOES IT MEAN TO DO THINGS FOR FREE?
• WHY DO PEOPLE DO THINGS FOR FREE?
• ADVANTAGES OF MAKING FREE OFFERS
• HOW DOING THINGS FOR FREE HELPED ME
• DISADVANTAGES OF MAKING FREE OFFERS
• HOW DOING THINGS FOR FREE ENDED IN TEARS FOR ME (HOT
TEARS)
• LEVERAGING ON FREE OFFERS FOR PERSONAL DEVELOPMENT
AND BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT
• STRIKING A BALANCE BETWEEN GIVING BACK TO THE SOCIETY
WITH FREE OFFERS AND GROWING YOUR POCKET WITH PAID
OFFERS
• CONTACT PAGE
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

A FREE E-BOOK ON
WHY YOU SHOULDN’T
DO THINGS FOR FREE

A FREE E-B
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
Thanks to God almighty, the giver of life and the one who
provided everything needed for this book from when I started
drafting until it was published.
I am also grateful to my sweet parents and beautiful sisters
for their prayers, support and words of encouragement. Thank
you for everything.
To my darling friend and CO-VP, Akinyemi Akinwumi, who
has been with me on every single project, thank you so much! I
am so happy about all we have achieved and I look forward to
all we will achieve. To my sweetheart and colleague, Oore-ofe
Akande (Giftygift ), who gave me all the support I needed for
my last project, I am grateful for you. We do more stellar things
individually and together! I am also grateful to my boss, Ibukun
Akinkuotu for being intentional and selfless.
I will not drop my pen without thanking my amazing
online community. You all are super amazing! When I count my
blessings, I count the whole community 100 times. I love you
all so much and I am grateful for all you do, all you say, and all
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

A FREE E-BOOK ON
WHY YOU SHOULDN’T
DO THINGS FOR FREE

A FREE E-B
you spend on my brands. This book is one of my plenty ways of
thanking you.
And if this book is your first contact, welcome! I am Peaceful
Peace (with a sprinkle of vayolence) and the Vice President of
Intellectual Property Law Club.
MEET PEACE

A FREE E-BOOK ON
WHY YOU SHOULDN’T
DO THINGS FOR FREE

A FREE E-B

MEET PEACE
Peace Omodara is a brand influencer, content creator and brand
consultant. She is professionally and popularly referred to as
“Peaceful Peace”. She is the author of “Influencer Marketing for
Brand Owners and Influencers”.
Peace is passionate about bringing brands to the limelight
through effective marketing. She believes every brand has
something to offer and should be given the opportunity to project
its value to its audience in the most effective manner.
She also believes that no brand deserves to be frustrated. Hence,
she offers brand consultation services to brands by listening to
their problems and proffering feasible solutions to them.
At the time of writing this, Peace was a penultimate year law
student at the Faculty of Law in Obafemi Awolowo University
and the Vice President of Intellectual Property Law Club.
CHAPTER 1

A FREE E-BOOK ON
WHY YOU SHOULDN’T
DO THINGS FOR FREE
A FREE E-B
INTRODUCTION
You may probably be wondering why I wrote a free book on
why you shouldn’t do things for free. I know it sounds weird and
maybe a little crazy. But please hold on, I can explain myself, and
I will explain myself.
But before we continue, you’ll agree with me that placing a price
on a book telling people not to do things for free is even weirder.
Now that we’re done with pointing out all the weird part, let’s
continue.
We’re at a time where people, especially entrepreneurs who
are looking to grow their audience or build their portfolio, are
advised to host free webinars or free classes. Don’t get me
wrong, this works and it could be all you need to jumpstart your
career.
But, you could also end up depriving yourself of eating the

“You could deprive yourself of eating the fruit of


your hard labor by providing for free a service you
can monitize.”
CHAPTER 1

A FREE E-BOOK ON
WHY YOU SHOULDN’T
DO THINGS FOR FREE

A FREE E-BOOK

fruit of your hard labor by providing for free a service you can
monetize.
Why give something out for free when people will be willing to
pay for it?
Doing things for free may even go as far as depriving yourself
of your business capital! In this Buhari’s economy you want to
be selling yourself for free? Even the bank of the free is not free
again (iykyk).
I see you are getting my point already. So, this book explains
not only why you shouldn’t do things for free, but it also
explains why you should do things for free. In addition to all the
explanation, I also added my own stories. What is a book by
Peaceful Peace without a story anyways?
If I were you, I’ll grab a big bowl of peppersoup and enjoy all that

“This book explains not only why you shouldn’t


do things for free, but also why you should do
things for free.”
CHAPTER 1

A FREE E-BOOK ON
WHY YOU SHOULDN’T
DO THINGS FOR FREE

A FREE E-BOOK

this book was written to teach me.


You might as well grab the pillars of your house because I did not
come to shake mere tables today. I have come to shake the whole
house from the foundation.
Trust me to come with vayolence as usual.
CHAPTER 2
CHAPTER 2
A FREE E-BOOK ON
A FREE E-BOOK ON
WHY YOU SHOULDN’T
WHY YOU SHOULDN’T
DO THINGS FOR FREE
DO THINGS FOR FREE
A FREE

WHAT DOES IT MEAN TO DO THINGS FOR FREE?


My dictionary tells me that “free” means without cost or payment.
Inserting this into our current discussion, doing something for free
would mean doing it without payment and at no cost. Literally no
strings attached.
To the receiver, anything offered for free is an attractive offer.
Who does not want to learn skills that can be monetized at no
cost and without payment?
For clarity sake, a gift or course gotten at a cost is not free
(obviously, a string was attached). For example, if you cannot join
that webinar unless you repost it, it is not a free webinar because
even though no payment was made, you incurred a cost, the cost
of reposting.
But we have all scammed and been scammed. Me by myself, I am
also guilty of this. We will be ignoring this tho.
I think I am reconsidering my position on anything offered for
free being an attractive offer tho. Because, if you give me a dog
for free I can slap you and the dog and make both of you look
unattractive.
CHAPTER 2

A FREE E-BOOK ON
WHY YOU SHOULDN’T
DO THINGS FOR FREE

A FREE E-BOOK

I think this is just to say that even with free offers, people could
be selective. But that is not the point. The point is people jump on
free offers especially when they are attractive, useful, resourceful
and easily accessible.
CHAPTER 3

A FREE E-BOOK ON
WHY YOU SHOULDN’T
DO THINGS FOR FREE
A FRE

WHY DO PEOPLE DO THINGS FOR FREE?


People do things for free for different reasons, let us clinically
examine some groups and their why;
• The Good Samaritans: These people are genuinely interested
in just seeing others grow. They are big on investing in people
they offer life changing opportunities at no cost at all.
• The Strategists: I am almost tempted to insert Sabinus’ sticker.
But those in this group are people who organize free classes to
gather people for their paid classes which they call “upgrade
class” or “master class”. They just talk about the basics in the
free class and hoard the important and detailed lessons for
people who pay.
• The Contact Gainer: These people organize free classes to
grow their audience. These are the type of people that will tell
you to repost one million times before you can gain access.
Links posted will lead you to their DM where they bully you into
saving their contact and reposting the same link that brought
you to their DM before finally getting the link to the class
gangangan. Wahala just plenty.
CHAPTER 3

A FREE E-BOOK ON
WHY YOU SHOULDN’T
DO THINGS FOR FREE

A FREE E-BOOK O
• The Coach: These people write free eBooks or organize free
classes to let you know they do what they do and that they are
good at it. The koko is sha to take the class or write the book
like a boss and show them the stuff you are made of.
• The Review Collector: These people render free services or
send free products to gather review from people. Apart from
the fact that it will help them know what other people think
about their business, it will help them build their portfolio or
catalogue. Whatever the why may be, the goal is always to
achieve something.

“When doing something for


free, whatever the why may be,
the goal is to always achieve
something in return.”
CHAPTER 4

A FREE E-BOOK ON
WHY YOU SHOULDN’T
DO THINGS FOR FREE
A FREE E-B

ADVANTAGES OF MAKING FREE OFFERS


• It shows people who would have otherwise not reached out to you
what you can do. Provided you understand the assignment,
every free offer you make, free class you take, free book you
write and free webinar you host is a chance to show yourself.
• It helps you gather experience. Imagine gathering experience
from a class you made people pay for. O wrong nau. When you
are sure you did not charge anybody, you will not kill yourself
when you make mistakes. It just takes away that guilt from
you and helps you shamelessly gain experience on how to do it
better when you eventually put a price on it.
• It helps you build your portfolio. This is something that works
better for people who render services; I did this at the beginning
of my career. It was fruitful but not so sweet (my story is in this

“Doing things for free can


help you if you’re trying to
build your portfolio.”
CHAPTER 4

A FREE E-BOOK ON
WHY YOU SHOULDN’T
DO THINGS FOR FREE

A FREE E-BOOK

book).
• It helps you gather reviews. This works well for both
service providers and people who sell goods. You gather
enough review from people who did not pay to sell yourself
from people who will pay. For example, I can promote a brand
for free and use the reviews from that brand to sell myself to
people who will pay me to promote their own brand. I can also
deliver free cakes to random people and use their reviews to
get people to buy cake from me. There is a rule in marketing
about giving before taking and that is exactly how this works.
• It is a good lead magnet for prospective clients and referrals.
When you run a free class, people who will register are probably
interested in what you do. It is a very good magnet to attract
your target audience who are also prospective clients. And
who knows? They may refer you to a big client.
• It helps you grow your audience. Works well if they are to
repost before gaining access.
CHAPTER 5

A FREE E-BOOK ON
WHY YOU SHOULDN’T
DO THINGS FOR FREE
A FREE E-B

HOW DOING THINGS FOR FREE HELPED ME


I have rendered free services at a point in my career to build
my portfolio. It was my way of expressing what I could do and
letting people know that I could do it well.
This worked perfectly well for me till it ended in tears. The fact
that it did not go well for me at a point does not mean it does not
work, I was not just lucky with my choice of brand.
Apart from the fact that it helped me build my portfolio, I also
gained experience. I learnt and unlearnt on the job. It was a
learning phase for me and I am happy I did not do trial and error
with people’s money. It would have given me a very heavy guilt
conscience and I can only imagine how it would have terminated
my career before arrival.
Like I said earlier, it was a medium for me to express myself.
There was no pressure, it was just me doing my thing, checking
comments, asking for feedbacks, strategizing and re-strategizing.
It also helped me to grow my audience.
I hosted a free hair care webinar. I made it free for participants
even though I had to pay for a couple things. At the end of the day,
I got my desired result. Over 700 participants were in attendance
CHAPTER 5

A FREE E-BOOK ON
WHY YOU SHOULDN’T
DO THINGS FOR FREE

A FREE E-BOOK
and I made all of them repost my fliers.
I could go on and on with examples but make I no go cast myself
on top free eBook.
CHAPTER 6

A FREE E-BOOK ON
WHY YOU SHOULDN’T
DO THINGS FOR FREE
A FREE E-B

DISADVANTAGES OF MAKING FREE OFFERS


As nice as making free offers could be, it could also be annoying.
Indeed, nothing is with an advantage that is without a disadvantage.
Imagine having a very large audience, an audience full of people
who were gotten by free offers and have enjoyed free access to
you ever since.
Super annoying! You have just successfully created an audience of
people obsessed with free things.
Agreeably, turn up will be high but if you are not careful, you will
just keep attracting people who don’t respect value enough to
pay for it, people who jump on freebies at every slight opportunity.
The thing is, they could pay for it outside but always come to you
for free advice as per Father Christmas.
If you are a service provider, you go wan cry. Imagine people

“Doing things for free can have the disadvantage


of surrounding you with an audience that doesn’t
respect value enough to pay for it.”
CHAPTER 6

A FREE E-BOOK ON
WHY YOU SHOULDN’T
DO THINGS FOR FREE

A FREE E-BOOK

coming to your DM for free marketing tips after a free marketing


class. The most annoying part will be when they do this after you
have made it clear that consultation is at a fee or registration for
your master class is open.
Let us not forget that this could also deprive you of money! It
could deprive you of the capital you need to jumpstart your
business or the money you need for an upgrade.
Imagine selling for free to 100 people what 10 people are
willing to buy for 10,000 Naira each. This is even less stress. My
love, wake up and collect your money! It is nice to give freebies but
use your head! If you are confused sha, you can ask me (contact
information is in the last page of this book).
This is not where I will share my story on how I almost made my
first book free. Thank God I woke up fast and collected my money!
I made a lot of money (withholding figures for obvious reasons).
CHAPTER 7

A FREE E-BOOK ON
WHY YOU SHOULDN’T
DO THINGS FOR FREE
A FREE E-B
HOW DOING THINGS FOR FREE ENDED IN TEARS
FOR ME
When I was starting my journey, I had to test run my influence
with some brands. To be honest, I was very selective with the
brands I picked but there was this particular brand…
I had just gotten to know her, I loved her goods, her customer
relations and her product photography. Her brand seemed like
the best I knew at that point. I was so stuck with the brand that I
even became a returning client.
One day, I decided to hype her on my status. She was even
running sales. To be honest, everything I said that day were
honest reviews because I really really enjoyed her.
About 5 people from me patronized her during that sales. I felt on
top of the world! Emi Influencer per Excellence. Little did I know
that it was gonna end in tears.
From cramps to robbery to exams, I was just hearing different
stories. She delayed one of my people in school for almost a
week. He was not ready to go home without getting his order as
he got the item from her as a gift to his people at home. I am not
CHAPTER 7

A FREE E-BOOK ON
WHY YOU SHOULDN’T
DO THINGS FOR FREE

A FREE E-BOOK

even going to mention how a birthday gift was not delivered!


That was the last straw for me.
I hated myself; I wish I did not say anything about her brand.
And as the Peaceful Peace that I am, I kuku did not confront her.
I was just on her neck to make sure deliveries were made to my
people albeit late.
At some point, she indirectly told me that she did not send me
work. I kuku did not blame her. Na me fuck up.
The main reason why I could not confront her was because she
no send me work. Kanipe it was a normal brand I was promoting
ni, like a brand that paid me to influence… lemao. I will first hear
her own side of the story. If I am not satisfied, I will refund the
complaint with her balance and give her her change. And that
will be the end.
But we bless God none of my brands dey do that. If you know
me, you know I am very strict with my policies. If we don’t share
the same values in terms of satisfying customers, I will not take
your brand.
Unfortunately, these strict policies cannot be applied for job
they did not send me to do. How will I be strict on someone I am
CHAPTER 7

A FREE E-BOOK ON
WHY YOU SHOULDN’T
DO THINGS FOR FREE

A FREE E-BOOK

test running my brand with? It took a while to regain the trust of


those that had issues and I made sure I did because words travel
really fast and far especially when it is about an influencer.
CHAPTER 8

A FREE E-BOOK ON
WHY YOU SHOULDN’T
DO THINGS FOR FREE
A FREE E-B

LEVERAGING ON FREE OFFERS FOR PERSONAL AND


BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT
I want you to understand that the fact that something is free
does not mean it is of no value. The person/people that put I
together had a reason for doing it and most times, they have a
message to pass across.
I have joined a lot of free webinars, read a lot of free books like
this one you are reading and there has always been something to
learn.
You see those whatsapp business owners that organize free
product photography class? Take them serious! They are about to
share with you their secret. You could even go as far as dropping
your reviews on the class and building good relationship with
them.
No knowledge is a waste. Take free classes serious. Little tips
here and there will build your brand. And you see those free
seminars your school executives organize; they are good for
personal, career or business development (depending on the
theme of the program). Take them serious! Those “big names” they
CHAPTER 8

A FREE E-BOOK ON
WHY YOU SHOULDN’T
DO THINGS FOR FREE

A FREE E-BOOK

bring are intellectuals who have something to say. If they don’t


bring them, you will probably never have contact with them.
Leverage on free opportunities for your development. It is free, so
it is affordable.
CHAPTER 9

A FREE E-BOOK ON
WHY YOU SHOULDN’T
DO THINGS FOR FREE
A FREE E-B
STRIKING A BALANCE BETWEEN GIVING BACK TO
THE SOCIETY WITH FREE OFFERS AND GROWING
YOUR POCKET WITH PAID OFFERS
If you have read every line of this book up till this point, you must
understand how this works already. This chapter was added as
a conclusion/summary. I have talked about doing things for free
and not doing things for free. It is important to express the need
for balance.
Giving back to your society is as important as growing your
own pocket. While it is good to love people, you should also love
yourself. If you love yourself, you won’t starve yourself.
Before you advertise that free course, consider what is in it for
you (refer back to “why people do things for free”). Check to see
if it is something you can monetize. Weigh the pros and cons to

“Giving back to the society is as important as


growing your pocket. While it is good to love
people, you should also love yourself.”
CHAPTER 9

A FREE E-BOOK ON
WHY YOU SHOULDN’T
DO THINGS FOR FREE

A FREE E-BOOK

see if there are more advantages than disadvantages and vice


versa.
Make sure there is a balance.
CONTACT PAGE

A FREE E-BOOK ON
WHY YOU SHOULDN’T
DO THINGS FOR FREE
@peace_omodara

Peace Omodara
Influencer, Brand Consultant & Content Creator
@peace_omodara @Peaceful_Peace

+234 (0) 8112844422 @Peaceful_Peace

omodarapeace@gmail.com +234 (0) 7030758187


ABOUT THE BOOK
We are at a time when people, especially
entrepreneurs who are looking to grow
their audience or build their portfolio, are
advised to host free webinars or free
classes.
While this may be all that is needed to jumpstart a
career, when an entrepreneur always provides for free a
service that can be monetized, it could result into such
entrepreneur depriving him or herself of the benefit of
eating the fruit of their hard labor.
In this book, Peace Omodara -an Influencer and Brand
Consultant, explains not only why you should not do
things for free. But she also provides a balance and gives
exceptions where doing things for free is permissible.

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