Robert Forto · September 17, 2026
I charged $2,000 to my credit card before I even spoke on stage.
There was airfare from Anchorage, a hotel near the city, a rental car, a conference badge, and meals I probably won’t remember. I also missed days at the sled dog kennel, sales calls, and recording with Michele. If you round it, the total is about $2,000. If you count my time, it’s even more.
The main reason I came lasted about twenty minutes. I spoke about Marketing & Growth and why you shouldn’t sell your soul to social media. After a few questions, I stepped aside.
People who don’t attend these events often ask the obvious question. I want to answer it here.
Why? It definitely was not the applause.
I’ve been sitting in these conference rooms since 2017
My first Podcast Movement was in 2017. I sat in the back with a notebook, then flew home to Alaska and changed how we worked. We’ve returned almost every year. This time, I was on the agenda instead of just in the hallway.
That feels like a step up, but it’s not a business model.
Twenty minutes on stage doesn’t sell coaching, feed the kennel, or make up for a week of episodes. If I measured this trip by views, likes, or how people reacted to my point about rented land, I would have stayed in Willow and just posted a carousel.
I didn’t come for the room’s energy. Once my slides were done, someone else’s session began.
What I really paid for
I paid to be in a room with people who already care about the problem I’ve been dealing with since 2009.
We started Dog Works Radio in the lobby of a training center after Saturday group class. We had two microphones and shared client stories, with no strategy deck. Seventeen years later, the show is still running. Platforms have come and gone, algorithms have changed, accounts have been restricted, and shows that only lived inside an app have seen their reach disappear.
My talk was the short version of that story. You don’t own your followers. Social media is just the front door, not the house. Change your call to action. Track emails per episode, not followers. Before your next show, have one lead magnet, mention one URL twice, send three welcome notes, and then stop.
I can share all of this online for free, and I have. Michele said it on Dog Works Radio the same day I left the stage. The one-pager is at DogWorksRadio.com/soul. None of that needed a conference badge.
The badge really bought awareness. In that building, people will argue with me in the hallway for eight minutes, then go home and build their list. That kind of conversation doesn’t happen in a comment thread. It happens when you’ve paid to be in the same place as people who are ready to do the work.
It also gave me the right to send you this without pretending I was on vacation. Already having a list isn’t a reason to skip the trip; it’s the reason the trip can pay for itself after the slides are done.
The math you won’t see on the receipt
Spending two thousand dollars for twenty minutes is a terrible hourly rate, if those twenty minutes are the only product.
But they aren’t.
The real product is everything that happens during the week around those twenty minutes. It’s the episode Michele already recorded, this post, the one-pager, the three emails behind the form, the hallway conversation that turns into a call in October, the person in the third row who shares the page with a partner, and the next search for “own your podcast audience” that brings someone to a site we control.
If I fly to New York, give my talk, and leave the audience on Instagram, I’ve just rented the trip the same way I told them not to rent their shows. That would be a waste.
The test I gave the room is the same test I have to use for this expense. If Apple disappeared on Friday, who would I email on Saturday? If, after this conference, I have the people I already knew plus new addresses from this week, then the two thousand dollars was worth it. If all I have are people still following the conference hashtag, I just bought a souvenir.
What I won’t pretend
I like being in that room. I like seeing people I only meet once a year. I still like the notebook from 2017, even now that I have the clicker. That’s a preference, not a strategy. I can afford that preference because the work at home, Alaska Dog Works, the kennel, the training, the shows, the coaching, doesn’t need a stage to prove it exists.
Speaking is just a front door, like social media. It’s useful and temporary, but it’s not the house.
If you were in New York and want to hear the rest of my argument, it’s on the last slide and on the page. If you weren’t there, you didn’t miss the talk; you just missed the carpet and the coffee. The important part was meant to go beyond the building.
That’s why I spent the money, not because twenty minutes is expensive.
It’s because twenty minutes, focused on something I own, costs less than another year of putting effort into a platform that doesn’t even know my name.
~Robert
Get the one-pager: DogWorksRadio.com/soul
