Me : Err ... I guess that depends upon who they are?
X : Can you give me an idea?
Me : No, I'm not a professional speaker. I don't make money from it. I work in research for a company. Ask someone who speaks for a living.
Me : Great. I have no idea.
X : But you do lots of speaking.
Me : In 8 years, covering 200+ talks, I will have made from speaking ... let me think .. $0. I work for a company. You need to speak to someone who makes a living speaking.
Me : No, the company charges ... sometimes not if it's more of a community thing. It's a discussion. Speaking takes me away from other things I need to do, so it's a useful constraint and I have to balance things. Making a living from speaking sounds hard.
Me : If you're famous then I'm sure you can. However I suspect most people telling you that you can make a lot from public speaking are also selling rather expensive courses on how to do public speaking.
Me : I'm more about maps than tech but I'm nit picking. Oh, speaking is a delight. You get to met lots of really interesting and wonderful people from all different parts of life. Do it for that and a chance to give back.