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Universal Rules of Pitching

Now we're going to get into some practicalities. I think this is a part everybody is really excited to learn. So we've talked about the mindset stuff that's gonna keep coming up. We'll keep touching on that. But now we're gonna get into how can you get closer to your big thing? How can you get closer to that vision that you have for your business? That five years down the road vision and as we when we reelect off of the last lesson we talked about what are your most immediate needs? Help get you there. And then what are three things that you can pitch and I want you to think about this is like, what are the things that will help you get those most immediate needs? So one example might be I need more people to know about my business, right? Not I need a 1,000,000 Twitter followers, but I need to expand my reach. Great. So what are some things that you could pitch for? That you could pitch a guest post for a blawg? You could pitch a podcast to be a guest on a podcast. You could start a B...

lawg interview. Siri's to draw more traffic to your website. You could ask somebody to go to lunch with you, you know, and connect that way. So thinking about that's what I want you to think about in terms of for this segment for what we're gonna be teaching now, we're gonna be really putting together how to craft the pitch. So think about those specific things in mind of, Like, what is it that I want And what specifically is going to help me get there? If you have a product based business, that might mean I need more wholesale accounts, right. So I need more. So, like, what are three stores that you could get into and we're going to be going in a little bit later. More specifics about how to really figure out what What outlets are going to be the right the easy. Yes, for you. So we're going to explore that too. So if you just think like I want to grow my reach, but you're not exactly sure how or where to start. We're gonna be thinking about that. I'm gonna give you guys some good tricks, Teoh. Figure that part out to So now we're gonna As I said, get into the nuts and bolts of picture. You've got the mindset stuff. You all know why pitching is important, right? Nobody here is like I don't get it. If you start to wonder that let let's talk later. Um, so now we're gonna put it together and look more at that, doing a piece of the magic equation. So now you're gonna learn the universal rules of pitching. You're gonna learn the anatomy of a pitch. I've got a formula for you. Everybody wants a formula. You're gonna get a formula and you're gonna see an action. I'm gonna be sharing the actual pitch that I use for my podcast guest with you. You're also gonna learn that networking in person, face to face doesn't have to be scary. So I really want you guys to, As I said, take the idea of the concept of pitching of really owning your value would be able to integrate that into all parts of your life. And for a lot of us, we're really comfortable on the computer, but getting in person, going to networking events when the conferences can be really scary. So I want you guys to have comfort there, of being able to talk about what you dio owning your value and knowing how. Teoh have an easy yes relationship with people that you meet had these events because they can be game changers for your business, especially because we all spend so much time online that when you're able to, like, make eye contact with somebody. That's why it's great having you guys here because I can see you and I get the knives and it speeds my energy. And it's so much different than if I was sitting in my desk with my Webcam teaching this so much different. So don't neglect that I want. I want to give you guys some different ways to think about it so it feels easier. We're gonna start with the universal rules of pitching and these air things to keep in mind. Anytime you send an email in time, you make an ask any time that you do any sort of asking for something, making a point of communication number one is know your audience, and this isn't know the audience of your business. This is no who is going to be on the receiving end of what you're asking. So if it's an email, who's gonna be opening that email? Sometimes we forget that there is a human being on the other side of every email, even those corporate Once you get all the time, there's a sale on khaki pants. Somebody made that somebody made that somebody was delivered about that. That was part of a strategy. So, no, Sometimes it's easy to forget when we're filling out a contact form, rescinding it. Teoh submissions at huffingtonpost dot com that were like This is just going to robots. So far, it's ready. Well, we can talk in 10 years. Might be a different class. How to pitch to robots. Right now, we're not robots, so there is a human being on the end of everything. So I want you guys to think about what is that person's experience gonna be of reading this email? You're going to the story trying to return a. Sure that's past the 30 days. What's that Manager has has people telling her not to take back the shirt. That's a person, right? So remember that I think that's really, really important way we learned anything in the last lesson it's that confidence is you don't have to feel at 100% all the time. Elizabeth of your boxer, Did you always feel completely confident about what you were doing? OK, Never did. And yet she's here. Her doll was never broken so poorly that she could no longer speak right. Like she sitting here, she raised her hand. She said yes, she figured it out. She stepped into the ring because she knew it was important. Yeah, I kind of pushed me into the well. But if you went into the room and you're like, Don't hit me Oh, yeah, right. You've gotta You show up when you're in the ring, you guys show up. So remember that the hardest part is taking that step. That's the hardest part. Once you're on the dance floor and the music's plan, that's not the heart of the hard part is going out of the house to go dancing right? It just seems hard, you know, that's anything all the time. So confidence it's not necessarily fake until you make it. It is a little bit, but it's more like find that nugget, that crazy thing, that thing that's gonna be like, OK, I find that one thread that you can hang on to that's going to propel you forward. So even if it's a 5% of confidence, and that's the thing that gets you to take that step, just zero in on that let the other 95% fall away. Okay, you guys email questions, pitching. Keep it short and sweet short. And I'm going to drill this into your heads for the entire workshop. Shorter than you think. No, really. Shortness sweet. Shorter than you think. E mails are too long. They're all too long. No other way. I'll have things we need to say, and I need to get this out. I would say 90% of emails that are sent are too long. Remember that your chance of getting a response is exponentially higher. The shorter that your email iss. We're making it easy for that human being on the other end of the him box to open our email. So I'm gonna show you guys this next slide. We're not going to spend that much time on because it's kind of embarrassing. I had a project a few years ago called love letters, where I worked with 12 different artists throughout the year, and I licensed their their artwork and in the mail every month. People who subscribe to this got an art friend a hand lettered our print Ah, love letter for me that I wrote, like, kind of a pep talk in a coaching exercise. To be happier, I sent the biggest hot mass of a pitch email for this project. You guys, this isn't same. Do not do this. This email is way it too long not going to read it to you because we'll be here all day. Uh, this was no shocker. I cannot. Even when I look back on this, I'm like, I can't even believe people said yes because I It's too much my favorite part, though keeping brevity in mind only hilarious, right? Don't send these. I'm gonna teach you how, What to include, so we'll get there. But also, I use this. I show you This is an example of Don't beat yourself up if you sent the long pitches. I don't want you guys to be listening to this with a a really playing of all the things you've done wrong in the I still got 12 people to be in my project. It worked. I figured it out. It's OK. I'm here. So don't like we're starting fresh now. I don't want anyone to have any, like, guilt and shame over show Dakota wate because we're starting right now. All of this is behind us. We're looking forward. Okay. So whatever you dio whatever you take away from this class, you guys a boy, do not. Can I pick your brain? No, you cannot. That is the easiest. No, ever. There are other things you can ask instead, so you can still find out information. You That's all right. I have to write. So what? I want to do those help reframe it so that it's an easy Yes. This is so like I don't know what I need, but I think you could help me, but I'm not really sure. How so? Just, like, ask you any questions. Or maybe you'll just tell me what you what I need to know. That would be great. Hide No one has time for that, right? Like that's a really good way to get a quick no about being specific. You want something from me don't ask to pick my brain, and I'm time for that. But if you want to email me and say, Hey, I noticed that you do this thing on your podcast. I love your dinosaur. I'm really curious where you got your podcast cover art. I will tell you right now her name is Aaron Cassidy. She's an amazing designer. Hey, our social dot com, She's great. She works with me on all my branding and she's incredible. I will answer that email That isn't easy. Yes, you are likely to get a response for me within 24 hours. So thinking about what do you need from that person? I'm happy to share information. I'm happy to tell you about my designer because I adore my designer, one of my favorite people. Easy, yes, right link. Don't attach unless something asks for an attachment. Don't put an attachment in there. Don't send me a pitch with four documents that all needed in there on a zip file, and I'm not really sure. Out of open Zip files. It's like a thing, and I and then I always open to many and there's it's up to you to do the work preemptively to make it easy for the human being on the other end of the email to see what you need to see, we all have websites. If you're doing a secret project, make a page on your website. Rio hosts a Pdf's password protected. If you want more information, go here, have much more likely to click, then to download it. Now we're all on our phones looking at email. I don't even know how to like open an attachment on my phone so big and you got a scroll and it's that, you know, unfortunately, because I don't have time because you don't have time because they don't have time. You want to click on a link and it takes me all this stuff. It says What's in it for me, right at the top and bold underline. Okay. People want to say yes. They want to say they want to say yes, they want to build these relationships. So make it easy. You guys, it's not about you. I hate this ad. Yes. You need something? Yes. You want to grow your business. You have to make it about the other person. Why should I read your email and I don't sound like a jerk, right? I love you. I love getting emails from people. I love it when they tell me that they love my podcasts and it's changing bed like is so touching. I can't always because sometimes it's just like ages. And I'm like, I don't even know where to start and writing back with the lake. Thanks so much. Take hair. It just feels disingenuous. Like right. It feels bad. So think about the other person. Make it easy, right? Sometimes if I am sending the email to be like Oh my God, I love your work Changed my life. I'll say no need to respond. I just want to let you know Oh my God, if I got an email, there's no need to respond. I know you're busy. I'd be like, bless you and honestly, probably respond. Be more likely to respond then then, if I felt an obligation. So don't say that's like manipulate someone into responding, you know? But if you just want to, like right someone of email telling them how they change your life, do you have a P s? No need to respond. I just need to let you know those that's so nice and some touching, right? Like, Oh, okay, don't be a jerk. This where I'm going to drive this listening to your schools to I know that none of you in here are jerks because you're all awesome because we've been talking about this the whole time. So as long as you're not a jerk, right, you want to avoid the manipulation, you want to avoid feeling kind of skis, E So you're not a jerk, okay, Right, you know, and and it's easy. Sometimes it's easy to like it. Preemptively mad of the other person is like, you're publishing this person. And why are you publishing me over your angry? That's not gonna be helpful. You know, I don't really think anyone has a problem with being a jerk, but I also think that being a really nice, generous, genuine person can go so far for you. So be nice, right? Be a lovely human being, which I know that you all are. Everyone in here is a lovely human being. So let that out. One thing that I've encountered in the past regarding emails and not being a jerk is that you can also contact. Sometimes it matters. Eso you might write something and send it out, and it's just sort of matter of fact for you. You're not being a jerk, but a lot of times the way something can be received is like could be a little where So I've made a point of sort of rewriting my emails to see if I can suss out meant that that might land incorrectly. So put a comma in there or the punctuation or exactly, or depending on the relationship, a smiley face or what? But I've gotten emails backwards like Wow, really? Did you? And I was like, No, you know what? I'm really sorry to meet it that way. That's a great That's a great example. I read an article recently that was talking about how, like the difference between sending in Texas just says okay versus sending in Texas as okay, period. We're like, Oh, what did I do that right? So this is a reality of digital communication, and I wish it wasn't. I wish that I could be like you just talk how you want to talk. But there is no way to convey tone And that's why we need the punctuation or the winky face, emoji or hugs. I do hugs a lot. And my pitches, If it's someone I know, I'm not gonna send, like, open. Why my tell abroad. But you know, I'm not gonna be like house if it's someone I don't know. So you also you get to decide and we're gonna I'm gonna show you a couple examples of this. You get to decide what the appropriate tone is if it's something one that you have a friendly relationship with, wink emoji. You know, I for all my client emails, I'm pretty like casual, but it's because I only want my clients to be people that I want to be friends with. That's like a really key component of my business and so I can hug my clients. I can say exo exo gossip girl. You know I can do that and be in that relationship. It's gonna be very different if I'm pitching the editor of real simple, you know, And that's gonna be probably a lot more polished. A lot more pulled together, more kind of correct. The other thing, too you can play around with like my email signature. My closing signature is shine on you Crazy diamond. So that takes some of the gravity away. All of its not like regards, you know, so you can think about if you want to play around, look a formality. You can think about some other ways to do that. Be willing to go the extra mile. We're gonna have a great example of that, um, later on, of how you can do that, but be willing to show the effort. So I had a guest stent guest posting stent a few years ago on designed for mankind, which is a big design Blawg. I am not. I am not a designer. I am not like a visually stunning, even I human being. But like you know, I'm my my art. Is my words, right? I'm a writer. I'm a speaker. I'm a teacher. But the writer for that blogger I knew her in advance. She was going on maternity leave and was put a call out for guest posts. And so I pitched. Her idea was a column called Life Designed 101 where we apply design principles, toe living about her life. So things like bringing more white space. Trust your instinct. Less is more or things like that, she said. I am elder, my pitch, he said. That's great. I would love to see you more. So what I did is I got on her website. I figured out the width of her blawg. I mean a secret log on my own website that with did the graphics, I gave her two different graphic elements. Different ways of laying it out so that she could see what it would look like on her site. I spent an entire day like eight hours doing it, but I got the gig and I was doing it authentically because nobody else on the design blog's talking about how to have more fun in your life. And it was huge for me. It was great. So be willing to go the extra mile If I just said, Well, here's more words about what I'm thinking. She made it look out cause there's 100 other really good pitches. So they stand out, don't be afraid to stand out. And if you stand maybe she had said no. Then I kind of just use that somewhere else. This time is not wasted, right? You're going to be You're gonna be creating this content and you could just keep using it. Follow up and follow through. Nobody ever follows up. Nobody know. I, like, wanted jump up and down on the stage. I was like, Oh, well, send a bitch. No response. How have you responded? All your emails right away. That's right. I would have kicked you out of this classic Raise your hand. That's right, because we all get too many emails and are too busy. So don't be afraid. Toe Follow up. I'm gonna give you a template. I'm gonna teach you how I'm gonna teach you when Don't be afraid of all up. And don't be afraid to follow through. Deliver on what you say you're going to dio. So if you get the Yes, and all of a sudden you have to write a guest blogged post about how the fly design principles the living about our life and you have no idea how to do it. You figure it out because you are a person who figures it out. So don't be a place cause it's remember we're building relationships. So if you send a pitch in. The client says, Yeah, I'd love to see a proposal, but then you're, like, on. Then you wait three weeks is in the mother of a little Not an easy yes, because they have moved on. Great. So you got it again. It's about like, the momentum. At first, it's gonna be hard because you're going to be like Google. How do I make a proposal? I don't know how to make a contract. Okay, you'll figure it out. And then the next time the client says I'm gonna be like, Oh, I have that. And then down the road, he might have a program that does it automatically. Just put in their name and the dollar amount, and it produces it. Great. You'll figure it out. It will get easier. Okay, Don't be afraid of the none of the Yes. You guys like don't be afraid of that. Yes, that's what you want. It's scary. And then you get in here like I don't want to do. Now. Starts are doing up. We have any Ah ha's. I'd love to hear from people in the chat. Is there any kind of like I blow anyone's mind? with us. Yeah, keep it short and sweet and shorter than you think. I've definitely been guilty. Especially like pitching to his shops, for example, to get my products in the shops. And I struggle because I want to. I want to, like, you know, articulate what it is exactly that I do and why it's a benefit to them. When I think about the people that have actually, like, maybe reached out to me for something the ones that are like one or two sentences, I'm like, Yeah, OK, cool. Or like when I talk about someone else's work, you know, unlike, Oh, they do this. This It is like one sentence and like That's awesome. Mission statements, air really powerful things, so we don't have time. That's like probably a whole other class. There might even be a class in the Creativelive library about crafting your mission statement. If not, you guys, I'll teach it. But that is really powerful. To be able to know what, how to say what you do in one sentence or two, you have to send and says, Why are you doing this? I have that and you'll see my example that I use in my podcast pitch about my mission for the podcast because that's going to make the easy. Yes. My mission is to make jewelry that makes women feel amazing. If I have a shop, I'm gonna be like, I want my customers to feel amazing. Great. Yes, right. Also a pitching. You know, one thing about that the wholesale, um, thinking about you're asking for the next step. You're not saying Let me know how many thousands of dollars worth of merchandise you'd like to order. You're saying let me know if you want me to send you a line sheet. Were you can see what I'm talking about here on this password. Protected merchants. Or however you guys do that. Um, right. So you can make a page on your side. That's four wholesale accounts. You can do that. You can and make it again. An easy yes, Yes, is I'm gonna click. Let me know if you're more information. They're gonna reply and say, Yeah, that sounds great. I would love more information. So you're taking like, yeah, it's not as exciting is when they fax you fax all of it in 1997. Sorry. When they email you the order, that would be the best right to have somebody respond and be like I'll need to see anything that were good. Here's a blank. Let me know what you wanted, but that's not life. So if you guys want to teach a class about that, someone will take it. Um, any other Ah ha moment. Yeah, I think the link don't attach really hit me because I'm such a visual person that I'm nervous that they're not gonna follow through on the link. And if they don't see like, a picture or whatever, right in the email that they're just going to like I don't know what this is, but I think you're totally right that it's easy to click a link and attack, sometimes harder to open an attachment. And it's one thing for you guys. You work with couples getting married. You know, if you've already gone down the road of the conversation and you say I'm going to email you a proposal, Yeah, I attach it. It's not that you can never send attachments right, but it's for that initial. It's for recognizing what's what's appropriate. Next step Lily, Is there anything in the chat and where the answers are still coming. In one Saragih shots mentioned the same thing. That the link with her link not attaching her. Ah ha moment. But we're still monitoring, and we'll get you those answers. Awesome. The fact that on the person that's a person that's receiving the email. I mean, I keep thinking of the like, the company's I want a pitch like but when we got there, so amazing. Oh, wait, it's just another person checking the email anyway. So if I saw that person, real life, I just you know, it would be so much easier. It's not a big company, it's just the person. Yeah, and that person's job is probably toe like find really cool partner show. So if you can hand it to that like I say, it pitches like this present that you're giving where it's just it's like this gorgeous wrapped with a bow, and you're like, I just made your life easier. Okay, right, Even in terms of asking that, can I pick your brain? Question? If it's a specific question, most people want to help you. I did not get into this business because I like talking into a microphone all by myself and putting it out into the ether. I got into this business because I love people, and I love helping people. And I want to help people make a difference in their lives so that they could make a difference in the world. So, yes, I am happy to answer your very specific question, cause I just helped someone gold star. Right? So people are often much more willing to help you than you think, long as you keep insured and you're not a jerk.