Speaker 1: Welcome to Before Breakfast, a production of iHeartRadio. Good Morning.
Speaker 1: This is Laura, Welcome to the Before Breakfast podcast. Today's
Speaker 1: tip is that even if you are very successful, you
Speaker 1: might want to spend a little bit of time pitching
Speaker 1: new work. This increases the chances that you get to
Speaker 1: do the projects that you really want to do. So.
Speaker 1: I was talking with some creative folks recently who were
Speaker 1: all making a good living from their work. They had
Speaker 1: lots of clients coming to them with projects. One person
Speaker 1: mentioned that a new client had asked her to send
Speaker 1: them some ideas. She declined, saying she was happy to
Speaker 1: take assignments, but it wasn't part of her business model
Speaker 1: to send over ideas that she wasn't sure people could use.
Speaker 1: And from a sheer time management perspective, this makes a
Speaker 1: lot of sense. It is so much more efficient to
Speaker 1: have clients come to you with ideas for projects that
Speaker 1: they already know they are willing to pay for. I
Speaker 1: personally love it when editors reach out to me with, hey,
Speaker 1: could you write two thousand words on this topic with
Speaker 1: a deadline of this At this rate, with one note
Speaker 1: or phone call, you might have a project going. Contrast
Speaker 1: this with pitching, which generally involves sending a list of
Speaker 1: ideas that you have dreamed up. First, you have to
Speaker 1: come up with the ideas. Then you have to do
Speaker 1: enough research to make sure the ideas will work. Then
Speaker 1: you have to convince the person with the budget that
Speaker 1: these ideas also match up with what they were looking for.
Speaker 1: Even if the person thinks your ideas are amazing, they
Speaker 1: might have just decided to go in a different direction
Speaker 1: for the next year. So it makes sense to avoid
Speaker 1: pitching as a general business model once you have achieved
Speaker 1: some level of success, If demand is high and you
Speaker 1: decide to take the assignments that come rather than pitching,
Speaker 1: you spend more time working and earning money and less
Speaker 1: time doing sales. Indeed, if you want to make a
Speaker 1: living as a solopreneur in a creative field, it is
Speaker 1: vital to not spend all your time pitching. But and
Speaker 1: you knew the butt was coming here, I still think
Speaker 1: it is worth it to spend some amount of time
Speaker 1: dreaming up new ideas and trying them out on existing
Speaker 1: clients or new ones. Here's why doing the same thing
Speaker 1: over and over again can get boring. People wind up
Speaker 1: burned out doing the exact same graphic design work, or
Speaker 1: writing the same kind of copy, or writing the music
Speaker 1: for the same sorts of commercials over and over again.
Speaker 1: In order to have a successful, long running career, you
Speaker 1: have to stay interested in the work, and the best
Speaker 1: way to do that is to have some projects going
Speaker 1: that you truly want to do. The work fascinates you.
Speaker 1: It's also exciting to find new places to showcase your work,
Speaker 1: and it's practical on some level. Even the best clients
Speaker 1: can disappear or change over time. You always want options,
Speaker 1: so set aside some amount of time for speculative work.
Speaker 1: Maybe you spend every Thursday afternoon coming up with ideas
Speaker 1: that you would like to work on and figuring out
Speaker 1: who might be interested. You spend some of that time
Speaker 1: marketing yourself and seeing what options are out there. Make
Speaker 1: sure you have a backup slot in case the first
Speaker 1: time gets taken away from you for some reason. Not
Speaker 1: all of what you come up with will land, but
Speaker 1: some of it will, and then you will have projects
Speaker 1: that are reasonably more interesting and new than what you
Speaker 1: would have been doing. And who knows, maybe one of
Speaker 1: those ideas will be a big breakthrough one that means
Speaker 1: you wind up doing even less pitching in the future,
Speaker 1: as clients battle over each other to send you ideas
Speaker 1: that are even more perfectly suited to your interests. Hey,
Speaker 1: it could happen, So spend a little time pitching. Not
Speaker 1: all your time by any means you don't need to
Speaker 1: do that, but some small amount of time. You'll likely
Speaker 1: feel more fulfilled in your job as a result. In
Speaker 1: the meantime, This is Laura. Thanks for listening, and here's
Speaker 1: to making the most of our time. Hey, everybody, I'd
Speaker 1: love to hear from you. You can send me your tips,
Speaker 1: your questions, or anything else. Just connect with me on Twitter, Facebook,
Speaker 1: and Instagram at Before Breakfast Pod. That's b E the
Speaker 1: number four then Breakfast pod. You can also shoot me
Speaker 1: an email at Before Breakfast Podcasts at iHeartMedia dot com.
Speaker 1: That before Breakfast is spelled out with all the letters.
Speaker 1: Thanks so much, should I look forward to staying in touch.
Speaker 1: Before Breakfast is a production of iHeartRadio. For more podcasts
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