How to Craft the Perfect Pitch When Reaching Out to Brands | The Food Blogger Pro Podcast

Yes. And I think that's important for anybody to remember is that you've created something, it's yours. And to hold. Stand to that or hold strong to that, whether it's an incredible celebrity or just. Just a brand or whoever that you're working with, know that your. Your value is in your idea and that you should maintain that if possible. So I would recommend that. And then going into, you know, going into pitching with that, is that you're like. Like you said, there's so many ways we have to get out of this box. This little box of I can only work with sponsors. There are so many ways to diversify your income. So I basically have. No, not that I don't have no fear. I have fear, but not much. And so I'll pitch myself for lots of different things, you know, and yeses and nos are always coming. But another thing I wanted to do is I wanted to create a cookbook. My mom and I got diagnosed with celiac disease three months apart, and she's one of my very best friends. And I was like, we need to write a cookbook. Because we jumped right in. For us, it wasn't a woe is me kind of thing. We were like, thank goodness we have an answer for our pain, you know? And I said, we need to create a cookbook, Mom. We've been doing this for years, and the recipes are great. And I didn't even know that I did it wrong, that you're supposed to go through certain channels. I just put together a really beautiful proposal, and I sent it to my cousin who got her degree in English, and I said, will you just. Will you just edit this for me? And she's like, sure. And then I pitched ourselves to publishing houses. I really didn't realize that there was. You're supposed to have an agent in between.

You acted as the agent, essentially. Yeah.

I was like, you know, let's just do this. What do we have to lose? And eventually we got picked up, and it was by a smaller publishing house. But it was really exciting because we didn't have to pay the fees for our book to be published. And we did a book tour with Barnes and Noble, and it was super fun. But I think a lot of the thing is to have. To have gumption, to have confidence. If you are confident in what you are selling, then the person on the other end is already going to fill that enthusiasm.

Yeah. So my question would be, what if you aren't confident? Like. Cause I think for some people, maybe comes naturally. Like, an example is, I'M super comfortable, confident, whatever the word might be. Doing a podcast, like getting on a call with somebody I've never met, talking to them for like 45 seconds to three minutes, and then pressing record and having a conversation for an hour for a lot of people, they would think, ah, like, that sounds terrible. And I would dread it. I wouldn't know what I was going to say. I'd want to have kind of an outline written out. Whereas for me, it's like, I don't know what I'm going to say in two minutes. And I'm super comfortable with that. And I think for some people, they're not. I think my question is, how much of that is who you are versus how much of that can you coach? And the question after that is, then, do you play to your strengths or are there ways that you can kind of move into confidence around pitching?

Absolutely. Well, that's one of the things that we talk about, is mindset, because first, that's the first thing you need to work on. I would not recommend pitching and doing all these things until you've figured out your mindset and the best way to do that. I think that a lot of it is your personality. But I can promise you that you can coach it because we just did a little mastermind weekend retreat for Tastemaker, and there are some women who weren't as confident, but by the end, they were sending pitch emails and they're getting replies and they're like, I have a call next week.

Ah.

And I'm like, you're gonna do great. And we had originally told them, you know, if you want me to be on the call, I'm happy to act as your agent. And they're like, you know, I think I can do this. And it made me so happy. And we took the time to work on Mindset. So the biggest thing is, deep down in all of us, we have confidence. We just have to find it. And part of finding it is asking yourself, what lights you up? What lights you up? If you are pitching yourself to work with a brand and you hate working with brands, that's not going to light you up and you are not going to be confident. So figure it out. Maybe what it is, is photography lights you up. You are just an incredible photographer, and you are actually very confident in your abilities as a photographer. But then maybe as a human, human being out in the world, you're a little more shy, and that's okay. But when you're behind a camera, you are confident. So then what you need to do is figure out how you can use that talent that you are confident in to pitch. I, for example, hey, I see that on your website you have a beautiful recipe, recipe library. But you have no photos. That's where I come in. I'm really great at photography. I'm not saying for me because I'm.

Sure, sure, yeah, example, yeah.

But that this is where I come in to help you. I'm great at photography and we've learned that people read or experience through their eyes first. So let me help you with that. So that would be a great way. And same with. If you know that you are not good on camera, do not pitch yourself to TV stations. You know, I'm like you, where I don't know what I'm going to say in two minutes. And that's how I work best. In fact, when I write out a script, I stumble on my words. I don't do that well. And so TV is my favorite because you've got three minutes and there's no redos. You are live. And it is so fun and I can feel like the adrenaline rushing and I love it. It really is like a drug.

Yeah. So part of it, it sounds like, is self awareness around how you operate where you are best. And for some of us, we might be getting into this and we might not have those skills refined to the point where we do feel confident enough, which I think is worth acknowledging. And everybody's not going to be at that point. There'll be a lot of people who will be able to say, here's what I do, here's what I do really well. But there might be some people who are in the early stages and you still need to refine those skills to a certain point to, to get to the place where like yes, you can shoot video, you can shoot photography at this level. Um, but there's really a fine balance between waiting to the point where you're the ultimate expert and just moving forward on something and saying, you know what? I'm going to do this. So do you have any advice for people who are trying to figure out, number one, what does light me up? I think some people know, but other people might not know. And then number two, at what point are you ready to say, you know what? I'm going to move into pitching myself in this area that lights me up?

Yeah, definitely. Well, and I would suggest doing the. Doing an activity. So put a pen and paper in front of you and write down many things that light you up, not just in your business, but other things, serving others Whatever it is, whatever it is that lights you up, talking or, I don't know, sewing, anything that lights you up, write it down and then funnel that in to see how that could work for your business. Maybe you really don't want to be in front of anybody. And you are an incredible writer. There are so many people who need ghostwriters, so that's a great way to do that. So not everything has to be front and center and in the camera. And working with brands, there's a lot of opportunity. So I would recommend that first, then moving it. And just like you said, at some point you have to move forward, you really do. And so when you have a couple things that you know, okay, this is something I could do, then it's having the confidence to say, now which are the ideal brands I'd like to reach out to about this. And sometimes that does take one on one coaching. And I, and I'm meaning like with a friend, ask a blogger friend who you know in the community and say, what are my strengths? It's okay to ask. I would love to know from the outside looking in what you think my strengths are, where you think I could shine.

Yeah, that's great. One of the tools that we've been using a lot internally with our team that would maybe help facilitate this is called Delegate and Elevate. It's actually a part of eos, which is entrepreneurial operating system and they have a bunch of kind of tools that they do. So we'll link to this in the show notes. But if anybody just were to search, Delegate and Elevate PDF and it's four quadrants and it's not, it's, it's kind of related, it's not exactly the same. But the top left quadrant is love slash great. The top right is like slash good. The bottom left is don't like good and the bottom right is don't like not good. What's different here is like it's talking about not only what are the things that you need to stop doing, but what are the things that you need to do more of. And it kind of relates to this in that it's a facilitated exercise for you to think about great, what are all the things that I'm doing and what are the things that I, that I'm great at and I really love doing. And there's probably going to be a few of those things. And as much as possible, how do you spend as much of your time doing those things and you know, related to this, like, then how do you Stop doing the things that you don't like doing and you're not good at. Especially those are the most important to stop doing. So let's say you get to that point, you've. You've distilled it down to maybe a few different things. You're, you know, a writer, a photographer, you love video, you love editing, whatever it might be, you love tech and Google Analytics. So you're going to focus on that and helping brands there. But you don't have any clients. Nobody's actually paying you to do that stuff. Next step, it sounds like, is thinking through who are some of the brands that I want to work with. So you're kind of creating this ideal client list. But then what does it look like to actually start to form relationships with those brands? And do you need to like stair step your way up where you work with brands that maybe or companies that aren't as good of a fit in pursuit of like the ideal brand? Or do you think it's possible to kind of make a connection? I suppose a lot of it depends on who that brand is. But how do people actually start to get paid for the thing that they want to get paid for?

Yeah, definitely. Well, I think the first thing. So let's say you've narrowed it down, like you've said, to what you love. The next step is you're really going to need to create your media kit. And the reason being is because this will again build your confidence. So, for example, when we ask people to gather all their numbers and they're like, I only have 400 followers on Instagram, nobody's going to hire me. And then we see their numbers and they have 150,000 users a month on their blog. We're like, what, doing so good? And they, but they've gotten into this mentality of the world, says, I have to have 100,000 Instagram, no one cares. Like, it's fine, you don't have to do that platform. You have a beautiful blog that people are visiting, so ready. And so putting those numbers there on your media kit and you go, hey, yeah, I am. This is something I'm good at. Finding some testimonials, asking somebody else and putting those things on there, putting photos of your work, it really combined. I would stick to two pages if you can. It really puts everything into perspective of your work and how you are talented at it. So. And plus, you don't want to be pitching until you have your media kit because if you've pitched correctly, they're going to likely come back to you pretty quickly and you don't want to be like, ah, now I have nothing. So next step is media kit. Work on a really beautiful media kit that includes your numbers and lets them shine. If you have 200 followers on Instagram, don't put that on there. You don't have to. You, you make your own media kit how you want. You don't have to do.

You highlight the things that you're good at and craft it in a way where it's not only pointing to the things that you're good at, but pointing to the things that you want to be doing. We have worth mentioning for any food blogger pro members, we have a course on a media kit, how to go that and build that. But for those who haven't gone through that process or maybe have one and want to refine it and make it better, what would your recommendations be for things that are most important to include and maybe things to not include that you oftentimes see as a part of a media kit?

Yeah, well, we just spent the weekend doing this and it was so fun because everyone came with their media kits and it was so fun to like tweak them. And a lot of it is about instead of. It tends to be that media kits are like, me, me, me, look at me. And really, if you're from the get go, if you're like, this is how I'm here to help you, Media kit is going to be so much more well received because it's not just a me show, it's how can I help you achieve your goals? This is how I have these users who are focused on gluten free recipes and gluten free living. I see that you're a gluten free brand. This is my reader. This is the audience really focusing outwards on how you're helping them achieve their goals and how your audience helps them achieve those goals.

How much would you ever suggest tweaking your media kit based on conversations you've had with a brand? Or for the most part, are you seeing a media kit that looks the same regardless?

Yeah, no, absolutely. And I think it's mainly the same media kit, but I recommend having a media kit and a rate sheet so you don't put your numbers on the media kit. For example, I had a friend who was working with a company and she said, and they were excited, they were getting ready to go. And she said, okay, well what's your budget? Because she had been in sales and she learned that the first person to give a number loses. Sure they would say. And so she said, so what's your budget? And her price was, let's say $1,200. And they said, well, we have $5,000 to work with. And she's like, great, let's create that package. She would have lost out on $3,800 if she would have just put that on there. And so I, that, that's important. And that kind of will lead into the next thing that we talk about. But have a media kit that highlights how your audience will help them achieve their goals and what you are good at in a non me, me, me sort of way. And pick and choose. You do not have to put Instagram followers if you don't have an Instagram following and then have a rate sheet and have them kind of say starts at whatever. And then when you work with a brand, that media or that rate sheet is going to change based on their budget.

Yeah. So how do you. This is the question that comes up all the time and I'm sure that you hear it all the time. How do you know how much to charge? Like gas prices? You can drive down the street and you're like, okay, here's what the gas prices are. A gallon of milk. You can see what a gallon of milk is. You can't really see what other bloggers are charging. And so it's hard to know what's happening unless you're a brand and you see all of the different rate sheets and what people are charging. So how do you know if you're within the realm of appropriate versus way too low versus too high? What are your recommendations for people?

Well, the sad thing is, no, we can't see that, but we should. More. I think we need to open up the blogging community. We need to. This is where we come back to mindset. We all need to open our minds to abundance mentality versus scarcity mentality. There is enough to go around. I love sharing a brand that I've worked with with a friend and being like you would be a perfect fit for them. And when I do that, the brand definitely looks at me different when I say, hey, I have this friend Lindsay over, you know, at and she's incredible and you're going to love her. And I just thought you guys would be a good fit. I don't know if it's going to work, but I wanted to introduce you. It just changes the way everybody works and operates if you work in this community of no mine, mine, mine, mine, mine, mine serve you and there's plenty to go around. So I would preface by saying I think we should share more so that we kind of do a baseline, and that's where having amazing blogger friends come into play. So Erin from Meaningful Eats is like one of my best friends in real life, and we met through the blogger world, and we share these things together. We're like, what are you charging? What are you doing? And then we have a couple other friends that we do that with, and it's been so helpful because then all of us. And I love. I'm sure you know, Sam from frosting and fettuccine. She's like, listen, you're not doing any of us any favors if you're undercharging what we're all charging. It's not fair. And we're all in this together, so let's all charge what we're worth. And I love Sam for that. And that's the thing, is have a few blogger friends that you can ask and say, what are you charging? We're about the same. We're kind of in the same. What are you charging? And let's all get on the same level so that when brands work with us, they're like, oh, they're all charging the same.

Yeah, that. That. There's not a huge difference in terms of somebody coming in really low. Somebody coming in really high. You had mentioned doing a mastermind. I think that's a great example of a way to do that and facilitate that for people who maybe have this question around, like, how do I connect with people and actually make that happen? How do I get a group of people where we all share information about how we're doing things? Can you talk a little bit about that? I know that you're tied in with Abby and Tastemaker. We had a conversation with Abby kind of about the conference world and education and things like that. But is that a part of Tastemaker? And if people want to learn more about that, specifically, where can they find out about that?

Yeah, for sure. Well, I feel like, if anything, if the only thing I ever got out of my blogging career are two of my best friends in the world. Yeah, I bet. It's wonderful. That's it. I'm done. Okay.

Yeah.

Women are my real life best friends. I talk to them all the time. And it's about blogging stuff. Yes. But it's also about everything else. So I will tell you when Abby and I met. This is what is so crazy. So Abby and I are business partners at Tastemaker, and I am the sponsor director over there. Erin and I had met at a conference and just had so much fun, and we traveled to Expo west together. And she said, oh, my gosh, I have this friend Abby, that is darling, and you two would love each other. I want you guys to meet. Abby and I met, and immediately it was like. Then we worked with Tastemaker, but it was literally this beautiful triangle of, like, one of my blog friends opening up again. Abundance, mentality, sharing and saying, here's another friend that I think you'd connect well with. And then Abby and I connected. So go to conferences. I'll put that plug in there. Tastemaker. Because we've seen so many relationships built at a physical conference. Because, I mean, I don't know about you, but I have incredible friends from before my blogging days, but they don't care about my blog. They don't want to talk about it, and that's okay. I talk to them about things.

Okay. And sometimes nice.

Yeah, sometimes nice. And be like, oh, I'll talk about that. But it's a huge facet of my life. And so I do love sharing that. And so go to a conference and make friends. I just talked to darling Alexandria from the Foreign fork, and she said she. Because Marco Polo is, like, the thing for all of us now, right? That's how we communicate.

Yeah.

But he has this group on Marco Polo of blogger friends, and they bounce ideas and talk and all of those things. And I said, where did you meet them? And she said, at the first Tastemaker conference. It was a moment where Abby and I were like, everything we wanted to achieve is happening. Women. These women are connecting. And it was because on the Facebook group, someone said, hey, we have an extra room. Who wants to stay? None of them knew each other, but they stayed in a house. They put themselves out there, and they stayed in a house together. And now they're best blogging friends.

Cool. Yeah, that's great.

The retreats, which. All of that is available. So Tastemaker conferences in March in Chicago, and then we have twice a year. Usually we have a weekend retreat at our headquarters in Virginia. And it's only for about eight people, but, man, those people connect.

Yeah, really connect. And I've noticed that as I've been part of different groups, those connections are some of the most valuable connections. Um, you learn things for sure, but it's almost like the. The connections and the relationships lead to you learning from being close to somebody, working alongside them, doing similar things, as opposed to, like, this really specific thing that you gather around to learn. You will learn in that moment. But it's those relationships that are. That are truly valuable, both personally and within business. So you had talked about a couple different things that will really help close deals. And I think that's part of what is interesting in this conversation of pitching is we talk about media kits. People are familiar with those. Maybe a rate sheet, People are familiar with those in terms of setting your rate, connecting to groups of people, and sharing like, hey, where are you at? How do you go about setting your rate? And with that, there's the obvious reality that it really depends on where you're at in your life cycle for blogging. And so that's why it's important to have people that you can connect with and kind of get an understanding of where you are compared to where they are. But how about, like, just getting to the point where you have success closing a deal? You get to the point where you sign on the dotted line and you have a relationship with a brand or a sponsor or working relationship. What are some other kind of tips and takeaways that people could have that will help them be more successful in closing more deals?

Okay, well, if it's okay with you, can we back up just a little? Because this is my favorite part. This is the part that lights me up, that I get so excited.

Great, let's do it.

And it's. I tell everybody, and a lot of it's my personality, but it's not just my personality, because I've seen very quiet, shy people who have had the same success as I have. I said, get on a call. So you're not going to do your. Your pitch is literally. So the first step would be reaching out to them on Instagram or social media and saying two lines. I have a really fantastic idea. I'd love to talk to you more. Where's the best email I can send more information? Super simple. Step one. Step two, send that email to that email address. When they reply again, no more than three sentences, maybe four. And it's literally just a. You want to give them a juicy, juicy bait that they. The juicy, juicy bait that they can't resist something small of. I have this amazing idea with your buckwheat flour to create a buckwheat breakfast casserole. It's gonna be delicious. And I have a couple more ideas I'd love to send you more. I'd love to get on a call. Can we talk sometime this week? That is my. So that's number one. Number two. That's number two. I don't say anything about media kits. I don't say anything there. I say, I'd love to get on a call and talk to you more. I close 80% of the deals that I do when I have a phone call versus 20% with cold emails. So that's why I encourage everybody to get on a call or a zoom meeting where they can see you and you can paint a picture that they cannot refuse. That's your time to get on and say, okay, this is such an amazing product and I use it all the time. I know my readers would love it and they would especially love to see it in some holiday recipes in quarter four. And so really just creating this picture that they're like, I had no idea I even needed that. Yes, yes, of course we want to work with you.

At that point. Have you talked about rates? Do you know if they have a budget that. That hasn't come up yet?

No. No. Because what happens is. So step one, you're getting the information. Step two, you're emailing. @ that point, if they have no budget, usually they let you know. They'll say, I'm happy to hop on a call with you, but I want you to know that we have no budget whatsoever. If they have any budget and you get on a call, you're going to be the one to get the rest of that.

Budget.

Sure. That at the time, if you know. And so most of the. There's few that will not get on a call and it's because they have no budget. But if you put them on a call, they're interested because they have some budget and they have some needs that need to be filled. And.

That'S. And at that point, then you're. So you're having this conversation. You've convinced them of the idea. Hey, generally speaking, this is what I'm going to talk about. This is what I'm going to share with my audience. Here's the size of my audience. And then to your point earlier, like, first one to share a number loses. How then do you facilitate that conversation after you've convinced somebody this is a great idea, but eventually you have to get around to talking about.

Numbers. Right. So how that call looks is you're just. And I would recommend hopping on the call first and just being like, hi, Sarah, I'm so excited to chat with you. I have so many fun ideas. But first I want to ask you, what are some of your marketing goals for Q2, Q4? I know that, I know that it's a time of year for holiday recipes, but I'd love to hear more from you giving them the opportunity to share with you their goals so that then the next part of your pitch, and this takes practice, is catering what they just told you. So maybe say we are actually really focusing on quick and easy recipes that don't require any baking. No bake. Perfect. That sounds great. And come to the table with a few of those ideas that maybe you think that they would have so that then you could hurry and adjust. Excellent. I totally understand. Obviously this wouldn't work for Flower, but for something else. Yes, I have a fantastic idea for that. And then you go on for that. Then to facilitate the money talk, you'd say, so I think these things will definitely help you achieve your goals, especially. Especially where my audience is your target audience. So I'd love to talk to you more about what you think. What are your thoughts on that? What do you. What does your budget allow for this right.

Now? It's interesting. I don't remember where I had this conversation. I'm going through a course right now called Growth University. It's kind of for, like, marketing and growth tactics for businesses. It might have been within this, but it was somebody talking about these conversations and kind of positioning yourself within these. And they were saying in. In those conversations, you'll just ask somebody, like, what are your needs? They'll tell you. And then essentially what you do is in that conversation you say, here's my idea and here's how it'll help achieve those goals. Which is like, it sounds so obvious, but it's really helpful for you to not assume you know what somebody wants, but to actually get that information from them while they're giving that to you. Genuinely and authentically thinking about how can the things that I do help meet the goal? And then just repeat that back and say, great, here's what I heard you say, here's what we can do, and here's how that will help you do this thing that you had said is important to you. And again, it sounds so, so basic, but it's framing the conversation around what somebody else needs as opposed to what you need or what you think that they need. How often in that conversation would you say you hear something and it's like, actually, I can't do.

That? I think not very often because I feel like there's always something that you can.

Offer.

Sure. For example, this happened yesterday and I love what you said about that because that's exactly what we do, is we ask their needs. We have. And that, again, that takes practice. We did a lot this week, this last weekend, In Virginia, we did mock phone calls and they were like, I don't know what to say. Tell me what to say right now through what to say in that moment. Because I responded how a brand would. And they're like, I wasn't expecting that now.

What? And that, what's an example of.

That? So, for example, I said something about like, oh, you know, we don't have a lot of budget, but we definitely do like working with bloggers. But we're only looking to do, we're only looking to do, for example, like vegan recipes or something. And maybe you're not a vegan blog. Then they're like, wait, huh? And then you just say, awesome. I think it's really great to do Meatless Mondays. And this is one of the ideas that I have. Just quickly fire that off. But it's hard. And so what I would say is before one of those calls, prep with some ideas, go with that. And again, it takes practice. And we've done, I've done a couple mock calls with some of the girls since then. And they're so confident and they're feeling really good. It's not me. It's not me. I want to say that I want. It's because they are building confidence in.

Themselves. Sure, yeah, it's both. And I'm sure that, that what they're learning from you, you're being humble in it. But the other, to your point around practice is I think a lot about this idea of tools in your tool belt. And I think when we go into some of those early calls, you kind of are going in without any tools in your tool belt. For a long time, it was probably like three, four years I would do programs with schools, so this was completely unrelated to anything that we would do. It was at a nonprofit. And with fourth and fifth graders, there's this thing called a kindness retreat. And we'd go in and we, we'd talk essentially about like as a fourth grader, as a fifth grader, how can you be kind to your classmates? And we talked about different ways that you could do that. It was really fun all day retreat. But you can imagine, like for fourth graders, there's all of the, there's this huge spectrum of things that you might encounter in a day, like weird things that they would say or like weird ways that they would interact with you. And at first going into those, I'd be really nervous because I wouldn't, you know, something would happen, it would throw me off, I wouldn't know how to respond. But after doing it for two years you start to develop these tools that then you can pull out really easily and be like, you know, if if somebody a kid runs up and punches you in the knee like first time that happens I'd be like I don't know what to do but like the 10th time that would happen that didn't actually happen 10 times but like then you have this tool in your tool belt that you know how to respond and I feel like calls like that are similar where what's hard is on the first one you're going in without any tools and how great to have practice sessions where you can start to figure out what those tools are so you can pull those out as needed. So maybe a good takeaway there is to do those practice sessions.

How. Yeah, go ahead Anybody in your community if you want to reach out just say chandice I want you to do a practice call with me. I'm happy to help you.

Practice. That's great Sam.