How to keep going after rejection

Here's how I landed my first speaking gig. And if you're willing to put in the work, you can do the same thing. So it starts with me getting rejected. I applied to speak at Social Media Week, and they said no. I then followed up and said, well, look on your website. It looks like you have these recaps of the keynotes from your sessions. Can I write a recap of your most popular keynotes? They said yes and gave me a pass to attend. That gave me access to the green room and all the top talent. That's how I started a relationship with them. And as a result, I did keynotes in both Los Angeles and New York City. But check this out. At one of those speaking events, I met one of my business partners. And since then, I've made over $400,000 from that relationship, just from not giving up when I heard no. So what does this mean to you? If you want to land a speaking gig, don't just pitch and ditch. Form a relationship with the organizer, because that could be easily more beneficial in the long run.