Out of Office: Pitching Myself and My Brand

I feel like August 2020 was a bit of a turning point for me in my business. It was the month that I really dove into pitching myself and my brand.

I’ve known that this was the next step in growing my business for a long time, but it was a daunting thought to start cold pitching brands and businesses and explaining to them why they should work with me. I’ve always felt that I needed a certain following or a certain number of pageviews to start pitching, but having worked in marketing and media, I do know that reach isn’t really the number to focus on.

I needed a little extra push, so I invested in Julie Soloman’s Pitch It Perfect course. While I’ve definitely learned some things I didn’t really know from the course, the main thing that I got from it was that little push to just start. And the timing couldn’t have been better.

With my boyfriend Kirby going full time with his own business at the end of September, I realized I had to let go of my fears and concerns and dive right in to pitching. Both of us will now be fully self-employed and it’s on us to keep the income flowing.

I started by pitching a few local businesses that I truly love and I was pleasantly surprised that some of them were just as excited to discuss collaborating as I was. I’m so excited to have one local partnership beginning next month and I think you guys are going to love it!

Pitching myself has been interesting, but I’ve found that my knowledge of marketing and what a good partnership actually looks like has helped me to create proposals that just make sense. I’m not sending a blanket email to a bunch of brands saying “Hi, I’m an influencer with this many followers – want to send me free product and pay me to post?”. I’m taking my time, approaching brands I actually really like and coming up with a plan of how I would like to use my platforms to promote them. I think that this is not only helpful to the brand, but also gives me more confidence knowing that I’m pitching my creative skills, not just my reach.

I’m genuinely excited about the brands that I’m talking to and working with, and I can’t wait to share them with all of you!

some wins from this month

Held myself to an OOTD challenge for one week on Instagram
Landed a year long partnership that I’m so excited to start in September!
Met with one of my favourite local business owners and discussed a collaboration next year
Published 14 blog posts in August. These were my top three blog posts of the month:

some losses from this month

I felt so burnt out with sharing sales and content on LIKEtoKNOW.it. I ended up taking a small break from my regular posting schedule and definitely took a hit in sales because of that, but I do feel refreshed and ready to share great fall content now!