The Ultimate Blog Podcast - 35. How to Pitch Yourself to Work With Brands with Candice Ward

Episode Date: August 16, 2022

Are you a blogger who has been wanting to work with brands? If so, this is the episode for you. Candice Ward is a self-made baker, food photographer, and blogger. With 10 years of experience in corporate sales prior to being a blogger, she has the skills to teach us how to pitch to work with brands. She shares her expertise on the show today!Check out the show notes (link below) for links and resources mentioned in this episode!Thanks for listening! Connect with us on Instagram: @sparkmediaconceptsIf you need questions answered before you start your blog and you aren’t quite ready to join the Ultimate Blog Bootcamp, check out The Blog Depot, an online course and membership community!SHOW NOTES: www.sparkmediaconcepts.com/episode35

Welcome to the Ultimate Blog Podcast with Amy Reinecke and Jennifer Draper. We're on a mission to empower women who want to start or grow their own blog. This podcast is for women who want to learn blogging basics and who crave inspiration and encouragement. Whether you're just getting started or have been a blogger for years, we're excited to welcome you into this space where we are passionate about creating community over competition. We are bloggers who want to encourage you to believe in your potential, step outside the norm, and step into a life where you create your own schedule, your own success, and your own story. Join us for weekly episodes as we navigate blogging

and work from home life, all while raising a family and having some serious fun along the way. all while raising a family and having some serious fun along the way. Hello there, and welcome back to this episode of the Ultimate Blog Podcast. Today, we are super excited to talk to Candice Ward of The Confident Pitch. We think this is a topic you guys are all going to be super interested in. We can't wait to dive in and talk about working with brands, working in a fulfilling way with brands and so much more. So welcome Candice. Thank you guys for having me. I'm so excited to be here. Yeah. Do you want to start out and just tell everybody a little bit about

your background and how you came about being able to help bloggers in this way? Yeah, absolutely. I'll try to make it not long-winded because my journey was not linear. Essentially, I started out as a self-made baker or self-taught baker. And I started baking for weddings and then the pandemic hit and I said, hey, I need to figure out a way to make money because weddings are being placed on hold for the foreseeable future. weddings are being placed on hold for the foreseeable future. So I learned food photography and then I was building my blog while also working as a food photographer. But prior to that, I worked 10 years in corporate sales. So I had a lot of food photographers and colleagues just reaching out, asking for advice on how to actually land paid opportunities. And so I started coaching individuals one-on-one, which then led into me

creating an online course. When I had my second baby, I wanted to have some resources available for food photographers and bloggers and just content creators in the food space to have access in this information and how to pitch and land work and overcome just common scenarios that we encounter so that they could monetize and have a way to have the information available while I was on maternity leave. So that's kind of how I created the online course. Awesome. Okay. So you work with bloggers. Do they need to be at a certain level before they start thinking about whether or not they can work with brands? Do they need to have any certain

credentials or number of page views or followers or anything like that that you recommend? Not at all. I would say the credentials that would be a minimum would be the photography aspect, at least being able to write, take pictures of your product or your food that's going on your blog. And I know a lot of bloggers by default become photographers or learn photography. But just to give you some perspective, when I landed my first brand deal, it was, I think I had less than 5,000 followers on Instagram. And I had very little traffic going to my blog. I don't even know what my page views were. They were not anything significant. And it was with a national brand. And I ended up working with them for a year and it's simply because I reached out to them when I, it was like three months after I learned food photography. So I was brand new to photography as well. I had reached out to them on Instagram

and we kind of established a relationship. And then when they had a need, they ended up reaching out to me and said, hey, we're actually looking for food photographers and content creators to help us in the coming year. So that's how that partnership was established. So you don't have to have any certain number of page views or following on Instagram or TikTok. You can really start as long as you have a blog and you have the skill.

So I think that's really encouraging because I know a lot of our listeners are either thinking about blogging or maybe they're new to blogging. I'm sure we have some seasoned bloggers as well, but I think we can kind of get in our head a little bit and tell ourselves, well, I'm not in the game yet and I can't do that. So I love that you're encouraging people to kind of use their skills that they do have in the season of blogging that they are to go forth. And don't be afraid to pitch brands.

And that's really the heart of what we're going to be talking about today with you is how do you know what brands to work with and how to sell yourself in a way? So I think your 10 years of sales experience is probably really helpful and helping people understand how to show your worth. So when you coach your students, how do you help them understand what brands to connect with or how to find that natural connection with a brand that they might be interested in working with? Yeah. A lot of it starts by researching. So I mean, part of it's a guessing game somewhat, but I mean, you can be a little bit strategic. So one

way is to like, look at like, if you're receiving any ads on Instagram from any particular company, then that usually means they have budget or they're putting money behind ad spend. So they're more likely to hire a photographer or a content creator or even a blogger to create content. So that's one way. And I actually honestly will save these brands in just a folder on Instagram. Like it will just say brands to pitch or brands to work with so that I have like a funnel of different brands that I can constantly go back to and start that pitching process with. So that's one way. Also just looking at what, like who else are, you know, other bloggers or content creators are working with. When you see

a sponsored post, I will save, go to that brand's Instagram page and save that in my folder. And then I also just kind of take inventory of like products that I'm using on my blog and in my baking or whatever your niche is. I will also, again, do a little bit of research on their website and their Instagram or wherever they're most active. And I just keep a running folder of brands that I can potentially reach out to. So it's somewhat of a guessing game because you don't really know. There's a lot that goes into it like timing and being able to convince them to hire you before you land a paid partnership. But at least for the starting point, I try to not overcomplicate it. It's just really, or anyone that you would want to work with.

I have a really, like a very, this is like a classic scenario of like, I reached out to a brand. I had no idea if they even needed any photography or content, but I reached out to them because my toddler eats their ice cream sandwiches. And that was how I like led the pitch. I was like, we eat your ice cream sandwiches like every single week. So they've been a client of mine for over a year now. And I love telling the story because they kind of fall into that bucket of like, I reached out to them and then they were like, we don't have any opportunities. And then it turned into something.

So I'll probably reference that a lot throughout this podcast. I talk about it a lot on my coaching calls because there was a lot I had to overcome to land this opportunity, but it's been, they've been an amazing client and I'm so happy I reached out to them. I think that that speaks to something that is really important. And what we talk a lot about is that when you're working with brands or a sponsor, like doing sponsored work or even an affiliate, it's really important to have that authentic connection. So I love that you use that example of this is a product that we use in our home, you know, every week. And then that you obviously already have a personal testimony with that product. So it makes it feel even more natural because you're already a fan. You don't have to become a fan of that product and not saying that you can't do that. But I think as bloggers and content

creators are thinking about brands that they could possibly pitch, that's a really good way to know is look around your house and look at the products that you use on a daily basis. is look around your house and look at the products that you use on a daily basis. And then don't be afraid to look up those people. So how do they know how to contact some of these brands? What do you recommend as the best way for them to connect with them? Is it following them on social media first or finding out who their affiliate marketing manager is? Or how do you recommend content creator were to connect with a brand? Yeah. I mean, that's a really good question. I think going to what I do, like before anything, I will go and just research the company. I go to their webpage. I go to

Instagram. I just am like trying to uncover what is going on from like a business perspective. Like, do they seem to be focused on any specific products? Do they have like, do they have any recent features? So I'll go to like their about section. I'll look at their mission and their values. I'm trying to find some sort of way to connect with them or just some sort of information that's going to provide me with the ability to like connect with them in my initial pitch, because I do send an initial pitch most often through Instagram DM first to get the contact. But it really first starts with researching the brand. And I spend a pretty significant amount of time researching the companies that I want to try to work with. And the reason why is

because I don't teach sending generic pitches. I teach being more strategic in your messaging. And so I really think that the relationship starts with engagement on Instagram, like authentic engagement, like going to their stories and reacting to something that you see or commenting on their post. If you truly like love maybe that recipe or that product, but again, just being as authentic and genuine as possible. And then just making an ask via DM. And that's really what pitching is, is like making an ask, right. Based on what you've seen. So like, let's say you've seen that they just recently launched a new product and you're like, oh my gosh, I'm so excited. I really want to try that

product. I've tried your other products and I use them regularly in my recipes. If you guys are in the content of content creation, I would love to... Or then you can ask for the email. So I will just say, what's the best person for me to contact? And then generally, I'll get an email that way. And that's when you uncover, is it a marketing agency? Is it someone internally that's working at the company? And then I go to LinkedIn and I verify that person to see what their role is. So that's how I figure out if they work at an agency or if they work internally at the company, which makes a huge difference in knowing what their role is. That's going to make a big difference in your pitch as well and the success of them responding

to your pitch. Okay. Will you dive into that a little bit? Because that's new to me and I would love to hear what the difference is between a marketing agency and somebody who works directly with the company or somebody who works directly with the company or somebody who works for the company. Yeah. So one thing I talk a lot about is buyer roles. So what is going to motivate that individual to say yes to you is going to be different based on what their roles are at the company or if it's a marketing agency. So to be kind of like brief and not long-winded, a marketing agency, what they're going to care about is different than what somebody internally at the company

on the marketing team is going to care about. A marketing agency, think of them as like a broker. They're being paid by the company to manage influencer relations and content creation. And they're managing a portion of that budget. And they're the ones really making the decision on who to hire, but they're also wanting to keep their client happy, which is the brand that you'd be creating content for. Somebody internally in the company, you can be working with either somebody that's on the head of the marketing team, or it could be somebody who's on their social media team. And again, their needs are going to be, or their roles are very different. So somebody on the marketing team

is probably not involved in the day-to-day activities. They're going to be like, okay, we've got this overall budget that we have to manage. Now, how do I allocate that budget to influencers in a meaningful way where I'm going to see a return on my investment? So they're going to want to see, like if you're pitching the head of marketing So they're going to want to see, like, if you're pitching the head of marketing,

they're going to want to see like stats and actual proof, right. That you can perform as somebody on social media. They're going to want to, they're going to care more about like, okay, does your audience, does your audience get us in front of the audience? We want to be in front of like, does do the demographics align? Does your blog and your target audience align with ours? They're going to care more about like the performance of the Instagram post or the blog post. So more of like a micro level, whereas the head of marketing is going to care more on a macro level, if that makes sense. So the verbiage that you use is going to be really different depending on who you are pitching to, because you're trying to convince that person that you're pitching to, to like respond to your email. Right. So that's kind of how I use that information to make, to make my pitch meaningful to that individual. I have never heard it explained

in that way. Like that is incredible. And it's, it makes so much sense. Yeah. So as a newer blogger who maybe hasn't had a lot of experience with this, like what kinds of things should they pull together in terms of having that like support or documentation or information? Do they need to have like some kind of a, like a pitch kit or a media kit or something that they can send along? Do they send that immediately or do they just reach out? Like what does that piece of the process look like? Yeah, that's a good question. I don't recommend sending a media kit right away. And the reason why is because I use that information to, I kind of withhold that information. It's like a negotiation strategy because the best analogy I have is like, and I use this all the time,

but like, let's say you were meeting a new friend or you were going on a date and you're sitting at a table together. Would you sit down and automatically just like tell them everything about yourself on the first date? The other person's probably going to become uninterested, disengaged. And then they're going to be like, I know everything about you. Like what, where's the mystery, right? When it comes to pitching, it's like there's baby steps with each pitch because most often brands don't respond on the first pitch. So I teach a four email sequence and there's a strategy with each email. So like the first email, if you gave up everything, like your media kit is a strategy to get them to respond. So maybe you wait until email two or email three to give them that information, but there's other ways that you can show value in your pitch without having to send that without having to send your media kit on the first pitch.

So there's no right or wrong. I know a lot of people will send it because it's good information for them to have, but I don't think that a brand is going to open your attachment, look at your media kit, and then respond to you because of that. So that's kind of how I leverage my media kit to kind of as a negotiation strategy or to get them to respond. I just think like, how can they be prepared or what can they do to make themselves like what information should they have like in those emails? Then if, you know, if they're not sending their media kit, like what else can they put together so that they can make themselves attractive? Yeah. Yeah.

Okay. So I love that question. This is something that I talk about. I just created like this 22 page document and it has my top six powerful strategies to stand out in a pitch. And this is one of them that I talk about, which is knowing your value proposition and your value proposition is just simply like an elevator pitch. So looking at your strengths, like what are you good at? A lot of people,

when they're just starting out blogging, they might think I have no strengths. I'm brand new. I don't have anything to show. Well, that's not true. You were creating content for your blog. You probably have some sort of niche that you're blogging for so that you're an expert in that topic. And you can look at anything that has performed. Like I always encourage people when you're brand new, it can feel a little bit more overwhelming of like trying to figure out what your value is or what's that proposition, but look back on. So what I would do, for example, is I looked back on my experience that had nothing to do with me blogging or being a food photographer. Cause I'm like, I have nothing to show yet. So I tried to pull some sort of information from something that I did prior. And when I was

in baking, I had products sell out in like 48 hours. So I was like, Oh, I can show them that I can produce results. Like I can market. Right. So just thinking of it from the lens of the person that you're pitching to, like what's going to help make their job easier. So that's how I use like that information. And then I go to LinkedIn and I'm like, okay, that's their role. Like what's going to make their job easier and their life easier. And how can I serve them or help them? So I try to come at it from that approach and that lens. So I don't feel like I'm being salesy or pitching them on anything. When you're first starting out, you may not have like the stats necessarily, or anything to say, Hey, this is why you should hire me. I have hundreds of followers on Instagram, but you still have value that you're providing. You're still creating content. You're an idea

generator and that's what they're hiring you for. So what I would suggest if you're brand new and you don't have stats to back it up, then I would just come up with a few ideas after researching the brand that you think is in alignment with their audience. So I go to their webpage, their Instagram, and I look at what's performing and what's not performing. Like I will go to their Reels tab, their Instagram post, because I want to know what their audience likes. And then I'm going to pitch that brand on more ideas like that. So they're paying you to come up with ideas.

So you should send them ideas in your initial pitch. That's going to grab their attention. So a brand new blogger who we're talking about knowing your worth, I think they might know that what they have is valuable to a brand, but in regards to a pitch, that's going to warrant like a sponsored post or a contract for a certain length of time or whatever, how would somebody know how much compensation would be required for any given post or collaboration? I mean, I think that that's a common question that we hear is how would I know what to charge or how do I know if I'm being taken advantage of by a brand by what they respond with? So what advice do you have in regards to compensation?

Yeah. I mean, I can go so deep on this topic because it's notorious that brands right now are reaching out, asking content creators to work in exchange for product. I don't really want to go deep on that topic because I think there could be a time and place to work in exchange for product. But most often I'm going to say that generally doesn't lead to a paid partnership. We agree with you. We don't coach our students to do that either. We tell them to kind of, they, most companies have a marketing budget, so we're in total alignment. Absolutely. And so in terms of compensation, so I actually do kind of want to talk about how companies manage their overall budget so that I think it will give everyone an understanding of like how you can negotiate that.

So I kind of compartmentalize my, the way I monetize into like two buckets. I do freelance photography work, and then I also do sponsored work and sponsored work can be just a sponsored Instagram post, maybe a sponsored reel, or it can be a sponsored blog post or all of the above. And so the budget for both of those are treated very differently within an organization. So typically for sponsored work, it falls under the influencer bucket. And a company's strategy with that is typically they have an overall budget and then they allocate that across a lot of different influencers because they're trying to reach a lot, you know, new audience. Freelance photography is a very different approach.

Freelance photography just simply means a company is outsourcing their photography and or content creation to maybe a few photographers. So like you're not actually advertising their product on your webpage or your Instagram account. You're simply creating content and then selling it to the company. To me, that's a more lucrative revenue stream because there's a lot more room for negotiation. Usually a company wants to work with fewer photographers because they care about establishing their brand. it's typically companies, it's not going to be like your big company, like King Arthur flower, right? Like they're going to be the ones working with influencers because they already have brand, their brand is established and

very recognizable. It's going to be like small to midsize companies that hire freelance photographers because they're trying to establish their brand and, and get credibility to their brand. So they care more about their photos being more consistent rather than reaching a ton of new people. So how that changes the way they manage their budget is usually they have a budget that they're allocating across fewer photographers. So you get a bigger piece of the pie. So I always suggest to bloggers, especially when you're just starting out and you're trying to eventually get on Mediavine or make ad revenue as passive income, a way to make income right away. And this is what I did in the beginning was sponsored work as well as freelance photography work. And with the freelance work,

you definitely have more room to negotiate. For sponsored work, they might have like a very specific number per influencer. And I can't really give a specific, I don't know what that number looks like because it's going to be different for every company. But in terms of feeling good about what you're getting paid, I think it comes down to figuring out what your individual rates are because we all charge something different. We have different expenses and costs of living and cost of doing business. And, you know, I live in Seattle, for example, I'm in a very expensive city. So like my rates are probably going to be higher than someone living in Idaho or, you know, somewhere that's maybe a little bit less expensive to live. So knowing what your rates are and then knowing what the minimum is that you need to charge to

prop in order to profit, because that is an easy way for me. If a brand is like, okay, I'm all, I only have $250 to pay you. Then I'm like, no, I'm not going to profit off of that. This is not a good partnership. And I don't need, I move on to another opportunity. So knowing what your minimum is, is really important because it's a quick way for you to be able to say yes or no to the opportunity. And when you say no, you're opening the door to saying yes to another opportunity. So it's okay to say no, and it's okay to make space for your ideal client to, that will pay you what you need to get paid. I think there's so many things you have to take into account when you are doing that pricing that people may not think about. You have to

think about the cost of the products that you're going to have to purchase, your time, be realistic in how much time it's going to take you to actually do that work. And do you need props? Do you need new memory cards for your camera? Do you need equipment? I think you have to think about so many more things than just like, okay, how much can my paycheck be for this? I think those are some really, really good tips so that they can start thinking about what to charge. And I think you just have to start somewhere, right? You can't just worry and worry and worry until you end in a never pitch because you don't know what to charge. I would think you can start and then you can start pushing it up. And maybe at some point you reach a threshold where people start to say no, then at

that point, maybe, you know, you're charging too much. Yeah, no, absolutely. That's such a good point because in the beginning, no one knows what to charge. I mean, it's the hardest thing, even for me, four years later, I'm still, it's always scary when I send over a proposal or my rates to a brand because I'm like, are they going to go for it? I don't know. It's really scary, but yes, you start somewhere. I mean, I think I charged three 50 for my first sponsored post and I'm like, you know what? It's not the national brand. Let's just see what this turns into. And then over time I increased my rates. And then I know, knew that, you know, the three 50 didn't feel good. Like I didn't, I don't feel like I profited from that because it took me 10 hours to do that job or whatever. So yeah, you start somewhere, you increase your rates over time, and then you start to determine

like what feels good to you and what doesn't. And you'll know right away when a job doesn't feel right. I think that's important because I think we I think if you've been in this space for any length of time, we've all had jobs that we've taken with brands or companies and it's like clawing your eyes out. You can't wait for it to be over. It was not a good fit. There's no way it was worth the amount of money. And so I think that that's the beauty of owning your own business like this is you can decide, okay, one, that was not a good fit. So how can I make it better the next time? Or what am I not willing to do?

And don't just be willing to take everything that comes your way because you will have a lot coming your way. So be a little picky about it. Make sure that these brands feel really authentic in what you're sharing and you're not literally just trying to get a paycheck, but that it feels authentic. Making money is obviously important, but we also have the opportunity to enjoy the money that we are making. And I think that that's important in this line of work, that blogging and being a content creator is actually really fun. And if we're working with brands that kind of suck the joy out of that, there's a lot of brands out there that won't be like that. So be willing to continue to find those brands that you can have a long-term connection with, because I think a long-term relationship

is obviously better than a one-off too. Yeah. And a long-term relationship, it happens because you both are in alignment in every way, right? Like you can take, let's say 10 crummy opportunities that pay you really low just to hit your income goals. But then like you said, what's that going to do to, it's going to suck your creativity. You're going to feel burnt out. And then it's not going to turn into a long term partnership because you're not performing your best work. If you find a client that pays you more and maybe you work with fewer clients, then your creative juices are flowing and the relationship is there and you're performing your best work.

And then they want to keep hiring you over and over and over. So that's really like the name of the game. That's what we should all be striving for. But I think in the beginning, we could get so caught up on like, we just need to get experience and we need to get paid. And on that topic, like our portfolio is anything that we create. Everyone thinks that like, we have to build a portfolio to show brands that like they should hire us as a photographer, but like your portfolio was only paid work. And like, that's not true. Your portfolio is any image that you ever create that can be part of your portfolio. So like anything that you're creating for your

own blog, it doesn't have to be paid work. Like you're credible. The minute you take a photo, the minute that you're creating content and the more you do it for your blog and for yourself, the more images you're going to have for your portfolio. And then you're going to be able to attract your ideal client that way. So I think we forget about that when we're just starting out. Do you want to start building a foundation for your blog? Do you have questions you need to answer before you start? Do you wish that you had someone there to hold your hand through the process? We are so excited to share that we have created a membership community just for you. The blog Depot is an online course and membership community that will teach you the foundations you

need to build a blog. We teach you about niching down, finding the right mindset, the best platform to build a blog on, and so much more with monthly coaching calls inside the community. You will find the support you need to finally make your dream a reality. The doors are open to join this amazing blogging community, and we can't wait to help you find the link to join the blog Depot in the show notes. And what are some things to look for in terms of creating a relationship? That's going to be a good one. That's going to feel right to you, do they send over like a list of requirements or are those like usually pretty standard or can

they vary from company to company? And what are you signing up for? Do you have to sign a contract? What does that look like? Yeah. I mean, for, so again, like talking about the two different kind of main ways that you can monetize in the beginning, freelance photography versus sponsored work, I kind of like treat them separately. So for freelance work, I mean, you need a contract for both, I would say. It just protects you. So I have my own contract, but then what I have found is like typically for sponsored posts, the company will have their own contract or their own requirements for freelance work. It usually will be the photographer, the content creators contract that they're signing. So you definitely want to have like a pretty extensive

contract to protect you just in the event that something happens, but also just to communicate to the client exactly what they're getting, what you're, you know, the date that you're delivering the images, how many images are they getting? How are you delivering the images? What happens if you get sick and you can't accommodate that timeline? Like all of those nuances, but what was the, sorry, what was the beginning of your first part of your question? I think just what to look for in terms of knowing, like you've got a good contractor, you've got a good agreement with them that you're, that you're doing things that you want to do that feel right to you in terms of the requirements of the job. Yeah. So, I mean, a lot of times, honestly, listen to your gut because a lot of the times you'll get a contract or they'll ask for

so much and the pay is so little. And you'll know, like if a client is asking for exclusive rights to your images, and then they also say that you can't work with any of their competitors for six to 12 months. So like an exclusivity clause, like those are things that are, that's a big ask. So I would caution if they are making that request, you can negotiate that. Always try to negotiate that. I never want to give full rights to my images for one, because that means technically if they buy full rights to your images, you can't even put them on your website without their permission. You can't put it as part of your portfolio. You can't use it for any marketing purposes on your Instagram. It's no longer yours. So I try to tell people to

caution. That wouldn't feel right to me. A partnership that would feel right is one that is open to negotiation, whether that's negotiating on the rates. So if you're going to ask for more or one that's willing to negotiate their contract, maybe they're like, okay, you know what? You don't feel comfortable with full rights. Like let's talk through what the other options are. And I do that with every potential partnership. You can gauge their interest level based on how willing they are to be flexible. Also the other way I qualify a partnership or my ideal customer in knowing if it's a good partnership, before I ever sign a contract with them or they sign my contract, I go through like a discovery call or I send them a brand questionnaire that has questions that I have them fill out. understand a little bit more about like the requirements of the job, but also like what their overall goals and needs are so that we're like in full alignment about what the expectations are. And then from there, I'm like, okay, do they want me to create a mood board? Do they have,

some brands will send over like their branding so that they make sure that you are creating images that are in alignment with that. So like over-communicating and just seeing how communicative they are. I've had so many bad opportunities where like the person I'm working with is either through a marketing agency and they are just, they didn't communicate any of that information. And now here I am creating content for them and it's not what they expect. That's the worst position you can be in. So yeah, just over-communicating. Yeah. And having a true list of what is expected here. So I think before accepting any proposal or anything, maybe even rehashing it with them and like, okay, so this is what you're expecting from me. Having that in written form, I would always

have it in written form within a contract, I think is beneficial as well. I know when I'm working with them, as I'm getting ready to post said content, I'm looking through what they expect and making sure that I'm delivering everything by the date that they need and all of that. And then following up,

also, this is something that I think is important. If you're not getting paid, you can ask for that. If you're supposed to be getting paid at a certain point, I worked with a brand here this year that my payment was late. And so be on top of that. Put it in your calendar. I should be getting paid by this brand by this time and making sure that that's actually happening.

Because a lot of times with sponsored posts, it happens after the post. And so make sure that you're thinking about that and not letting it go, but you're staying on top of that and being in charge of the business side of things. Yeah. We should be invoicing our clients after an opportunity. After you've delivered the images, I think a lot of us forget to send an invoice and we're just like, Oh, now we just have to collect payment. A lot of brands expect you to invoice them so that they can then pay you, or they might request your W-9 as an independent contractor, I guess, technically. So just know that like, sometimes they require that from you, but they're not going to say, Hey, can you send over an invoice? So it's really falls on us to do that and to manage that so that we can stay on top of being paid on time. I've been paid late so many times. It happens more often than you would think.

For sure. It is like the business side of it that obviously is creative. Some of us don't love that part of it as much as the creative side of it, but it is a really important piece. We deserve to get paid for the work that we've done. And so don't sell yourself short. Don't be afraid to ask what you're worth. Don't be afraid to ask for the payment that you deserve as well, or that's been agreed upon. So let's kind of wrap up here with, I want you to share with our audience, like maybe your top three strategies when pitching for brands, like just a quick rundown, like what those three top things would be. Yeah, absolutely. I, oh gosh, there's so many, but yeah, I have, I would say my top three would be

one building connection, going back to that, that example of like sitting at a table with a new friend or being on a date for the first time, like you want to sit down and ask them questions, right? You want to be engaged with like what's going on in that person's life. It's the same with a brand. So when you're opening your pitch or even engaging with them and trying to build a relationship or a connection, the biggest downfall that I see when people start pitching is they open their email. Like the first sentence is like, hi, my name is Candice and I'm a food blogger.

And I'm also a food photographer out of Seattle, like immediately talking about yourself. So making a connection with the brand by first commenting on something that you notice about them or that you love about them. And there's a lot of different ideas that I offer in my guide that is totally free that you guys can download, but I give you actual ideas on how to create that opening sentence. That's going to be really impactful. That's the first tip. So just building a genuine connection. The next tip would be, we haven't talked about this one yet. So I want to mention it, but knowing and understanding their audience. So not your audience, it, but knowing and understanding their audience.

So not your audience, but like researching the brand and trying to understand who is that company trying to target. And I have question prompts like in my guide to help you like through this process when you're researching brands that you want to pitch to, because if you can show them that you understand their target audience and that you can come up with ideas and create content for them, that makes you an invaluable resource for them. And that is going to incentivize them to hire you and to keep hiring you. So that would be tip number two is understanding the brand that you're pitching to understanding their target audience. The last one that I would say is knowing your value proposition, which we've already talked a little bit about, but again, like how do you show value, right? When you're just starting out, maybe you don't have like blog stats, but maybe you have one recipe that's performing really well

on your site. Or maybe you have an Instagram post that your audience responded favorably to. Can you reach out to a company maybe that their audience would align well with that type of content? Or you could incorporate that product into that recipe. Maybe reach out to that specific company that you used and say, hey, this is performing well. Or just also identifying your areas of what your strengths are. Are your strengths photography? Is it recipe development? Is it storytelling? I mean, there's so many different ways that we can provide value to a brand. And a lot of us just think, oh, we take pictures and create content, but it goes deeper than that. We really, what we're doing at the end of the day is we're helping sell a product for that company.

So how can you tell their story and speak to their audience? If you can come up with two ideas and send that in your pitch along with your value proposition, which is just simply like, why hire you? Because you just gave them two ideas. So that's why I always say, come up with ideas and what your value proposition is. And that's why I always say, come up with like ideas and what your value proposition is. And that's going to really help you stand out when you start reaching out to brands and incentivize them to respond to your pitch and also hire you. I love that the name of your course is the confident pitch program, because just spending this time with you, I think has given me confidence. And I'm sure it's giving everybody else listening confidence that it doesn't matter where you are on your journey.

You absolutely have a way to serve brands and can connect and offer them value. So thank you for that boost of confidence and helping our listeners understand that they have worth and that they can definitely grow this side of their business. If someone were to want to dive even deeper into this, how can you help them with that? How can they connect with you? Yeah. So I offer kind of three different areas. I have different coaching packages for different levels, depending on what your individual needs are. I also do pitching workshops. I'm going to have one more next month. It's basically like a coaching call, but with a small group. And I go really deep into my sales process so that you know exactly how to book clients from the beginning stages of where to pitch, how to pitch, you know, how to find the contact

is the whole entire sales funnel. And then the third is I have more of like a business course, which is the confident pitch program. And that's really for somebody who doesn't need to want to be on a live call, but wants to kind of be self paced. I give you like 20 pitching templates, I have a contract and a sample contract and proposal that was actually reviewed by a lawyer. So it's pretty in depth, but I have a lot of information in the course really to help you with starting to pitch. And I'm going to be relaunching. So the course is not open. It only opens twice a year. So I'm going to relaunch it in September. So if you want to be notified, you can get on my wait list and I can send you guys the link for that. Yeah. So those are the three best ways to connect. And

then on my Instagram, the confident pitch, I am always posting resources, information tips, and I just actually created a, that free guide. That's my six powerful strategies to stand out in a pitch went live yesterday. So this is perfect timing. But yeah, that's been a really popular resource that a lot of people have already been utilizing. Awesome. Thank you so much for offering so much to our listeners. And we will link all of your information in the show notes so they can connect with you. We appreciate you sharing this process and encouraging our listeners so much.

So thanks for being here today. Thank you for having me. This was so fun. Thank you. Thanks so much for tuning in today. If you'd like to continue the conversation about blogging with us, please find us on Instagram at spark media concepts. You can also sign up for our weekly newsletter where we share blogging tips and inspiration.

You can sign up by finding the link in the show notes. For those of you who are ready for the next step and want to start your own blog, join the waitlist for the Ultimate Blog Bootcamp. The link to join the waitlist is also in the show notes. Go out and make today a great day.