Embrace these 4 Pitching Truths to Land Your Next YES

Let’s talk pitching. Getting your name, your face and your content out into the world by becoming a GUEST on other people’s platforms. Maybe that’s a stage at a live event, a virtual masterclass or an interview on a podcast… get ready for my 4 Pitching Truths that will help you land Your Next YES. 

I believe that when you change perspective with how we traditionally approach pitching, you’ll run toward more opportunity, not shy away from it.

 EPISODE  SHOW NOTES👇

➡️ https://heathersager.com/episode23/

🔗 Grab the latest FREE resources: https://heathersager.com/start

🔗 Browse all episode shownotes: https://heathersager.com/blog

👋 CONNECT WITH HEATHER:

Work with Heather: https://www.heathersager.com/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/theheathersager/
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/HeatherSager

If you’re loving this episode, please take a moment to rate & review the show. This helps me get this message to more people so they too can ditch the hustle 24/7 life.

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:00

You're listening to Finding Your It Factor Episode 23. Today we're jumping straight into the topic that make so many of you want to run away. We're talking about pitching, getting your name, your face, and your message out into the world by becoming a guest on other people's platforms. Now, whether that's a stage, at a live event, a virtual masterclass, or an interview on a podcast just like this, you don't want to miss these four pitching truths that'll help you land your next yes, and I'd say more importantly, I think it'll change your perspective so that you can run toward more opportunity, not shy away from it. Now, before we dive in, today's episode is brought to you by my brand new free guide that I created to help you make speaking on stages, the real kind and the virtual ones a now kind of thing, not a someday kind of thing. It's called the online entrepreneurs roadmap to speaking on stages-five steps to get you started so that you can grow your authority and your audience. This guide is going to help you move into action mode with the first totally doable step, even if you're terrified of public speaking. So head on over to heathersager.com/5steps. That's the number five steps and get yours right now. All right, are you ready to embrace a new perspective on pitching?

Speaker 2: 1:31

Here we go. Have you ever wondered how some people just seem to have a way with words? They have this spark that lights you up when you're near them. They have the It factor. And while most people think it's something that only a few are born with, I believe that you can find it so it can become your super power to grow your business. It's about you bringing your brand to life by becoming a magnetic communicator in person and on camera, showing up with confidence, authenticity, and inspiration. So, are you ready to become magnetic? I thought so. I'm Heather Sager and I'd like to welcome you to Finding Your It Factor. Welcome back friends to another week. My voice sounds

Speaker 1: 2:23

so much better this week. Thank goodness that was a crazy one. If you did not catch last week's episode first, you've got to go back and listen to that one because we were talking all about how to choose your topic for your signature talk, but I was having a hard time actually talking since I had laryngitis and didn't have much voice. I'm just happy to be back. It's been a crazy week though. I have to say the last couple of weeks have just been crazy in general, but let me tell you, so I was in LA for Tyler McCall's online business accelerator event, which was incredible. I can't wait to do a full download and give you a little bit more around what I learned. I think I'll do that in an upcoming blog or maybe a podcast episode. We'll see. I still have to send a briefing to do from that, but I came home to a little bit of chaos because my youngest, you guys know I have two young boys, one turning five very soon and one who's almost two. He'll be two this spring. The little one took a big fall while I was in LA and it turns out he broke his collarbone. Yeah, baby broke his collarbone. And the craziest thing about all of it, so if you've followed me for any amount of time, you know that I talk openly about my hearing loss and I talk about the reason why have a hearing loss is because I was born with a rare genetic condition called the osteogenesis imperfecta, which is just a super fancy way to say I have brittle bones and I have had it in my entire life. That's a total normal thing for me. Breaking bones, being raised, breaking bones, and I knew having kids, I'd have a 50-50 shot of passing them down to my children. Well, with my oldest son, we knew that he has the same thing that I have. We call it OI. We knew he has that because we had a blood test done when he was little and it's confirmed. But my second kid, we didn't think he had it because he's just structurally, this kid's a tank, you'll reference, I'll reference him oftenly as baby tank. So we didn't think he had it. And it turns out he probably does, which is gonna make things a little bit more difficult to be a lot more cautious with the kids. But the reason why I wanted to bring this up today is one, I wanted to be transparent around what's been happening with me this week, making trips to doctor's offices and radiologists and hospitals, but also I had an interesting exchange with a, my normal doctor wasn't in, so we saw one of their different doctors. And uh, this genetic condition is something that freaks a lot of doctors out because they've only read about it. Yeah. Medical school and there's varying degrees. We have one that's pretty mild, but the like the worst off kids who have osteogenesis imperfecta sometimes don't even make it out of the womb. Uh, or the ones with more, the more serious conditions, they can't even walk. Their bones are so brittle. It's really, really sad and terrifying disease. And I feel really fortunate that I have a really mild case event. But when talking with doctors, they've often never met a patient with this condition. That's how rare it is. So they get a little freaked out. And this doctor in particular was really freaked out about it and she was adamant that I have a blood test done for my second child just to confirm he has it and I don't really care about doing that because either he has it or he doesn't, but either way is really not going to make a difference for me. And that really surprised her and I think agitated her quite a bit and she was trying to convince me that I needed to see it a different way. But here's the thing, I understand that it's scary because she's not as familiar with it and she's only read about in books, but I just have a different perspective because I've had it my entire life and it's been totally normal. And I just know that if I fall, I have a much more like a much higher chance that my bones are going to break. So for me, instead of making a big fussy who ha over it and treating myself or my kids as something that needs to be wrapped in bubble wrap, we're just aware of it. And broken bones are just a normal, and I know this is pretty off topic and a little controversial and you might have some opinions around my parenting styles, whatever. I mean I don't particularly care, but I wanted to share this with you today because I think it comes back to we have a tendency to be afraid of what we don't know. And I think sometimes if we take the time to see things from a different perspective or if we start understanding that the way that we see something isn't always the truth, meaning our truth for something can be very different from somebody else's truth. And both of them can be true. For example, that doctor and her concern was very valid and very real and very truthful. My approach to my disease and and with my kids, like it's the same truth, but we are just have different perspectives on it. So it's okay to see something in a different way and have that be your reality and I wanted to bring that up related to this topic on pitching because I see a lot of people have an interesting relationship with the topic. Let's say that a little bit more directly. I see a lot of people quite frankly be terrified of pitching for a variety of reasons. So today I'm going to share with you some truths, some shifts in perspective to hopefully help you approach it in a way that's going to be effective for you. Because here's, I think that when you look at things from a different perspective, you can change your approach. You get to choose your approach, you get to change how you approach things and when you would change that approach, you can change your outcome. So if you are not getting the outcome today with pitching or you're not doing pitching at all because you're terrified of it or don't know what to do, what we want to focus on today is how do we shift your perspective around how you view pitching so that you can attack it differently to get a different outcome. Now for a moment, let's pretend that you're one of my Speak Up to Level Up students. You know, I've talked about this before, my group coaching program to help my students create design and pitch their signature talks so they can get booked on stages and on podcasts and other virtual platforms. So let's pretend for a moment that you're one of my students and your assignment this week is to pitch 10 events or podcasts this week. Go, okay, real quick, as I give you that assignments, we're pretending that that's your assignment. What's running through your head? Are you excited about it? Do you have a little bit of terror surfacing. Are you confused? Are you trying to come up with your head? All these reasons of why, why you just can't do it? What are you thinking about? And also what's happening with your body. And we're gonna get a little personal. Is your heart racing or palm sweating? Are you fidgeting? How do you respond at just the thought of having to go out and pitch 10 influencers, 10 businesses, 10 podcasts for you to get on. I want you to get real present for a moment around what's your emotional reaction? What's your visceral, your physical reaction? What's your thought process at thought of pitching? Because what's coming up for you is most likely going to get in the way of your success. Now, when in my experience I found that many entrepreneurs have a similar relationship with pitching as they do with sales. And I'm sure you've heard this before, many people talk about this is so many people have a negative relationship with the word sales. We think of sleazy car salesman, we think of pushing something unwanted onto another person. And we know also that, not true. We are sold to everyday and we don't mind being sold to when we find products or services that we really want and desire and help us get to the outcome we want. So for example, whether it's a course or a coaching program or a meal prep service, whatever that looks like for you, we buy things all the time, were being sold to all the times and we don't mind when we're being sold something that we want. But yet when we think about being on the other side of it and quote unquote selling to someone else, we become uncomfortable thinking that we're going to be pushy or whatever other story we create in our head. I see a lot of that transference from the negative relationship with sales transfer over to pitching and it's because we're essentially selling ourselves with our pitches. So today we're going to find other ways to look at pitching because the different perspectives will help us take different actions and they'll lead us towards the results we want, which is more opportunities to get in front of our ideal audiences. Right? So before we dive into these fourth truths, I'd like to take a moment and give a shout out to our listener of the week, which this week is from Vic Honey. So Vic Honey says, I love this one. She says, I've been hooked on every episode of this podcast. Heather delivers with her great energy, down to earth advice, and good storytelling. I'm so inspired to utilize what she's taught me in my business. And this is a secret weapon podcast for women who want to find their voice. I love this one. I wanted to share this one particularly today because I think something that I've heard a lot is the things that we talk about in these episodes, sometimes they're super specific to speaking on stages or like today talking about pitching, but what I hear often from my listeners and my audience on Instagram and my students is that you can use so many of these strategies and these philosophies in every aspect of your business. So I just love, first of all, thank you of it, kindly for your shout out and your love on there. Thank you to each of you who do give a shout outs on Instagram and tag me each week. I really, really value hearing back from you and just a reminder, you know that this show is totally something I do for free to get more information out to you to help you become more magnetic in your communication. And if you're so inspired, as a thank you for this free content, I would love to ask, could you pretty, pretty please make sure you subscribe to the show. Share it if you think your audience will like it too, and of course leave a review on the podcast. Those are life in the podcasting world. It's how I ensure this show gets at the earbuds of more listeners, so I can continue to show up each week and serve you with great content and help you continue on in your journey. So thank you again, Vic Honey, thank you to you for doing that. Uh, this is awesome. Let's go ahead and dive right into the four pitching truths to embrace and land your next yes.

Speaker 3: 13:51

[inaudible].

Speaker 1: 13:51

Okay. Truth number one, a no, a not right now, or a no reply is not a reflection of you or the quality of your work. Let me say that again. Uh, no, not right now, or no reply is not a reflection of you and the quality of your work. This truth, I put this first because we have to really ensure that you are not self-sabotaging when it comes to pitching. So many entrepreneurs wait to pitch podcasts or events because they don't think that they're ready yet. They don't think that they have enough experience or they're qualified or enough or whatever thing is holding their back. But really what it comes down to, and I want you to get really present and see if this resonates for you right now. It's fear of rejection, fear of being ghosted, fear of someone telling us how this isn't a right fit right now. We're scared to put ourselves out there. And I don't know, maybe this idea of rejection is stirring up some hormonal memories of you in high school when you finally built up the courage to ask your crush to go to homecoming and they, and that didn't go very well. I don't know. Maybe that's just me. That happened to me. I actually asked this guy, I had a super mad crush on if he'd go with me. He said yes. So I'm like, Oh my gosh. It worked out. But then I found him making out with another girl in the corner of the dance. So it kind of scarred me a bit, but I got a little gun shy and I didn't ask another guy out because man, that was, that was a scary thing. I know a little personal, kind of a weird example, but I think we do this a lot in our business that we've put ourselves out there, whether it was with a maybe a potential one-on-one client on a sales call or maybe we sent out a pitch and it was really soft pitch trying to put our name out there to get onto a podcast and they didn't reply. They ghosted us or we got that, Oh thanks so much. You're great, but it's just not the right fit. I mean it doesn't feel good when we get rejected in whatever form that comes in a flat out no isn't the only kind of rejection. A rejection could feel like somebody saying, no, this isn't a right fit right now. So I want you to really get present with yourself to say, do you have that fear of people saying no to you or people saying not right now or just not replying in general. And if so, take a moment to really ask yourself what you're making that mean. So I know for me there's a couple really big podcast fish that I would love to go after and in my head I built up, Oh, I can't pitch them right now because my business isn't big enough. I don't have enough experience. Or what happens if I quote unquote burn that bridge? Meaning I sent the pitch and of course it's going to be a no. So is that going to burn it so that way if I ask a year from now, I'm going to be screwed. You have to think how does this land true for you? But I think what a lot of fear comes from is we're worried that if we get rejected, it means that our business isn't valid. It means that your content isn't good enough. It means that it proves right. All the negative thoughts maybe you've had around why should you be the one doing this? Who are you even to share this message with the world? All that crazy talk, that internal dialogue we talk about that just feels imposter syndrome over and over and over again, that rejection is going to make it true, wrong, totally and completely wrong. A rejection, a not right now, a no reply. It only means those things. If you let it mean that. You get to assign the meaning of it and you also get to assign other possibilities. So here's what I would recommend. If you are scared of rejection, if you're scared of someone saying you're not the right match for them, or you're terrified that they're not going to reply back, what would it look like if you come up with other, other meanings for it? So let's, let me use an example here. Let's say I sent a podcast pitch out to the Gold Digger podcast. So many women I talk to that is on their dream list to be on cop podcast to be on Gold Digger. So let's say I sent a pitch out there and I, I didn't hear back from Jenna's team. Okay, I could make that mean. Oh, Oh my God, I'm terrible. Oh my God, I suck. There's 50 bajillion other people that could talk about speaking and communication and business and, Oh, what was I thinking? It was too early in. Oh my God, I'm a dummy and I don't know what I'm doing. All those things I can make it mean it or I can make it mean, huh? I bet they got 5,000 podcast pitches this month. I wonder if they even got to mind. Huh? I can make that mean, you don't maybe speaking or communication skills aren't a priority for Jenna's ideal customer avatar, so maybe it wasn't a great fit for right now. Huh? How else could I approach it? Maybe I can make it mean Jenna probably batched five bajillion episodes and doesn't need any more guests for the next 12 months because she does that. I could make it mean whatever I assign the meaning to be, but we have to be conscious that if we have a fear of rejection, oftentimes we make that meaning be very personal. Guys, this isn't a personal thing. Don't make it that way. This is a business thing. So start displacing what that meaning is to logical things that make sense and don't make you go crazy with yourself. So truth number one, a no, not right now, or a no reply is not a reflection of you or the quality of your work. I wish I could rattle you by the shoulders right now. I know logically this makes sense, but we all make it mean more. Stop that right now. Get out in front of it. And I would even play this out banter in your head before you send out a pitch. What will I make it mean if I don't hear back? What will I choose to make it mean if I get a rejection? Reply. Roleplay it for yourself in advance so that you can get out in front of it and you don't run yourself off, uh, and, and stop pitching before you ever really get to the heart of trying. Truth number two, opportunity is a two way street. Opportunity is a two way street. What do I mean by this? Okay. So when it comes to pitching, most people think of a one way street. I create pitches, usually emails where I send them out to a person and I keep casting. I don't know why the fishing analogy just came out, but I just keep casting my pull out over and over again, putting pitches out into the universe. I want you to think about pitching as a two way street. Meaning you need to become magnetic in your business to get opportunities coming to you. Nobody ever wants to be in a position where they're always the one putting themselves out there. It feels really good when you get people bring in you requests to come onto their platforms. So, but there are some things you need to do to create the space to allow for this. So let me give you examples of this. So what you first want to be thinking about is how do you make yourself more visible? So, so kind of a funny, slightly embarrassing thing, but I need to share it with you. I was at a live event back in September. I've talked about this event before. I was at Tarzan and Sage's, a legendary life event, and I was talking to a couple of people there about what I did and it's getting really excited about my business and some gal had asked me, she's like, so, um, how can I work with you? I have to laugh here for a moment because okay, at that point in time, I didn't even have a website up yet. I had a blog. There was no contact information on Instagram. It wasn't clear how to, how to get ahold of me outside of direct messages. I like to use the example that in my business I was wearing a steel plated chastity belt, meaning I was not letting anybody in. There was no way for anybody to get ahold of me and figure out how to work with me and I was working on getting my website up and it went up actually right after that event. But the reason why I bring this up is you, you create or you make it easy or you make it difficult for people to engage with you. This is true for finding clients in your, in your business. This is also true when it comes to people knowing whether or not your quote unquote open for speaking opportunities. So you have to make yourself more visible and you have to make yourself make it clear that you have a desire to speak and be a guest on other people's platforms. So how can you do this? Number one, attend events. Physically make yourself visible. Start building relationships with people face to face. Face to face relationships will get you so much further than anything else. So attend live events, raise your hand, contribute in sessions, introduced yourself and get over your fear of networking. That's something that I openly talk about, that I'm getting over every, every, uh, every single day. But you have to get yourself out there. Also, you can get more active and free and paid communities. So Facebook groups that are part of paid programs, free Facebook groups, start having conversations around your topic. Start adding value as much as possible. You need to be visible. You also need to be telling people that you do speaking. So did you actually have a page on your website that has a featured around what you speak on, the fact that you take speaking inquiries. You could even have a little thing on your website that says for speaking inquiries, email hello@ heathersager. com. For speaking inquiries, you can even have a note on your, uh, your profiles on social media, a post on LinkedIn. You could tell people, Hey, I'm super excited. I just put together this new workshop. Does anybody know any organization or any group that might benefit from it? Don't be afraid to actually put it out there that you do speaking and act as if you already do this, that you are a speaker, you are a guest, you are a whatever you want to call it. If you start acting as if and making it known that you do speaking, you'd be surprised around how opportunities start fluidly happening. So now it doesn't mean that all of a sudden all these people are going to knock at your door. This is not the field of dreams. If you build it, they won't come. But what you want to do is create a two lane highway. So pitches and opportunities can go both ways. Meaning that you, not only are you going to put pitches out in the universe, but if your name comes up in conversation, someone remembers, Oh yeah. By the way, Susie does speaking and I wonder if she'd be a great fit for this masterclass. So create the opportunity for, for putting yourself out there, not just when you're pitching. One thing I always like to say is the success of your pitch is determined when you're not pitching. So what do I mean by this? If you're waiting for that moment to actually send out your pitch to be the first time that you interact with someone, you don't quite know how it's going to go. So I want you to think about how you show up for your audience and for your potential audience, when you're not asking for asking to be a guest, it's really going to help you when you actually do show up and ask and put yourself in play for being a guest on a podcast, on a virtual stage, or on the literal stage. So I think that's perfectly sets up the next truth. Truth number three, lay down the tracks well before you pitch. Okay, let me give you a quick analogy for this and I'm going to borrow it by, uh, from Shonda Rhimes. You might be familiar with her Shonda Land on Thursday nights, the creator of Grace Anatomy. The black, no, not the Blacklist. What was the other show Scandal? Oh, I can't believe I misplaced that one. Loved scandal. Oh my goodness. I'm so sad that show went away. Anyways, Shonda Rhimes is a creator of so many amazing shows. Guilt worthy shows. Oh my goodness. Loved them. But she also wrote the book the Year of Yes, which I highly recommend. I read it a couple of years ago. Loved it. I got it on audible. She's really great at narrating her own book. Anyways, she talked about writing for night time television, writing for television is like she uses analogy that the train for filming for a show like this is like a train going so fricking fast and you have to keep showing up every week to lay down the tracks. So this idea that they were building the tracks as the train was flying down the tracks, meaning that sometimes they had no idea where the next episode of the next episode of the next episode was going to happen. They constantly had to be in this motion of laying down the tracks and every week you showed up and he laid down the tracks. I don't know this really beautiful example that she used in, in terms of the pace of her job and just the excitement of what she did. It's always stuck with me and so when I was thinking about this topic, that idea of laying down the tracks just flew into my mind immediately and I started thinking, huh, okay, I want you to think about this. Other people are like barreling down the tracks with their trains. This is an analogy, I don't know if it's going to land. So just bear with me here for a moment. But if people are planning live events, if people are planning content for their memberships, that people are planning their bonuses, if they're planning their podcast episodes, they are already driving the damn train. They're already flying a mile a minute and they're looking to see, okay, where am I going next? And yes, they're responsible for laying down their tracks and taking their content events, podcast, whatever it is, they're responsible for the direction that it's going. But what I like to think about is I can't just throw myself in front of their train, flailing my arms saying, Hey, pick me. I want to jump on your train. And, and uh, let me tell you all the things that I can do to help you keep this train moving. I feel like it's a little jolting at times if you just throw yourself out there with like what I would call a cold pitch. Out of the blue, you just pitched someone. Can I get on your podcast or Hey, out of the blue, can I, uh, can I take a spot on your stage? Don't, don't do that. I mean, you can cold pitch and yes, there are things you can do to be more effective. But what I like to think about is lay down the tracks between you and that influencer, that business owner, that person responsible for that event podcast or whatever it looks like. Whatever example you have in your mind, think about how can you lay down the tracks between you and them? Meaning how can you show up on their radar? So when you'd show up on their radar with the pitch, it's not going to be cold. It'll be warm. Okay, so what do I mean by that? I don't cold pitch people right now. I'm sure I will in my business at some point. But for me, what I focus on is how can I get into their line of visibility sooner? So direct messages, how can I reply? Meaningfully reply to their Instagram stories on direct messages. How can I contribute in their Facebook communities? How can I actually engage in their paid products? So can I sign up for the courses? Can I set up their programs? Can I be a value in their Facebook communities by answering questions for other people? When I think about the podcasts and the influencers that I want to work with in 2020 and beyond, instead of going super wide and putting myself everywhere, what I'm focused on is how do I create deep, meaningful relationships with a core group of people that I can add value to and add value for their audience and then go wider based off of introductions and referrals. So what I want you to think about is if there are some podcasts or stages that you want to be on, start thinking about how can you start fostering relationships with these people right now. Relationships, meaning respond to their CTA on their social media, respond to their question on stories, actually engage in their programs. You probably are doing some of these things already, but how can you do it with more intention? Not by the way, not with the intention of like Hey Let me, uh, let me just get on their radar and let me see how I can make it feel like I really care so that I can pitch them and sell them on my crap. No. And, and just to be clear, I don't think that you think that way at all, but I want to make sure that my message is not being construed that way, is that we are not doing this for the sake of trying to, trying to swindle someone or trying to trick someone that's like ugh. That's disgusting. Don't do it. I know we can't be friends if that's even something that you want to try. And I know you would never try that. What I'm talking about here is the types of people that you want to work with, meaning beyond their stages, work with them on podcasts or collaborations or whatever you're trying to pitch them for. Those are the kinds of people that you admire and respect. They're most likely been mentors of yours, people that you would like to have one day be your peers. So what you want to do is start getting closer into their, their sphere of influence. You want to think about right now, okay, are you seven degrees of separation from them? How do you start getting yourself closer and closer and closer into their inner circle so that not only you can, you can add value to their community, but also, I mean, how could you build a relationship with them? Because if you can add value to them, well they're going to be able to add value to you beyond what they're even doing right now. So think about this idea of laying down the tracks. I want you to just to think about, this is a very simple way to put this. Start building a relationship. It's that simple. Start building a relationship and the relationship is for the sake of having a relationship, not for the sake of, let me lay down some things here so I can pitch you and get a yes. You hear that really clearly. Start building relationships and it's much easier to pitch, but you shouldn't be doing it just because you want to pitch them. Because then that's just, you're not building a relationship. You're trying to be slick and sneaky and we don't do that kind of thing here. You know that. Okay, so that's truth number three. By the way, I'm very, very passionate about this. This is my ultimate pitching strategy, not only for getting on different platforms but also how I work with high end clients. I get on their radar, I start working with them, adding value even for free because I want them to see me as an expert because I know I can add value. I really deeply respect and I want to be a peer with that person. And as I move forward to that relationship, what I've noticed time and time again is it always pays off in referrals, but it also pays off an incredible friendships and business collaborations. So this to me is a strategy I'm very, very passionate about and I really think that it would be helpful for you to try it, to think about relationships laid on the tracks well before a pitch and you'll be far more successful. Truth number four, the pitch isn't about you. Oh, this is a hard one for our ego because what we're trained to do is be seen as an expert on other people's platforms. So the mistake we make is we make it about us. We make it about what we know. We make it about what we've done. The shift I want you to consider, this isn't about you. This is about them and their audience. It's not about your book. It's not about your upcoming launch. It's not about your freebie or whatever else you have coming down the pipeline. And by the way, it's okay to have those things on your radar. Remember, we are using visibility and speaking as a strategy to grow your business. But you can't come at them with like, I'm doing this because I want to grow or because this is the perfect timing for me. This isn't about you. This is about them. So when it comes to pitching, don't bring your baggage and your priorities. You need to make it about them. And then trust organically that will reverberate and it'll, it'll add trickle down onto you and your business. So how do you do this? How do you make this about them and their audience? Okay, I mentioned push egos to the side, but let me give you a little bit of a trick here. Uh, everyone has an ego and if you want to be seen in a pitch, you do need to play into each person's ego. So you want to make the person that you're pitching to feel good. Now, I don't mean being totally shady and trying to like beef up their ego by telling them how magical they are and how much you worship them. Don't do that. That's not going to work. But you want them to feel special. You want them to feel like a rock star by you giving them credit for the amazing platform, community programs, whatever is they built. If you can talk about how amazing that is and you truly believe it has to be a genuine compliment, you will stand out. People love it when, when you tell them what they're doing is amazing, has to be genuine. It can't be generic. So you can play into their ego a bit. You also want to demonstrate that you do actually know them. And you know their audience. So you're just generally stating, Hey, this event you have going on is incredible. You've done such a great job fostering a community with your audience. It sounds like a nice compliment, but it is so generic. Hundreds of other people could have written it. So if you truly know this person's online presence, then you know their audience. You know what kind of coffee they drink, you know the funny quirky stories they tell to their audience. So for example, if you were pitching me, you could reference my hearing loss or am I hearing condition or my two adorable boys or my really weird analogies I always used or I don't know any of that little weird, quirky things that only you would know. If you listen to this show and I'm not talking about you, listen to one episode, pull a fact and then you say, Hey, on that episode, I loved it how you talked about pitching strategies, that's not going to work. It shows me that you looked on iTunes and found the latest episode and said, Oh yeah, but you do actually need to demonstrate to someone that you do know them. You do pay attention, you've consumed their content. So if you can reference something that only their people would know, you will gain attention. So don't do the generic stuff. Find something, not like a creepy stalker where you're like, Hey, I like the purple socks. You were worried last Tuesday. That's, I mean, a little too specific. So don't do that. But are there things, so things that come to mind for me, people that I follow online. Uh, so Rick Mulready, I'm going to reference him here in just a moment on a different way to think, but he talks a lot about his bullet coffee. He talks a lot about his, uh, his new, a new baby that he has had home and how it's really changed how he works at home because he can't say no to his daughter, so he can also can't get work done. So he had to buy a new office space, but now he just bought a house. So he's uh, he's happy to figure out how to redo this. Side note, I listened to Rick's podcast, so I know more about him. So if I were to pitch him, I could easily build a connection with him on parenthood. This whole idea of working from home, the struggles of being a new parent, there's a lot that I can connect with on there above and beyond the content. So I'm not saying that your pitch needs to be totally personal, but if you want to show that person that you actually get them and you know their audience, which is what the most important thing is, you need to say something that demonstrates to them that you're not just surface level with them. You're not just, you're not just one of those skimmers where you've skimmed the website and skimmed a couple show notes. You actually are showing up in their audience. That's important. That's how you not only make this about them and about their audience, but you demonstrate that with their pitch. A little word choice tip I want to give you here because it makes me cringe all of the time. I want to talk to you about a word choice to try to avoid. Now, I heard this for the first time by my friend Phil Jones. If you're not following him, I'll link to him on the show notes. He's amazing. So I met Phil years ago. I hired him to be a speaker at one of my conferences and we've kept in touch. He's incredible. He teaches organizations about sales and shifting things with sales. He's an author, he's got a lot of books. Um, one of his most popular is called Exactly What to Say. A lot of different things here. I highly recommend his a whole series on his books. Again, I'll link them here, but at the first conference I heard him speak at, he talked about this idea of when people are pitching, stop saying this damn phrase and the phrase is, I would love the chance to talk to your group or some version of that. I would love to work with you. I would love to speak to your group. I would love to something something. And I remember him in his British accent saying something along the lines of, of course you would, of course you would love to talk to the group. Of course you would. You end up at a bajillion other people. Honey, he didn't say, honey, I added that one. But this idea of, I want you to think about just that phrase and I guarantee you've used this before when you're pitching or you're in a sales call or something. I would love to work with you. I would love the chance to talk to your group. I would love the chance to something, something. Of course you would, and that is making it about you. You're going to have a hard time eradicating this because it's such a warm, pleasant thing that we say where we're trying to be kind, but I want you to think about is that making it about you or is it making about them? So just a verbiage choice instead what about just saying something like, you ha, I think I could bring a lot of value to your audience. I think I can bring a new take or a new perspective on X, Y, and Z topic for your group. Something like that. I think I could bring a lot of value to your group or I think I could bring a new spin or a new take or a new perspective on X, Y, and Z topic to your group. That subtle shift made it about them and their audience and not about you getting your face out there so you could sell your freebie. That was really sassy. I don't know why I just added an accent to that, but you hear what I'm doing, right? You hear this. The shift, the subtle shift in the word choice makes a big difference on the perception around who is this for? This isn't about you. It's about them. So stop telling them that you'd love to be on their show, you and a bajillion other people. It's not about you, it's about them. So how can you bring value to their group? Make your pitch about that. Now for more nuggets and tips around what to include in pitches, I mentioned Rick Mulready before. I'm going to bring him back here because I think there's some really tangible tips and I'm sure I can go into all these here, but there's a lot of really great resources already available online. So let me link up to one that I think would be really relevant for you today. Just recently, Rick, on his podcast, the Art of Online Business on Episode 276. He had quite a few of his friends show up and give tips and strategies for how to effectively pitch podcasts in 2020 and I want you to listen to this because I'm sure being a guest on podcast is important to you. These strategies also work when you're pitching live events or trying to get on virtual platforms like virtual summits. So I want you to listen to it from the phrase Yes podcasts, but also other opportunities to become visible in front of your ideal audience. So he had Amy Porterfield, James Wedmore, Tarzan Kay, Jenna Kutcher, Julie Solomon, so many other experts, and they were giving you their specific strategies. Now, pretty much all of the people on this show, with the exception of Tarzan, have their own podcasts. So they've been on the receiving end of a lot of good pitches and a lot of bad pitches. And Tarzan, she's been on a ton of podcast. She's an expert pitcher. So there is gold in here. So I'm going to link up to that episode. I think you'll really benefit from that. I just, this is a topic, again, the tips and strategies are only going to work if you enter it with the right perspective. So let's do a little recap here can make sure that the approach you're taking is aligned with the outcome you want. So here's your four truths. Number one, a no, not right now, or no reply is not a reflection of you and the quality of your work. Remember, don't make it mean something that it doesn't. Speculate on what it could mean and put the could on things that don't make you go into an emotional wreck. Number two, opportunity is a two way street. This means not only should you be putting yourself out there and making pitches, but make, uh, an environment where other people could come to you. Ensure that you're putting things on your website and you're actively telling people you do speaking and you'd like to do it more. Truth number three, lay down the tracks well before the pitch. This is all about establishing quality, relationships. Build relationships, opportunities will flow and truth number four, it isn't about you. Make the pitch, make the content, make the relationship about them, the business owner or influence or who has the audience in their platform and also make it about their audience. So don't go in there with the me, me, me. How can I capitalize from this opportunity? Trust that you've done the work and designed your content, designed your message in a way that gets people excited and wants to follow with you. Then you can show up just from a service mentality and just serve the crap out of their audience and it will become a win win. The trickle effect is magical when you do the work on the front end. Now remember, it means you have to do the work on the front end, which means you should know your message, you should know your topics, you should have an idea of what you want to be known for, and that's why I'm so highly recommending that you download that speaking guide. So even if speaking on stages isn't something you wanted this year and you just want to speak on podcasts or or do more virtual work, go get your hands on that guide I mentioned at the top of the episode, those five steps to getting started, speaking on stages. It's going to help you lay down that track from the front end. Establish your strategy, establish your topic, establish your content so that when you do show up, you can be present and be of service to the audience without that pressure of, Oh, how am I going to get a return for this? You don't bring that energy into a pitching discussion or a sales discussion. You're just going to turn people off. You have to have already do that work so you can show up with service. Okay, so let's make that actionable. So what's one thing right now? What's one thing that you can do to start laying down the track with a key influencer or a business that you would admire that you'd like to get on their radar in 2020. What's one thing that you can do? If you can just think on that and take that action today, you'll start notice the train will start rolling forward slowly and slowly. You'll start picking up steam and you are taking big strides to becoming more visible in 2020. Okay, friends. Go get that roadmap. It's over at heathersager. com/5steps. Before you go, let me just say, I am super stoked about next week. Totally excited because I have a special guest joining me actually for the next few episodes. I've got to have some of my friends joining me and I cannot wait for you to hear from them. Particularly next week. The topic we're covering is fire and that's all I can say for now, but trust me, you won't want to miss it. So until then, my friend. Keep on rocking your It factor and I will see you very soon. Bye

Speaker 2: 47:52

[inaudible] Guys, thanks so much for listening to Finding Your It Factor. And Hey, if you have a talk coming up, you have to check out my free resource. It's called Nail Your Next Talk. 10 must ask questions before taking the stage so you can show up as an authority and turn that talk into future business. These are the questions that I use myself to prepare for my life talks, and they're going to help you ask the right questions of the person who booked you for the event. So the meeting planner or the client, and it's going to help you serve your audience to the best way possible. It's going to help you anticipate potential tech or 80 snags. Turn the Q&A time into a strategic place for content and make this speaking opportunity, a lead generator for your business. So go get it now. What are you waiting for? It's over at heathersager. com/10questions[inaudible].