Real Creative Talk
When a creative gets real…
In the last post, I talked about one new thing I wanted to implement that I felt would take my creative side hustle to the next level…and, that is, pitching.
I don’t know whether it’s because I said it out loud and the algorithm heard me, or if it has always been, but I immediately started seeing resources for pitching directly after that post….You know how after you buy a new car, you suddenly start seeing that same car, color, make and model everywhere? It’s kind of like that. I’ll share a few I’ve seen later on in this post.
But, pitching is a risk for most creatives where the value of your portfolio can be highly subjective…and I think it’s easy to feel like if you don’t yet do all the things, you’d be tempted to wait until you can do them first before you start.
Yeah, you’d be wrong. But, knowing that doesn’t stop the feeling from creeping in every now and again, right?
I know it’s that way for me. And it’s common.
When I feel it, I usually have a knee-jerk reaction.,.I start trying to close gaps in my learning…trying things I haven’t tried, so that whatever position I find myself, I can feel somewhat confident I can deliver on any claims I make when I pitch.
For instance, I haven’t engraved much stone yet nor done nearly enough foiling. 😍 So, I’ve been playing around with it in my very rare free time these days. I’ve also been writing letters here and there as they are nice ways to thank a school daughter for a lovely note. Since her family is planning a trip to her home country in the spring, I decided to put that information to good use.
It’s not lost on me that these kinds of items also seem to be favorites for live events.
Yes, all this trial and error is helpful to a certain extent (and fun 🥰). But, I always try to temper that tendency to cower and hold myself back from moving forward with challenging goals with the fact that there’s always going to be a project I haven’t encountered or a new problem to solve that I’ve never seen before.
And that’s common too.
So while it’s good to practice as much as possible, to know your materials, and to know your strengths and limitations, at the end of the day, I find that many times as a creative you have to build up a habit of doing things afraid…annnnnd, sometimes, find some helpful resources so you can stop psyching yourself out and actually put some action to your goals.
Given the fact that my days have gotten jammed-packed with things to do, I keep thinking how easy it would be to forget I ever thought to start learning how to pitch. So, in order to both, not punk out and use my time wisely, I started looking for some ways to keep me honest about that goal. While different niches may have a unique way of approaching pitching, here are some to get you started if you want to perfect your own pitch.
Elizabeth Silver - This is a robust collection of pitching and related articles primarily targeted to surface designers and those interested in art licensing.
A Clubhouse Chat - Rosie Chunn, Telisa Rossein and Doris Wai chat about pitching.
Dina Lu - This calligrapher put together an awesome post on some ways to market your business and find new clients.
That’s it! That’s the post.
Now, let’s go get these goals!
