Pitching To New Photography Clients 101

How I met Kid-A

So this is a story of how I met Adam and Andy, the owners of Kid-A, and how that influenced the path of my photography journey.

I’d just quit my job to go full time as a photographer and honestly I was free falling in panic mode. I had no experience in networking, marketing or pitching and the tumbleweed was pretty scary.

I kept getting all these ‘how to pitch’ courses land in my inbox, and I was spending hours looking at other photographers and trying to figure out their marketing tactics. I felt there was so much noise around how to present yourself – don’t post anything personal, but show your personality, and just countless advice on what professional ‘should’ look like. For me, and I think for a lot of creatives, this was a massive problem, because I was overwhelmed with the overthinking i was putting in to it. Naturally, artists tend to be perfectionists, so the thought of getting it wrong, just freaked me out so I was actually doing nothing. The anxiety was real – not cool man!

Then one day I was chatting to my friend Claire, and she was like, ‘do you know what, I know these 2 really cool guys, they’ve set up a business, and I just think you should meet, I’ve got a feeling you’d be a great work match’.

So I looked them up, and within 0.2 seconds of being on their website I knew that these guys were my kind of people. From the bold typology, their love of lyrics, B Corp values, to their language, i was like ‘hell yuh!’

It was the day before Valentine’s day so I thought, do you know what, screw the rule book, despite them being a grown up legit Telco Agency, i’m gonna do this my way, i’m gonna pitch to them as if Claire’s setting us up on a blind date. Knowing their obsession for music (I mean Kid-A – hello!!), my concept was to make them a virtual mix tape.

So thats what I did. I chose 6 tunes, that aligned to why we’d be a good match, and I sketched them a mix tape ( Fun fact – I’m also an illustrator, check out my print shop here Tallulah Rocks.)

And this is the email – i’m not gonna lie i do cringe a bit when I look at my dyslexic sass, but saying that, it’s probably the most authentic business move i’ve ever played:

‘Hey Adam & Andy,

Hope you guys are well, and Tuesday 14th is dishing out only the sauciest of spicy good stuff for you! So what with it being the day of love and all, one of my best galentines Claire has had this mad idea that maybe we could meet up for a blind work date sometime? A bit ‘Off The Wall’ I know, but I’ve made you a Mixtape, and if you think the tunes would fit your juke box then I’m all in for the hook up….

SIDE A

1. Get It On – T-Rex. So I’m not gonna lie, I’ve stalked you and I have to say I’m a superfan already. Why? Because you’re committed to doing the right thing not the easiest thing, your quest to cultivate safety (in the very coolest of ways) is the sexiest of culturally forward thinking flex’s, you’re brave and fearless – ‘always outnumbered but never outgunned”, and your indie rock flavour gives me ‘The Bends’. To quote Marc Bolan, ‘You’ve got a hubcap diamond star halo’ – what’s not to love!

2. Lapdance – N.E.R.D. ‘I’m an outlaw, quick on the draw, nothin’ you’ve ever seen before’ – Lyrics! On! Fire! This song is speaking my language and I’m pretty sure it’s speaking yours too. The way I see it, vanilla already has a world class team perfecting it, so why not be a game changing space invader and go rogue, disrupt the system, leave vanilla to the nilla pro’s and start a ‘slap screws and tattoos’ revolution.

3. Big Yellow Taxi – Joni Mitchell. The big stuff right! What’s the point of anything if there’s no planet? ‘They took all the trees, and put ’em in a tree museum’ – plant real not plastic! And what messages are we missing if we’re not socially listening? (‘…the words of the prophets are written on the subway walls’). I have everything crossed that one day we’ll blind date meet, and if we do, I don’t even care what you’ll be wearing coz you got the B Corp badge. As a veggie powered eco defending animal lover with a lot of mileage on the underdog clock, it is very sexy that you might just be able to spot that being a wildcard can also be a superpower!

4. Gooey – Glass Animals. So what do I do? I am a photographer and creative (www.kaylastoate.com). I’m levelling up and looking to really be selective on building relationships with people who I truly connect with, and you guys are right up my vibe street. I have been a frantic freelance photographer for 10 years, and ‘the time is now’ to niche down and focus my click. My best chat up line – ‘let me show you everything I know, the jungle slang spinning ’round my head…..you just wanna know those peanut butter vibes.’

5. Hit – Sugarcubes. Guess what, my Cupid’s bow is double armed and I’m also a digital artist. I have a new little start up I launched a few weeks ago selling prints (www.tallulahrocks.co.uk) so ‘hit’ me up if you’re thinkin hmmmm I just Stevie Wonder. ‘I was happy by myself’ but now I have big plans for this baby, including custom marketing graphics and boujee artwork for cool companies (yeh I just slut dropped!)

SIDE B

1. Turnin Me Up – BJ The Chicago Kid. ‘One shot, two shots, three shots…..’ four shots is how I take my coffee if you’ve heard enough of the A cups side, to know you want to hear what side B sounds like in person. I’m flying work solo, so free and single to meet up and chat the small talk, big talk and ‘walkie talkie man’ talk – who knows, maybe we could be the perfect match and be together 4evz (https://tinyurl.com/2p8ey82p – the opening scene to our motion picture soundtrack if we do).

So ‘come on kids’, whatdya say – i’ll be waiting by the phone box!

Kayla x

And then I waited…..

Fast forward a painful week and Andy replied with a ‘we need to meet!’

So – what I’m saying is, when you’re trying to get your hustle on, and everyone’s telling you to be authentic, and you don’t really know what that means, honestly – be how you are around your friends, everyone is made of human, including CEO’s. Don’t worry about using ‘the right’ language – use your language. I would say to not even pitch to brands or people that you feel any kind of edge with. Align yourself with people that feel like ‘your people’ and trust me, the whole process will be so much more natural and non painful, than when you’re having to force things to present yourself as a good fit.

My advice: Start with truly understanding your ICA (Ideal Client Avatar). I found this free Attract and Repel Guide on Tonic’s website to be game changing. It really helped me to be confident to do things ‘my way’, rather than stressing about what the ‘right way’ is. It gave me the confidence to believe that the people who i want to work with will vibe with ‘my way’ anyway so it’s ok to do things my style – in fact that’s what people want to see, what makes you/me different from the rest of the pack.

Then, when you really have a deep understanding of who you want to work with, start finding them. Go to LinkedIn, Insta, Pinterest, hit the high street, ask friends you have if they know anyone they think would be valuable for you to connect with. And use language and methods and styles that are as creative as possible, be thoughtful, tailor your pitches, you want the reader to feel special and seen and like you totally get how ‘extra’ they/their brand is. For me, there’s no point in faking anything, I don’t write ‘Your Sincerely’ because I would just never say that, I say ‘Peace n Vibes’ instead. Be true to you, the rest is detail and will come naturally if you can just shut the over thinking of ‘how do i present myself’ out.

And remind yourself, a pitch is just a pitch, if they pie you then that’s OK. There are over 7 billion people in the world so your tribe is big, and you’ll find them if you keep going.

Anyway, to wrap things up, fast forward and I’ve done a number of jobs for Kid-A now, check out the Pale Blue Dot gallery in collab with Vodafone, and some highlights from their team events.

Adam, Andy and the crew are now friends of mine and honestly they’ve taught me so much about what authenticity truly is. Fu*k the rule book man, go your own way!