We answer this question every six months or so and so for y'all who haven't gone back to episode 70 or whatever I'll answer it again. Short answer, absolutely. One, you should just get better at pitching yourself. You can't in life, you can't just sit back and wait for things to come to you. I mean that's, I don't even think Rihanna's doing that, right. We're not Rihanna, but I'm sure she is proactive and going after the things we want.

That's the other thing, if you're an influencer and you have a following, you have an incredible opportunity to use that following to do things that if you didn't have that following would be impossible. To work with your dream brands, to do your dream collaborations, to help people that don't have the voice that you have. To shed light on causes and charities or whatever it is that you're passionate about, you have the opportunity to do that with a following and if you're not doing those things you're not taking an active role in shaping what your professional life looks like, then you're just a passenger. You're just like a tourist in your own life which is pretty fucking boring.

I couldn't fathom having a following and not proactively pitching brands, because to me it shows a lack of creativity. If you're creative and you want to create things, then you've got all these ideas and if you're an influencer you probably love brands so you should be thinking, "I love this brand, I have an idea for them." I think that what you'll find is by putting stuff out there and by Pro-actively pitching one, it just gets that muscle tongue of learning how to pitch and learning how to talk to brands and your ability to sell something in your life, that is absolutely fundamental to success in any role.

Whether you are internal and you're working at a brand and you're doing marketing or you're an influencer or you're stay-at-home mom, your ability to sell is absolutely essential to success, right. Because convincing someone to do something, whether it be to listen to your suggestion and what the marketing plan should be or work with you on a campaign or get your kid to go to bed on time. all that is sales, right. You have to practice it and it is easier obviously to sell when people come to you and that's the comfortable thing. You don't put yourself out there because someone's already coming to you and they say I want you and then all you have to do is negotiate a price. That's not selling, that's negotiating.

Going out and proactively saying there is something I want to put into the world, there's a brand I want to work with. There's something that I want to do, reaching out to that brand, getting them onboard, seeing it through, I mean that's should be the kind of work that you're going after. Not sitting around waiting for someone to pay you.

This, whatever y'all are experiencing right now if you're an influencer and you've got a following, I remember back when I had a Tumblr following and I called my mom and I was like, I felt bad because I had a full-time job and I kept taking time off to go on these trips and duck out for these experiences and I called my mom and I was saying I was worried about my long-term career and should I be turning more of this stuff down. She was like- you know moms are always, they always know what's up. She was just like, "This won't last forever and you should absolutely say yes to everything right now because there is there will be a point in your life, you're either not getting these opportunities or you're not able to take them anymore."

As an influencer, I think you have to understand that if brands are reaching out and everything's working and you're walking around and you're thinking you're hot shit, that will not be constant. Nobody is just successful for their entire life. Even the most successful people in the world, look at Steve Jobs. If you read his biography, a lot of his life was shit and a lot of it was failures. When things are going well, you have to capitalize on that because it's not gonna be there forever.

If there's a brand you've always wanted to work with or a project you've always wanted to do and you're just waiting for that brand to reach out to you so that you can do it, I think what you'll find is you will wait for your entire life and then the moment will pass and you'll never good to do it. I would say you should absolutely be pitching and I understand that didn't answer the question about what should actually be in there, but the pitch deck what you put together is as important as getting the brands to respond to your email. Get on the phone with them passionately talk about what it is and then they'll ask you for what you need.

What's it going to cost, all that, it's good to have all that tightened up, but the pitch deck shouldn't be something that the brand can just say yes or no to. It should be something that gets them to get on the phone and then you try and close them on the phone or in person meeting. No deal is ever going to be closed by you probably just sending an email and saying here's what I want to do and them saying yes or no.