S7 Bonus 02: Can Pitching Be Fun?

Get the show’s transcript

[INTRODUCTION]

[00:00:00] YD: Welcome to the Travel Media Lab Podcast. I’m your host, Yulia Denisyuk, an award-winning travel photographer and writer, entrepreneur, community builder and a firm believer that every one of us can go after the stories we’ve always wanted to tell with the right support, encouragement, and structure. I’m on a mission to help women storytellers everywhere break into and thrive in the travel media space.

If you’re ready to ditch your fears to the side, grow your knowledge and confidence, and publish your travel stories, you’re in the right place. Let’s go!

[OVERVIEW]

[00:00:38] YD: Welcome back, everyone. All this month, we're continuing to share with you a few of my favorite conversations we've held over the years inside the Circle as we gear up for the return of season eight of our podcast this February. In this bonus episode, I'm sharing with you a conversation we had in the Circle during one of our weekly 30-minute check ins with our members. In this conversation, we're discussing worthiness and how it relates to setting boundaries, why over preparing our pitches is another manifestation of impostor syndrome, how we can turn the act of pitching into fun exercise, and why we should even do that. Just a note that every conversation from the Circle that you'll hear as part of these bonus series is shared with permission from our members. All right, let's dive in. 

[EPISODE]

[00:01:26] YD: I'm thinking about worthiness a lot this month, and it's already impacting the way I'm making decisions on different things. Not just related to travel media, it's just different things in my life. I'm not even doing any work, actually. I'm not like – meaning that I'm not actively trying to work on my worthiness, right? It's just something that sits in my mind as a question. Every time I'm faced with a decision or something, it's like, how the worthy me approach this, right? Just a simple question. I'm not even doing any work, but I've noticed that even in this month, I'm already behaving and making decisions differently than before. So curious to hear if that's something that you've seen, if you don't have any time to think about worthiness right now or how is that going for you guys? If you want to share to this discussion.

[00:02:27] Sam: I kind of think of like a wise, I don't know. I think I've been kind of approaching it like, going back to kind of what I was saying last week of stepping back away from different kinds of writing projects. That for me has been an exercise in worthiness of saying yes. Being willing to say no to things that I don't want to do, rather than just chasing and feeling kind of desperate, and like, "Oh, I just need to say yes to everything." To your point, that's even outside of writing. I've been just trying to approach that, just how I make decisions about social life or what I'm doing. It's like less chasing, and we're just being, and it's actually been going really well. I feel like I've had a good week, so I don't know. From doing that, from doing less in a way.

[00:03:23] YD: Amazing. I think what you're talking about there, Sam is it makes feeling like this question of worthiness and thinking about worthiness. It makes it easier for us to first realize we have very bad boundaries, on our time, on our energy, right? Then, we start creating those boundaries, and actually then, following through on those boundaries. I think that's what makes all the difference actually, in our lives. That's a huge difference when we create and stick to those boundaries, that actually affects everything else, right? When you have strong boundaries, you have more time for yourself, you're feeling more creative, you're feeling less frazzled, you can work on the pitches that you want to work on.

Again, let's take it even outside of that. You have more time for yourself, and it's a circle that keeps – what's the word? It reinforces itself, this circle, right? For me, I think what you're talking about, Sam, is boundaries and that has been a huge difference for me. I'm not 100% there yet, but I'm getting much better at those boundaries, and it's freeing up so much bandwidth, like mental bandwidth to do all kinds of things, which is so exciting.

[00:04:40] Sam: It's boundaries and the worthiness comes in for me, where it's like feeling worthy of having certain boundaries. Instead of in the past maybe, I would have looked at it like, "Well, I really can't set up that kind of boundary right now because I'm not – I haven't achieved this yet or made it to this level yet." Then, it's just refreshing to kind of step back and be like, "No, I'm worth setting all the boundaries."

[00:05:08] YD: From the beginning, right? From the beginning. To your point, we don't have to achieve a certain level and it's so hard, right? Because we're so used to thinking that, even let's take this career and this path, like negotiating for my rates, which by the way, we're going to talk – it's going to be a whole theme in November. But negotiating for my rates from the beginning, as I start out, that's like, what? No. I first have to reach a certain level before I can do that. Why? Who says that? Right? But it's so deeply ingrained in our minds that that's how it's supposed to be. How radical it would be if we start doing that from the beginning, just start asking for more money, for more raise. I'm doing it now. I shared this with you before.

I think, maybe 95% of the time, people give me more money when I asked for it, which is like, it's crazy, right? You're leaving so much money on the table when you don't do it. I also took me a couple of years to get here. Because again, I was also like, "Oh, I can't do it yet. I'm still chasing all those opportunities. I can't be asking for more money." But imagine if we just incorporate it from the beginning and said, "No, let me just." There's a way to do it that doesn't kill your relationship with this editor or with whoever you're asking. Again, we're going to talk about it in November in more detail. But that's the same thing, you don't have to be at a certain level to start creating boundaries to start feeling like you're worthy just because you are already here, wherever you are. Asking for more money, like all those things are related. They're all incredibly powerful. If we implement even the tiniest percentage of all those things, it's so powerful.

[OUTRO]

[00:07:03] YD: Happy New Year, everyone, and thanks again for listening to our bonus episodes today. I hope you found the ideas we discussed here relevant and inspiring to you. If you're looking for support opportunities and community in the travel media space, consider joining our Circle community where we have conversations like the one you just heard on a regular basis. Go to travelmedialab.com/circle to learn more. Thanks again for listening and stay tuned for another bonus episode coming your way next week.

[END]