But we can share some real-life experiences that offer some key lessons.<\/p>\n
Here are three:<\/p>\n
- \n
- My own story of starting my writing career from a phone booth<\/li>\n
- How Gordon, That White Paper Guy, used a touch of humor to break the ice with prospects<\/li>\n
- And how one of our subscribers, Beverly Matoney<\/a>, is developing a new niche with a proven but seldom-used approach<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
There\u2019s a common link through all three stories.\u00a0See if you can spot it.<\/p>\n
1: Ask for what you need<\/h3>\n
I always wanted to be a journalist.<\/p>\n
Through a combination of focus, hard work, and lucky breaks, I found myself in that world.<\/p>\n
As a teenager, I wrote a newspaper column. Then I had a summer job as a cub reporter. At my student newspaper, I was the features editor.<\/p>\n
![\"photo](\"https:\/\/thatwhitepaperguy.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/04\/Angie-Gallop.jpg\")
Writer Angie Gallop circa 2006<\/strong><\/p><\/div>\n
I loved every minute of those gigs.<\/p>\n
And then in 1995, I became an intern at Canada’s largest newspaper, The Toronto Star<\/em>. I wrote stories on everything from\u00a0the trial of an accused Nazi war criminal to the national Spelling Bee finals.<\/span><\/p>\n
Then I burned out. Badly.<\/p>\n
To recover, I took a job at a summer camp chaperoning a gaggle of 14-year-old girls.<\/p>\n
As that gig (thankfully) came to a close, I knew what I wanted to do: Get back to Toronto and get writing again, this time as a freelancer.<\/p>\n
So I started using my mid-day breaks to line up at the camp\u2019s one payphone with my address book in hand.<\/p>\n
![\"photo](\"https:\/\/thatwhitepaperguy.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/04\/bigstock-payphone-in-woods-371415901-200x300.jpg\")
<\/p>\nWhen I got to the front of the line, I would call one or two friends (depending on the lineup!)<\/p>\n
I told everyone I was coming back to Toronto and I needed two things:<\/p>\n
1. A place to live
\n2. Some paid writing work<\/p>\nThen I’d call my answering service to see if anyone had called back.<\/p>\n
Near the end of the summer, I got a voice message from a university friend, Kira Vermond.<\/a><\/p>\n
Kira had taken a job as editor at a magazine publishing firm.<\/p>\n
She was putting out 60+ trade magazines on everything from trucking to the latest in green roofs.<\/span><\/p>\n
She\u2019d just lost one of her key writers. AND the upper floor of her two-story house was going to be vacant for my first two weeks back in Toronto.<\/p>\n
So\u2026 I became Kira\u2019s \u201cwriter in residence\u201d for two weeks, while I continued to hunt for an apartment.<\/p>\n
It was a frantic time: bashing out articles, calling up landlords, and pounding the pavement.<\/p>\n
But that break gave me the start I needed to re-settle in Toronto, rather than heading back to my parents’ couch in Northern Ontario.<\/p>\n
To this day, when I think of that, I’m proud I had the guts to make those calls and clearly ask for what I needed.<\/p>\n
2: Don\u2019t be so damn serious<\/h3>\n
In the old days before the Web, every creative type had to put together \u201ca book\u201d to showcase their work.<\/p>\n
Then they lugged it around in-person to meet with prospects.<\/p>\n
Writers, designers, photographers, illustrators: They all spent weeks fussing over their portfolios.<\/p>\n
They went back and forth on questions like:<\/p>\n
- \n
- Which samples should I include?<\/li>\n
- Should I put in the originals or just copies?<\/li>\n
- What order should I arrange them in?<\/li>\n
- Should I walk every prospect through all my best work?<\/li>\n
- Or should I flip to the most relevant sample?<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
And how were you supposed to answer that dreaded request from a prospect: \u201cCan I keep this to look at overnight?\u201d<\/p>\n
![\"photo](\"https:\/\/thatwhitepaperguy.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/04\/bigstock-Dog-Tired-After-Playing-With-T-330675826-300x200.jpg\")
<\/p>\nMany horror stories made the rounds about the sloppy prospect\u2014or their child\u2014or their dog\u2014who spilled coffee\/milk\/beer\/red wine\/mustard\/ketchup\/dog food on that precious book and ruined all those one-of-a-kind samples.<\/p>\n
Gordon Graham<\/strong>, long before we ever started That White Paper Guy, fussed over his portfolio like everyone else.<\/p>\n
And like everyone else, he had a honking big, shoulder-busting case he lugged around to show magazine editors and corporate marketers.<\/p>\n
Then one day on a trip to Edmonton he met a cartoonist drawing caricatures of people on the street. So he asked her to draw up one for him to add to his portfolio.<\/p>\n
It might have cost $10 in 1985.\u00a0He still has it…<\/p>\n
![\"photo](\"https:\/\/thatwhitepaperguy.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/04\/GG-cartoon-1985-275x300.png\")
Gordon Graham circa 1985<\/strong><\/p><\/div>\n
\u201cThat drawing would always get a chuckle,\u201d he recalls.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt conveyed that I was light-hearted and approachable. Lots of prospects told me they\u2019d never seen anything like it in anyone else\u2019s book.\u201d<\/p>\n
That touch of originality helped Gordon land dozens of magazine articles, a couple of regular columns, and his very first corporate client in 1990.<\/p>\n
The point: Don\u2019t take yourself so seriously.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
When you’re pitching, a little humor can help break the ice and defuse the tension for both sides.<\/p>\n
3: Get creative with your chosen tactics<\/h3>\n
Ok. We get it. Our stories are ancieeeent. <\/em>The landscape is different now.<\/p>\n
So here\u2019s what one of our subscribers is doing today.<\/p>\n
![\"photo](\"https:\/\/thatwhitepaperguy.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/04\/Beverly-Matoney-300x300.jpg\")
Copywriter Beverly Matoney<\/strong><\/p><\/div>\n
After being a homeschool educator for 16 years, Beverly Matoney launched herself as a copywriter for mom-and-pop curriculum developers seeking to reach homeschoolers.<\/a><\/p>\n
That transition worked and she developed a following in that niche.<\/p>\n
After two years, she decided to branch out to a new, potentially more lucrative, market: AgriTech.<\/p>\n
Her new goal is to help marketers seeking to reach big farm and ranch operators with case studies and white papers.<\/p>\n
Matoney joined Ilise Benun\u2019s 21 Day LinkedIn Challenge<\/a> and re-vamped her profile<\/a>.<\/p>\n
She also signed up for relevant trade publications and did some preliminary research on LinkedIn.<\/p>\n
Then she took the organizations she found, narrowed those down to 162 companies that fit her criteria for \u201cmost desirable prospects\u201d and hunted down the relevant contacts.<\/p>\n
Now Matoney is creating a hand-written letter for her contacts at each company.<\/p>\n
In each letter, she praises the recipient and the company for their latest achievements, followed by a soft introduction and an explanation of how she could help them achieve even more.<\/p>\n
![\"photo](\"https:\/\/thatwhitepaperguy.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/04\/bigstock-Fountain-pen-6276953-300x200.jpg\")
<\/p>\n\u201cThe hand-written letter is my signature prospecting tool. I\u2019ve been sending them for a couple of years now,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n
Matoney notes about 30% of the people she sends her letter to have become clients.\u00a0\u201cAnd that doesn\u2019t count prospects on my follow-up radar.\u201d<\/p>\n
What a fabulous conversion rate!<\/p>\n
Even though her new niche is more corporate, Matoney is still betting on the unique charm of a hand-written note.<\/p>\n
\u201cLetters are a novel marketing approach that not many people use,\u201d she says. \u201cI\u2019m hoping to stand out from the rest of the crowd.\u201d<\/p>\n
Now that everything seems to be happening on the screen, getting an old-fashioned letter is an event that makes people sit up and take notice.<\/p>\n
What’s the common link in these stories?<\/h3>\n
What do you think is the common link between these three stories: one from the 1980s, one from the 1990s, and one from today?<\/p>\n
If you said anything like grit, guts, persistence, resilience, or courage, I think you’re right.<\/p>\n
Do you know Bren\u00e9 Brown?<\/p>\n
She’s a leading voice on the topic of courage and one of our favorite authors here at That White Paper Guy.<\/p>\n
In her books like Daring Greatly<\/em><\/a> and Dare to Lead<\/a>,<\/em> Brown presents the same breakthrough idea\u2014based on research data\u2014that the prime ingredient in courage is vulnerability<\/strong>.<\/p>\n
In other words: To be brave, you have to handle being a little scared.<\/p>\n
Here’s her TED Talk, viewed more than 50 million times.<\/p>\n