Episode 498: 5 Mindset Shifts for Landing Brand Deals Without Feeling Gross with Brittany Roche

EBT498 – Brittany Roche

Intro 00:00

Food bloggers. Hi, how are you today? Thank you so much for tuning in to the Eat Blog Talk podcast. This is the place for food bloggers to get information and inspiration to accelerate your blog’s growth and ultimately help you to achieve your freedom. Whether that’s financial, personal, or professional. I’m Megan Porta. I have been a food blogger for 13 years, so I understand how isolating food blogging can be. I’m on a mission to motivate, inspire, and most importantly, let each and every food blogger, including you, know that you are heard and supported. 

This interview that I had with Brittany Roche from Plant Power Couple is going to provide you with a new perspective on how to work with brands. She brings up points that really are not discussed often and those things involve mindset shifts for landing brand deals without feeling that icky feeling. Brittany has worked on this strategy for years and she’s really honed in on how to make this work in a genuine way, including having no rules, forgetting the rules, focusing on building those really genuine relationships with the brands you love and so much more. We have such a great discussion inside this episode. It is episode number 498 Sponsored by RankIQ.

Sponsor 01:21

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Megan Porta 02:16

Now let’s get back to the episode. Brittany Roche founded Plant Power Couple with her partner Terrance in 2015, eager to share their fun take on vegan cooking with other plant curious people. Brittany started working with brands in 2020. She had just made it into MediaVine when the pandemic hit and she saw her RPMs drop drastically. She had been learning about working with brands for three years prior to this, but when she knew she had to diversify her income, she decided to really go for it. Now she has formed genuine relationships with dozens of brands and has created a system that ensures a consistent stream of brand work that feels natural. 

Brittany, it is so lovely to have you on the podcast. How are you today?

Brittany Roche 03:00

Hi Megan. I am good. It’s always great to talk to you. How are you doing?

Megan Porta 03:05

I’m doing well. I always love talking to you and this topic is great. I think it’s going to be very inspiring for food bloggers to hear. We’re going to talk about just kinda the mindset needed to work with brands. But before we get into that, why don’t you share a fun fact about yourself?

Brittany Roche 03:21

Sure. So my fun fact is that my partner and I about for a solid five years, we’re actually really, really into budget traveling and we just kind of collected a lot of stories, and a lot of fun in our travels throughout the world.

Megan Porta 03:38

What is your favorite place to budget travel?

Brittany Roche 03:42

Oh, okay. So my favorite place to budget travel is Madrid. Just amazing. The culture is wonderful, the wine is wonderful and it’s cheap. There’s awesome food and yeah, that’s, that’s definitely my favorite place that we’ve gone.

Megan Porta 03:57

Do you have specific recommendations for budget traveling anywhere, like no matter where you go you have to do this to travel on a budget?

Brittany Roche 04:05

Honestly, not anymore. When we started budget traveling, Airbnb was super new, so it was very like you could get a good place with like, it was a lot of travelers hosting so they understood kind of the lifestyle and while you were doing it and it was a lot smaller and kind of underground than it is now. And also the, the airline that I use to Fly Transatlantic stopped over the pandemic Flying Transatlantic. So I have, unfortunately I have no tips, just a lot of fun and interesting stories.

Megan Porta 04:39

Okay. I need to talk to you more on the side about that, because yeah, Madrid, I have never been but I’m intrigued so I will, you’ll be getting an email from me about Madrid Okay. I love knowing that. I did not know that about you guys, but you guys are adventurous so it doesn’t surprise me. Okay. Let’s talk about the topic. But before we get into that, I think a great kind of framework today is your blog. So talk about Plant Power Couple a little bit, how you guys got into it, how long you’ve been doing it, and we’ll go from there.

Brittany Roche 05:10

Sure. Plant Power Couple, I started with my partner Terrance in 2015 and I had just gone vegan and a big thing for me in going vegan was that I didn’t know how to cook so I relied a lot on convenience foods before going vegan to feed myself and you know, my partner cooked so I really had to learn, I figured I needed to learn how to cook if I was ever going to make this stick. And so I got in the kitchen and I started following recipes that I found online and that really empowered me to create this whole like change in my life and change in myself and inspired me to start Plant Power Couple because I wanted to help other people who were in that same spot of wanting to make a change but not feeling that empowerment because, because you have the skills necessary to do it.

Megan Porta 05:59

So you went from not even really knowing how to cook in 2015 to look at you now. Oh my gosh, you were like.

Brittany Roche 06:05

I used to burn water…

Megan Porta 06:07

You’re the queen of vegan cooking. I feel like you’re so creative and inventive and I feel like that’s such a testament to just hard work and inspiration too.

Brittany Roche 06:20

And blogs. Food blogs, you know, following those recipes. T would try to help me and I’m like, no. Like I need to read this recipe and figure it out.

Megan Porta 06:28

Yeah. Good for you. That’s amazing. So at what point in your blogging journey did you become interested in working with brands and how did that go?

Brittany Roche 06:37

So even before I joined an ad network, I really wanted to work with brands. I took courses and classes and coachings and I got a little bit of progress, but not much. It was a real mindset issue for me. But in 2020 we, right before 2020 happened, we got into MediaVine and then, you know, February, March, 2020 the RPMs just took a huge hit and I said to myself, okay, well the one way that I can bring this income back up is by starting to pitch again. So from there I started pitching later that year I got my first brand deal and then from there I just kind of created, I started crafting like a system of pitching that felt really good to me, that I felt like was sustainable for me because I think that’s a big thing and it’s something to the, and now I feel very, very confident about it. I pitch all the time , I’m constantly in contact with different brands and you know, also kind of going back to that feeling empowered, the whole process of learning how to pitch and figuring out a way to make it work for me really just felt me have me feeling very empowered and like actually loving doing this, which is something that I achieved like five, six years ago. I never thought I would love to pitch.

Megan Porta 07:57

Yeah. So you’ve been in my mastermind, you were there for a year, so I kind of got a front row seat watching you just hone your skills. So this wasn’t an overnight thing for you. This is something that took you lots of time, you’ve put a lot of, you know, mindset work into it, a lot of love, a lot of thinking, right?

Brittany Roche 08:17

Right. I mean, mindset is the number one thing that held me back for so many years and through just like very small goals and setting those goals and meeting them and setting them and meeting them and upping them a little bit, I have really, yeah, my mindset has completely changed towards pitching. It used to exhaust me, right? Like I would send one pitch and I needed to take a nap. Because when you’re pitching yourself, you’re really putting yourself out there in this way that feels super vulnerable and you’re like putting all of your work, your creativity, your business yourself out there on a plate and asking people to like judge if it’s good enough, you know.

Megan Porta 08:59

Oh and that’s so hard. I think especially for women, I don’t know.

Brittany Roche 09:03

Oh yes.

Megan Porta 09:03

If that is, if you agree with that. But it’s so hard for women because we’ve just dealt with this, you know, workplace thing where we’re really like labeled is not good enough in so many circumstances and just I think we carry that kind of collective baggage of not feeling good enough from history and whatever else. So yeah, I mean it’s a real, it’s a real struggle.

Brittany Roche 09:27

And I also feel like women are taught like to be good girls, to be nice, to not make waves, to not, you know, don’t stand up for yourself. Just let it be. And, and I feel like when you go into pitching with that kind of a mentality, it’s, it’s not going to work.

Megan Porta 09:42

Yeah. And I think this is a lot of the reason that people give up on this and that they can’t stomach it because it’s so just mentally hard and it’s like you hear no, or you fear the rejection or you don’t even get started because you’re just so worried about it and you get so hung up in your mind that you don’t even want to do it.

Brittany Roche 10:01

Right. And my thing at the beginning was like I would send one pitch email and I’d spend hours crafting that email. Sometimes even days I’d come back to it and I would send it and then I wouldn’t hear anything back. And I’d think, oh my gosh, like what did I do? To, what did I say wrong? I was convinced. I remember when I worked with my first coach on this and I gave her my pitch and I said, you know, what did I say that was wrong? And she’s like, nothing. And, and I couldn’t understand like no, I hadn’t said something wrong. Like it didn’t even occur to me that like people have overflowing inboxes. Like you may have sent it to the wrong person, it may have gone to their junk mail. There are so many reasons that someone might not get back to you and you doing something wrong is probably not it.

Megan Porta 10:47

Yeah. Oh my gosh, that’s like our default, right? Like what did I do wrong? It has to be that it can’t be something else in in the world. It has to be me.

Brittany Roche 10:55

Yeah. And that’s why I’m so passionate about this topic because I feel like doing this and learning how to change my mindset about the approach has been kinda like set me free a little bit personally. Yeah. Because I don’t feel like I have to be like, what am I doing wrong all the time.

Megan Porta 11:12

Okay. So talk to us about some of your mindset changes that you’ve made over the years.

Brittany Roche 11:18

Yes. Okay. So the first one I changed was I threw out the rule book. I feel like there’s a lot of coaches and experts on this topic who have a lot of definite rules, right? They’ll say, you know, you’re not supposed to send your prices to brands right away or you know, to pitch, you have to do this complicated method of like finding the right contact on LinkedIn. All these things that I thought like they were barriers to me sending the pitch, right? Yeah. It was a lot of stuff that I was like, well if I don’t do it this specific way, then it’s not worth sending the pitch. The sending prices to brands thing. It’s so funny. For the longest time I would hear people talk about that and talk about it with confidence. Like, you know what? I bet it does work for them where they have a slower approach with the pricing and the collaboration that they’re going to do with a brand. It never felt right to me. Like that whole like very slow, like, oh well do you want, I don’t know, it never felt, it always felt so awkward, right? So I just got over that and I was like, you know what, I’m going to try just sending my prices right away. Like this is what we’re doing and these are these sponsorships were offering. Do you think it’s a good fit for you? And then let them tell me if it’s not. That’s the number one thing I would say. People who feel like they have this like mental barrier to pitching, being fun and easy. Drop the rules, whatever rules you’re holding. Kind of like when we have like diet rules, right? Talking about like women and socialization, we’ve been on a million diets. You can have that like moving forward when you’re trying to like live a healthy life, you can have all of that diet mentality of like the rules, like no eating carbs after seven. Like all this dumb stuff, and it’s really helpful if you want to make a meaningful change in your life to just drop those rules and question how do I want to do it? What feels good to me?

Megan Porta 13:08

Going to your intuition, right? Like that is the ultimate guide.

Brittany Roche 13:11

Yeah. because that’s going to come through on the other end.

Megan Porta 13:14

They’re going to feel that, they’re going to feel if it’s forced and you’re following rules that aren’t even yours.

Brittany Roche 13:19

I know it really, it was the most awkward time in my life trying to follow some of these rules.

Megan Porta 13:24

That is so hard. I love this one because I feel like we have, not just with working with brands, but with so many parts of our business we have rules that we feel like we need to follow. And it just feels awkward. And like you were saying earlier, just it didn’t feel right so you couldn’t move forward and when you don’t feel right about something, it’s never going to work.

Brittany Roche 13:48

No, it really, it’s not. It’s not something that’s sustainable. And that’s what pitching needs to be if you want to make it a solid part of your business.

Megan Porta 13:57

Yeah. Okay. So what other rules did you find felt awkward? Do you have any other things that were like, Ooh, this feels kind of weird when it comes to working with brands?

Brittany Roche 14:06

Mostly for me it was the prices. I also did not like leaving it the rules up to the brands. Like leaving what, I’m not saying I won’t listen to brands, of course I’m happy to collaborate and work with them and do something that works for both of us. But I found that a lot of brands didn’t know what they wanted to do as, as in far as far as like do they want to do a blog post? Do they want to do Instagram? Do they want, you know, what do they want outta this collaboration? So I put together packages that I knew would highlight our strengths, get the brands the best results on their end and I will customize it for them and their goals from there. I found that having that jumping off point really made it a lot easier than just creating a collaboration from scratch.

Megan Porta 14:54

Yeah. So you went with your gut on that as well.

Brittany Roche 14:57

You need to, that’s kind of the, the theme of everything I guess, right?

Megan Porta 15:01

It’s the theme of life basically. Yeah. Okay. In addition to just not listening to the rules and listening to your gut instead, do you have anything else for mindset changes that you made?

Brittany Roche 15:12

One mindset change that I made was to, instead of focus on getting the deal right away, focus on building genuine relationships with the brands. I mean it’s a good one but it’s also like a Oh but I want the deal. And I’m not saying you can’t, you can’t get the deal. I’m just saying that don’t write a brand off automatically. If they say no, don’t write a brand off automatically. If they’re just starting out and they don’t have the budget for it yet. If it’s something, a brand you really love, form a relationship with them. And I’m not saying you have to give them tons of free work, like don’t give them tons of free work but there’s a way to like you’re building a relationship with a friend, like you’re building a relationship with a colleague. You can build relationships with brands too. So ways you can do this or follow them on social media every now and then when you see their posts come up in your feed like, like their posts. Share their posts, leave a comment. If you genuinely love the product, like talk about it in your stories and tag them nothing. You know, nothing like, you don’t have to be all made up or anything. Just you in your day-to-day life. Talk about it. Stay in touch. Continually pitch them ideas every now and then, because you never know when they’re going to flip that switch and be like, all right, let’s start doing these blogger collaborations.

Megan Porta 16:30

Once they realize that you’re actually genuinely in love with their brand. Right? Like that is the key.

Brittany Roche 16:36

Exactly. I see so many people, we were just at Expo East this past September and I saw so many bloggers going up to brands and when brands said, you know, oh we’re brand new. We don’t have the budget to work with bloggers right now, they would just blow them off. Oh and I actually had a woman, brand new brand, it was super cool brand. I was really excited about it and I was just trying to ask her about it and she saw my badge that said influencer and she was like, oh we don’t, we don’t have money to pay you. I’m so sorry. I’m so sorry. And I was like, okay, calm down.

Megan Porta 17:09

She’s been abused.

Brittany Roche 17:12

And I said, you know, it’s okay. I just want to know like we’re interested in your brand. We are interested in if this is something that my audience is going to benefit from too. It’s not just about, because it’s not just about us getting the deal, it’s also about what is my audience going to think is super cool and is going to revolutionize their cooking. Yeah. And up their cooking game. So I just think that when you show a genuine interest in a brand from a very authentic place, it takes you places. I’ve gotten brand deals from brands who weren’t working with bloggers and then two years later after I’ve just casually kept in contact with them, they want to work with us. So it’s worth it.

Megan Porta 17:53

A lot of what you’re talking about applies to life. skills in general. Like not following the rules all the time. Lean into your gut, building relationships is absolutely everything. I think outside of brands as well with your business, with your life, like that is where everything’s at. It’s all about relationships. And if you just walk up to a brand, I can’t believe they’re like traumatized by the way that bloggers and influencers have been handling them. But that’s so sad. Like, no, I actually like you, I want a relationship with you.

Brittany Roche 18:24

Yeah, I know it was , it was such a weird experience. I almost wanted to cover my badge.

Megan Porta 18:30

You don’t know me. And you guys do this so well. I feel like you and Terrance are the masters at this. If you guys go to their Instagram stories when they are at like expo, you know, an expo or…

Brittany Roche 18:46

The Inspired Home Show in March.

Megan Porta 18:47

Yes. The Inspired Home Show. You guys are so good at this. You should teach classes on this because you are so genuine. You go up to a brand, you show their products. Terrance gets so into it, he’s great.

Brittany Roche 19:00

He’s an awesome talent.

Megan Porta 19:03

He is. He just like turns it on. He starts showing the product inside, outside, here’s all the features and I can feel your inspiration and your genuine interest in the product. So I imagine that the brands are ecstatic to have you come in once they get to know you.

Brittany Roche 19:19

Oh well I hope so. Yes, it does feel that way and it feels like not gross. Right? You know, like it’s, you’re getting, you’re working with this brand in a not gross way because you know each other.

Megan Porta 19:30

Yeah. We don’t want to feel gross. And the brands, I’m sure it makes them feel icky too when we’re feeling like that rubs off, right?

Brittany Roche 19:38

Yes. And I think it rubs off onto the collaboration.

Megan Porta 19:41

Absolutely.

Brittany Roche 19:42

Like if something feels very like disconnected, people aren’t going to engage with it and the numbers might be there because you might have someone with like a million followers and if they post something that’s so disconnected, I mean it’s not going to. What’s It really going to do? Right.

Megan Porta 19:58

It doesn’t get very far. Okay. I think this is my favorite one so far. So much importance there. What other mindset shifts did you make, Brittany?

Brittany Roche 20:06

Okay, so kind of along those same lines as the focusing on building those genuine relationships. While you’re doing that, you want to focus on some basic flirting rules. And what I mean by that largely is don’t put all your eggs in one basket or your just eggs for us vegans out there, Um you want to be. And an old coach told me this a long time ago. She said, you know, just like you’re, when you’re dating, you want to be in various stages of flirting with brands. So whether that’s liking their stuff on Instagram and posting about them or you’re pitching them, you want to be not focused on one single brand. You want to have a lineup. Yes. I’m saying this is like a serial monogamous, but this is what I’ve been told. Yeah. So that way if one of the brands says no, it’s not like soul crushing, you know, if they say no to a date, it’s not like, oh no, you can just move on, because you have plenty of other brands that you’re in various stages of flirting with, which makes it a lot easier to take a no. And you’re going to get lots of no’s. I get no’s every day.

Megan Porta 21:21

That’s a hard one too, is preparing for that, that you are going to get a lot of no’s.

Brittany Roche 21:25

Yeah, but I think if you just tell yourself that like, I’m going to get a lot of no’s, but no doesn’t mean no forever. I’ve had plenty of brands tell me no and then like six months later we’re working together.

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Brittany Roche 23:10

No doesn’t mean no forever. And if you take it with like grace and not like I don’t push too hard if someone says no and I know that’s another one of those rules that I’m breaking.

Megan Porta 23:19

Oh, I break that rule too. That one doesn’t feel right for me either.

Brittany Roche 23:22

It does. I mean, and I hate it when people do it to me. Like we got totally all these emails about changing ad networks a while ago and I finally said, you know, no, yeah, thank you, but no. And they came back to me with this whole like negotiation switch and I was like, wow, I’m glad I don’t do this to brands, I just don’t like it. Aw. So it feels, it feels better to have that next person you can just move on to.

Megan Porta 23:44

Yeah, absolutely. I love how you’re aligning this with dating because I can I was thinking like, oh I have a, I have a date with Derek on Sunday, so it’s okay that you said no, like having that lineup, you know, like things that could potentially work out that aren’t mysteries. Like they’re actually in the lineup. That’s such a good analogy. I love that.

Brittany Roche 24:05

Yeah, I think it’s also kind of fun. It makes you, it makes it a little sillier and less.

Megan Porta 24:12

I had a friend who did that, like she would literally have lineups for dates every week. And so, and when one guy said no, she wasn’t so heartbroken, she’d be like, well I do have a brunch date on Sunday with so-and-so, and literally she had your exact strategy.

Brittany Roche 24:30

I love that.

Megan Porta 24:32

And she was never unhappy. She was always happy.

Brittany Roche 24:34

Go your friend.

Megan Porta 24:35

Yes. Okay. So I love also the no is not, no now it’s maybe a not yet or maybe later or Yes in the future. Something like that.

Brittany Roche 24:46

Yeah. I’ve gotten yeses after like 80 no’s And I’m, I mean that’s, that’s kind of kind of hyperbolic, but at least like a dozen no’s I’ve gotten yeses after.

Megan Porta 24:55

Right. And then does it feel weird to that they say yes after that time? Or are you just like so over the moon?

Brittany Roche 25:02

No, it’s okay. This is the right time. Yeah. I try to separate, and this is a really big one too, for anyone who struggles with that like self-worth thing in pitching and hearing, no, you need to put like a separation, like a glass wind, a glass pane or something like between your self worth and what they say. because If you let it just go right in there, you’re like, you are at the mercy of someone else’s yes or no. And it’s not even, here’s the thing, it’s not even that big of a thing because if you think about it from the, the brand’s point of view, usually the brand is just looking at like their budget, their marketing goals and yeah, they’re probably looking at your stats and stuff like that, but mostly it’s them and what they have and seeing if you fit into their plan.

Megan Porta 25:50

We should always just assume that it’s something on their end that it’s never us because we’re not doing anything wrong. We are seeking a partnership with a brand, which is a totally normal thing in our world. And if you’re following your gut, you’re not doing anything wrong. So assume it’s them.

Brittany Roche 26:06

Yes. That’s something that honestly T taught me. Unless somebody tells you they have a problem with you, you need to assume that they don’t have a problem with you. And I feel like it also depends on how you’re raised, but I think a lot of people can get into this mindset of trying to figure out what someone is thinking based on their words and their, their actions that they show to you. But you’re never going to know what someone else is thinking. And if you’re constantly worried that they don’t like you, that’s going to like rub off and make the relationship weird. And that’s going to do the same thing with brands.

Megan Porta 26:41

Oh, that’s such a huge lesson in life, isn’t it?

Brittany Roche 26:43

If a brand doesn’t want to talk to me anymore, they can tell me and I’ll never bother them again. But until that point I’m going to just keep living my life.

Megan Porta 26:52

Yeah. Oh, I love this one too. These are so good, Brittany. Oh thanks. But they’re like really kind of for some of us deep mindset tweaks that we need to make.

Brittany Roche 27:02

I’m an enneagram four, so I’m a deep person.

Megan Porta 27:05

I love it. I am too. So I, before we get onto the last few, okay, first of all, like what is a timeline we should give ourselves for this and how much grace and do you have suggestions for getting started with some of this mindset work? Because it can be really, like some of this stuff can go back to childhood and get really, really deep. There can be layers of it.

Brittany Roche 27:27

Oh yeah, there definitely is. I say start with a minimum baseline start. Like I said in the beginning, I would take me hours to send one pitch and then I would need to nap for four days. That’s slightly hyperbolic, but I hope it’s not as hard for you. But I would give yourself that minimum baseline, even if it’s, if it’s one pitch a day, five days a week, if it’s three pitches a week, if it’s, I’m just going to give myself one hour every Monday to work on sending pitches out and if I don’t finish them, that’s fine. If I finish them, send them next week, that’s fine too. My minimum baseline for my pitching work has really fluctuated throughout my entire time learning how to pitch and make it, making it part of my life. So in some seasons I was confident in feeling myself and able to pitch a lot more, but in other seasons I was feeling a little more vulnerable and it took me longer to get those pitches out because of where my head was at that time. I think it’s really, really important that you know yourself and you meet yourself where you’re at.

Megan Porta 28:31

That’s such good advice. So that our timeline, I love that. As opposed to like, I’m going to get out 20 pitches on Monday.

Brittany Roche 28:39

Well you know my one crazy goal.

Megan Porta 28:40

Yeah. Well I do know that I wasn’t going to mention it, but.

Brittany Roche 28:44

No. Last July I set out to send, I think it was 45 pitches. And I did , but it was, yeah, it was one of those seasons where I was feeling myself.

Megan Porta 28:54

Yeah. But I like the timeframe instead because then you have grace with yourself. At least you sat down to do the work and your mind was in it. And even if you got one out, that’s okay. Strive for better next week. Right. I love that.

Brittany Roche 29:08

Be proud of yourself. Like Yeah. I actually recently had one of those seasons where I was just having a hard time getting back into regular pitching. We had changed a lot about how we do our pitching, how we do our brand collaborations. You know, idea pins went away. Those were a huge part previously of our collaborations. So I was, I don’t know, I just, I was not feeling myself. So what I decided to do was say, okay, every morning I’m going to spend half an hour just getting back into it. And can I tell you, that was like two weeks ago and I’ve already sent 20 pitches now.

Megan Porta 29:46

Yes. Oh I love that.

Brittany Roche 29:48

You gotta, movement will beget like motivation.

Megan Porta 29:53

An object in motion stays in motion and object at rest stays at rest. So once you’re in motion, no problem, you’ve got this. But when you’re at rest nothing happens. Right?

Brittany Roche 30:05

Oh, it’s such a mountain and the mountain just gets bigger and bigger in front of you and you’re like, ugh, I don’t want to climb this mountain anymore.

Megan Porta 30:11

That’s so true. But it’s like taking that one step is so hard sometimes, even if I’m talking about like doing laundry, I don’t want to go downstairs and put a sock in the washing machine, but when I do it, okay my laundry like it’s done. I’ve gotten it done.

Brittany Roche 30:27

Or I’m like, I don’t want to wash my hair. Like maybe I’ll just get in the shower and see what happens.

Megan Porta 30:31

I do that. Oh gosh, I do that all the time. Brittany. I’m glad I’m not the only one.

Brittany Roche 30:35

Anyone who works from home, I figure a lot of bloggers feel that way.

Megan Porta 30:38

Ever since Covid. It’s a real, real issue for me getting showered. All right, back to pitching. What else? Okay, so these are all so good basic flirting rules, separating your self-worth from what they say I think is huge. There are a lot of like really deep lessons here that all of us should follow. Not just for pitching but for life in general. So what else do you have?

Brittany Roche 31:01

Okay, this one is one of my favorites. This really changed the game for us. Pitch with a timeline in mind and do not forget the follow up. So mindset wise, this kind of goes back to what we were talking about earlier with like, they say no and you think I must have done something wrong and you run away and never talk to them again. I have done that. So you’re not alone. Anybody who has who has done that before, something that really changed the game for us was starting to pitch with a timeline in mind. What we do is we pitch for a specific like themed series on our blog and social media. These themed series usually revolve around a specific month. And I have specific dates where sponsors have to be locked in. I send four, a series of four emails, the pitch and three follow, follow-ups, two follow-ups and a closeout is what I call it. And what that does is kind of creates this nice little sequence where there’s a beginning and an end. 

So if somebody doesn’t answer, if somebody answers on the first pitch, great. If someone doesn’t answer at all, guess what you get to do? Pitch them again. And I’ve had that happen. I felt like before when I would pitch, there was no natural ending point. It would just pitch and then it’d be like, Hey, you want to do that recipe? And then like month later like, hey… So what this does is yeah, it, it opens it and it closes it and then it gives you an opportunity to re-pitch them. And let me tell you, I have pitched, I was just talking about this with a group of bloggers the other day. There’s this one brand that I pitched for a year and a half, maybe six times over that year and a half on the seventh pitch. They got back to me immediately and they were like, oh, we’re so sorry we had a switch up in our marketing department. We loved the work you did together last time. So let’s definitely do this. And it was an automatic yes. Wow. And if I hadn’t have pitched, continued to pitch because I thought that they didn’t like me or because I just didn’t really have an end point, then I never would’ve gotten that. Yes. Hmm. So that’s another thing you have to keep in mind. These brands are, a lot of people leave their jobs and people come and fill their that position or people get promoted and someone else comes in and fills that position. Like there’s so much going on. So having that natural start and stop point has been a total game changer for my mindset. Yeah. It’s kind of like I’m inviting you to this party. Like, hey, I’m, I’m throwing this great party. We think you would be a great person to be at this party. Here are the dates and times, let me know if you can come.

Megan Porta 33:39

So if people don’t do what you guys do, which is theme your months, which I think is so brilliant, how do you recommend putting kind of end times on that? Just like an end date?

Brittany Roche 33:50

I would recommend like even if it’s not something so serious as like a, it starts at this date and ends at this date, like do some type of series. Like we’re doing a series on tofu recipes and we would love for you to be a part of it. It’s running through September of 2024. Like something like that. It doesn’t have to be as hard and fast as my like very specific dates. But putting some type of a, a start and an end on it. And then also with your follow ups, you want to reflect that we’re starting it next month. We’d love for you to be a part of it. The last follow up, hey, I’m just reaching out one more time. I’m locking in sponsors for this series and would love for you to be a part of it. Let me know either way. And that gives it a natural pause.

Megan Porta 34:38

Yeah. It makes people think, right? Like, oh, this is my last opportunity I have to get in.

Brittany Roche 34:43

Yeah. And I’ll tell you, I have had brands who, you know, they were just busy. They didn’t get to get back to me in time and they came back to me after the deadline when we were already full and said, you know, we’d really love to be a part of this. And I said, you know, I’m so sorry but we’ve passed the deadline and I have, you know, we’re at capacity right now, but I would love to include you in this next upcoming theme month that I think is a fit. And I’ll kind of direct them there. And then I automatically have a sponsor for that series or theme who’s already ready to go. So they, the brands also, when you have your own timeline of things, the brands will kind of usually, not always, but the brands will kind of get to know that. And I even have brands now who we’ve done, we do something called No Dairy February every year. I had a brand we worked with for the past two years on that. That themes in particular email me and say, what are you doing for February this year? So we get those types of emails now after having done this, this will be our third year doing these series. And brands really like them because they make it part of their content too and their audience is expecting it.

Megan Porta 35:55

Yeah. And it seems like they respect your consistency and that you are, that you do have those deadlines set.

Brittany Roche 36:02

Yeah. And we do things a little differently. Like I like to think of us as an extension of the brand’s marketing arm. Like we don’t want to do things like everybody else does. I really dislike the, the campaigns that are all exactly the same. Yeah. I don’t know why brands do them, but whatever. I just can’t. I need things to be like genuine from the heart if it’s coming from me. That’s just, that’s my Enneagram fourness.

Megan Porta 36:26

Is there something in the Enneagram four that’s like no rule following or something along those lines, Brittany?

Brittany Roche 36:33

So as I understand it, Enneagram fours are super, super creative and they had place a really strong emphasis on being themselves, being genuine. There you go. Expressing their like authentic self, which ugh.

Megan Porta 36:44

There it is. Yeah. As you know, I have a hard time following the rules as well. So I’m a fellow rebel and following my own true course. So we’re together on this.

Brittany Roche 36:58

Perfect. That’s why we get along so well.

Megan Porta 37:00

It is, yes. Okay. This was another great one and I know you have a last point that’s really, really important to kind of wraps up everything we’ve talked about and you don’t want to miss this one.

Brittany Roche 37:11

Yes. And that’s to take care of yourself. Acknowledge you need to, when you go into this, I know it sounds dramatic and maybe for some people they don’t struggle with these things and everything I’m saying right now sounds dramatic. That’s fine. But putting yourself out there like that, you need to acknowledge that that in and of itself, no matter if you like, fall flat on your face or not, that’s hard. That’s scary. That’s really showing your courage and your bravery. You’re putting yourself, like I said, on a silver platter. Every part of who you are, what your business is, what your business isn’t, your creative work. And you’re handing it to someone else to say like yes or no. And whether or not like, no matter what your mindset is, that eventually is going to take a toll. So you need to recognize this. You need to recognize that it is completely normal. There’s nothing wrong with you. That’s probably why a lot of people don’t do this work. Probably why a lot of people don’t start their own internet businesses. So go easy on yourself, go slow, don’t, do not get into the habit of overscheduling yourself trying to do too much and then beating yourself up for not getting it all done. Take care of yourself. The more you do it, the easier it’ll get.

Megan Porta 38:25

Oh, Brittany, you are an inspiration for all of us. This not only applies to brand work, but so many other things in our businesses, like as you’re talking, I’m thinking, you know, like sponsors, if you have a podcast or I don’t know, there’s so many things that could align with this. And the mindset of it.

Brittany Roche 38:43

Or just business in general.

Megan Porta 38:46

Yeah, business in general. And just following these basic rules for mindset. And I think the ultimate takeaway is just having so much love and grace for yourself during the process. Because it is not easy, I think especially if you’re a woman and you’ve grown up with certain ideals, like you mentioned, you have to be, what did you say?

Brittany Roche 39:06

Good girl. 

Megan Porta 39:07

Good girl. Like be the sweet, good girl. You have to, you still have to, you’ve gotta do what you gotta do for yourself. So thank you for carrying this message to us. We appreciate you.

Brittany Roche 39:17

Thank you for listening.

Megan Porta 39:18

Is there anything we’ve forgotten that you want to touch on or did we cover it all?

Brittany Roche 39:22

I think we did a good job.

Megan Porta 39:23

We did. You did a great job. Thank you so much. It’s always a pleasure to talk to you. Do you have a favorite quote or words of inspiration to leave us with Brittany?

Brittany Roche 39:32

So it’s not really a quote, but it’s something that I’ve had to accept if I ever wanted to move forward and succeed in business. And that is that it will never, ever, ever be perfect. If anyone else feels that out there, they are a perfectionist just like me. And that they feel like that keeps them from moving forward with achieving their goals. I highly recommend Kara Loewentheil’s podcast on perfectionist fantasy. She has a podcast, I won’t say the name, but go and search Kara Loewentheil and her podcast on perfectionist fantasy. And it will really change a lot of the way you see how you behave in your business.

Megan Porta 40:09

I’m not familiar with that one. And the reason you’re not saying the name is because there might be a small, big swear word in it, right? I appreciate that. But it’s, isn’t it Un-F yourself?

Brittany Roche 40:19

Un-F your brain.

Megan Porta 40:20

Un-F your brain. Okay. Yeah.

Brittany Roche 40:22

I think if you search Kara Loewentheil, that should come up.

Megan Porta 40:25

Okay. And we’ll put it in the show notes too, just if you want to click over and link to it. So that would be awesome too. Thank you Brittany. I always love hearing about new podcasts and we will put together a show notes for you, Brittany. So if you want to go peek at those, you can head to eatblogtalk.com/plantpowercouple, tell everyone where they can find you and also mention your, I know that you do services for food bloggers who are looking to branch out into the realm of working with brands, so mention that too.

Brittany Roche 40:52

Yes. So for the blog, you can find us at plantpowercouple.com. We are on Instagram and TikTok @ThePlantPowerCouple, PlantPowerCouple on Pinterest and Facebook, I think. Snuck in every now and then. But then for the blogger services, I actually have a free weekly blogger email series that’s going to focus specifically on all the things we talked about today and just really serve as that weekly reminder of how awesome you are for even trying to do this. So you can sign up for that at plantpowercouple.com/coaching. Or you can always just send me an email, [email protected] and ask me your questions or if you want to talk about coaching, I do offer some coaching around this stuff too. That’s very, very mindset based along with strategy, because you can’t have one without the other.

Megan Porta 41:47

Oh, I totally agree. And anything Brittany produces is made with so much love and heart and I just think you’re the best, Brittany. So thank you for being here again.

Brittany Roche 41:57

You’re welcome. Thank you for having me.

Megan Porta 42:00

Yeah, everyone go check out everything Brittany mentioned. So thank you for being here, food bloggers. I will see you in the next episode. 

Outro 42:09

Thank you so much for listening to this episode of Eat Blog Talk. If you are craving accountability, focus, and connection at a low monthly cost, join the Eat Blog Talk accountability group at eatblogtalk.com/focus. I will see you next time.