The Good Ship Illustration
Welcome to The Good Ship Illustration - the podcast for illustrators who are quietly working away in their sketchbooks thinkingā¦ āis it just me?ā
ā¦itās not just you!
Weāre Helen Stephens, Katie Chappell and Tania Willis - three full-time illustrators from three different corners of the industry (and three different age brackets ). We live in the same seaside town in the UK and started having cuppas and chatsā¦ and accidentally became illustration agony aunts.
Now we record those chats for you! We answer your questions about confidence, tricky clients, pricing your work, creative block, picture books, publishing, and everything in between.
āØ New episodes every Friday. āØ
Subscribe wherever you get your podcasts, and do send us your questions!
P.s. Fancy some freebies? Head to thegoodshipillustration.com for colour workshops, picture book templates, and other treats.
Byeeee for now!
x The Good Ship Illustration (Helen, Katie & Tania)
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The Good Ship Illustration
The 7 email rule: Pitching your work to illustration clients - Kira Matthews
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Nobody is born knowing how to pitch.
(Katie here) I've been known to pitch once, hear nothing, and decide 'Oh well. Never mind.' Then never reach out ever again. š
So you can imagine my SHOCK and INCREDULITY (is that a word?) when Kira told me that she will reach out 7 times to a brand before giving up. Whaaaaaat!?
Kira Matthews (aka Kira the Bold), is like confidence in a bottle. She's mastered pitching and landing work with names like Squarespace, Ganni, and lots more.
If contacting publishers and/or potential clients makes you do a little bit of sick in your mouth, this episode will definitely help! At the very least you'll feel inspired to send more than one follow up email.
In this episode, we chat about:
- What to do when the workā¦ just stops coming in
- Why pitching can feel so scary
- The real reason people donāt hear back. (And nooo, itās not because they hate you)
- Why one email is basically just saying hello
- How to follow up without being annoying (or feeling like you are)
Timestamps:
00:00 Meet Kira (Queen of Pitching š)
01:00 From fashion styling to building a business
02:00 When the work disappearedā¦ and what she did next
03:00 Learning to pitch (while still being terrified)
05:00 Fear doesnāt go away. You just get used to it
06:00 The 3-year journey to landing Squarespace
08:00 Why most people give up after one email
09:00 The stories we tell ourselves about rejection
10:00 Why you need to follow up (a lot more than you think)
11:00 How to make each email actually count
12:00 Applying this to illustration and getting your work seen
13:00 Inside Kiraās talent agency experiment
15:00 Why smaller creatives need to pitch more, not less
17:00 Agents, money, and whatās really going on behind the scenes
19:00 Why agents arenāt a magic solution
20:00 Sales: the bit everyone wants to avoid
23:00 Why follow-up feels rude (but isnāt)
24:00 Rejection challenges and building resilience
26:00 Rejection = start of the conversation
28:00 Momentum, energy, and creating your own opportunities
30:00 The actions that actually lead to results
31:00 Telling people what you do (important!!)
32:00 Katieās rejection challenge story
34:00 Auditing your time and whatās worth it
35:00 Kiraās final pep talk
Links & stuff wot we mentioned
- Kiraās website: https://www.kiramatthews.com/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/kirathebold/
- Weekly pitch tips newsletter: https://kirathebold.myflodesk.com/m0elc4qip7
- The Good Ship Illustration https://www.thegoodshipillustration.com/freebies
Byeeee for now!
x The Good Ship Illustration (Helen, Katie & Tania)
Come and say hello!
āļø @thegoodshipillustration
š www.thegoodshipillustration.com
p.s. We love answering your illustration questions. Click here to submit your question for The Good Ship Illustration Podcast š