Stop trying to impress the cool kids

Having been a Freestyle soccer athlete competing at the highest world level for the last three years, I’ve naturally had many conversations with brands about sponsorship, endorsements, etc.

What I’ve come to realize is that when it’s YOU initiating these interactions or conversations you’re already on the losing foot. When you reach out to the cool kids like an Adidas, Nike etc, they think to themselves “well, if this person is reaching out for sponsorship they must not be getting any offers. So why would we spend our money on them?”

This actually goes for everything in life.

The good thing is that the cool people aren’t necessarily the right ones for you to impress anyway. It’s also been the reverse situation many times where lesser-known brands have contacted me and wanted to sponsor me in various ways.

At the start I used to think it was pointless unless they had 100k followers, big budgets and a famous logo but now I realize it’s about growing inch by inch to the top. There are great people out there who don’t sit at the coolest most exclusive lunchtable who you might have way more fun doing business with and partnering with.

In Marc Ecko’s book “UNLABEL: Selling you without selling out” he talks about GATEKEEPERS. These are the people with the proverbial keys to the castle.

Models will do anything to be known by the editor of Vogue. Rappers want to be the most popular artist in XXL Magazine or on the hottest blogs. New authors seeking approval from the New York times reviewer.

Marc Ecko says screw all of them — instead of gatekeepers we need to focus on GOAL-keepers. The GOAL-keepers are the real people who you can impact without needing outside validation from any gatekeepers. If you’re a chef in San Francisco, you don’t need to be mentioned by Jamie Oliver’s blog. Just focus on the GOAL-keepers. If there are local food blogs in your area, contact them instead. Work your grind from the ground up. Reach out to the San Francisco Chronical and invite them to come review your restuarant.

When you do this, you end up building your own reputation up to a level where now, the elusive GATE-keepers are trying to get a piece of you instead of the other way around.

They can’t believe they haven’t had the chance to ignore an email or phone call from you in the past to solidify their superiority and they begin to panic.

“I better associate myself with this person quickly now, otherwise people will think that I’m not up to speed on the trends and influencers that I should know in my space”

So stop worrying about impressing Nike or catching Adidas attention, and instead partner up with a new sports brand that has a shop in your local city.

Stop emailing Tim Ferriss asking him to read your book and instead go give some free copies to some friends and colleagues.

The cool kids aren’t as cool as you think — it’s usually just an illusion — be happy by impacting the community and real people who matter. Don’t treat the smaller outlets and brands and people with disdain, team up with them! And when the time is right, the big boys will come to you.

LOVE U GUYS AND HOPE U ENJOYED THIS ARTICLE!!!! PEACE!!!

ATTENTION BRAHS: — — — — — — — — — — — —

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