Blair Enns has the answers. Blair is the author of the game-changing book, the Win Without Pitching Manifesto. He has survived the ups and downs of the business side of creativity for long enough to achieve guru status. In this episode, Blair talks about the philosophy that informed his book, and, ultimately, led to the Win Without Pitching program.

The Win Without Pitching Manifesto is one of the more popular business books out there. What started out as a blog post on Blair's website later became his claim to fame in the consulting space. Even seven years after publishing his book, sales have only been increasing. “There's nothing in it that would be outdated at any point,” Blair says, nodding to the timelessness of the lessons baked into each page.

Blair is a self-proclaimed “recovering consultant.” He’s shifted from full-time consultant to focusing on his Win Without Pitching program, a sales training program for creative entrepreneurs and their teams around the world.

Creative professionals, more often than not, have a hard time pricing their work, or even charging for it. Some might feel adding a price “cheapens the art,” where others simply don’t know how to have sales conversations. Blair brings an interesting perspective from his time as an account manager at an advertising agency and a consultant:

“A lot of us have a zero-sum idea around money and the economy. Some of the guilt people feel around charging a lot of money is the idea that ‘if I have a dollar, somebody else is short of one.’ If you stop and think about the people in your life, and you think about how they earn their money, you realize that most people earn money by helping people. Very few people that you know earn money by taking it from others or taking advantage of people.”

Realize that your creative work has impact and helps push people forward. There’s nothing cheap or uncomfortable about that.