That beautifully composed and shot photograph above was taken by my fair hand on a trusty Samsung cellphone. (Point, click, thank you.) Feel free to use it under Creative Commons if you want. I merely took a stroll along the lake, and snapped away. It's a favourite spot to clear my head and get some inspiration.

The tiny grey smudge in the distance is Toronto. A bustling hive full of creative people using digital communications, start-ups trying to make an honest go of it, and businesses pitching their services.

Pitching is hard. You feel like you have to get the message exactly right, to be psychic, look into the mind of the potential client and try to figure out what they may need that they don't know they may need.

It's never perfect. You research, see what they're up to and plan the "must-haves" followed by the "nice-to-haves" for when the budget gets spent. The approach is made, hopefully there's a positive response, and you take it from there.

Some companies take a while to get back, others pretty quickly. No point being pushy; in my experience that doesn't help much. Just keep in touch and trust your instincts.

I'm pitching today and that was my break. Back to it!

John.