I love this for a particular reason, JW. A potential client of mine, someone who runs an adventure travel firm, suffers a mind set. As do we all. I was about to start writing articles for him, we’d agreed on all the parameters, until I got an email that dictated that I wouldn’t be paid for my work until I got published in NatGeo, The Guardian, Men’s Health and a laundry list of other high-end publications that every PR firm in creation is jockeying to get their stories in. Well of COURSE he does. So do thousands of others. I took the time to interview the top travel writer in the country ( who happens to also be a coach of mine) and passed along the bad news to the potential client: not only would it take me likely decades to get a story in (and I don’t have that much time on the planet) the editors wouldn’t accept one from me as I’m getting paid to write them. This young man was locked in. No amount of reasonable data would dissuade him. We parted ways. It was like talking to a pet rock. He was so determined to get coverage in the high profile sites that he was totally missing the supremely good opportunity to get published in places where his clients were likely to see the story and sign on. We are so blindered.