Sunday Morning Regrets

One of the most terrifying experiences is to wake up on a Sunday morning with a pile of regrets of what you did the night before. You get chills down your spine and feel something deep in the pit of your stomach. Then you try to push the incidents out of your mind by distracting yourself with something else. Maybe you go for a run. Or make an elaborate breakfast.

But the truth of the matter is that regrets are good. They mean that you put yourself out there and took a chance. You may have not executed exactly as planned, but at least you had the balls to put it out there. And bravery and initiative are more often rewards than not. Let’s say that you walk into the office of the president of your company and try to pitch him an unsolicited new idea. He brings up a couple key flaws in your concept that pretty much kill it. You immediately regret not thinking things out. You feel stupid for wasting his time. You walk out with your tail between your legs. But this incident puts your on his (or her) radar. Most great leaders know that for each great idea, there are a thousand bad ones.

The key is to learn from your regrets. How did you execute poorly? What can you improve for next time? Then you use that exposure and experience to improve on your next pitch. The most difficult thing to do is to summon the courage to execute (and you’ve already proven that you can do that if you have regrets the next morning). The preparation and practice is easy. I leave you with a quote from Frank Zappa:

“It is better to have something to remember than nothing to regret.”

- Christian

Why I Trust Comedians

I was reading Seth’s article on political spin and how we all have good bullshit detectors that allow us to sift through the circus of lies surrounding politics. The article sparked me to send him this video from The Daily Show on political hypocrisy. I found it ironic that the most trusted source for news on the US election is a comedian. Comedians exist to entertain, not to act as a trustworthy source of information, right?

But as I delved deeper, it made sense to trust Jon Stewart:

1. I like him. He’s funny and entertaining. This makes me like him. You are more apt to trust someone that you like. Think about it. You are far more likely to go and see a movie if a close friend recommends it than if the reviewer in the local paper does.  So comedians who command the favour of their audience are viewed as trustworthy.
2. His comedy is based in truth. The best comedians draw their material from cultural truths. Their gift is to be able to step back and recognize the inherent comedy in the situation. Their performance is to introduce others to the humour that they find. Jon Stewart performs a lot of comedic jujitsu use politicians own words against them. Its so hard to be offended by a comedian when everything they are saying is true.

Screw CNN … I have the Comedy Network

So how does this help you? The next time you are pitching an idea, feel free to assume the role of the comedian. Interact and entertain. Get people to laugh. Get people to like you. Then present them the truths in your argument in a light hearted manner that they enjoy. They may be laughing, but they are also listening and evaluating your ideas. Besides, it’s always easier to sell an idea when everyone’s in a good mood.

- Christian

Pitching Ideas Is Theatre

Amateur theatre is campy. It tells the story in an awkward fashion that leaves you with the core ideas. Good professional theatre is inspiring. It draws you into the drama. It invokes emotions. You leave the playhouse elated. The same happens with pitches. Too often, people pitch in campy fashion hoping that the ideas themselves will inspire. But that is not the case. The ideas need to be supported by a good story and an excellent delivery.

All pitches have one thing in common. You are trying to get someone else to do what you want them to do – to hire you, to sleep with you, to invest a million dollars in your idea. People always assume that the key to these moments of persuasion is to present the information which should make people change their minds. These encounters actually depend much more on emotion than logical information.

When someone is asked to invest a million dollars in an idea, they are really asking one question: will this be profitable? This isn’t a logical question, because it’s asking to know the future. There is no logic that describes what is going to happen a few years from now. You can pour over the information, put it into forecasting models and graphs, but what you are really doing is guessing the future.

An investor doesn’t’ know whether your idea will be a billion dollar hit; a date doesn’t know whether what lies ahead is three hours of boredom or thirty years of partnership. So, when you’re pitching to someone, you’re asking them to judge the future. Since knowing the future is beyond logic, their judgment won’t be based on logical factors but on emotional factors: trust, confidence, hope, ambition and desire. These factors aren’t rational, they are instinctive. They are not of the head, they are of the heart.

Of course, logical arguments play an important part in a successful pitch. This is because they underpin emotional instinct with reassurance. But logic in a pitch is never an end in itself. it’s only a means to an end. So to pitch successfully, you have to understand that it’s not about widening someone’s knowledge base, it’s about giving them a jolting emotional surge.

A pitch does not take place in the library of the mind, it takes place in the theatre of the heart.

- Christian

Source: Life’s A Pitch

24 Hours Before A Pitch

What are most people doing 24 hours before a big pitch? Making last minute changes to their ideas. Reworking the content. Panicking. What should they be doing? Practicing. Practicing their presentation. Why? Because when it comes to selling ideas, the presentation matters more than the ideas themselves.

Unique ideas are intangible. You can only imagine how they will work out in the real world. If you are selling a truly creative idea, than your audience won’t even know what to compare it to. How do they evaluate it as good or bad? How do they know it will work? They don’t. It’s the job of the presenters to make their audience believe that it will work … with minimal hard evidence that it will.

That’s why the presentation is so important.

The presentation needs to invoke enough emotional attachment to the idea that the people want to invest in it. It needs to demonstrate confidence from the presenters that it can be done. You need to convince them that this IS do-able. And that comes from confidence. To create a presentation that portrays confidence as well as invoking an emotional response, you need to practice.

Practice makes perfect. True story.

Memorize your lines. Rehearse your body movements. Practice your slide transitions or use of props. Do it 20 times. All of this will give you the confidence to perform at your highest level. That way, when you are in the presentation, you don’t have to worry about what to say or what comes next. You already know that. You can worry about controlling the room. Drawing people into the performance. Reacting to the audiences response.

That’s what people need to experience to buy your ideas.

- Christian

Advice from “Life’s A Pitch”

I came across an article that someone has given to me some time ago and found it relevant to yesterday’s post regarding selling your ideas. It contains some sage advice that I have been able to apply with success in my own presentations. According to Stephen Bayley and Roger Mavity, authors of Life’s A Pitch, the people you are trying to sell on your idea or product have the power to give you what you want or reject you. Here’s their advice on how to be a winning pitcher:

Reassure Your Audience
You must defuse the angst the audience members feel about giving up power. Reassure them, minimize risk, and make it safe to say “yes.” You must, at the same time, excite them. No one is going to give up power without getting something in return. Don’t make the mistake of thinking the power is all on one side. You undoubtedly have something they want as well. So feel confident in your own power, which will boost your pitching.

Body Language
Your body language will say as much as your words. Don’t present with your hand in your pocket, which looks scruffy. If you are presenting sitting down, it is harder to dominate and control your audience.

Ditch the Notes
Don’t use notes. “Few things in life are more unconvincing than a speaker who is constantly referring to their notes. It’s a living advertisement for the fact that they don’t’ have a full grasp of the issue,” the authors write.

Present a Solution
Tell your story from a problem to solution. Your audience has a problem for which they want a solution.

Strong Idea
When you write the pitch, make sure you have a powerful idea that is crystal clear to your audience and that you can display on one cornerstone slide, holding their attention on it when it flashes on the screen.

Take Questions
Welcome questions, which are not an intrusion but a sign of involvement. Don’t’ say you’ll handle them at the end, which implies your timetable is more important than their question. If you planned on handling that issue in a few minutes’ time, flatter them: “I’m afraid you’re three slides ahead of me, but if you hold on I’ll catch up with you in a second.”

End on a Positive Note
If you can’t win a definite yes, make sure you don’t end with a definite no. Use the discussion to identify areas of concern and then agree what further work is needed to resolve them.

- Christian

Five Steps to a Good Elevator Pitch

The notion that a great idea will sell itself is bollocks. In fact, there are several instances where a passionate pitch can make up for a lackluster concept. One should also note that in today’s fast paced world, people have less time, especially for strangers. Enter the elevator pitch.

Developing your elevator pitch is a crucial discipline in the promotion of your concept. On the phone, in the hallways, in a busy VP’s office …you will rarely have more than 30 seconds to bait them with your idea and leave an impression. If you are unable to construct a compellingly simple presentation, your chances of moving your idea from a concept into the real world drop swiftly.

Here’s how to structure an elevator pitch within five basic components:

1. Bait your target with your “hook”. In one sentence, explain your idea and how it solves a specific problem. In order to elicit the best response, avoid buzz words and communicate on a personal level.

2. Elaborate on the hook. Go into a little more detail about what the concept is and how it could roll out.

3. Broaden your scope. Talk about the issue your idea addresses and how it can be applied to across the board to generate large revenues/savings/brand impact.

4. Acknowledge the current context. State how your idea tackles the need differently than the current method.

5. Close by reiterating the hook. In a personal way, remind your target of what the concept is and why it works.

I highly suggest writing your elevator pitch down. It forces you to put all of your ideas on paper and better prepares you for a quick pitch scenario. The written pitch should be no more than 150 words. Good luck.

Superman’s Elevator Pitch

- Christian

Source: inventorspot.com