Wednesday, May 08, 2013

Pitching for Lawyers: Remembering How to Have a (Real) Conversation

I worked this week and last with Associates at an International White Shoe Firm (as we call it in the US) to help frame conversations they can have with potential clients.  The week before, I worked with a Partner at another.

The goal: to be as much themselves as possible.

The principle is actually simple -- remember what works for you outside of work and then transfer to a work situation the reasons for which you communicate and the style/comfort level with it.

The doing of it is much harder.  The facility to transfer behavior across contexts requires practice after having acquired the habit of thinking (and behaving) as though living in the world and surviving at work are two entirely different processes.

My solution, as I've explained before: Sustainable Curiosity.

Interestingly, this practice for smart adults yields very effective adults.  Unlike a lot of people I know, I really like lawyers as a group exactly because the ones I know catch on quickly.  I had a great time, and from the Facebook comments, it seems they did, too.

Saturday, May 04, 2013

Tremendous Video on Why Body Language Matters

Amy Cuddy of has a great explanation from a social scientist's perspective how we are judged by our body language. 

One thing that Harvard Business School has just learned what we have known in theatre for a long time.  You can't separate the way you move from the way you think.  It's the reason that "presentation skills" separated from the business proposition you're developing has much less impact when the two are done together.

Each influences the other, and both when developed together reinforces strengths and weaknesses of your case.  Be careful of people who say there are tricks to presenting effectively.  These are minor.  The most important thing to know is that how you think, develop ideas, and present them must be a unified process.

Thursday, April 11, 2013

Pitching as English-to-English Translation

I was working with a WPP executive on telling a more effective story for a new client with whose industry she wasn't entirely familiar.  She called me because the old tricks just weren't working for her.

Persuasion often involves what my friend James calls English-to-English translation: the ability to take language that one person believes describes the world and apply it to your argument about the world that might be quite different. 

Natural language --eg replacing jargon with words we use everyday -- is generally more effective than replacing one set of industry terms for another.  See TED for ways in which very clever people make very complex issues entirely straightforward entirely by translating language usually reserved for specialists into layperson's terms.

You don't have to go back to Plato to argue that every argument is an interpretation -- it's credibility that separates a business case from a rationalisation.  So be familiar with every convention within the context you're pitching -- convention is, by definition, what people take for granted.  Then you can build your argument in a way that will sell.


Wednesday, April 10, 2013

CISCO and Start-Up Support: New Resources for Start-Ups

I met with CISCO yesterday to discuss the possibility of working together on their Innovation Centre and start-up competitions.  I was thrilled to hear that an ex-client, Jenny Griffiths, had won their last challenge.  She and Snap-Fashion are absolutely tremendous. 

See what Fast Company said about Jenny Griffiths.

Small world, and it's great when someone wonderful is recognised with so much support.


Tuesday, March 19, 2013

WAYRA Collaboration - Pitching to Win

In January, I worked with the WAYRA companies and their tremendous programme manager, Adah Parris.  The goal was a pitch practice and some guidelines for delivery.

Yesterday, Telefonica UK published a post about it.  It's pretty concise about what goes into the mix.  Take a look.

Friday, March 15, 2013

The Lab at Telefonica

Yesterday, I went to visit Telefonica in Slough and visited with Shomila Malik.  It's a remarkable project -- a start-up within a large company investigating the ways in which innovation can both benefit the larger corporate venture and smaller tech stars who could create new possibilities if brought in.

Shomila is remarkable herself.  With the background of a programmer, she began by creating prototypes and sold them in through demonstration to make Telefonica meet customer needs more fully. 

It's a trend that is catching on.  As a pitch coach and brand consultant, businesses like The Lab seem like an obvious move for most big businesses.  After many interviews of intrapraneurs elsewhere, the trick seems to be selling in the new ideas, even after the structures are in place to house them.

Too often, innovators get frustrated and leave.  Larger companies, then, are left, dinosaur-like, and unable to move swiftly enough with the trends.  If anyone has seen a solution to this problem, please let me know.  I'm collecting stories, and I'll publish them in time.

Thursday, March 07, 2013

Some Video on Pitching for Investment

In a nutshell, the most important thing you can do when pitching for investment is remember how investors listen.

You start to speak, and they hear something like "blah blah blah when-am-I-going-to-get-my-money-back blah blah why-should-I-believe-you?"

For Queen Mary, University of London, I did a speed session for academics who want to be entrepreneurs -- and the first stop is investors to get some seed funding.

I was given 15 minutes to sum it all up -- forgive the "ok's" and "rights" as I sped.  But here is some video on how to pitch for investment.   The specifics weren't filmed due to confidentiality issues with the start-ups.


Wednesday, March 06, 2013

(More) Tips on Pitching for Investment

I've been asked repeatedly for more tips about pitching -- here you go!

The best strategy is to blend elements into a seamless story.  Here are the first series of tips about which I'll be elaborating in weeks to come:


1. Be aware that you are telling a story. Stories have a beginning, a middle, and an end with transitions that lead from one to the other and tell the listener where you’re going.

2. More on the importance of transitions: Always remember to tell listeners where you’re going. They are much more likely to listen because they know WHY to pay attention.

3. If you are unclear what the structure looks like for your story – which elements lie in the beginning, middle, and end – put each piece of your presentation on colored note cards that distinguish the sections of the story. It’s a good exercise no matter what-- so that you really understand how you’re telling your story and why.

4. The point of the pitch is for new contacts to feel it’s obvious to meet you and to learn more about your company/project. However, the reason for telling the story must have its own, more specific internal logic. This is the logic that drove you to work on this idea – and now drives you to give the highlights. It’s what gets the investors/clients/collaborators to feel (not think) that you have it going on. Even if you’re only doing it for the money, your personal investment in this project needs to be felt. If so, it will be contagious.

5. No one ever made a decision based entirely on data – it’s how much/in what way the data supports the feelings you can generate in the rest of the story that will win your audience over.

6. It helps your audience to engage to give specific, concrete stories within the story. These can be very short, but any time you offer an abstract concept, offer a concrete example.

7. Discard jargon in favor of day-to-day language. Pretend you’re talking to a room full of highly intelligent, successful, well-educated, curious bakers. What kind of language would you avoid?

8. More on bakers: don’t use acronyms. OECD is ok if said s-l-o-w-l-y, but for more frequently used acronyms, skip the letters and say all the words. It doesn’t take much longer – World Wide Web takes even less time to say than WWW.

9. Say your name slowly and deliberately. Leave a pause between your first and last name. It’s important that listeners understand you, or they will assume they won’t understand ANYTHING you say. You want their attention from the beginning.

10. Stay focused as you go – to make sure you are concentrating on the story, why you care about the story, and why the listeners should, too.

Sunday, February 03, 2013

Focus when pitching for investment . . .

London is buzzing with new activity, and keeping up is fun but hectic.  The UKTI Mission to NY in November went very well indeed, as did a much more recent days with organisations like

Between the two, I've done much else, and there are videos on my site that show some of it.

Perhaps the most salient similarity among the groups is a tendency to cram too much into a 1-3-minute investment pitch. 

Two points worth making:

1. Be careful to keep an investment pitch entirely investor-focused-- it's not a marketing pitch.  If you combine marketing and investor information, the result tends to be a muddle for your listeners.  Know how your audience hears, and keep the data specific to what the room is listening for.

2. Slides should be used to support your story, not to lead it.  If you can make a point effectively without the use of a slide, get rid of the slide.  Certainly don't make your listeners read text.  It's distracting and, again, dilutes focus from the point you're making.

3. Don't try to be exhaustive when giving a pitch -- you win if you find a way NOT to have the last word.  The real business is done in another room, after the last slide is shown.  So get your audience to ask questions, leave room for curiosity, and just show a little leg.

4. For all you incubators and accelerators wanting to do the best for your companies, avoid VC whiplash.  Throwing lots of pitch advice at those pitching can be confusing.  And whether you choose me or someone else, it's helpful to learners to have a standard to which they're working consistently.  Any extra advice is fine, but have one person who is in charge of Best Practices to help companies sort through what's the best choice of content and behavior for them.




Thursday, October 11, 2012

Communicating In-Person Vs. Technologically: Great TED Talk

This is a treat -- Tanya Goldhaber gives wonderful context and sense to communication strategies in her TED Talk.

Check it out.

Monday, October 08, 2012

Dragon's Den: Professional Pitches Win

Congratulations to my client Dupsy Abiola, InternAvenue's CEO, who won investment last night on The Dragon's Den.  Dupsy worked very hard on her pitch, and it goes to show that even the most poised and professional speakers can get to an even higher level with some help.

Here's a picture from the party -- a fabulous CEO and a remarkable performance.


Wednesday, September 26, 2012

Rereading David Ogilvy's How To's on Communication

Yesterday I had lunch with Ben Hardy, a thinker who designs courses for and teaches both in Cambridge's Executive Education programme and at the Open University in leadership, organisational behavior, change management, HR, and other essential areas necessary to know if you run a business.

He reminded me of David Ogilvy's rules of communication.  I hadn't forgot, but they're also useful to reread.  If you haven't seen them before, then definitely take a look:


The better you write, the higher you go in Ogilvy & Mather. People who think well, write well.

Woolly minded people write woolly memos, woolly letters and woolly speeches.

Good writing is not a natural gift. You have to learn to write well. Here are 10 hints:

1. Read the Roman-Raphaelson book on writing*. Read it three times.

2. Write the way you talk. Naturally.

3. Use short words, short sentences and short paragraphs.

4. Never use jargon words like reconceptualize, demassification, attitudinally, judgmentally. They are hallmarks of a pretentious ass.

5. Never write more than two pages on any subject.

6. Check your quotations.

7. Never send a letter or a memo on the day you write it. Read it aloud the next morning—and then edit it.

8. If it is something important, get a colleague to improve it.

9. Before you send your letter or your memo, make sure it is crystal clear what you want the recipient to do.

10. If you want ACTION, don’t write. Go and tell the guy what you want.

David

Tuesday, September 25, 2012

Pitching as an Exercise in Remembering

Pitches are not just for the client, the investor, or any other particular audience.  One excellent requirement of an effective call to action is that you must remember why you care about what you do.  Credibility in your delivery depends on it.

Human beings are creatures of habit, and habit tends to diminish our emotional investment into inertia.  To make up for a lack of energy, we as business people can lean too heavily on jargon, tag lines, and exclamation points to communicate.  Then we all sound like each other to differentiate what makes our product or service remarkable.

One resource that can keep us awake is curiosity.  Sustainable curiosity would make every conversation new, all by itself.  What do you think?

Wednesday, September 19, 2012

Bristol Pound Notes: Doug Rushkoff Redux

Doug Rushkoff, hero of urging consumers to become producers and to use local currency, would be proud today of the new Bristol Pound Notes.

People lined up around the block last night to trade their GBP for the new currency only to be spent in independent shops in Bristol.

Will people only collect them?  Will they take off?  Watch this space.

Here's some more on Doug Rushkoff's notion of fiduciary responsibility.

What do you do with a PhD? Start a Company.

If you're interested in seeing the process by which tech and science researchers are becoming entrepreneurs at Queen Mary, please see Queen Mary College's Report on the day at Hackney House.

If you scroll down, there's a section on the pitch workshop I led, in addition to much other useful information and helpful links.

Monday, September 10, 2012

Busy, busy busy: UCL, Queen Mary, and More

I've been working with UCL SMILE Programme, Queen Mary, and UKTI Tech City lately (among others) and am happy to report that entrepreneurship is in rather wonderful shape in London.

Although with specialised incubator programmes like Springboard young companies have always been impressive, the calibre of companies has improved exponentially since last year in open enrollment classes. 

Here's something, too, coming up for all you younger folk who want to try your hand.  I'll be doing the pitch training, and I very much look forward to meeting you.

The 2012 Young Entrepreneurs Festival, organised by The Tech City Investment Organisation, in partnership with the Creative Pioneers Can-Start programme of the IPA and Metro, and supported by ad:tech London, brings together 150 of the brightest aspiring young entrepreneurs to compete for a chance to pitch to angel investors and potentially raise seed funding for their business idea.

For 2 days before the final, the contenders (in 2 age groups, 16-24 and 25+), will have been judged and supported by dozens of mentors, successful entrepreneurs, experienced business people, creatives and technologists, giving their time and expertise completely free of charge in order to help aspiring talent achieve greater potential. On Day 1, the 150 young entrepreneurs are whittled down to the best 50%, who advance through to Day 2. After more intensive support, coaching and scrutiny, at the end of day two, the top 10 will be announced.

Each of the 10 finalists has 3-5 minutes to present to the audience at Ad:Tech on Day 3, which will include a number of specially invited angel investors. There will be a judging panel. After hearing all 10 pitches, the top 3 and overall winner of the contest will be announced, and there will be prizes of generously donated business support.

Friday, July 20, 2012

What it Would Be Great to Have Known at 20

A friend sent me this clip of Tina Selig from Stanford's Technology Programme.

More on why every problem is an opportunity.  How do you teach creativity?


Friday, June 29, 2012

Pitching: Change the Physics of Data

Today we'll have the London Tech City Mentoring event for which start-ups have been preparing.

Pitching is really just saying what you want others to hear, in the way you want them to hear it.  I'll take here David White's vision for his own company, Kusiri.

Pitching can transform the physics of data.

In this paradigm for pitching (maybe it also applies to Kusiri?), the Law of Integrity is governed by the addition of conviction.  If you feel that what you say is important, then others will, too. 

Empathy is a chemical reaction.

Wednesday, June 27, 2012

Springboard in Action

Yesterday I worked as pitch doctor with Springboard's start-up teams for a second time to help them prepare for Demo Day on 5 July.  Impressive progress from our first round two weeks ago.  They'll now practice every day until we meet again on 4 June for a final run-through.

The challenge here is both content and performance -- you can say all the right things, but if you don't sound like you care, listeners won't either.

This matters a lot when you're pitching for investment.

To make things more challenging for our heroes, Estonia's Wise Guys incubator start-ups are pitching in the morning before Springboard even arrives.  Springboard's companies must really shine if they want to be noticed after investors have already had a morning of listening for opportunities.

For now, here's evidence that at least one of the teams, Teddle, does actually do what it says on the tin.

Teddle found Jess Williamson, key player in Springboard's success, a local hairdresser immediately, which is when she needed one.  In fact, the treat made Jess, with very few hours sleep, look a lot like a Bond Girl.

Here's the proof -- and stay-tuned for more on Springboard.


Friday, June 22, 2012

Don't Like How Your Business is Going? Tell a Different Story

In Harvard Business Review, Rosabeth Moss Kantor sums up very succinctly how the wrong narrative can sink your business and the right one can get you back on track.

The first step is recognizing that the right story is THAT important.  The second is finding the right person to script it.

I spent the last week in NY with Emma Gilding, a rebranding expert, working with a small company to raise their profile.

Just a tip on hiring -- those of us who started in theatre have an instinctive grasp of effective narrative and how to make it work.  Our training?  Make something believeable to a crowd of people you've never met out of absolutely nothing, on deadline.

Emma began in the theatre with many similar convictions as I.  In fact, we even overlapped at Central School of Speech and Drama in London.  She was a student -- I was only helping out a friend. 

In any case, find the underlying truth, create the right script, play it with conviction, and it's hard for your business to fail.