You have a countless number of ideas that float through your mind any given day. There’s a myriad of possibilities, questions, and narratives that you put together in your mind that, for the vast majority of these ideas, never leave that magical space between your ears. Have you ever found yourself needing to convince someone of one of these ideas? How do you even go about such a thing?
At the end of 2020, I was given the opportunity to pitch an idea that I had created through Tongal’s LEGO World Builder. I’d be presenting my idea to a director within LEGO and his team. It was wild and exciting to be given the opportunity, but there was one small hitch - I had never done a pitch presentation!
This blog post is for anyone who may find themselves in a similar situation. Hopefully, this blog can help you out if you one day need to put together a pitch presentation and deliver that presentation to others. Let’s section out this blog post using the key pieces of advice that I want to share with you, and we’ll include the parts of my story that went into these nuggets of wisdom. Speaking of a story…
Make Your Own Story into Your Pitch
If you take any advice away from this blog post, make it this one. Your personal story is your greatest asset when trying to show others the value of what it is that you’ve put together, so use it!
When I first had to put together my pitch presentation, I did what I think many of us have had to do when scrambling to put together a presentation - open up some slide show program, create more slides than you know what to do with, and start praying to the Google gods that you can find some good pictures to fill those slides up with. I eventually ended up with a presentation that I thought was pretty clear cut. Here’s my idea, here’s what you can do with it, have a nice day. It was missing something, though. It needed something to take it from a boring presentation to something that could actually excite others.
I was fortunate enough to have a great friend review what I had put together. He was someone with a lot of experience in pitching concepts, and had created a start-up or two in his career. More importantly, though, he always retained a touch of his humility and humanity in his work, and so I really valued his feedback over what I could glean from some start-up pitch reality tv show about shark dens or dragon tanks or whatever they’re called.
My friend advised me, “Eddy, I can see what it is that you’ve put together, but I can’t have an emotional attachment to a list of facts. I want you to tell me your story, and the way I feel about you and your story is what I’ll remember most long after your presentation is over.”
This was a little paradoxical at first. Why would the story of me - the Creator - matter as much as what’s being pitched - the creation? I went back to my presentation and started making changes. I then realized he was absolutely right. Including my own story throughout my presentation was bringing in the soul that it had lacked at first.
Since the time before recorded human history, one of the greatest methods for humans to connect with one another has been through story. Stories have the potential to make us feel a spectrum of emotions, as well as engage our capacities to sympathize and empathize with others. It’s these connections that have a more significant impact on us than simple facts, key figures, and observations.
I then rewrote my presentation to start off with a short introduction about me with a focus on what passion of mine caused me to create this idea. My particular passion in this case was a love for learning about other cultures. That makes for an easier starting position to introduce my audience to my idea than just laying out the idea right away. I then included near the end of the presentation a section on why I think my idea matters, and why it was the right time for it. This lets my audience hear my words clearly on why it’s important that I’m talking to them that day.
Lastly, I included a transition from sharing only my story, to now extending that story to include my audience. Now the story was about us, and what next steps we could take together. This was also advice that my friend gave to me, and it’s such a great way to open up the floor for conversation when your audience now feels included. It also makes for a good point to conclude your pitch presentation’s content and move into a question period, because you’ve subverted the underlying narrative of your presentation from “I am the pitch Creator. You are the audience” to “I created this, and we can carry this together.”
Prepare a Lot More Than What You Present
Once your presentation’s content is done, your audience is going to have questions. Unless you have an overabundantly generous audience, you likely won’t know the audience’s questions beforehand. Regardless, the more you can prepare more questions, the less surprised you’ll hopefully be by the questions your audience will have.
When you’re preparing for the kinds of questions that your audience will have, assume questions from an audience that is both keenly focused on a small aspect of what you presented and also wants to approach your pitch from a wider point of view. What I mean by the former is that there may be specific topics that your audience is specifically interested in, such as how your pitch can be adapted, what kinds of constraints can impact your idea, or other narrower topics. What I mean by the latter is that your audience is also approaching your idea with far less experience regarding it than you have, so their questions may be more about how your idea fits into a larger picture.
It will be to your benefit before the day of the presentation to consider as many angles that someone can approach your idea from, and for you to have a general idea of how you can respond to it. You likely won’t know the specific questions you’ll receive, but it’ll help you to have some generalities prepared beforehand that you can use as part of your answers. If you do this, you should also keep in mind that you’ll prepare for way more than you’ll actually answer. However, having a great answer in mind when you receive a tricky question will make you feel pretty great about the prep work you put in.
One more thing that I should add, too, is to allow yourself the opportunity to say “I don’t know the answer to that right now” if a question really catches you off-guard. Don’t leave it there, though. Offer some suggestions or possibilities for collaboration with your audience in the case that you don’t know something. Finally, don’t lie to your audience about something that you do not currently know.
Practice, Practice, and Then Practice Again
The last bit of advice that I’d like to share is probably not new at all, but is worth repeating. Practice your pitch as much as you can!
Your pitch presentation may have to meet a certain time limit. Practicing will help you get within that time limit.
If you’re like me, you might be prone to rambling when speaking. Practicing will help you smooth out the flow of your presentation.
You might also just have the plain heebie jeebies when it comes to the thought of having to present to others. Know what helps? Practicing! Find the practice setting and practice audience that will help you feel comfortable with practicing. Practice your presentation until it feels natural to you. If by now you’re sick of seeing the word “practice”, that’s practice in action, my friend!
If you’re currently finding yourself needing to create your own pitch presentation, please know that you’re not alone in feeling the daunting challenge that it can pose. Even with this advice, it still is a challenge. I was in a similar position not too long ago. This is the best of the advice that helped me take the lackluster presentation I first created to one that luckily met the mark and impressed the right person at the right time. Don’t stop believing in what you’re capable of, and constantly try out new ways to improve what it is that you do. You never know what could happen if you land the right pitch with the right audience.
That concludes this blog post! Hopefully these tips will help you in creating, elevating, and delivering a pitch presentation.
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Note From Tongal: This blog is part of a series of Tongal Community-written blog posts that were originally sourced in the Tongal Blog Open Call Project. The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of Tongal. Read more Tongal Community-written posts here!
