Yesterday, I spent my day at Startup Day 2010. There I got to meet new people, catch up with others, listen to interesting stories and practice my pitching skills. No, I didn’t participate the pitching competition. However when you meet somebody, generally they ask what do you do. This conversation goes something like this: “Hi, how are you? What have you been doing?” or “Hi my name is Lalala. So, what do you do?”.  Most of the time, my response was:

Currently I’m working with startup called Yanzi. We sell a product that helps owners mange their business, through cameras and sensors. You can do this through the web or a mobile phone.

By the time I said the word “sensors”, they were looking for the cookies. And those that paid attention, were wondering what is special about Yanzi. That made me realized that I was doing something wrong.

When developing any product or service, “test early and often”. The same applies to pitches, there is no way to find out if the pitch delivers the message, until you try it with different people. So, if the pitch sucks (like mine) you will find this out, before the cookies are gone. Or, if you have a good pitch, it will help you refine it.

You can refine it by tweaking details of it and see what works and what doesn’t, until you have a great pitch. And it becomes a great pitch, when people receive the message you intend to deliver and feels natural to talk about it.

To solve my issue with the bad pitch, I turned to using a framework called the Golden Circle: Why, How and What. This is a simple idea developed by Simon Sinek. He states that to deliver a inspiring message, one should start by the Why we do things, instead of starting with How or What. So, based on the Golden Circle, here is my pitch:

[Why]

Business owners should focus on the important things:  customers and families. Instead of trying to control every part of their business.

[How]

24/7 remote  access to your business, through a computer or mobile phone. In addition, providing history of camera recordings and sensor data.

[What]

A plug and play, solution with data recorder, cameras and sensors that can be connected, that can be access from anywhere that has a internet connection.

As Sinek states, making money is not Why, that is result. So, ask yourself: Why to you make what you make? Why to you blog? Why to you dance? Why to you work? Why do you study?

I invite you to try it and you will see that your message will be much better, it will have more substance and will be less boring.

Next time you are going to make a presentation, consider using a story to warm up things and get your audience involved. You could use two stories: one to start the presentation and another to finish it. With it the audience can focus on you, not your slides and don’t lose interest from the start.

A story is much better that saying “eh. my name is John and this are the points of the presentation”.

So, other than warming up, getting confidence and comfortable with your audience, you should consider using stories for the  for the following reasons:

Stories don’t need a script, they have an idea and a message, therefore you don’t have to remember extract phrases and stumble because you forgot what was next.

The are part of our lives, since the very beginning. As kids, the grownups in our families used to tell us stories about their when young. As teenagers we tell stories to show off to our peers or impress a girl/guy.  We tell stories about our travels, parties, etc. They are integral part of our lives; our life is a story.

Is easy for your audience to spread the word, when you give them a story they can tell others. This is due to stories being flexible enough for people to grab them and make it their own, while maintaining the core: the main idea or message.

Finally everybody loves a good story, while we listen we imagine what is happening while the narrator speaks, especially when there is a teaching to save from it.

Even if you don’t have great stories, there is a better chance at connecting with your audience and delivering a message with a casual narration, than a cold list of bullet points.

You see a pain in society over and over again, it has been there for a long time and bugs you. Then suddenly (and tired of waiting for a solution), you come up with a solution, realizing what a great idea it is and may be in front of a great business opportunity. The challenge here is for others to see what you see, to understand what you understand and your idea to stick.

That was my case, even if it wasn’t something totally new in the world and people understand it, still you need to transmit your message clearly. How should I do it? From reading “Made to Stick” by Chip and Dan Heath, feedback from other people and teachers, workshops and real life analogies, I realized that examples and making people imagine in their heads a clear picture, is the best way to transmit the message.

Enter Maria, she is a character I created to explain a business idea we had with a friend. I gave Maria a background, that is very close to some stereotypes at the cultural level. There was a story and used real life activities to show how the service that we came up with will be used. Although some people already heard about some services and trends, still having a story it makes it entertaining and easy to follow up.

The interesting thing is that I underestimated the power of “Maria”, because somebody that read that paper, (it can be said that) was excited about the idea that he believed Maria was a real person, asking to meet Maria. I didn’t realized how powerful “this style” is, or maybe it just was a specific reaction in that case, but “Maria” was brought to life and with excitement, thanks to a reader. Still it’s important to consider how to express your ideas, the mental picture you form and how people fill the gaps.

When filling gaps try to give enough pieces of the puzzle for people to finish it. (Source)

By providing enough pieces to your audience or readers, you are able to enhance their experience since they become active thinkers. When people are shifted from a passive mode (reader or listener) to a thinker, they more likely remember it. Also if people remember the image you provide them and help in filling the gaps to fill the image, make it their own and then they can pass to others.

So, next time you are writing about something or presenting, think about your “Maria” or “Juan”, instead of crunching stats, technical diagrams and packing everything in eloquent language. Make it simple and delight your audience and readers.