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Curb Your Pitch

by | July 5, 2021 | Entrepreneurship

A few years ago, I participated in a short course for entrepreneurs on pitching an idea. My job was to help these founders speak their pitch in a confident and leader-like fashion. However, it took the majority of the session to get these very technically savvy and driven founders to clarify their concept into words that the average customer or investor could understand.

Can you clearly explain your startup or business idea to someone not in your industry in about 30 seconds?   This means you have to boil down your concept to bare bones, no jargon or complex technical terms. This length of time is in step with the average person’s attention span.  This equates to about 4 medium length sentences spoken at a modest pace to allow for any listener to process.

Test your ability to convey your idea as intended.  Ask five people who know nothing of your idea to participate in this exercise. Write up a 30 second explanation of what your startup does and read it aloud to 5 people. Ask them to tell you back how they understand it. Compare their answers to what you think you said.

Need help condensing your message into one in which stakeholders can understand? Reach out to me at Rebecca@MindfulCommunication.com

Share the Stage with Confidence

by | April 16, 2018 | Blog, Entrepreneurship, Lifestyle, Speaking, Uncategorized

Bill H., a founder of a nutrition startup, asks, “How can I get more comfortable speaking in front of groups, investors mostly? I have my top sales guy do all the talking, but apparently it’s starting to look odd that I don’t “share the stage” with him at these presentations. If I lost him, I’d be in big trouble. What to do?”

This is a common concern for many founders wanting to project strong leadership. I define public speaking as any kind of speaking you do with the public: phone calls, 1:1 or small group conversations. Chances are you could not have gotten this far if you had trouble on the phone or in small group conversation. Keep in mind — listeners really care about the substance of what you have to offer, not how slick a presenter you are. They want to make money, period. It’s true that investors like to work with confident and energetic people, but that is secondary to their main interest.

To take action, I suggest you identify where your discomfort in public speaking breaks down and work to refine that level. This is where a communication coach comes in handy. Are you generally anxious, unprepared, unsure of your content, a poor listener, vocally weak or disfluent, etc. at the small group conversation level?  If so, getting some guidance managing those aspects would be a good starting point. Then, consider polishing up one segment of the larger group presentation that you are most comfortable with. This way you can start “sharing the stage” with your sales guy in a small way. With practice and an understanding of what your audience really cares about, you’ll be able to take over more of the presentation in time.

Need more help with public speaking or presentation skills? I’m happy to help you. Contact me at Rebecca@MindfulCommunication.com