My anti-pitch stance wasn’t well-articulated or even defensible position in the beginning. It was a feeling. Pitching feels wrong to me the same way pick-up lines feel wrong, like a poor substitute for getting to know people and their ideas.
Something in the word gives me the heebie jeebies. The Webster’s 1913 dictionary offers five definitions for “pitch” as a transitive verb, and it starts like this:
- To throw, generally with a definite aim or purpose; to cast; to hurl; to toss
That is not how I like to deliver my most precious material, the information that I want to arrive intact at its destination, the audience.
Developing a pitch, is like buying a basket of apples. You pick the best basket, polish them, and even ask a couple of friends to taste them and give you feedback.
Then you take your basket and start tossing apples. You toss them at individuals and groups. You toss them in meetings, at networking events, even in the proverbial elevator. With every toss, you hope someone will catch your apple, love its particular color and aroma, and ask to buy your apple pie.
Storytelling is holding up your favorite apple from your favorite orchard and showing it to your audience. Show them your apple’s beautiful shape and perfect shine.
“This is my perfect apple,” you say, “When I bite into this apple, its crunch drowns out your surprise. Its juice lands on my t-shirt and when as I chew, it’s first sweet and then the slightest bit tart at the end. This apple reminds me of a perfect fall day with the leaves turning color, the breeze just cool enough to pull my favorite sweatshirt out of storage, and the smell of pie wafting out of the kitchen.”
Stories convey layers of meaning and foster connections between people. Stories make our brain waves sync up!
Most people find the idea of storytelling scary. They don’t know where to start. They’re worried about finding the perfect form. They worry about bragging. They worry about getting too personal.
Here’s the bad news: your stories are always personal because what you share and how you share it is a tell. Audiences are better than your average poker player at spotting your tell. They know whether you’re being yourself or playing a role, and that’s a good thing because you may think you’re trying to pitch an idea but really, you’re pitching yourself.
The next time you have 30 seconds of someone’s time, tell them a story. Not sure if you can? Hemingway only needed six words to grab a reader’s attention. How many words can you say in 30 seconds?
updated: 3 September 2024
originally published: 7 January 2020
So true, what I feel resonates the most is the notion of being real. Like when Pinocchio at last, through love and effort, transformed from a wooden caricature to a real boy. Growing up can be hard to do!
I love that you used a children’s story to illustrate your point, too! And yes – being real is hard and best. Except it’s also easiest. we imagine it’s hard because we imagine the world doesn’t want our real. The world is hungry for our real. Starving for it!