Hooray for Pitches!

If anything MBL has been a pitch school. Pitching to lecturers, partners, strangers and friends. Learning from my own mistakes and from others'. I used to think that business school is a secure way of learning how to be in front of people and present whatever. This is true in a sense that during almost every course I've been doing just that. But this has nothing to do with pitching.

Pitching is about yourself. It's about making an impact, selling yourself and your ideas to different people and groups.  Polishing what is the best of you that you can offer as well as crystallizing what you believe in and envision. And believe me, there's no easy way of doing it other than having the drive to do it again and again. Ideas are just ideas and thoughts are nothing without action. And pitching is a never-ending process of YOU in action in oppose to just presenting.

When you have it all figured out for the VCs (what David Rose is talking about here) it comes down to the very last minute before standing in front of the audience. As a note to myself of all the sessions and great speakers from the past spring, I want to share few thoughts on that specific moment.

• Remembering that audience likes movement rather than stick figures, the secret of strong voice and confident posture does not build from drawn back military shoulders but core stomach muscles. This gives a relaxed way of being and moving on stage. 
• You're not presenting to get people to like you but to get them inspired of your idea. Pitching is not about winning the audience but communicating with them.
• Listening is like a journey during which people think heaps of things: bills, taking the dog out, mails that they forgot to reply to, grocery shopping etc. But most importantly something that you said reminded them of something to which they can relate to. Do not get offended of the funny and negative faces in the audience that derive from this journey.
• Think about all the mean questions beforehand so that you're prepared to counterarguments.
• And at the very last minute when you think that you just can't do it remember the King's Speech even though you don't stammer.

So yeah, hooray for the pitches and enjoy! MBL teams will be presenting and pitching new service concepts in Masters of Arts Festival in Salmisaari this Wednesday. See you there!