Strip Down and Get Naked

Every once in a while I get the opportunity to “pitch” a senior decision maker at a Fortune 500 company. Rather than calling it a “pitch” since that term has seemingly been taken over by 20 year old “entrepreneurs” with visions for grandeur, let’s say I had the opportunity to present our company’s value proposition in a thoughtful and elegant way. Anyway, enough of that, so here’s what happened, the conversation started off the way you would expect, professional and guarded in a way. We navigated the dance of watching where we put our hands hoping not to step on each others toes. After presenting what we’d bring to the table in what was unfortunately, dry and scripted, the opportunity presented itself to strip down and get naked.

The client popped a question about the business and I jerked the wheel and took us off-roading. Here’s the thing, just because someone has a big title in a big company doesn’t dehumanize them. Stripping down the bravado to the core of who you are, your truth, goes farther than any well crafted statement about your company’s features and benefits. I explained some of the lessons we’d learned from past experiences and how we want to do things differently in the future. I expressed our vision for the future (not goals and objects) which for me at this point in my career is a little more touchy feely.

Keep your pitch for the baseball field and bring your bare ass to the meeting.