Pitching — Pixar-Style

Humans love stories. We are pretty much hardwired to listen to stories (see Uri Hasson’s talk). Which means that you should think of your pitch much more as a story rather than mechanically stringing together facts and assumptions.

Former Pixar storyboard artist Emma Coats tweeted a little while ago a set of rules for storytelling which Pixar follows — it makes for a deeply insightful read.

At the bottom of it is the DNA of a good story, a deep structure of storytelling involving six sequential sentences:

Once upon a time __. Every day _. One day _. Because of that _. Because of that _. Until finally __.

This simple structure makes for an extremely compelling way to tell the story of your company (and anything else). And an amazing way to talk about what you’re doing in a emotionally connecting way.

Take eBay as an example:

Once upon a time the wife of a talented hacker wanted to buy and sell items from her PEZ dispenser collection. Every day she went to flea markets and posted in the classifieds section of her local newspaper to find likeminded collectors. One day her husband decided to create an online marketplace for her to trade her PEZ dispenser with likeminded people all around the world. Because of that she didn’t need to go to local flea markets anymore or post in the local newspaper but instead could reach a global community. Because of that many more people discovered that they had things they didn’t need or want anymore but other were very willing to pay for. Until finally eBay became the biggest marketplace in the world and many hundred thousand people could make a living selling their wares online.

What is your story?