The Number One Thing Your Pitch Is Missing
I love cooking.
And I love buying cookbooks even more. My wife says it’s like a disease.
But when I go on to Amazon and search for my next hit of gastro-porn one sentence always stands out in the reviews of those that get fewer stars.
‘There weren’t enough pictures.’
What’s true for your cookbook is true for your pitch.
It needs more pictures.
The Pictures Are Better On Radio.
Now before you make a dash for PowerPoint or start scouring Pixabay I want to remind you about a saying.
‘The pictures are better on radio.’
There’s a great article about this in The Huffington Post from 2017. I’ll put a link to it at the end if you want to read the whole thing.
But here’s the gist.
‘ Even though it directly stimulates only your hearing, radio fully engages the other four senses and the mind. It’s not for the lazy. Unlike TV, movies and even traditional print, where the pictures are thrust in front of your eyes, radio forces you to conjure up your own images to accompany the words you are hearing. As a consequence, those pictures have more impact because of the effort it takes to create them.’
It forces you to conjure up your own images and those pictures have more impact because of the effort it takes to create them.
Now imagine if you took the time and effort to consciously create images that had your audience leaning in as they conjoured up the added details and co-created your vision with you.
Then you’d really have impact and stand out from the crowd as your message became distinct.
Words Are The Noise The Pictures Make.
If I could send one thing to Room 101 as a pitch and story coach it would be Google Docs.
I silently weep as I watch members of teams glued to their laptops deciding whether it would be better to say revenue, accrual or yield.
And in the end no one cares.
Because the picture they want to see is a mountain of cash sitting in front of them as they decide whether to go to the Maldives or the Seychelles.
So remember this.
Words are merely the means by which you create picture.
You aren’t Shakespeare.
The words are just the noise your pictures make.
Here’s The Answer
Storyboard!
Really commit to the Netflix of the Head that you want to come alive in your audience’s mind.
What pictures do you want them to be talking about in a week?
Find the close ups. Make it vivid. Make them want to know what happens next.
And remember that no one will will quote that ‘reimbursements will be delivered in a timely manner at year end.’
But they will see themselves on that white beach with their toes in the water as they sip their first Caipirinha.
Links
If you’d like to read the whole of the Huff Post article you’ll find it here.
And if you want to cook the cod dish from the top of the article, here is the recipe.
Ingredients for four people
Four cod or other white fish fillets
The juice and zest of a lemon
A pinch of chilli flakes
4 tablespoons of olive oil
1 thinly sliced onion
2 cloves of garlic crushed
1 teaspoon of ground cumin
A pinch of paprika
1 400g tin of chickpeas rinsed and drained
120ml of stock (use a cube, I won’t judge)
300g fresh spinach
Salt and Pepper
Method
Heat your oven to 180c, Gas4 or 350F.
Wash and pat dry the fish. Then put them on a non stick baking tray (or use parchment or non stick foil in your oven proof pan)
Season the fish fillets with salt and pepper. Then sprinkle the chilli flakes, lemon zest, lemon juice and half the olive oil over the top of each fillet.
Cook the fish for 15 -20 minutes depending on your tolerance for the sashimi end of ‘done.’ Check after 10 minutes and cover with foil if it looks a bit dry. In the picture mine was done for 15 minutes.
Meanwhile heat the rest of the olive oil in a pan.
Soften the onion and garlic for about five minutes on a medium heat. Then add the cumin and paprika and cook for a minute more.
Add the chickpeas and stock and simmer this covered for 5–10 minutes until it reduces.
Add the spinach and let it wilt into the mixture.
Serve the fish on top of this mixture.
And sit around making movies for each other as the stories flow.
(adapted from The Chickpea Cookbook by Heather Thomas)
