XRC’s Communication Coach Susie Case On Coaching Cohort 5 and How to Deliver A Successful Pitch
We’ve just wrapped up a phenomenal Demo Day event with our Cohort 5 companies at XRC.What did the journey look like, from the first day of class to the presentations our ecosystem of XRC friends saw on April 19th?
During our first workshop, a majority of the company founders assured me that they couldn’t tell their stories in less than twenty minutes. For a founder, the desire for a longer time slot makes sense: the companies are developing- so many moving parts! However, for a potential customer, investor or mentor, the best length for a pitch is the shortest possible one- preferably a minute or two. Nike spent hundreds of millions of dollars on their slogan “Just Do It.” In the same vein, from the first week of the program, we focus on helping founders distill their stories. It often takes the full length of the program to arrive at those elevator pitches — the shorter the pitch, the longer the preparation.
The general population is evenly split between extroverts and introverts, but in the design world, the percentage of introverts is a whopping 80%. This is true of many of our founders as well, since entrepreneurs are builders, and builders are designers — especially those with a technical background. Being an introvert is in no way a negative trait; communication styles are simply preferences. Yet working with a large number of introverts at XRC informs how we prepare the pitch practices. Introverts may need one or two extra run-throughs to be their best selves in front of an audience, and they may benefit more than extroverts from classic speaking aids like holding a pen or looking at the audience’s noses rather than their eyes.
Research shows that audiences, after a presentation, remember nearly 60% of the images, 40% of the words spoken, and less than 10% of the words written on slides. Since much of formal schooling requires us to write long format reports (often filled with data cut and pasted from the web) it’s a paradigm shift to write slides that have one powerful image supported by a few words, then let our verbal script tell the story. Nothing helps sharpen our thinking about corporate strategy like writing a graphically clean, nearly wordless presentation, so the simplicity is worth the time is takes.
I have had the privilege of working with four cohorts, and it never ceases to amaze me with how far the companies come as communicators in such a short time. The training the cohort receives as part of their XRC experience will change the trajectory of their careers for the rest of their careers. My experience as a coach is satisfying, but also wistful: wouldn’t it have been wonderful to be part of an experience like XRC early in my career! I can’t wait for the next cohort, so that we can “rinse and repeat” the cycle.
