The Pitch Master's Top Tactics: Year One's Best Tips

By Lindsey Hughes

Written by a seasoned creative entrepreneur, this book is a treasure trove of insights and tips on creativity, creative careers, and mindset.

 

Whether you're an aspiring creative professional or a seasoned veteran, The Pitch Master's Top Tactics offers invaluable guidance.  From unlocking your full creative potential to pitching your ideas like a pro, this book provides you with the tools and strategies you need to stand out from the crowd.  With a refreshing and engaging voice, the author draws from her own experiences and industry insights to offer practical advice on how to navigate the challenges of creative careers. Packed with actionable tips, inspiring anecdotes, and real-world examples, The Pitch Master's Top Tactics is the ultimate guide to unleashing your creativity and achieving your career goals.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Lindsey Hughes
• Release date: May 15, 2023
• ISBN: 9798223253617

Lindsey Hughes

Lindsey loves helping people discover their superpower, create compelling content, and feel excited about pitching and networking.  She teaches how to pitch like a boss, network like a VIP, and write like an Oscar winner.  In her wide-ranging career as a Hollywood development executive, Lindsey has worked in everything from feature films, television movies, and TV series, to animation and live action.  She began her career reading scripts for Robert Zemeckis and Kathryn Bigelow, worked under Michael Eisner at Walt Disney Feature Animation, and developed projects for John H. Williams, producer of the billion dollar Shrek franchise.  For help with storytelling and networking you can reach her at [e-mail] and www.thepitchmaster.com.  Subscribe to her weekly newsletter for actionable creativity and career tips at pages.thepitchmaster.com/newsfeed.

Book preview

Foreword

For years, I knew I needed to write a newsletter as part of my coaching practice. Despite all the bells and whistles of social media, newsletters are the only way to regularly deliver content to your audience and interact with them. They are personal and algorithm proof. But I dragged my feet. I was worried that I wouldn't have enough to say and that no one would be interested in what I had to say.

To get my courage up, I subscribed to every newsletter that I could find about newsletters and the creator economy. 

One of those was Growth Currency by Dylan Redekop. He started in 2021 and was booming.  The fact that he was a newbie and his quote "write a newsletter every week for a year and it will change your life," inspired me to start.

To my surprise, I found I loved it. Writing every week fueled my creativity, improved my self-esteem, and boosted my confidence. 

This book is a compilation of the Pitch Master Newsletter’s first year. They are organized by subject, so you may find something that you missed the first time or reread a favorite.

Keep Your Commitments to Yourself to Grow Your Self-Confidence

The simplest way to get more confidence is to keep the commitments you make to yourself. When you tell yourself you're going to do something, whether it's something simple like take out the trash or more involved like write an article, and you don't do it, you feel bad. And if you keep not doing what you say you want to do, you can start to feel not just bad about yourself, but depressed.

If you're struggling in any part of your life, I feel you. It can get better.  Think of all the things you've been telling yourself you're going to do or you need to do, but not doing them. Pick one easy thing and give yourself a numerical goal like I did.

For instance, if you want to write, say I'm going to write for 10 minutes every day for 30 days. Over those 30 days, as you keep that commitment, you will notice that you are feeling better. Better about yourself, excited about your writing and more confident.

The key to this recovery is to start small and simple. Don't try to keep a huge promise to yourself, like writing a book or saving enough money to go to Paris.

Second, give yourself a numerical goal that is easy to track.

Once you hit that deadline and you've kept that promise, you will feel amazing and ready to take on the next challenge.

Keep your word to yourself. Do what you say you are going to do and your life will change.

Chapter One: The Cocktail Pitch

What is a cocktail pitch?

The guiding principle of the Pitch Master is to be able to speak effectively about who you are and what you do so you can grow your career and make more money.

The tool we use to do this is the cocktail pitch because it is what you say when someone asks you about yourself at a cocktail party. This short and sweet pitch is also called an elevator pitch. The idea is when you are alone in the elevator with your boss, you have the couple of minutes between floors to introduce yourself and your latest project. I prefer the term cocktail pitch because I think it sounds more fun and less like homework. And that is one of my goals for you — to make talking about yourself empowering, instead of cringe worthy. 

There are two kinds of cocktail pitches. The personal, which is how you introduce yourself in a snappy and memorable way, giving a bit of your background and what you're working on now.

The project cocktail pitch is a specific way to pitch a creative project that grabs the audience’s attention and makes them want to hear more about what you're doing. The project cocktail pitch can be used for screenplays, books, apps, or any project that you are pitching to investors or your coworkers.

If you nail these two cocktail pitches, you will have the tools to grow your career, sell your projects, and impress whoever you're talking to in any situation.

––––––––

The Personal Cocktail Pitch

You are at a cocktail party and someone asks you the dreaded question — what do you do? As you mumble something, his eyes glaze over and he looks over your shoulder for someone else to talk to. He wanders off and you wish you were home watching Netflix with your cat. 

Ugh, networking is the worst! But it doesn’t have to be. What if you had a short and simple way to introduce yourself and what you do that was memorable and dynamic? A way to connect with people that made them say, Sounds cool. Tell me more. Wouldn’t parties, networking events, and business meetings be easier? This is a cocktail pitch. And once you know how to do it, talking about yourself becomes a breeze and meeting new people fun!

Your Personal Cocktail Pitch 

If you are like most people, you hate talking about yourself. It feels braggy and smarmy. You don’t want to be one of those people that talks about themselves incessantly, who nobody wants to talk to, to let alone work with. Unfortunately, talking about yourself, your accomplishments, and your current projects is an important skill to build careers and relationships. If people don’t know what you do, they can’t hire you, recommend you, or remember you. 

Be authentic. Be interesting. Be interested.

When talking about yourself in any situation, there are three key things to avoid sounding like a slickster. 

First be authentic. While the advice to be yourself may sound corny, it really works. If you are excited about what you are doing, that passion will shine through when you talk and make people want to hear more. You may be tempted to embellish or even make up stuff to sound important. Don’t. You will seem desperate. And if people believe you, you won’t feel great about yourself and it will drain your confidence. 

Instead, focus on what you’re doing. You can talk about what you’re working on, who you’re working with, or what your company does. If you don’t like your job, you can still have a great cocktail pitch. Mention your job in passing and focus on your favorite aspect of your life instead. Whether it is coaching your son’s soccer team or spending your weekends as a Civil War re-enactor, talk about your current passion. You never know where it will lead. Maybe your college buddy at the reunion is a Civil War buff too, and he is looking for an accountant, so you get a new job out of one conversation. 

Second, be interesting. Don’t just rattle off a couple of sentences when you introduce yourself. Slow down, look who you are talking to in the eye, and vary your tone of voice. To hear what you sound like, try videoing yourself and practicing in the mirror. Let your personality shine when you’re talking. So many people turn into stiff robots when they introduce themselves. Be your awesome self! Remember, there is no one else like you and that is a good thing.  You may be the answer to this guy’s prayers. He may be looking for someone with your exact skill set or point of view. 

To stay engaged, sprinkle your cocktail pitch with a couple of interesting fun facts. Is there a funny way you can describe what you do? Is your latest project something everybody knows about, like a bestselling app? Have you been interviewed on a podcast lately? 

Everybody has something interesting about themselves! If you are having trouble coming up with something, ask your family and friends to help you brainstorm. Sometimes things that seem ordinary to us are fascinating to others. 

Finally, be interested in the person you are talking to. The best way to be authentic when talking about yourself is not to do it for too long. After you have introduced yourself with your cocktail pitch and chatted for a couple of minutes, put the focus on the other person. Ask them about themselves, listen, and ask questions. Is there any way you can be helpful to them? Simple things like recommending a restaurant or a book help build connection. Before you know it, you will be in a conversational flow. 

Your Cocktail Pitch is Your Foundation

At first, using your cocktail pitch to introduce yourself will feel uncomfortable, but the more you do it, the more natural it will seem. Practice a lot! Ask for feedback from your friends and practice again. Once you have mastered your cocktail pitch, you will be armed with a great tool that you can use in any situation, from a real cocktail party, to a business