The Energy To Call People To Action

Yesterday, I helped Robert, a new CEO. He wanted to improve the one-minute pitch he is preparing for a fundraising event he is attending this week.

In only 30 minutes together, we transformed his pitch from average to great, adopting one principle.

Treat emotions as the energy to call people to action.

In a one-minute pitch, you have to stay laser-focused and get rid of anything that slows you down from getting people excited to join you on your mission.

In the new version of this pitch, Robert now uses words like “how devastated I was”, “How isolated I felt”, “This is unacceptable”, “That is a lie”, “We dream of doing”. Without more context, you might be wondering what kind of a pitch this is. I can’t share it with you yet, sorry.

However, I can shed some light on the origin of my advice.

Despite the fact that historians analyze emotions dating to classical antiquity, “emotion” is a rather recent term that appears only in the fifteenth century.

The “invention” of the word “emotion” is a French one, but it quickly reaches other languages, such as English. At first, the word “emotion” has a political meaning and designates an uprising or a popular rebellion. No wonder, we, French people, are quite good at social movements and other revolutions.

I am done with the etymology class.

Now, go reframe and revive your company narrative with the vitality it needs to energize your organization.

That’s your job.