Do You Have To Hate Pitching?

When you’re a kid, you pitch.

You pitch all the time.

When it’s time to go to bed, you know exactly what to say to explain why it’s too early. You just know it.

When you want to play, there is nothing that will stop you from selling to your friends the new game idea you just had the minute before.

And when you need funding to grow your collection of toys, you will invent the most compelling stories to show your parents how they will benefit from investing in your latest obsession.

Pitching is innate to us all. That’s it; pitching is human.

Why? Because pitching is a necessity. It is a question of survival.

No pitching, no deal, no money, no food, and no exception to the stupid rules that might make you die of boredom or loneliness.

Without our capacity to influence each other, there is no change, no adaptation, and no survival.

We have everything we need to thrive; if we can collaborate to share resources and preserve our only planet, if we can sell each other new ideas to change our way of life.

So, we need all the pitch muscles we have to change our minds and hearts.

When you’re a kid, you pitch like a human.

But then, you grow up.

And for most adults, pitching becomes hard.

Why? Because we, grown-ups, redefine pitching as presenting, persuading, and advertising in a high-pressure way.

We see it as a battle that one will win and the other will lose.

So, we invent playbooks, frameworks, and compendiums of manipulation technics, so we can generate FOMO (fear of missing out), show WIFM (what’s in it for me), and build a “burning platform”.

Pitching is no longer the fun, joyful, and creative activity we used to master when we were kids. Instead, pitching is now about fear and manipulation. In return, we’ve all experienced the annoying feeling of being “pitched” in inauthentic ways.

Therefore, pitching has a bad reputation. We think we’re bad at it. We believe that it’s not a good thing to do. Yet, we try to do it anyways, awkwardly.

Sure, pitching will sometimes set you up for failure, like selling creative services. But in many other contexts, the practice of pitching is crucial.

Do you have to hate pitching? Does it have to stay this way?

The topic of pitching is an integral part of building a strategic narrative. So, I’d love to hear how you feel about this topic.

Let me know.

Also, I am about to launch a short course on pitching that I will deliver as a free-to-attend webinar in early August. If you’d like to join, stay tuned for more info in the coming days.