No one proves this better than Nate Bargatze (see the video above).

Watch how his timing improves, rhythm gets tighter, and confidence grows. Even his haircut got upgraded.

That’s the compound effect of years on stage and thousands of sets.

Here’s what’s funny about that quote: Eddie Cantor was the Nate Bargatze of his day.

Eddie was a comedian, actor, and radio performer. He landed his first role in 1908. Twenty years later he was on top of the world. He’d won awards, published an autobiography, and was worth the equivalent of $75 million today.

Then he lost everything in the 1929 stock market crash.

So what did Eddie do? He went back to work.

Eddie wrote a short book making fun of himself and the crash. It was called, Caught Short! It was funny, honest, and a hit.

He didn’t stop and kept rebuilding and he leaned into a new medium: radio. He kept creating comedy, kept experimenting, and kept getting better.

And Eddie wasn’t afraid to fail again and took risks. As a Jewish performer, he spoke out against antisemitism and the Nazis. It cost him radio sponsors and ultimately a radio show, but he didn’t give up.

In 1937, Eddie Cantor faced a new challenge. President Roosevelt asked Hollywood to help raise money to fight polio. In a meeting, Eddie pitched his idea: Have every Hollywood radio show run a 30-second commercial asking the American public to give.

But it was the name that sold it.

Eddie suggested they call it The March of Dimes, and ask everyday Americans to send a dime to the White House to fight polio.

The ads launched, and America responded. The White House received nearly 2.7 million letters filled with dimes and dollars. The money raised funded polio research, including the work of Jonas Salk, who created the polio vaccine a little over a decade later.

What I love about Eddie Cantor’s story is that it shows how those first 20 years of effort are really just preparing you for the next 20.

You’re able to weather a crisis.

You’re able to take on more risk.

You’re able to do bigger things.

All because of who you became during the first 20 years.

Subscribe now

Sources:

Video created from clips from this YouTube video and this YouTube video.

The Eddie Cantor Story: A Jewish Life in Performance and Politics by Historian David Weinstein

Cantor, Eddie. Caught Short! A Saga of Wailing Wall Street (Function). Kindle Edition.

Origin of our name. (2025). Marchofdimes.org https://www.marchofdimes.org/about-us/mission/history/origin-our-name

Note: There is some debate on whether this quote is original to Eddie Cantor or if he was sharing a more accepted belief in show business. Other versions of the saying by various actors and actresses say it takes 8-15 years. But the 20-year quote was attributed to him in two instances while he was still alive, in a book in 1957 and a New York Times article in 1963.

I wanted to learn… check.

The speaker was enjoyable… check.

The topic was interesting… check.

But my mind wandered as we waded through slide after slide. I was stuck between wanting to focus and feeling pulled by everything else competing for my attention.

We’ve all been here. We want to pay attention, but our focus fades.

And when you’re the one speaking, you definitely don’t want this to happen to your audience.

One way to avoid it is by incorporating attention spikes.

I first learned this concept from a trainer named Kevan Kjar. Kevan described it as thinking of your audience’s attention like a power line: if you have too much distance between interesting things, the line dips lower and lower.

The solution is simple: install a few extra “power poles”1 along the way to spike attention and keep it up.

This isn’t about tricking your audience or startling them. It’s about helping them re-engage their thinking and energy so they’re actively listening and not just passively absorbing.

5 Ways to Create Attention Spikes:

1. Ask a Question

Use a focus question or something that makes the audience think: “How does this apply to me?” 

A simple prompt plus a 30-second timer on screen can refocus attention. 

“Think about an upcoming presentation you have. Take 30 seconds and pick one of these spikes to use during it.”

If you have time, listen to audience member responses or make the moment interactive. Or you can predict what people wrote, “I bet a lot of you wrote…”

2. Play a Short Video Clip

A 30-75 second video can reset the room’s energy, especially when it’s funny or unexpected. 

I like clips from The Office (the last show that’s almost universally recognized) or comedians like Nate Bargatze, who has broad appeal.

Example: I’ve used these two clips to make a point in talks: 

3. Create a Mystery

Show only part of a picture or graph and ask the audience to guess what comes next, or why it happened.

Example: If you’re using a line graph, zoom in on just one section and have the audience guess what caused the change or dip.

This small act of prediction pulls people in and re-engages their attention.

4. Run a Quick Poll

Try: “On a scale of 1 to 10, how comfortable are you with [asking for money / making a presentation / some other skill or topic]?”

Then ask groups to raise their hands based on their score ranges. “Okay, quick show of hands, how many of you answered 7+?”  It wakes people up and lets them see themselves in the room. 

5. Tell a Story

Reinforce a key point with a quick story, ideally 30 to 90 seconds long.

Use one sentence to set the context, then three to five sentences to tell the story.

“Sometimes you can over-optimize a system. I once decided to clean up my inbox by creating several auto-archive rules.  All those annoying Amazon order emails: automatically archived. I wouldn’t even see them before they were filed away.

It worked great until the day I came home to a porch full of packages. Turns out my 7-year-old had ordered $300 worth of green army men thanks to the combo of one-click ordering and my new ‘never see an Amazon receipt’ email system.”

A short story like this resets attention, makes your point more memorable, and builds a stronger connection with the audience.

You should also keep one or two story spikes in your back pocket in case something goes wrong. Steve Jobs used to keep a story ready in case there were any technical issues during his keynotes. While the team fixed the problem, he’d tell a story to hold the audience’s attention and maintain the momentum of the presentation.

Wrapping Up

The key with attention spikes is not to overdo them. One every 6 to 10 minutes is enough to keep your audience from slipping into passive listening.

A good rule of thumb: for every 10 minutes of your talk, include one spike. So in a 30-minute talk, plan for three intentional moments to re-engage attention.

Before your next presentation, map out the timeline and decide where to place your spikes.

If you don’t plan to keep their attention, don’t be surprised when you lose it.

Two weeks ago, I was sitting at one of my workshops on high-stakes presentations, listening to a series of speeches when Phillip opened his talk by blowing a whistle.

It was loud. Unexpected. And that was the point.

He explained that the organization he worked for existed because its founder had the courage to blow the whistle on serious problems she had witnessed. The speech ended with Phillip holding up the whistle and saying:

“One person blowing a whistle can catch your attention, like I did a moment ago, but the sound eventually fades. But what if one becomes 10, 100, 1000? That sound becomes something impossible to ignore.”

I’ve heard the word whistleblower my whole life. And I’ve heard plenty of whistles too—mostly when my youngest daughter had a firefighter costume with the built-in whistle she blew nonstop until one day it “broke.”

But hearing a whistle shriek in the opening seconds of a speech hit differently. It captured exactly what a whistleblower does and why it matters. It was moving. And it made clear just how lonely it can be to be the first one to blow the whistle.

A prop in a speech or presentation can grab attention in a way words alone often can’t. It acts like a visual highlighter, drawing focus and making the moment unforgettable.

I don’t remember much from senior year physics. But I do remember the seven minutes when Mrs. Layton pulled out a jar and placed three big rocks in it, each labeled: Work, Family, and Faith. Then she added smaller rocks, followed by pebbles, sand, and finally water. She explained that you have to make room for the big things first. If you start with the small stuff, there won’t be space for what really matters.

That moment stuck, not because of the words, but because of the prop: the rocks in that jar. I’ve probably thought about that talk a couple hundred times over the last twenty-four years, especially when making big decisions.

Why Don’t People Use Props?

Like anything that grabs attention, they come with risk. When a prop falls flat, it can backfire. If Phillip had blown the whistle multiple times, it would have gone from effective to annoying. Most of us have seen talks where someone used a prop poorly. In my experience, politicians and preachers are often the biggest offenders.

Still, when it comes to speeches or high-stakes presentations, a well-chosen prop can make a point more memorable and engaging than almost anything else.

Instead of focusing on finding the “perfect” prop, it’s more important to understand the purpose it serves and then decide what works best for your audience.

There are three types of props I’ve seen work again and again: the Spotlight, the Mystery, and the Buildup.

The Spotlight Prop

This is the most common type of prop. It's a single item or visual brought into a talk to drive home a point. In the speech I mentioned earlier, it was the whistle. Spotlight props work because they concentrate attention.

Where they go wrong is when they try to be too clever and the audience doesn’t understand the connection. Or when the prop isn't clearly tied to the main message.If you’re putting all the focus on one object, it needs to land. Otherwise, the audience may remember the prop but miss the point.

When it works:

Spotlight props are best when you have a single point you want to highlight. They’re especially effective when you’ve tested them in smaller or lower-stakes settings first. No comedian uses untested jokes in a Netflix special. They refine their material through practice and repetition. Props should be treated the same way.

Examples:

• A single photo you hold up (see the final section on correct sizing of props)

• Blowing a whistle

• A relevant object or item (in the memorable TED Talk below, the speaker holds a real human brain…though I generally recommend avoiding cadaver parts)

When it fails:

These props often fail when they feel disconnected from the message, come off as overly clever, or there’s awkward delivery.

I once saw someone take out a hatchet and drive it into a piece of wood during a pitch. It was definitely memorable. But not in a good way. The visual didn’t match the message, and we were so caught off guard that we started looking for the nearest exit.

The Mystery Prop

This type of prop makes the audience curious. They don’t know where it’s going, but they want to find out.

For a pitch, I once designed a two-sided document that looked like a boring government form. But it worked like an advent calendar. As you opened a series of small windows, each one revealed a key point and why it mattered. It held the listener’s attention because each window uncovered new information that helped tell the story behind the document. The design itself reinforced the message.

You can also create mystery with something as simple as a chart. Instead of showing the whole thing at once, reveal it piece by piece. Then zoom in on a specific time period or data point that drives your message home. The reveal becomes part of the persuasion.

When it works:

Mystery props are most effective when you have a theme or idea that unfolds over time. The audience stays engaged because they want to see what comes next.

Examples:

• Hans Rosling making a point in 52 seconds with 10 rocks

• Steve Jobs pulling the MacBook Air out of an envelope 

• Drawing or writing something during a talk (especially in one-on-one settings—my brother calls this the “Poor Man’s PowerPoint”)

When it fails:

This approach falls flat when there’s no real mystery or the audience figures it out too quickly. Once that happens, you lose their attention.

The Buildup Prop

This type of prop builds momentum as the talk progresses. The audience may or may not know where you're going, but the unfolding process keeps them interested. It usually ends with a “wow” moment when the power of the visual really lands. 

That’s what happened with the jars and rocks in my high school physics class. After pouring in the sand, we thought the jar was full. But then came the water. Each layer added meaning, and by the end, the visual said more than words ever could.

One of my favorite versions of this approach is something I call the Map Fold (see visual below).

You start with a single oversized sheet of paper, folded into fourths.

• Start: Side one shows an image or idea. You begin by walking through what’s there.

  

• Unfold: Open the second panel to reveal more of the visual.

  

• Flip: Turn over the partially opened sheet to show another point or image.

  

• Reveal: Fully open and flip the sheet to reveal a final idea that ties everything together.

  

Each step builds momentum, and the final reveal gives the talk a satisfying conclusion.

When it works:

The build-up works when each step adds tension or clarity, and the final reveal ties everything together. It keeps the audience engaged and delivers a satisfying payoff that reinforces your message.

Examples

• The jars and rocks visual about prioritizing your life (this video shows it with golf balls)

• A flipchart or sketch that slowly builds a diagram

• A folded paper or tri-fold that opens to reveal a final “wow” takeaway

• Layered visuals in a slide deck or live demo that builds meaning step-by-step

When it fails:

It falls flat when the steps feel disconnected or the payoff doesn’t land. If the audience can’t follow where you’re going, or the ending feels weak, you lose their attention before the point is made.

Making It Work

Knowing the right type of prop is just the beginning. You still have to make it, size it, and practice it until it lands cleanly.

Creating Your Prop

When brainstorming with clients, we usually start by talking through a few rough ideas, then build a quick prototype. Think paper, notecards, and a Sharpie. Whatever you have on hand.

Try a simple version in the real world before involving a designer or making anything polished. A prop’s effectiveness has less to do with design and more to do with clarity and timing. Test that first.

Sizing Your Prop

There’s a rule of thumb in signage: for text to be readable, the letters should be one inch tall for every ten feet of viewing distance. If the back of the room is 30 feet away, use letters that are at least 3 inches high.

Photos are even trickier. A better rule for images is two inches of face height for every ten feet. If you want someone in the back row to see the expression on a face in a printed photo, that face should be at least 6 inches tall at 30 feet.

The best thing is always test the physical version in the actual, or similar sized space. Check the lighting, distance, and angles to make sure the visual lands just as well in the back row as it does in the front.

Practicing with Your Prop

Once you’ve chosen your prop, practice using it—literally. Rehearse every movement. If you’re in a small room, where will the prop be before you use it? If it’s in your bag, how will you take it out without fumbling?

If you’re on a stage, where does it go after you show it? Do you need a small table? Will you need to bend down behind a podium? Practice those motions. The goal is to make your prop feel like a natural part of your delivery—not an awkward interruption.

The key is simple: practice until the prop feels as comfortable as your opening line.

Bottom Line:

For your next high-stakes presentation, decide to stand out and use a prop. But be smart—think through what kind of prop will drive home your most important point. Is there one thing you want to spotlight? Is it something that creates mystery? Or do you want to build momentum as you make your case?

Pick one, prototype it, test it live, and practice it until it’s smooth. You’ll stand out, and your message will stick.

It was a joke, but we all know it’s true.

We’ve all seen companies we like announce they’re “under new management,” promising to “streamline the business.” It’s usually the beginning of the end. Somewhere behind the scenes, spreadsheets get built. Efficiencies get squeezed. The candy dish vanishes along with all the little touches that made you love the place.

Some cuts make sense. But many are sleights of hand: giving you less and hoping you won’t notice.

Why?

Because you can’t measure trust in a spreadsheet—but you can absolutely destroy it with one.

Managers have written more fiction in Excel than most novelists. A tweak here, a cut there, and the candy bowl disappears. The lie the spreadsheet tells: It’s just math. And since there’s no column for “trust,” they assume no one will notice.

Horst Schulze, cofounder of the Ritz-Carlton, put it this way:1 

“When the budgets gets tight … the temptation arises to take things away from the customer and hope they won’t notice.

In my field of upscale hotels, a manager will say, “Well, we don’t have to keep buying fresh flowers for the lobby, do we? It’s just a cost we can cut … The soap in the rooms? Let’s make those bars a little smaller. And the towels don’t have to be so soft, do they?”

The crazy thing is, this manager will often be rewarded for cutting costs! … Meanwhile, his customers are beginning to think less of his establishment. Their expectations are no longer being met. His brand is being steadily diminished.”

That was written six years ago before shrinkflation became a household term. But the pattern is the same.

At first, customers don’t notice. They slide a new RITZ crackers box into the pantry—only to spot the old one. The new box is smaller. The label confirms it: less product, higher price.

The result? They feel tricked, cheated, or lied to. 

Not always enough to complain. But enough to make them hesitate next time. Enough to quietly erode trust. And once trust erodes, loyalty follows.

The spreadsheet shows a win.

Margins are up. The initiative gets a name like “improved package architecture” in the manager’s slide deck. 

But the spreadsheet doesn’t measure trust as it bleeds out. 

The Trust or Trick Test 

So what do you do when you need to cut costs but don’t want to cut trust?

Here’s a simple way to tell the difference.

Don’t look at the spreadsheet as a set of cells. Think of it as a window. And on the other side is your customer.

Now imagine explaining your idea out loud to them.

Would they feel tricked?

Or would they trust you more?

If you’re cutting five percent of the product and hoping they won’t notice, that’s a trick.

If you’re making a change for a good reason and can explain it honestly, that builds trust.

This isn’t just a test for products. It’s a test for every business decision.

Trust isn’t measured in a spreadsheet. But it’s why customers stay—or walk away.

Richard Oglesby had a big problem. He needed to create a way for his candidate to connect with the public. Up to this point, the candidate’s public image was of an accomplished, sophisticated lawyer. Impressive if you were being sued but not great for winning votes. 

How do you make a successful, eloquent, but not particularly relatable person connect with everyday working-class voters? To make matters worse, it’s May, and the candidate is a long shot. 

Oglesby searched for a story to humanize him. A story to show voters the type of person the candidate was. What he needed was a character story. So, Oglesby talked to everyone and uncovered the perfect story from a former coworker.

He heard how, thirty years earlier, the candidate had done hard manual labor—building fences and splitting rails. The former coworker took Oglesby on a ride to see a fence they’d built together. 

Oglesby knew he’d struck gold and asked if he could borrow a couple of the fence rails the candidate split years ago.

With rails in hand, he crafted the story of a self-made man: a man who grew up on the frontier. A man who had done railsplitting manual labor to make a living. A man who knew how to work hard just like the voters. He was an ordinary man who grew into a polished, motivating orator. 

At the state Republican convention, Oglesby had the two rails paraded in before the speech of the dark-horse candidate, the rail-splitter named Abraham Lincoln. 

The delegates loved the rail-splitter story, and it became Lincoln’s tagline. It launched him as the presidential pick of the convention. The press wrote this of Lincoln:

“Many delegates in a thoughtful mood, contrasted the present position of the noble, self-taught, self-made statesman. . . with that of the humble pioneer and rail maker of thirty years ago.” 

That story and image of Lincoln the rail-splitter painted a sharp contrast with his opponent—an out-of-touch elitist who had likely never split a rail in his life. Lincoln’s story proved so effective that his opponents attempted to rewrite the narrative, trying to label Lincoln a “hair splitter” because of his anti-slavery position. But the more compelling story of the hardworking rail-splitting candidate was what stuck. 

The Character Story

Lincoln’s “rail-splitter” story is a great example of how a simple story can build trust by showing character. I call these character stories because they give people a sense of your values and who you really are. And you don’t need someone else to come up with it for you. You can tell your own.

A strong character story shows your values, integrity, and growth. It helps people understand who you are.

These character stories usually fall into three types: passion, professional, or personal.

1. Passion Story: Share why you do the work you do. This could be about how you got involved in your work and why it matters. Include challenges you’ve overcome, problems you’ve solved, or hard-earned insights.  

2. Professional Story: Highlight your qualifications, experience, and ability to get things done. This could include a story about how you made things happen in your career.

3. Personal Story: Showcase your grit by including lessons learned, personal challenges you’ve overcome, or failures that shaped your character or leadership approach.

The key to an effective character story is transformation. It shows how a challenge or experience changed your perspective or helped you grow. And it invites the listener to decide what kind of person you are.

When I talk about persuasion, I often start with this personal character story:

“When I was 17, I was too young to legally own a credit card, but oddly, was old enough to sell them. 

It was my first sales job, and I loved it. I liked the sales—way more than sitting in college classes. For the first time as a professional, I was finding success. And I could get great with practice. 

Selling was fascinating. The training, the persuasion techniques, the little tricks that convert. If the computer lagged, I’d buy time by asking about the weather in Albuquerque or wherever the customer was from. Then I’d pivot to how cold it was where I lived in Maine, and talk about walking through snow to get to class.

One night, the sales supervisor told us to push balance transfers and cash advances. The script was: 

“These 0% interest rates won’t last forever!”. 

There’s one call from that night I’ll never forget. This nice woman in her 70s with no credit card debt. We hit it off, and I used our script: 

“Maybe you need some extra cash for a grandchildren’s graduation or something coming up this summer?” 

Deep down, I knew she didn’t need the cash advance. But I followed the script and overcame every objection: 

“This offer only lasts until the end of the month. I’d hate for you to miss out.” 

Ultimately, I convinced her to transfer $10,000 from her credit card to her checking account.

“We can transfer that money right now and give you peace of mind.” 

It was a cash advance she didn’t need.

I ended the call pumped. I posted the sale on the board. I made my $10 commission.

But on break that night, I stood at the coin-op coffee machine and thought: “What the hell did you just do?”

She had trusted me. And I sold her something she didn’t need. 

The next day, I quit.  Twenty-three years later, I still feel bad about that call and wish I could apologize. 

But that one call shaped how I think about persuasion. Persuasion works. That’s what makes it powerful and dangerous. I never wanted to feel that way again, like I had just tricked someone who trusted me.

Build Your Character Story

Start by brainstorming potential stories. Think about moments you're proud of, challenges you've overcome, or failures that shaped your character. Look for the “rail-splitting” experiences that reveal who you are.

The key to crafting a story is to make it short and impactful:

• Keep stories concise (1 to 2 minutes or 200-400 words)

• Jump right into the action with minimal setup

• Follow a clear beginning, middle, and end structure

• Conclude with the insight or lesson learned from the experience

• Practice the stories to make them feel authentic and natural to share

Be honest and genuine in your storytelling. People can tell when a story feels stretched or manufactured. Test your stories with friends or family to get feedback and refine your delivery.

For example, if I had to tell a character story about Richard Oglesby, I’d start brainstorming: 

• Three terms as governor

• Civil War general 

• Anti-slavery campaigner

• Personal friend of Lincoln 

There’s a lot of interesting content, but I’d focus on something different. 

I would instead tell you the story of Ogelsby when he was just eight years old. Both parents had died, and the Kentucky farm where Richard grew up was being sold off . So was a man named Tim. Eight-year-old Richard tried everything as a little kid could do to buy Tim’s freedom. He failed. But he promised Tim he would find a way to set him free. It took nearly two decades to fulfill that promise. But after risking it all in the California gold rush, Ogelsby sent money to Kentucky to find Tim and purchase his freedom. 

In just 98 words, you learn more about Richard Ogelsby than any professional achievements. That’s a character story.

Think about your own life. Identify the moments that have shaped your character and leadership. Then, craft a compelling story that resonates. By developing a powerful and honest character story, you will make a deeper connection and show how you are the right person to work with. 

Source: Richard J. Oglesby, Lincoln's Rail-Splitter, Mark A. Plummer. Illinois Historical Journal, Vol. 80, No. 1 (Spring, 1987), pp. 2-12

It often comes down to a simple framework: Will, Skill, and Structure.

Let me show you what it looks like.

On March 25, 1913, John H. Patterson stood on the roof of his National Cash Register (NCR) factory in Dayton, Ohio, watching the Great Miami River rise.

He had a bad feeling that the levees wouldn’t hold. So he climbed down, inspected them himself, and confirmed the worst: a massive flood was coming.

Patterson didn’t wait for permission. 

He called an emergency meeting with his managers and foremen. He grabbed a red crayon and literally crossed out the org chart, saying, “I now declare this company out of commission. I proclaim the Citizens Relief Association.”

By 7:30 a.m., the company had stopped making cash registers. But every team had a mission: 

The kitchen staff was buying food and baking bread.

Buyers were sourcing blankets and dry clothes.

And the carpenters who made cash drawers? They did something amazing. They started building rescue boats using whatever wood they had, even though they’d never built a boat.1

By noon, they’d produced their first boat. Soon, they were turning out a new one every 9 minutes. Over the next few days, they built nearly 300 boats and used them to rescue thousands of people stuck in the flood.2

That’s what it looks like when Will, Skill, and Structure3 all line up.

Will: The Drive to Act Before the Path Is Clear

Patterson had the will. He acted quickly, before anyone else—and with incomplete information.

That’s a key trait among entrepreneurs: they don’t wait for full certainty. They move first and refine as they go. But he didn’t just act, he organized action. 

Will shows up as curiosity. It thrives on urgency, and a bias toward action. 

Chung Ju-yung, the founder of Hyundai, was that kind of leader too. After WWII and the Korean War destroyed his businesses, he took a manual labor job to survive. One problem: the workers’ sleeping quarters were infested with bedbugs. They tried everything. They cleaned. They put the bed legs in bowls of water. Nothing worked.

So one night, after an exhausting shift, Chung and a co-worker stayed awake to study the bugs.

The bugs weren’t crawling up the bed legs. They were climbing the walls and dropping from the ceiling.

That’s will: the willingness to look harder. To stay awake through exhaustion just to figure out why.

Reflecting on that night, Chung later said:

“Even bedbugs think long and hard, and use every bit of energy they have to achieve their goal, and ultimately they succeed… If these bedbugs can do it, why can’t we men do it?”4

The best entrepreneurs see what others ignore and act when others would quit.

Skill: The Patterns You Know and How You Use Them

Most successful entrepreneurs don’t just have a bias towards action. They build up a base of skills and pattern recognition even if it’s in a different field from the one they’re entering.

James Dyson is a perfect example.

In his memoir, Dyson explains how his first product, a reimagined wheelbarrow called the Ballbarrow, taught him about injection molding, plastic spheres, and manufacturing. That knowledge later helped him invent the Dyson vacuum. But the real breakthrough came when he was trying to fix a noisy, inefficient paint-exhaust system. He started studying and then installing cyclone fans—the kind used in sawmills—and that later became the core of his bagless-vacuum design.

Skill is more than simple expertise. It’s about pattern recognition and the ability to adapt what you know to solve new problems.

Structure: The Systems That Let You Scale

Most people aren’t great at all three. They might have will and skill, but no structure—so things stay chaotic. Or they’ve got skill and structure, but not the will to take real risks. Or they have the will, but not the team or experience to execute.

Patterson didn’t create new departments to attack the crisis. He had the will, his workers had the skill, and together they repurposed the structure.

Most entrepreneurs, if they want to grow, eventually need to hire structure-minded people—operators and people who are good at turning good ideas into reliable execution.

Bottom Line:

If you’re feeling stuck, ask yourself:

• Do I have the Will to take the first step—before I have it all figured out?

• Do I have the Skill or pattern base to learn what’s needed fast?

• Do I have the Structure to make this thing repeatable and real?

You don’t need all three today.

But once you know what’s missing, you know what to fix next.

That verbal punch landed while I was standing in the buffet line after moderating a panel at a small conference in Phoenix.

It stung, but he wasn’t wrong.

I had plenty of excuses: early flight, not enough sleep, grad school stress, two kids at home, one on the way. None of it mattered.

The truth? I gave a mediocre performance.

I knew he was a strong presenter, so I asked, “What do you recommend I do to get better?”

“I think practicing more would help a lot.”

Great. The big secret I’d been missing: practice.

The only problem? I had practiced. And it still sucked.

That’s the problem with most presentation advice: it’s either too vague to use or too specific to apply.

In the nine years since that buffet-line gut check, I’ve learned one thing: getting better at public speaking comes down to two things: content and comfort.

This piece is about the first one: content.

It turns out that the buffet guy was right. My speaking held me back.

So I worked on it. I got more comfortable. I got better.

Eventually, I started a fundraising training company to help nonprofit leaders and CEOs craft high-stakes pitches for six- and seven-figure donations. Now I present almost every week, helping people clarify their vision, sharpen their message, and get to yes.

Here’s what I’ve learned: there’s no hack. No magic formula. Just a framework that works—if you do the work.

That’s what this article is about.

Because if it were easy, it wouldn’t be high-stakes.

The Hand Framework: 5 Parts of a Persuasive Speech

Any high-stakes presentation has five key parts:

• The Goal—What do you want the audience to do, and why aren’t they doing it already?

• The Hook—Grab attention with a story, surprising stat, or question.

• The Hold—Keep attention by showing what’s in it for them.

• The Hurdle—Name what’s holding them back—and help them move past it.

• The Handoff — Make the next step clear. What do you want them to do?

The Goal

Whatever you do, don’t start by making slides.

That’s fake productivity. It feels like progress, but what you actually need is a plan.

Instead, start by asking:

Take your audience’s perspective. What’s in the way? What’s holding them back?

Your job is to remove that resistance.

One simple way to remember these four steps is to use your hand.

Each finger represents a key part of your talk, and the thumb ties them all together.

• Thumb: The Goal
  This answers the most important question: What do you want your audience to do?
  The thumb touches every other finger. That’s your reminder: every part of your talk should connect back to your desired action.

• Index Finger: The Hook
  It’s first for a reason. This is how you grab attention fast.

• Middle Finger: The Hold
  This is where you deliver the core of your message and keep their attention.
  And yes, it’s fitting because if you lose them here, this is the metaphorical finger they’ll give you as they check their phone.

• Ring Finger: The Hurdle
  The commitment finger. This is where your audience hesitates. Your job is to help them move past whatever’s holding them back.

• Pinky: The Handoff
  Small but important. This is where you point them to the next step—it should be clear, simple, and doable.

The Hook

The first few sentences are the most valuable moments of a talk, but most people waste it.

“Thank you for inviting me to…”

“Let me tell you a little bit about myself…”

“Before I begin…”

“So..yeah…anyway…let me make sure these slides are working…”

They start with a thank-you, a disclaimer, or background no one asked for.

When your audience is paying the most attention, they miss the opportunity to set the Hook.

Don't ease into it. Start strong.

Use a short story, a surprising stat, or a simple question.

The Story Hook

Telling a story is one of the most effective ways to hook an audience—if it’s done right.

Too often, people think they’re telling a story when they’re really just listing events linked by “and then…and then.”

“And then this happened, and then this happened…”

That’s a summary, not a story.1 A story makes people lean in. It builds tension. It makes them wonder, “What happens next?”

To make your story work:

1. Set the scene in one or two sentences: Where are we? What’s happening?

2. Then, zoom in on a specific person—and get right to the action.

Kindra Hall, in Stories That Stick, outlines a simple story structure:

• Normal: This is how life was.

• Explosion: Boom, something changes.

• New Normal: Life after the dust settles. What’s different?

I’ve found three types of stories that work especially well to start a speech: the Personal Story, the Problem Story, and the Curiosity Story.

The Personal Story

This is a true story about you. It may be funny, reflective, or the result of a hard-earned lesson. The goal is to build trust and position yourself as someone worth listening to.

We often have more personal stories than we give ourselves credit for. As the saying goes, “There are good experiences—and there are good stories.”

Think back to tough situations or less-than-ideal moments. That’s often where the best stories live. (That’s what I did with the opening story of this article.)

Just don’t go too far into vulnerability too soon. You want connection, not emotional hijacking.

The Problem Story

A problem story sets up the core issue your talk will solve. It’s not just what happened, but why it matters.

It builds tension. It shows what’s at stake if nothing changes.

For example, if I were giving a talk on how to create a persuasive speech, I might open with this:

“Robin had 72 hours to give the biggest presentation of her life.

So she did what most of us do: she opened PowerPoint.

Slide one… blank.

Maybe she could reuse some slides from last month. That revenue chart from last week.

And just like that, she fell into the same trap everyone does: collecting slides instead of building a message.

Why? Because opening PowerPoint feels like progress.

But it’s momentum without direction.

The truth is that PowerPoint should never be your first step.

What Robin needed was a structure. A way to think through her talk before she touched a slide.

That’s what this framework is built to do: to help you know exactly what to say in your next high-stakes presentation.”

Problem stories like this work because they surface a behavior or situation the audience knows and then shows a better way forward.

The Curiosity Story

A curiosity story works because it’s simply interesting. It doesn’t have to be dramatic or emotional. It just needs to make people think: “What happens next?”

It could be something that happened to you, someone you know, or a historical moment.

“It was November 1963, and most White House reporters were huddled together, waiting for updates so they could write their stories on the death of President Kennedy.

All except one reporter.

He was across the Potomac, at Arlington National Cemetery, interviewing a man who earned $3.01 an hour to dig the President’s grave…”2

You can feel the question forming: Why? What did he learn?

That’s what a curiosity story does—it opens a loop your audience wants to close.

The Statistic Hook

Stories grab emotion. But sometimes, you want your audience to think before they feel. A single, well-framed statistic can do that.

“$22,000. That’s how much we spend to educate one child per year in Pennsylvania. That’s a lot of money. Where does it go? What’s the impact?”

If you open with a stat, keep it simple. You’re telling the story of a number, not presenting a spreadsheet.

Ask yourself:

• Why does this number matter?

• What does it reveal?

• What should your audience now be asking?

A good stat can create clarity, curiosity, or reframe a familiar issue.

The Question Hook

Sometimes, the best way to begin is with a question—especially one that makes the audience think, “How does this apply to me?”

I call these focus questions. Their job is to expose a gap in knowledge or highlight an opportunity the audience hasn’t yet considered.

Great teachers use this strategy all the time. It shifts the audience from passive listeners to active participants.

We tend to assume we know more than we do. But the right question can trigger a pause. It makes the audience think, “Wait… maybe I don’t have this figured out.”

For example, when I give a talk on growing fundraising, I often start with:

“If you had to double your fundraising in the next three years, what would you do?”

Then I pause. Let the question hang.

“This is the challenge most organizations face. There’s no clear path to growing your fundraising. And what many people think they need, ‘to find more donors,’ is often the last thing they should do.

Today, I’m going to walk you through three strategies to grow your fundraising without chasing new donors.”

That’s what a good focus question does, it opens a gap, then positions your content as the bridge.

The Hold

Once you’ve hooked your audience with a story, statistic, or question, your next job is to hold their attention.

This is the core of your talk—the main content—and it needs structure. Without it, even the best hook fizzles out.

There’s a lot of advice out there on how to structure the body of a speech. But here’s a simple, flexible approach that works across topics and audiences. It’s adapted from YouTuber and speaking coach Vinh Giang’s “3, 2, 1” method.

Pick the one that fits your content the best

3 Steps

If you’re explaining a process or solving a problem, break it into three clear steps or phases.

This is especially effective if your hook introduced a challenge—now you're offering a roadmap.

Example: “When it comes to growing your fundraising, there are three levers of growth you can pull. Let me walk you through each one. The first lever is…”

This framing sets the expectation that the audience will hear a simple, structured path forward. It also keeps them engaged—step by step.

2 Points

When contrast is at the heart of your message, simplify it to two key ideas or categories.
Think: before vs. after, emotion vs. logic, what used to work vs. what works now.

Example: “As fundraisers, you hear a lot of conflicting advice. Some say, ‘Tell stories to appeal to emotion.’ Others say, ‘Show numbers to prove you're effective.’

So which works better—emotion or logic?

I’m going to show you why you need both, and how to combine them to drive results.”

This structure works especially well when you're challenging assumptions or helping your audience reframe how they think.

1 Thing

Sometimes, the strongest structure is the simplest—focus on one big idea. What’s the most important takeaway you want your audience to remember?

This works well when your topic is crowded with noise or conflicting advice. You acknowledge the complexity, then bring clarity.

Example: “When it comes to growing your fundraising, it starts with one thing: your organization’s Big Vision.

Not the vague mission statement on the conference room wall—but a clear, compelling picture of where you're going in the next three years.

The reality? Most organizations’ visions aren’t bold enough to inspire a donor to double their gift.

Let’s look at how to change that, so your donors don’t just say yes… they say yes and increase their giving.”

Framing your content around one thing signals clarity and confidence. You’re not offering a buffet—you’re offering the answer.

3-2-1: Three steps. Two points. One big idea.

Pick the structure that fits your message and makes it easy for your audience to follow.

The Hurdle

At some point in every persuasive talk, you need to answer the unspoken question:

That’s the Hurdle. The part where you name the real reason your audience hasn’t taken action yet.

Maybe it’s confusion. Maybe it’s fear. Maybe it’s inertia.

Your job is to name the obstacle and show a path forward.

Think of the Hurdle as part of a path. Most audiences aren’t stuck because they don’t care. They’re stuck because something’s in the way.

That “something” usually falls into one of three categories: a skill set, a mindset, or a toolset.

Skill Set: The Foggy Path

This is the simplest hurdle to fix: they don’t know what the path looks like.

Your job is to clear the fog. Give them the steps—concretely and confidently.

“The first step is... Here’s the tricky part. This is where you need to watch out…”

You’re giving them the map they didn’t know they needed.

Mindset: The Shaky Bridge

This hesitation is not because they don’t understand but because it feels risky.

They’re afraid they’ll fail, look foolish, or waste their time.

Your job is to reframe the risk—to show them the bridge is sturdier than it seems. Or that they won’t have to walk it alone.

“Here’s the reality. When most people think about fundraising, they picture Oliver Twist. You’re begging.

But that’s not how it works. Donors want to partner with you to get big things done. Fundraising is a partnership—you and the donor working together to make the big vision real.”

You’re not just easing fear. You’re changing the frame.

Toolset: No Bridge at All

Sometimes, there’s no path forward because they don’t have what they need.

There’s a river in front of them and no stepping stones in sight.

This is where you hand them tools: a case study, a walkthrough, a working example.

“Let me show you how this worked for someone in your exact situation.”

You’re not describing the solution. You’re putting it in their hands.

Why It Matters

The Hurdle isn’t where you gloss over the hard parts. It’s where you show your audience:

“I get why this has been hard, and I’m going to help you move forward.”

You earn trust when you call out the real barrier and show how to cross it.

And just as importantly, you set up the Handoff.

The Handoff

Finally, we reach the last move: What do you want your audience to do?

This is the Handoff—where you move from belief to action. You’ve built the case. Now, it’s time to make the next step clear, simple, and doable.

Think about your talk from the audience’s perspective:

• What’s the specific action you want them to take?

• Can you help them take the first step right now?

• Where’s the friction, and how can you remove it?

One of the most effective ways to do this is to script the critical move. If your goal is to get a yes/no decision, don’t expect a full commitment on the spot. Instead, paint a picture of what a ‘yes’ looks like. Show them the impact. Then, lay out the very next step to get started.

If your talk ends with, “Let us know if you’re interested,” you’ve dropped the baton.

But if it ends with, “Here’s what we’d love you to do, and here’s how to do it,”—you’ve made the handoff.

Don’t just inspire. Make it easy to act.

Also: give them something to take with them. I’m a big believer in physical handouts, ideally one-pagers, because the person with the paper usually wins. But just as important as what they carry out in their hands… is what they carry out in their head.

Make it clear. Make it simple. And hand it off.

Conclusion

The next time you need to write a speech—look at your hand.

• Thumb: Start here. What do you want your audience to do—and why aren’t they doing it already?

• Index Finger (The Hook): Grab their attention with a story, a stat, or a sharp question.

• Middle Finger (The Hold): Structure the core of your talk using 3 steps, 2 contrasting points, or 1 big idea.

• Ring Finger (The Hurdle): Address what’s holding them back—whether it’s a skill gap, a mindset issue, or a missing tool.

• Pinky (The Handoff): Make the next step clear. Help them take action—and give them something to remember.

That’s the framework. It’s simple. It’s visual. And it works.

Now start creating your speech by asking: What do I want my audience to do—and why aren’t they doing it already?

Eighty years ago tomorrow, the war in Europe ended.

Five years earlier, Winston Churchill stood before Parliament and said he had nothing to offer but “blood, sweat, and tears.”

That’s the quote we remember.

But it’s not what he said.

Churchill actually said: “Blood, toil, tears, and sweat.”

Toil.

That’s the word we’ve dropped. The word we don’t really use anymore.

It means pushing through fatigue, fear, and doubt. To work when no one’s watching. To keep pushing when quitting would be easier.

The people who won World War II were a generation that knew how to toil.

It wasn’t just soldiers. It was factory workers, designers, welders, planners. Ordinary Americans showed up, solved hard problems, and kept working even when it wasn’t perfect.

One of those Americans was industrialist Henry Kaiser, who helped organize the production of the Liberty ships. The ships that moved the Allied war effort.

To get the Liberty ships built, they refitted shipyards and created new ones from scratch. They figured out new ways of construction and welding.

The first Liberty ship, the SS Patrick Henry, took 244 days to build. Critics mocked the program and its progress. Time magazine even called them “ugly ducklings.”

But Kaiser and his team kept toiling. He said, “We see a greater America out there.” While the critics tapped away, writing stories of how long it took, detailing every setback, they kept toiling, kept working.

Soon, it took 100 days to build a ship.

Then 24 days.

They even built a ship in four days.

In the end, America built 2,710 Liberty ships, and they changed the course of the war.

“We see a greater America out there” became true because they built it.

Today, we’ve missed out on the word toil.

There’s been an iPhoneization of America where we expect to just tap and things happen.

Hungry? Tap, tap, tap. Food’s delivered to your door.

Need something? Tap, tap, tap. It arrives in 2 days or less.

Don’t like something? Tap, tap, tap. Leave a one-star review.

The problem is tapping feels like you’re working. But the real work that gets real things done still comes from toil. It comes from long hours spent figuring it out, trying, failing, and trying again.

And every generation has people who decide to toil.

They put a man on the moon. They built the screen you’re reading this on. They create breakthroughs in science, medicine, and AI.

Meanwhile, critics tap away and point out every failure. The media still loves to report every misstep. If it didn’t work the first time, they call it a failure.

But nothing hard worked the first time. It takes trial and error.

History is made by the people who toil. It’s usually reported on by the people who tap.

Every generation has people who see a greater America out there—and decide it’s worth the toil to build it.

Choose to be one of them.

Choose to toil.

"Recent polls have shown a fifth of Americans can’t locate the US on a map. Why do you think this is?"

Two seconds after hearing the question, Caitlin answered:

“I personally believe that U.S. Americans are unable to do so because some people out there in our nation don’t have maps, and I believe that our education such as in South Africa, and the Iraq and everywhere like such as...”

Her answer continued for a few more meandering seconds. Clearly, she was stumped.

Unfortunately for Caitlin, her 48-second struggle to answer became a viral moment.

As uncomfortable as it is to watch, she did what most of us do when faced with a question we don’t know the answer to—we start talking, hoping that somewhere along the way, we’ll land on a good answer.

How would you have answered this question on national television? Imagine being 18 and trying to think on your feet.

Tough questions come up all the time—whether in an important meeting, during a Q&A session, in a high-stakes presentation, or on a customer call.

So what do you do when faced with a tough question?

How do you avoid 48 seconds of word salad and instead deliver a clear, crisp, and competent answer?

The key to handling unscripted answers is structure and time constraints. Have one without the other, and you’re bound to ramble. But with both in place, you’ll stay focused and in control.

First, time constraints—keep your answer between 60 and 90 seconds. Period. (We’ll cover how to do this later.)

Second, structure—a simple framework to organize your thoughts. Here are three go-to strategies for handling unscripted questions:

1. Two Points

2. Story + Insight

3. Thinking Then & Now

Two Points

To create a clear answer, present two points.

• Listen intently to the question.

• Pause for two to four seconds to gather your thoughts. This pause might feel long, but it does two things:

  • It gives you time to think.

  • It shows you’re considering the question carefully.

Next, set up your response with: “You know, that’s a really good question. I think it comes down to two things.”

• Then, start with your first point: “The first thing that comes to mind is…” and talk about it.

• Follow up with: “The second point is…” and discuss that.

• To wrap up, restate your points concisely: “So to answer your question, it really comes down to these two things: [point one] and [point two].”

The key to this tactic is providing structure while giving listeners clear signposts. When you say, “It comes down to two things,” you set expectations, making your answer sound more authoritative—even if it’s not perfectly polished.

You don’t always have to stick to a basic Point One then Point Two approach. You can also use contrast, such as past versus present:

"That’s a great question. I think we need to look at it from both the past and the present. In the past, we saw this issue play out like this…[give some details]. But currently, here’s how things are different…"

Framing your answer this way adds depth and makes your response more engaging.

Story + Insight

The Story + Insight strategy is a powerful tool if you want to connect emotionally.

When you get a question, pause briefly, then set up your response with:

“You know, that’s an important question. It reminds me of …”

Then, tell a short, relevant story—something from your work or a personal anecdote that ties into the question.

The key is to keep the story tight: a clear beginning, middle, and end. Jump straight into the action and avoid over-explaining.

Once you’ve shared the story, don’t assume your audience will automatically get the lesson—spell it out. Wrap up with a concise takeaway:

“That experience taught me that…”

Ideally, you should have a few go-to stories for different situations. Since people remember stories better than abstract facts, this method makes your answer more engaging and memorable.

Keep it under two minutes for maximum impact—ideally 60 to 90 seconds.

Thinking Then & Now

Sometimes, you’ll get a question based on incorrect or outdated information. It is best to avoid saying, “That’s wrong.” That approach rarely works, and get defensive or people shut down.

Instead, use the Thinking Then & Now method. This approach helps your audience to see why their view once made sense while you guide them toward a new understanding.

Here’s how it works:

• Get the question, pause, and say: “I used to think that, too. It made a lot of sense because . . .”

• Then pivot: “But after looking into it, I found that...” Introduce the new information and explain why your thinking changed.

If you never held that belief yourself, you can adjust make your appeal more generic, like this:

• “A lot of people think that, and it does feel true at first. So I looked into it, and here’s what I found…”

The key is to avoid directly telling the questioner they’re wrong. Instead, guide them through a thought process that helps them avoid being wrong in the future.

One important note: This technique is about persuading, not manipulating. Don’t pretend you’ve changed your mind if you haven’t.

Practicing for Better Answers

In addition to selecting the correct structure, you need to limit your answer with a time constraint. Allow yourself 60 to 90 seconds to deliver your structured answer. Then drop the mic.

Structure and time constraints. Now, all you need is some practice.

A great way to practice is by setting a 90-second timer and answering tough questions using these methods.

Try this:

1. Identify two or three questions you find difficult to answer.

2. Set a timer for 90 seconds and answer one using the Two Points method. It might feel clunky at first but try it again.

3. Next, answer the same question using the Story + Insight approach. Does a relevant story come to mind?

4. Finally, take a question where people often have incorrect information and apply the Thinking Then & Now framework.

Spend 10 minutes a day for five days answering 2–5 questions using these techniques. By the end of the week, you’ll have the confidence and structure to handle any unscripted question that comes your way.

Bonus: How Caitlin Could Have Answer the Question

If Caitlin had used these techniques, here’s how she might have responded:

Two Points

“Thank you for that question. I believe it comes down to two things. First, education is struggling. Many students in South Carolina and across the country are below grade level in reading and other subjects, so it’s not surprising that geography is also a challenge.

Second, our media is heavily U.S.-focused. When young people and adults hear the news, it’s almost always about America. In other countries, news coverage includes more global perspectives. So when we combine struggling schools with a media that rarely discusses the rest of the world, it’s understandable that some people might not be as familiar with geography.”

Story + Insight

“Thank you for that question. This reminds me of my third-grade teacher, Mrs. Turner. She made us memorize every country on the globe. At the time, I thought it was pointless. But later, I realized how valuable it was—it changed how I see the world. Now, when I hear about a country in the news, I know exactly where it is.

If one-fifth of Americans struggle with geography, maybe they didn’t have a ‘Mrs. Turner’ in their life. That’s something we should work on—making sure every student has the opportunity to learn about the world in a way that sticks with them.”

Thinking Then & Now

“You know, I’ve heard statistics like this before—claims that 20% of Americans don’t know this or that. But here’s what I’ve learned: a lot of these numbers come from small sample sizes, online surveys, or data that’s been massaged to create a clickbait headline.

What I do know, from talking to people in South Carolina and from the amazing contestants I’ve met here, is that America is full of bright, curious people from all backgrounds. I don’t believe one in five Americans couldn’t find our country on a map. That statistic might make for a good headline, but it doesn’t reflect the people I’ve met and the country I know.”

Bonus One-Pager of the 3 Tactics

How would you persuade one million people to change their minds? What if it was 1917—before radio, television, or the internet?

George Creel faced this exact problem at the start of World War I. The American government had joined the war and mobilized troops, but the public wasn’t on board with fighting “Europe’s War.”

The president tasked Creel with boosting public opinion for the war. But how? Back then, getting a message to the public was hard. The only medium of mass communication was newspapers, which were already saturated with daily stories about the war.

As Creel considered his options, Donald Ryerson, a Chicago businessman, interrupted to pitch a solution.

What are Americans already doing that we could use to share our message?

At the time, millions of Americans went to the movies every week. Halfway through each movie, the show stopped for 4 minutes so workers could switch the film reels. Ryerson believed those 4 minutes were the perfect time to deliver a message to a captive audience.  

Ryerson proposed creating what he called 4 Minute Men—a grassroots network of thousands of people from local towns to go and give speeches during these brief intermissions. The speakers would focus on a single issue and call the audience to a single action.1

Creel loved the idea so much that he put Ryerson in charge. Ryerson got to work, and his team recruited and trained over 75,000 local speakers and wrote hundreds of persuasive speeches for them.2 Throughout the war, the 4 Minute Men gave almost one million speeches. They persuaded people to support the war in big and small ways with calls to action, such as “Donate your binoculars for Navy sailors,” “Buy Liberty Bonds to fund the war,” and “Know how to spot ‘German propaganda.’”3

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The 4 Minute Men program worked because it stuck to a persuasive formula. Grab your audience’s attention. Have a single point. Be quick (less than 4 minutes). Always have an action for the audience to take.

While these grassroots speaking tactics later evolved alongside the rise of the radio and television, their persuasive speech principles still work.

When creating a short, persuasive speech, use the 4-Minute Formula:

• One Question

• One Story

• One Point

• One Call to Action

First, ask yourself, “What’s the one point I want my audience to remember?” Brainstorm and write down your answer. The one point is the path of your speech. Everything else your speech includes—the question, story, and call to action—should trace back to your one point.

Once you’ve decided on your one point, it’s time to outline your speech. Grab four sticky notes and write bullet points for each section.

Start your speech with one question framed around your one point. You want to pique your audience’s curiosity so they’ll listen to learn the answer.

Next, tell them one story that answers the question. The more memorable, the better.

After your story, explicitly state the one point you want them to remember. Ideally, say it in a compelling and sticky way.

Close with one call to action for your audience—the one thing you want them to do or think about because of your speech.

For example, if this article were a 4-minute speech, it would look like this:

Try this 4-Minute Formula on your next speech. Grab some sticky notes and create a quick outline. Then practice, and you’ll be ready to give your short, persuasive speech.

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At first I didn’t believe him. People aren’t influenced that much by a piece of paper, I thought. They weigh the evidence and make the most rational decision. But twenty years of experience have convinced me he was right. When you arrive at a meeting with a persuasive one-pager, you frame the conversation for the decision-makers—and, usually, you win.

This guide will show you how to create a compelling, persuasive one-pager for your next high-stakes meeting.

Scan, Skim, or Study

When someone picks up a short document, they do one of three things:

• Scan It: They read the title and one or two headings and glance at the content.

  • You have about five seconds for the reader to get the gist.

• Skim It: They read the title, headings, and subheads, and look at any visuals or bullet points.

  • You have fifteen seconds to give the reader a basic understanding.

• Study It: They read the title, headings, subheads, bullet points, and eighty percent of the content.

  • You have ninety seconds to convince the reader.

Here’s the challenge: you can’t predict if your reader will scan, skim, or study your one-pager. You can, however, create a compelling piece no matter how long a decision-maker reviews it.

Six Questions for a Persuasive One-Pager

When I started creating one-pagers, I was a twenty-six-year-old policy director at a statehouse with seventy-eight lawmakers. Hundreds of bills were proposed, and we needed our lawmakers to understand each bill’s key points to help them decide how to vote. The sheer volume provided a laboratory to develop, experiment, test, and repeat. In short, we learned what persuaded. Later, after studying behavioral science at the London School of Economics, I refined this persuasive approach for high-stakes corporate and boardroom settings, such as with nonprofit CEOs asking for 7-figure donations.

I have discovered there are six questions to help you create a persuasive one-pager.

1. What’s the Bottom Line?

2. What’s the Problem?

3. What’s the Solution?

4. What’s the Data?

5. What’s the Story?

6. What’s the Visual?

#1 – What’s the Bottom Line?

Your first question to answer is “What do I want decision-makers to do after reading my document?” Clarity on the action you want your readers to take should shape every aspect of your one-pager’s copy and design.

A Bottom Line is just that: a clear action statement visually placed at the bottom of your one-pager to engage readers who scan, skim, or study.1 It should be a one- or two-sentence summary of the content and the action you want the reader to take.

Build Your One-Pager:

Take two minutes right now to draft a Bottom Line. Don’t worry about making it perfect. Just write one or two sentences summarizing the content and the action you want decision-makers to take.

#2 – What’s the Problem?

It is easy to become solution-focused when trying to persuade. You know the solution to the problem you perceive—but keep in mind that the problem may look different to the decision-makers. If you can describe the problem in a way that resonates with them, you are halfway to successful persuasion. This is why “What’s the problem?” or “How do decision-makers perceive this problem?” is the most important of the six questions.

Define the problem from the decision-makers’ perspective. When they read a description that clarifies a problem exactly how they would, decision-makers are inclined to believe they will agree with your solution. Get this problem statement right, and the rest of the one-pager will be easier to write; you have clearly identified the problem you need the decision-makers to help you solve.

Build Your One-Pager:

Write a few sentences about how your decision-makers see the problem.

#3 – What’s the Solution?

Decision-makers often know the problem but need to learn how to solve it. (They would have already solved the problem if they knew the solution.) Your job is to communicate the solution you’ve found.

Communicating the Solution begins with figuring out how to present your solution to their problem. Remember, all the easy problems have been solved. Only the hard ones are left.

There are two steps to crafting your solution: 1) decide on the framing, then 2) make it seem easy.

There is a trick to framing your solutions because humans have competing desires. We want things to be safe and predictable, but we also want things to be new and unique. This tension between the predictable and the new drives many of our decisions. Framing a solution effectively calls for the industrial design principle “most advanced yet acceptable” (MAYA). Simply stated, for a new product to be successful, it can be only the most advanced yet acceptable solution.

This principle means that for new solutions, you need to think about how to make them feel safe. And for known or familiar solutions, you need to think about how to make them seem new or unique.

For example, after the release of the 1970s blockbuster Jaws, the movie Alien was pitched this way: “It’s like Jaws, but on a spaceship.” They made a new idea seem safe: Like Jaws, Alien would fill theaters. But if producers had perceived that the decision-makers were bored with alien movies, they could have used MAYA to reframe it as new or unique. Their pitch might have gone like this: “It’s an alien movie, but the hero is a woman.” This would be unique; because few action movies in the late 1970s had a female lead.

Once you decide on the framing, make your solution seem easy by presenting it in a series of steps. Ideally, having three steps (or phases) works best. This allows the solution section to be high-level enough to reveal the concepts but not so granular that it takes up more than one page.

Build Your One-Pager

Craft your solutions. Is it a new solution you need to make feel safe, or is it an old solution you need to make unique or new? Write out a few different ways to best frame your solution to the decision-makers’ problem. Next, break down your solution into three steps or phases.

#4 – What’s the Data?

To persuade decision-makers, you need both emotion and facts. As the saying goes, “We buy with emotion and justify with facts.” People tend to warm up to a solution slowly, especially when the problem is complex. They need time to think about the solution and usually discuss it with trusted colleagues. But here’s the problem: you are rarely invited to this second conversation. By presenting clear data on the one-pager, you are arming decision-makers with the facts to explain how they felt persuaded by you.

Two Steps for Persuasive Data

First, decide on the emotion you want to elicit with the data on the one-pager: urgency, satisfaction, safety, etc. Do you want to show data that highlights the problem or supports the solution? (Most of the time, you will want data supporting your solution, because if the decision-makers are spending time to look at the data, they probably already agree with the problem.)

Second, decide how you want to present your data. You can pick a single data point, a chart, a graph, etc. Graphs may be the most efficient, as they communicate lots of persuasive material quickly.

Use the Lines, Labels, and Colors (LLC) technique to make a graph even more persuasive.2

• Lines: Remove any borders or unnecessary gridlines.

• Labels: Simplify the automatically generated labels for the x-axis and y-axis, and add clarifying labels.

• Colors: Label the data with consistent colors.

These adjustments are important because data must communicate quickly. Remember, you want decision-makers to understand key takeaways in a matter of seconds.

Build Your One-Pager:

Decide on the emotion you want to elicit, then decide if you want your data to highlight the problem or support the solution. Then make a quick sketch of what your data could look like.

#5 – What’s the Story?

Humans remember stories longer than facts, so adding a story to your one-pager makes it memorable. Picking the story that reinforces the appropriate emotional response is the trick.

Consider what specific emotional response you want the story to target:

• Create urgency about the Problem

• Show the success of the Solution

• Reinforce the safety of the Solution

Once you’ve decided what emotion to elicit, choose the story type to frame the story: case study, testimonial, “how it works,” etc. Whichever type you choose, the key is to provide a concise narrative that evokes emotion.

Build Your One-Pager

Decide what emotion you want to generate in the decision-makers. Then brainstorm the story type you’ll use. Does one type stand out? Talk through your stories with a colleague or friend and ask what emotion they feel while hearing it. Then select one story and one type and draft a handful of sentences to capture it well. You will not get this perfect on the first try. It will take some revising and refining.

#6 – What’s the Visual?

While you may have a graph or chart for the data, think of a visual as a picture or illustration—something to pull the reader in. Visuals are used to create curiosity or highlight the problem you are trying to solve. You can often pair your visual with your story, allowing the decision-makers’ eyes to latch on to the visual and draw them in further to read the story.

White space can also serve as a visual. Leave room for notes in case decision-makers take notes while you move through your presentation.

Build Your One-Pager:

Brainstorm a compelling visual that would get your decision-makers’ attention. Is it a picture from your story? Is it a highlight from your data? If you use graphic designers, work with them directly to create a captivating visual.

Designing Your One-Pager

Write the First Draft

Once you’ve brainstormed and answered these six questions, you will have all the pieces of the puzzle.

The next step is to create a draft. Don’t worry about making this perfect. Put some ideas down and revise it until the document contains no more than 250 words. The sweet spot is 150–200 words, enough so the piece avoids a marketing aura while remaining simple to read.

Brainstorm Your Headline

Next, create a six-to-eight-word headline. Go for clarity more than cleverness. You want the decision-makers to understand what they are looking at and see why this one-pager is essential. The headline's goal is to motivate the decision-makers to skim or study, not just scan.

It’s good practice to draft about two dozen headlines. This takes a few minutes, but you may find that the best headline comes after you’ve written a dozen not-so-good ones.

Design

Write out all the sections for your one-pager before ever starting with a design. Consider your headlines and visuals and ask, “If someone scanned this one-pager, would they know the Bottom Line? What if they spent only fifteen seconds looking at it? Would they know what’s going on?”

Once you feel your copy and headline are strong, have a graphic designer create the final version. We’ve provided several design options at the end of this article. If you don’t have a design budget, use a graphic design tool like Canva, and start with one of their flyer templates.

The Pick-Up Test

Once you have a designed version, print it, put it down, and walk away. Wait a few minutes, then return and glance at it again, but don’t pick it up. Ask yourself these questions:

• Do you want to pick it up and read it?

• Does it pique your curiosity?

• Do you want to move closer to read the headline?

If you don’t find the design interesting, neither will your decision-makers.

If your one-pager fails the pick-up test, articulate why it’s not interesting to your designer (or yourself) and work to revise it until it passes this crucial test.

Wrap-Up

The next time you have an important meeting or high-stakes presentation, remember that the person with a piece of paper usually wins. Take the time to answer the six questions offered here to create a persuasive one-pager. You’ll win!

Bonus: 3 One-Pager Templates

Below are three of my favorite one-pager designs to jumpstart your creativity.

The One-Point

So easy that even a caveman can get it.

Don’t try to be too clever—simply use the formula:

• One Point (your Bottom Line)

• One Story

• One Call-to-Action (CTA, your Solution)

Devise a six-to-eight-word headline and one visual to draw people in.

Bonus: Add a fact-based visual and a picture to appeal to the reader’s logic and emotion.

Reverse Mullet One-Pager

Party in the front, business in the back.

If you have so much text that must be included that it cannot all fit on one page, allocate 3/4 of the front page to a nice-looking design. The bottom ¼, under the sub headline “More Details,” add all the extra text and even fill the back page with dense text.

The Lawmaker Special

Give them the facts and get to the point.

Explain the problem, use a story to make it memorable, and end with the solution. This version works well in a legislative context or when you need decision-makers to make a “yes” or “no” decision. The idea is to balance facts and logic. Aim for a story that makes the problem come alive.3

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This past week I read a book that's the opposite. It's called Write Useful Books by Rob Fitzpatrick. The book's premise is simple: the world needs more nonfiction books as long as they are short and insanely useful. Fitzpatrick follows his advice with a quick 136-page book packed with tips to write, test, and publish a useful nonfiction book.

Top takeaways from Write Useful Books

• Get to the point - skip the introductions and the author's bio and immediately start giving value to the target reader. Help them solve their problem from the start. It's why they bought the book, so don't waste their time.

• Front-load the value - if someone only reads the first 25 pages, they should get most of the book's value. Once they've read that far and it is helpful, they will read more. Add the details and nuance on the topic later in the book and front load the most valuable information first.

• Write for "ah-ha's" per page - you want your readers to have something useful on every page. People stop reading when it gets boring. Be ruthless. Cut words to create a fast pace of 'ah-has' and helpful content.

• Optimize your book's "recommendability" - you want to build the book people recommend on your topic. Recommendability also gives you a price advantage. A buyer will pay a premium for a recommended book.

• Iteration is critical - most authors write and release a book into the world with little feedback from target readers. Instead of guessing, find out what your audience wants with feedback on every chapter you write.

• Make feedback easy - most people are not good at feedback. They want to be nice to you instead of honest. So make it easy and ask test readers to give feedback in only four categories as they read: “love it,” “feels slow,” “confusing,” and “useful.” Then cut words where it feels slow, fix the confusing parts, and increase the useful sections.

• Write evergreen books - write about your topic to make your book relevant for 5-10 years. If there are technical parts, direct them to a website you can update. Keep the written content evergreen so you can enjoy long-tail sales.

• "Decide who your book isn't for" - narrowing your book's niche seems like it would make it less successful. In reality, a clear audience makes it easier to find your first 1,000 readers and makes the book more recommendable.

The Challenge

The book convinced me the world needs more useful books, and I will try it out as a side project. Over the next year, I'm using this approach to create a useful book on persuasive pitching. I'm not sure of the exact target audience yet, but it's likely people pitching in a business-to-business setting.

As I go through this process, I’ll share the behind-the-scenes of developing the book, running reader testing, deciding on the content, and everything I learn. And hopefully, in 12 months, you'll want to write a useful book yourself.

(Misery…I mean, writing…loves company. Let me know if you want to join the challenge.)

Update:

While I didn’t write a book specifically on persuasive pitching, I did follow this system to co-write a book on fundraising with my brother. 7-Figure Fundraising: A Guide to Help You Raise Millions to Change the World was released in August 2024 and debuted as Amazon’s #1 fundraising book.

The Write Useful Books model worked exceptionally well—the rounds of beta readers made huge improvements to the book. And it continues to sell well, primarily through reader referrals, as fundraisers recommend it to others.

What’s most rewarding is hearing from people who bought the book, put it into practice, and have seen their fundraising grow. Writing a truly useful book is a lot of work, but seeing it make a real impact makes all the hours worth it.

Most of us hate interviews, doing them or being interviewed for a job. Interviews make us uncomfortable, put us in the spotlight, and compress years of hard-won experience and expertise into a few minutes. 

What if you knew what you would say and had three great stories to tell that highlighted your best skills and work? In this article, we will explore three types of stories you can use in a job interview. The best part is these are all stories about you, your work, priorities, and values. You already know how to do the job, so let's figure out how to show off these skills with a story. 

First, we must take a quick detour and look at the world from the interviewer's perspective. When hiring a highly skilled position, you want a person you can trust, do the job, and get the intricacies and nuance of the work. You want an “A-player” who makes your life easier with their skill and competence. When you break it down, there are three questions an employer is looking to answer:

1. Do I trust you?- The higher the pay, the more trust matters. The interviewer wants to know if you are the type of person they can trust with big decisions. 

2. Can you do the job? - They need someone who knows the skills of the position and how to adapt and learn new skills. 

3. Do you get it? - They need someone who understands the nuance of their role and how their work interacts with the whole company. 

In a previous article, we looked at what makes up trust in a business setting. Simply put, trust is a "willingness to take risk" and consists of three parts: integrity, ability, and good intent. In an interview, you want to build trust by showing how you can do the job well, are honest and low drama, and have good intent for the company. All while making yourself unique and memorable. 

One way to do this in an interview is to create stories for each aspect of trust. Instead of trying to practice a bunch of answers to interview questions, you instead focus on having three stories you can tell in your interview that show the kind of person you are, your ability to do the work, and your good intentions. When you memorably tell these stories, you fill in many details for the interviewer and make it easier to hire you. 

3 Types of Interview Stories

You never know exactly when to use a story in an interview, but by having three stories ready, you can be flexible and use a story that fits. You don't need to hit all three in your interview, but use at least two stories to answer different questions. If you can get all three questions, great, but don't make that the priority. Let's dive into the three categories of story structures.  

Creating Your Passion Story

The first category is the Passion Story, where you tell a story about why you do this work and signal the good intent you have. With a Passion Story, you are showing how long you've cared about the field, position, or industry. 

There are a few subcategories of Passion Story: the Thread Story, the Overcoming Story, and the Perseverance Story. (Don't worry, later in the article, we will discuss how to think up these stories, and write them, so don't be concerned if your own stories don't come to mind when you read this). 

• The Thread Story is where you talk about the theme or thread that runs through your career. For example, in my career, I've focused on how to communicate persuasively. It doesn't matter if it was managing campaigns, studying behavioral science in London, or helping write a pitch for a 7-figure donation. In each job, I've focused on how you move people and persuade them to take action. Another example, I helped a friend craft a Thread Story to prepare for an interview where she was switching industries. She was applying to work in the aviation industry and told the story of how flying was her first passion. She then described how she worked and saved to afford flying lessons as a kid and received a pilot's license before being old enough to drive. After telling the story in the interview, two people on the hiring committee also got their pilot's license in high school. Not only did they understand the background, but they saw them as part of their tribe of aviation enthusiasts. 

• Overcoming Story is another variation of the passion theme. Overcoming story is where you tell how you overcame some difficult circumstances at work to make a project or business successful. The goal of this story is to show how passion drove you to reach inside to find strength and ingenuity or rally the team to get positive results. 

• Perseverance Story is another story you can tell about how you had a professional failure and overcame it. For example, maybe a product launch failed, you made the wrong call as a leader, or you just messed up. You tell how you subsequently took ownership of the mistake, helped fix the problem, and how it informed how you'd worked ever since. This type of story's key is showing your change and evolution through this crisis or failure. 

Creating Your Professional Story

The next category of stories is the Professional Story. This is where you show your ability to do the job and tell a more technical story about the actual work you will be required to do. The goal here is to take the work's complex nature and explain it simply. Three types of stories can help show your ability: The Theory of Work Story, the Make Change Happen Story, and the Process Story. Let's look at each of these. 

• The Theory of Work Story is where you show your ability to explain the complex nature of the job in a simple and easy-to-understand manner. This is great to use if the job requires a lot of communication or public speaking. Showing your ability to distill the complex and make it understandable will make you stand out. For example, I helped a friend use this tactic when applying for a promotion at his employer. The job required expertise in behavioral science but also working with various teams to get them to build experimentation into their projects. In his story, he described his "Theory of Work" and how it applied to behavioral science. He told how he saw behavioral science as allowing his organization to SEE differently and how it gave them the tools to Solve the different problems, Explain things that were happening, and Experiment to find out what worked. The interviewers liked the model because it was memorable and clarified what they wanted to achieve with the position. A tip for a Theory of Work Story is to break down the work into three steps or parts to give your listener a nice balance of broad yet specific. Then the interviewer can ask you to elaborate after the story to hear more about any part.

• Make Change Happen Story is another story where you take the interviewer through the steps of how you made a change and had a positive result. For example, another friend who worked in supply chain management used this story to tell how he'd save his company several million dollars by changes he'd help make in their sourcing process for wire harnesses. This story could seem uninteresting on the surface. He started the story by showing the wire harness and said how he keeps it on his desk to remind him how he can save the company money by the right partnerships with suppliers and understanding each stage of the manufacturing process. Other variations of this story are about how you impact the bottom line through increased sales or how you affect the growth of another business metric. 

• The Process Story is where you tell the story of a process with work, but you make it enjoyable and help the interviewer understand how the details and having the right person matter. The Process Story can be tricky to tell excitingly and memorably, but one way is to start the story as a mystery and walk them through how you figured out the solution. 

Creating Your Personal Story

The Personal Story is how this work has changed you, and what you are highlighting here is your integrity. Integrity is often binary—you either have it or not. We don't think of people as having "some integrity." What you are trying to accomplish with this story is showing times when you showed grit and integrity. 

• The Team Story is when you tell a story of how you led a team to accomplish something, but you reflect on what you learned from the team and how that experience changes how you lead today. This could be a good experience or a challenging one, but what's key is to show your personal growth, how you acted under pressure, and what you did to rally the team to meet a goal. 

• Insight Story is where you tried something for work and learned a critical insight. One example of this comes from a friend who told a story about testing behavior change ideas in a large company with corporate offices and many retail stores. He needed to optimize different factors to get people to change behavior, but none of it was working. So finally, he drove down to one of the retail stores to have someone walk through their process. He watched the employees work and realized the computer keyboards were the real issue. The keyboards in all the retail locations differed from what they used at the corporate headquarters. He shared how it is the combination of testing and seeing people behave in real life that you gain real insight into ways to improve a team. 

• Pushing Through Failure Story can be hard to tell. We usually don't bring up our failures in interviews, but provided the failure was manageable, it can make for a compelling and memorable story. The key to this story is that it needs to have a positive outcome in the end. It must be more nuanced than you screwed up and learned something. Instead, tell the story of a failure that leads you to change how you work now, so the hiring company benefits from what you've learned. For example, I got interested in behavioral science after managing a failed political campaign. During the campaign, I noticed our opponent was using unique tactics to get-out-the-vote. While most on our side dismissed the tactics as "stupid," I thought there had to be a reason, and we needed to understand why. After the election, I did a deep dive into all the academic research on get-out-the-vote and realized the other side had used the most up-to-date research-backed tactics. That led me to write a short book on these tactics to share with my clients, which led to working on a project where we ran experiments in 26 states across America in the next election cycle. All this started with being curious and not dismissive of why something was different. 

Building Your Own Stories 

With these three categories of story, the passion, the professional, and the personal, you can present a 3-D picture of who you are and how you make decisions and do the work. So, how do you come up with stories like these? 

Start by taking 10 minutes and answering the questions below as quickly as possible. Just type some answers and don't worry about being perfect. If you don't have an answer for one, skip it and come back to it later. 

Questions for Brainstorming Your Stories

• What has always set you apart from your colleagues?

• What project made you the proudest? 

• What makes you proud of this?

• What was an event that transformed how you approach to work?

• What's a story your coworkers tell about you? 

• What's another story your coworkers tell about you?

• When people describe you, what characteristics do they tell? 

• When have you pushed through a failure at work?

• What has been a transformative experience at work in the last five years?

• What is something work-related you've changed your mind on in the last decade?

There are no right or wrong answers to any of these questions, but they should get you thinking about the different personal experiences and projects you have done at work. Then, once you have some ideas, you can think about where they could fit in the three categories. What's interesting as you do this exercise is that you realize how many stories work in different categories depending on how you tell them. It's all about how your frame the story and the perspective. 

Tips for Telling Your Stories

Here are some additional tips for creating your stories. 

• Stories are about change - how this experience changed you. Think about how you will show the change in the story. 

• Write out your story first with no editing. Just get a crappy draft down on paper and then you can revise and edit it into a great and memorable story. Most stories are too long with too much detail in the first draft, but it's through editing that you pull out the key ideas. 

• 90 seconds to 2.5 minutes max - shoot for stories that are only a couple of minutes long. You want to be able to answer a question quickly and incorporate the story.

• Get right to the action' So I…and give just a couple sentences of context and get to the story…."

• Most stories need less buildup and backstory than you think. Try cutting the starting details and test it with someone. Are they confused with the details missing? 

• Every story has a beginning, middle, and end - you are telling a series of events woven together 

• End with your insight into the experience - make it easy for the listener to understand what you learned from the experience by discussing how it changed the way you thought, acted, or saw the world. 

• Be honest- don't stretch the truth or make up details. Only tell true stories. 

• Test your stories out on a friend in a mock interview. Test out how you will transition from a question into your story so you feel comfortable with that switch and you can make it seem effortless. 

• Practice - once you have your stories, practice telling them until they feel part of you. You don't need them memorized word for word, but you do want to be very familiar with the stories you created 

When trying this process, remember you are telling the story of how and why you do the work you do. You are showing what makes you unique, valuable, and the best person for the job. These story tools can help you stand out and highlight the best parts of your work, thinking, and previous experience. 

Note- some of the personal details of the examples above have been modified slightly to maintain anonymity.

There was even a debate over the best method to answer the phone. People criticized Thomas Edison for being too informal when he suggested you could just pick up the receiver and say, “hello.”

The phone was challenging because people could not read the facial expressions, cues, and body language they were accustomed to in everyday conversation. The indicators of trust and meaning people were used to interpreting no longer worked. Some people even complained about how exhausted they felt as they had to listen to every word the other person was saying. (It’s less clear if Edison also invented covering the receiver and making a talking gesture with your hands while rolling your eyes.)

These communication challenges made businesses slow to use the phone for sales. Sales were traditionally made over lunches or in person. Businessmen didn't feel they could trust others the same way to make a sale on the phone. The phone had created a new system to communicate. While it had incredible potential to connect people, it also highlighted how trust is commonly built for business transactions and shared goals.

Before we dive into the phone's limitations, we need to look at what makes up trust in a business transaction? When you examine the research, there are a lot of different answers. The simplest definition is trust in business is “a willingness to take risk.”

In every business transaction, there is both trust and risk. It’s like you want to cross a river and see a bridge. There’s a risk with the bridge, but you walk across when you trust who built it. When you feel enough trust, you are willing to take a risk. Both these forces are in tension. If the risk is lowered, I can reduce the trust I need to make a transaction to make it happen. This is where many businesses function as a system or platform to remove risk.

Companies like Uber reduce the risk of a ride from a stranger and allow me the trust to get in a car. Ideally, the degree of trust and relative risk in the transaction are well matched. If things go badly on my ride like my Uber driver keeps falling asleep at stoplights (true story), I can message the company, and they will address it. Uber will give me a refund and apologize, and I’m happy they acted and used them again. Uber created a system to provide a specific type of trust.

This type of trust can be broken down into two components:

• Ability – do they have the skills or resources necessary to do the job?

• Integrity – will they do what they say they will do? This is based on perceived trustworthiness and reputation.

These two factors, ability and integrity, are usually assessed first in the decision to do business. When you decide someone has the ability to do the job and believe they will do it as described, you have transactional trust. Transactional trust is a willingness to take a risk once. You feel confident that risk has been reduced enough in the short term.

Transactional trust allows me to stop at a sketchy gas station and feel confident buying a Diet Coke and beef jerky, but not a “fresh” hot dog. The ability of the store to sell it to me is there, and I’m buying the integrity of the brand. Just like the telephone provides easy communication, transactional trust offers a system to seamlessly supports millions of transactions a day.

Transactional trust, like the telephone, has limits. What made those first telephone conversations difficult was what was absent, seeing (and likely judging) the person talking with you.

In college, I worked for an investment company selling 401k plans to businesses. I probably called every business in my state over those 18 months, but I didn’t sell them on the 401k plans; I sold them on an appointment. An appointment where a broker would meet the business owner and sell them on our 401k plan management benefits. It was done that way because we knew business owners felt the most comfortable doing business in person.

I was reminded of this reading Robert Iger’s book, The Ride of a Lifetime. As the CEO of Disney, he tells the stories of how he negotiated blockbuster deals to buy Pixar with Steve Jobs, the Star Wars franchise from George Lucas, and the Marvel acquisition. Each of these deals were agreed on in person, leader to leader. Once the high-level details were negotiated, then the details were worked out by the staff and lawyers.

It’s situations like this where the third element of trust is required – good intent. Also called benevolence in the research, it’s the belief that not only is their ability and integrity, but a belief in the other person. This level of trust usually takes time to access and decide if the other person has good intentions and if they will be a good partner in the inevitable ups and downs of a complicated transaction.

When you have all three components of trust: ability, integrity, and good intentions, you are willing to take more considerable risk or repeated risk because you know the other person will be an excellent partner to work with. This is Partnership Trust, a wiliness to take risks repeatedly.

Partnership Trust has all three components so if something goes wrong and something is messed up, trust doesn’t collapse. You know the other party has good intent and will fix what was messed up. What’s different is this trust is not based on the system but the individual. Even if there are failures in the system, you know the individual you trust has good intent.

This is the complicated thing about trust, for us to have a willingness to take a risk, we need ability and integrity. Then over time, those factors get baked in, and good intent becomes an important part. Partnership trust is not just for deals between CEOs, it is also apparent with the business we enjoy being repeat customers. Companies grow when they can create this trust level because their customers repeatedly buy from them and feel a personal connection.

Ask yourself whether you are building Transactional Trust or Partnership Trust in your work. The good news is that it’s easy to analyze the parts of trust working well and where you need improvement. You can ask questions like:

• Ability - Did we show them that we did the work?

• Integrity - Did we tell them how it went as planned or how we adapted when things changed?

• Good Intent - Did we show good intent and make a stronger emotional connection, so it’s not purely transactional?

This three-part framework can also help when your gut tells you not to trust someone or not to do a deal. You can ask yourself:

• Ability - Can they do the job?

• Integrity - Do I believe they will do the job?

• Good Intent – Do I think they have good intentions?

Once you identify what’s making you uneasy or not willing to take a risk, you can dive deeper and try to learn more or ask questions to ensure your gut feeling is accurate.

Next time you are building a pitch or trying to make a sale, think about creating trust with what you say and how you present it. What type of trust are you trying to create? Are you building a system for transactional trust, or do you need partnership trust to meet your goals? Is it something you could close over the phone, or would you be better off meeting in-person and establishing partnership trust?

Lastly, if you find yourself at a sketchy gas station, only buy the “fresh” hotdogs if you really know the person selling them.

Sources:

Iger, Robert. (2019). The Ride of a Lifetime: Lessons Learned from 15 Years as CEO of the Walt Disney Company. Random House.

Mayer, R. C., Davis, J. H., & Schoorman, F. D. (1995). An Integrative Model of Organizational Trust. The Academy of Management Review, 20(3), 709. (One author, James Davis has an interesting Ted Talk on this model)

Thompson, Clive. (2016, March). Texting Isn’t the First New Technology Thought to Impair Social Skills. Smithsonianmag.Com. Retrieved March 25, 2022, from

There is a great scene from The Office when Dwight gets an exercise ball chair. It's worth the 65 seconds to watch.

The exercise ball chair was easy to try, and people seemed to love them (at least that's what they told you…repeatedly), but they never took off. The reason is the acronym MAYA.

MAYA comes from the design philosophy of Raymond Loewy, one of the most significant industrial designers of the 20th century. Loewy is famous for designing the Coke bottle, Exxon Mobile and Shell's logos, the look and branding of Air Force One, and a host of other products. What drove Loewy's design was a simple insight. As humans, we have a constant tension between two competing interests. The first is a desire for the familiar, the things we understand and make us feel safe. However, we are also drawn to another desire, the need for the new, the novel, the exciting. The trick to a great design is balancing the familiar and the surprising.

MAYA stands for "most advanced, yet acceptable," and it was the guiding principle that helped Loewy make his iconic designs. When you try to sell something surprising or new, you want to make it feel familiar. When you want to sell something familiar to your customer, you need to think of how to make it feel surprising or new.

The key was to understand what your customers wanted and then create framing to match their feelings. If you are giving somebody something new, it can't be very different from what they are familiar with. This was the problem with the exercise ball chair – it was too surprising, too unique. Contrast the exercise ball with the Aeron chair, popular in the same decade. Instead of having a solid back on the chair, it was mesh and had a bunch of different adjustments for your lumbar. It was the familiar office chair but felt new.

What drives this need for us to feel safe with the familiar?

There's a concept in psychology called the mere-exposure effect, and this phenomenon shows us that the more times you see something more normal it becomes. For example, you show up at the same work function or conference with the same group of people, and over time people will feel like they know you even if you've never actually spoken. Or another example of the mere-exposure effect is suggesting to somebody in 2014 or even 2015 that Donald Trump would be President. Over time, the repeated exposure to a new idea creates the familiarity to accept the idea.

What if you want to create familiarity, but most of your products are new and surprising?

The founders of Trader Joe's, Joe Coulombe, faced this problem when expanding from their first few stores. He wanted customers who felt comfortable buying new foods they had never seen before. So Joe began the Fearless Flyer, a quirky advertising circular. He wrote about the unique foods, cheese, wine, bread, and other items they had at Trader Joe's. Joe took time in each issue to tell the back story, the history, and what made the food item unique. The goal was simple, have customers walk into the store and see the foods they had never tried but had read about it so they felt familiar and safe enough to buy. The Fearless Flyer became their primary marketing tool for growing Trader Joe's because it followed the MAYA principle and made their food items the most advanced yet acceptable to the customer.

Think about what MAYA (most advanced yet acceptable) means for what you sell. Are you making the familiar seem surprising or novel for current customers? Are you making the new feel familiar to your new customers?

Next week we will dive into how MAYA affects how you pitch your existing customers and donors and how that is different from new customers and donors.

Sources:

Joe Coulombe, Becoming Trader Joe: How I Did Business My Way and Still Beat the Big Guys, Harper Collins 2021

Derek Thompson, The Four-letter Code to Selling Just About Anything. What makes things cool? The Atlantic, Jan/Feb 2017

Derek Thompson, Hit Maker: The Science of Popularity in an Age of Distraction, Penguin Press, 2017

If you are interested in reading more I’d recommend Thompson’s article and not the full book.

Einstein’s fame in the United States came from a media mistake.

Before fake news and 24-hour cable news, a Washington Post reporter was assigned to go to the docks of New York and cover the arrival of this obscure physicist visiting the US for the first time. It was a simple assignment: write the article, get some quotes, and be on your way. 

As he walked to the docks, the reporter noticed something odd. A large crowd was there already for the same reason. Over 10,000 people waited to catch a glimpse as Albert Einstein walked off the boat from Europe.  

This simple story was suddenly front-page worthy. A physicist greeted like a rock star. 

As Einstein waved to the adoring crowd, he was escorted into a car and paraded in a motorcade through the city, the moment forever captured in this iconic photo. All this excitement for a scientist.

The only problem was the reporter got it wrong. The crowd was not there for Einstein. 

When we are in a normal circumstance, we almost run on autopilot as we go into a pattern of behavior or social norms. For example, you walk into a restaurant, expect a host to greet you, and then go to a table. These patterns and pre-programmed responses serve us well and help us make sense of the world.

It’s different when it’s an unfamiliar situation, where we look for clues to figure out what’s happening and what similar pattern fits and try to guess based on our past experiences.

Another way to think about it is these patterns provide a frame of reference to interpret the world. When we know the frame, we have a good idea of what to expect from the picture we see. From the picture we see, we then build stories of cause and effect based on that original frame. 

It’s a simple three-step process:

1. First, we have a frame or viewpoint to look at a situation.

2. We then create a picture of the expectation of events through that frame.

3. Finally, we make a story based on the frame and what we see. 

We are constantly trying to make sense of what we see, and if it fits a particular pattern, we can frame it a certain way and create a narrative.

This instinct serves us well, but sometimes we give too much weight to the initial frame we use. 

A great example of this comes from a famous television ad by The Guardian. Go ahead and take 30 seconds and watch it. 

As the ad shows, sometimes how we interpret the initial frame is incorrect, and we need a different viewpoint. 

The initial frame we believe can be a powerful way to help, but it can also change how we look at the world. Unfortunately, if someone gives you a frame that’s not true or inaccurate, it can be hard to change your perspective.

When the reporter went down to the docks, the frame he had was to cover Albert Einstein. Everything he saw came from that perspective. The crowd, the ship, and the motorcade are all seen through the frame of a physicist visiting America. The story he wrote reflected this.

“Thousands at Pier to Greet Einstein: Triumphal Procession in his Honor Bewilders Sensitive Jewish Scientist” 

- The Washington Post 4/3/1921

But what did the crowd see?

Why did so many people turn out? 

It was Sunday, the day after Jews across New York went to their synagogs and heard from their rabbis about a Jewish delegation arriving the next day and how they should attend and show support.

The crowd appreciated Einstein, but they were not there to see him. Albert Einstein was just part of a Jewish delegation to America to fundraise for a nation-state of Israel. Instead, they were there to see Chaim Weizmann, the head of the Zionist group who would later become the first president of Israel. If you look at the New York Jewish newspaper, Forward, they reported the event differently.

“Great Parade for Zionist Delegates in New York” 

Forward 4/3/1921

It’s not that the Washington Post reporter was all wrong. The crowd was there and saw Einstein, but the reporter missed the point. Each group’s initial frames were different because they lived in separate worlds and didn’t talk to or understand each another. 

Interestingly, you can see the distorted framing on display with the cropping of Einstein’s photo. If you look at the whole picture, you notice the crowd is not looking at Einstein. Instead, they are looking at the car behind him with Weizmann. 

When you never check your frame, you only see the picture from your perspective, shaping the narrative you believe. It can be helpful to step back and question the frame we are given in our own life. Ask yourself:

• What is the frame I have right now?

• Is this true?

• Does the story change if I change the frame? 

The frame drives the picture we see and the story we believe.  

When the initial frame is wrong, it can be hard to change. Those mainstream news stories focused on Einstein, and the press thought he was famous. Because the public read about him, they saw him as a celebrity and came out to see him, and the media continued to write about him.  One initial mistake made Albert Einstein famous in America.

1. ASK Feedback - Actionable, Specific, and Kind

2. 30/60/90 Feedback - Give feedback at the 30% stage of a project, again at the 60% stage, and final feedback at the 90% stage.

3. Panda Feedback - it's hard to give feedback about traits or skills holding someone back. Having a common name gives you a way to start these tricky conversations.

Each feedback framework has its own strengths and weaknesses, and it's important to know when to use them.

Watch this video for a more in-depth explanation.

For more info about Panda feedback read the full Harvard Business Review article

Late one night I got an email from one of our students, Daniel*: “Do you have time for a quick call?”

Daniel founded a startup in 2019 aimed at providing local investigative journalism and had been doing great work building their readership and breaking important stories. His success fueled faster growth, which brought with it more expenses. Money was tight. They needed new donors to continue their expansion, and like many nonprofit leaders, Daniel was struggling to master the art of fundraising. He was scheduled to meet a group of major donors, and was unsure whether his pitch had the right stuff.  We worked on it together.

The next day I emailed him to ask how it went. He replied with a single word: “100K!”

For people who don’t know the ins and outs of fundraising, what I did to retool Daniel’s pitch can seem like magic—a mystical ability that only “natural born fundraisers” have. But fundraising is not magic. It’s a method. There is a unique system for building a great fundraising pitch that just about anyone can learn. It’s what we teach in our workshops. It’s called the Pitch Path.

(Update: We create a step-by-step video course on building a pitch available on Udemy:  How to Ask for a 6-Figure Donation).

There are two things we’ve learned from coaching hundreds of nonprofit leaders with their pitch. First, Daniel’s case is not unique. Many highly skilled nonprofit leaders struggle when it comes to fundraising. For a lucky few it feels like a natural talent, but for the rest, it’s often the most intimidating, difficult, and uncomfortable part of the job.

Second, those leaders are already doing great work, they just need help communicating about it with donors. They already have great products, so to speak; they just need better packaging. That packaging comes in the form of the Pitch Path, which I’m going to explain below. Following this path will help get you to the point that raising $100k in a single day feels second nature.

Think BIG

It’s easy to think successful fundraising starts with a big donation. That’s the whole point, isn’t it? You make a big ask, the donor says yes, you get a big check, and then you’re free to plan the big things you’re going to do with the money, right?

Not exactly. In fact, this way of thinking gets things entirely backward.

Successful fundraising doesn’t start with a big donation, it starts with a big vision of your organization’s future—of what you’re going to be doing over the next few years.

If you don’t yet know what you’re going to do with a major donation, why would a donor feel confident funding you?  Here’s an analogy. Imagine one of your donors and you need an Uber to get to a nearby town. Which would inspire more confidence:

• Option A – you open the app, pick a random address in the town, and plan to figure out where to go once you get there.

• Option B – you open the app and input a specific destination while explaining to your donor how great the destination is and what it’s going to be like when you get there?

Option B obviously inspires more confidence in your donor. A big vision is like that. It paints a clear, positive, and exciting picture of where your nonprofit will be in 2-3 years.

A big vision doesn’t need to be complicated. It’s simply knowing where your nonprofit is going in the next few years and being able to describe what that future looks like.

Avoid Poverty Mindset

There’s one major roadblock to thinking big and creating a big vision.  It’s called the Poverty Mindset.

The Poverty Mindset allows short-term costs and challenges to obstruct your long-term view.  You get stuck thinking about the things that are currently holding you back (your website needs a redesign, a key employee just left, your laptop is old and its battery only lasts 17 minutes) instead of looking forward to what you could accomplish if you overcame these short-term challenges.

A great example of the Poverty Mindset comes from one of our students, Jon, who took over a struggling nonprofit. As Jon walked through its offices for the first time, he noticed something strange: the office was unusually dark.  Most of the lightbulbs, it seemed, had burned out. The staff explained that in order to save money they’d not been replacing burned-out bulbs. Jon immediately went out and purchased new lightbulbs with his own money. He explained to his team that while he appreciated their short-term sacrifice, they needed to think of the long-term impact it would have on their morale working in a place that quite literally got darker and darker with each passing month—not to mention the impression it would make on any donors who stopped by!  To achieve their vision they needed to think bigger. They needed to focus less on what would happen over the next few months, and more on what they could achieve over the next few years.

Effective fundraising never originates from the Poverty Mindset. It always starts with thinking big. There’s no magic formula for thinking big. Start by asking yourself a few simple questions:

• What impact could your nonprofit have with double the fundraising?

• What would be possible?

• What could you change?

• How long would it take?

Once you’ve answered these questions, you’ll be in a position to come up with a big vision: simply describe what the future will look like if donors partner with you: where are you going with their help, and what will it look like when you get there?

Once you have a big vision for the future, it’s time to start working on your Pitch Path.

The Pitch Path

Like it or not, most of our buying decisions in life originate with our emotions. It’s only after we’ve made the decision that we try to justify it with facts. Charitable donations are no different.

Think about a fundraising pitch you’ve responded to. Something about the particular organization or appeal strikes an emotional chord with you. Maybe it’s the mission, or the staff, or the people they help—whatever it is, that chord resonates with you until you feel motivated to donate. It’s only after that point that you backfill your reasons for doing so.

Designing a great pitch works organically with this very human process. It starts by appealing to donors’ emotions with powerful stories of your impact on people’s lives, but it also supports the motivation to donate with a clear explanation of how you are going to execute your mission.

A successful pitch cannot appeal to emotion alone; you need to build donor confidence that you can execute your proposals. If you appeal to emotion alone, some donors might respond, but most will be skeptical that you have an executable plan for getting the job done. If, on the other hand, you describe the execution alone, the donor will understand how you plan to achieve your goals, but they won’t connect with those goals on an emotional level and won’t feel motivated to support them.

One thing we’ve learned from coaching hundreds of nonprofit leaders is that most are naturally good at appealing either to emotion or to execution. The key to walking the Pitch Path with confidence is to start with your natural strength, and then refine your path further by developing either the emotion side or the execution side. To understand how this works, let’s look at the steps of the Pitch Path, which is represented by the graphic on the right.

If you look at it, you’ll notice a pattern: the Pitch Path moves back and forth between appeals to emotion on the right side and descriptions of execution on the left side. At each step of the path you’ll want to move back and forth, talking about execution to talking about emotion. This oscillating pattern becomes clearer as we go through each step of the Pitch Path.

8 Parts of the Pitch Path

Now we’ll break down the 8 steps of the Pitch Path. To help show you what they look like, we’ve included sample text from one of our students, Marcie, who is the co-founder of the Grace Center Foundation, a wonderful nonprofit based in Ethiopia.

1.    The Thank You

Begin your pitch by thanking the donor. If it’s a potential donor you want to thank them for taking the time to meet with you. If it’s an existing donor, thank them for their total giving. It’s a good reminder for you and for them of how much you have partnered together in the past.

This needs to be a heartfelt thank you. Your donor has invested tens of thousands of dollars into your organization, and it really wouldn’t be possible without them.

Here’s a template for the thank you:

“Hi Sarah, thank you for taking the time to meet with me. It’s always so nice to get to sit down and speak with you. You’ve been a great partner with [organization name] these past X years. In fact, you’ve given over $N, and without your partnership, we wouldn’t be where we are today. So thank you for your generosity.”

After you thank the donor, pause for a moment. The pause is to make sure the donor has time to appreciate the thank you and how much their partnership means to your organization before you more to the next section.

2.    The Mission

This is where you tell the donor what your organization does. Most major donors give to many organizations in the same nonprofit sector because they care passionately about a particular issue. By reminding them of your mission and why your organization exists, you are putting your entire pitch in perspective: why your organization’s work matters to the issues they care about and what the ultimate goal is.

It’s important that you describe what your organization does in everyday language that’s simple, non-technical, and concise.  As a rough guide, think of how would you describe your organization to a friend over coffee.

Here’s an example from Marcie’s pitch:

“The Grace Center was founded with one mission: to help children and families in Bahir Dar, Ethiopia.  We know poverty and hardship doesn’t get solved with one-sized fits all approach, that’s why we provide a holistic approach to helping mothers and children at our center.  We do this with our free infant daycare, school scholarships and support, daily meals, and job training.”

3.    The Need

At this stage in the Pitch Path you will describe the important needs that your organization fills in a concrete way that donors will remember and will inspire them to give. Your goal is to create an emotional connection with donors using a story about why you exist and what kind of people you help. Typically, that story takes one of two forms:

An origin story: this tells the story of why your organization was founded and what the need was. This story can take many forms, but what’s key is to convey the passion and the idea of why people put in the effort to get this organization off the ground. Origin stories have their own natural momentum—especially for organizations that have been around for a while. Your organization’s initial success was likely inspired by its origin story—something that got people excited to give and commit to this work.

In the example from the Grace Center, Marcie could tell the story about her experience as a 19-year-old teaching English in Ethiopia, seeing firsthand the need for infant childcare, and how it led her to co-found the organization.

1. A need story: you tell the story of someone in need whom you have helped. As a general rule, the more recent the story, the better. What’s most important, though, is to tell the story in a memorable way. Think about some vivid details that you can work in to etch the story in donors’ minds.

In Marcie’s case, she could tell the story of a newborn baby who was abandoned in a field, and later found by a farmer who brought him to the Grace Center where they provided medical care and nursed him back to health.

You can think of the need stage as giving a human face to your mission. In the mission step of the Pitch Path, you say what your organization does; in the need stage, you show it. You are taking the more abstract description from the mission stage and describing its concrete human dimensions in a way people will remember.

4. The Plans for Today

Now that donors understand and feel an emotional connection to the needs your organization fills, it’s time to describe what you’re working on right now, along with some concrete accomplishments and proof of what you’re doing.

The goal of this stage is to build donor confidence by describing how you are currently executing the mission to fill the need. You’re showing you are the best at addressing the need by displaying your domain expertise.

At this stage, it’s okay to nerd out for 30 seconds and explain something in detail, but you want to say just enough to build confidence in your competence. Saying too little can leave your donors unsure of your ability to execute; saying too much can leave them feeling bored or stupid.

A great trick for finding the right balance is using what Malcolm Gladwell calls “candy”: tidbits of information so interesting that people will want to share them with others. Major donors often talk about their philanthropic decisions with other people—usually spouses, advisers, or people they trust. When you give them an interesting tidbit in a memorable wrapper, you give them something they can easily share with others. Here’s an example:

“All around the world, 2020 has been a year of adapting to new challenges. When Covid shut down Bahir Dar, we knew that more families than ever would need daily meals. In Ethiopia, there’s no Walmart down the street for stocking up on supplies. Most people only have enough food for one or two days. In response, we revamped our meals program so we could provide food and meal pick-up in a socially-distanced manner. Some of the mothers at the Center even worked on sewing face masks for the staff and marking off 6 ft squares for people to wait in line.

“And food wasn’t the only thing in short supply. The city’s water had been constantly turned on and off all year. To meet the demand for clean water, our team began digging a well to provide a consistent supply of water to our families and the surrounding community. Progress on the well was halted by the lockdown. In response, we worked with the local government and others to get permission to continue our work and complete the well. Over 2,000 people now have a reliable source of water thanks to your support and our relentless team, who pushed through every obstacle they faced.”

5. The Impact

Now that donors have heard your mission, feel the need, and know what you are working on today, it’s time to show the impact of your work. This is a great place to incorporate a story of success by describing an individual or group that has been helped by the projects described in the previous stage.

Here’s an example:

“The well effort has been amazing. In fact, one family sat down and told me what it meant for them. Last year at this time, their 13-year-old daughter would carry water almost half a mile so they could have clean water for her little sister. Now with a clean well 100 yards from their home that same daughter is in school. Here’s a picture of her on her second day of school. She still is responsible for bringing the families water, but now it takes 15 minutes instead of 3 hours. There are dozens of stories just like this. This is the impact of what we do.”

When telling a story here you want to provide vivid details that make donors feel like they are right there with you witnessing firsthand the impact of your work. To illustrate this point, consider how the following two stories impact you:

Story 1: “Nyala would get the water every day for her family and walk 2 miles each day. She carried two buckets.”

Story 2: “Each day Nyala would wake up before sunrise, pick up her two red sun-bleached buckets, and begin walking the half-mile on her first of many trips for water.”

A good rule to follow comes from the award-winning storyteller Matthew Dicks in his book Storyworthy: “Make sure that every moment of your story has a location attached.”

Once you have talked about the impact of your work, you are ready to move to what the future holds.

6. The Plans for the Future

This stage lays out what you want to accomplish as an organization in the next 1 to 3 years. It aims at describing 2-4 big goals or big areas you are working in.

Your goals here are twofold: (1) To build confidence that you’ve thought about the future and have a plan to continue the impact of your work; (2) to give donors one or two memorable initiatives that they can talk about in their conversations with other people.

Here’s an example:

“Because of this impact, we will expand next year and have three big goals for the next two years. Goal #1, Goal #2, and Goal #3”

What you want to convey here is a big picture of what you will be doing over this time. Depending on what that is, this could be a good place to work in some interesting facts or “candy” that we mentioned under step 4 The Plans for Today.

7. The Hope

Once you have laid out your plans for the future, you’ll be heading into your close and want to end your Pitch Path on a high note.

Think positive and talk positive: tell the donors how the world is going to be better because they and your nonprofit are partnering together to change the future. Here’s where you can work in a short hopeful story in which you describe the possibilities that will become realities with your organization’s success. You want to paint the picture of how that success could impact one individual or a group of individuals.

One way of painting this picture takes a martini-glass approach: start with the general, zoom in on one specific person, then zoom back out to the general. For example, Marcie could finish telling the story about the child that was abandoned and rescued.

“While this year has not gone as planned, over and over I’m amazed to see how much God works and heals the children brought into the Grace Center. When that little baby was brought in by the farmer, we didn’t know if he’d survive the night. But look at him now [shows a picture of health 6-month-old]. His wounds are healed, and he’s a happy little boy. But what’s even more exciting to think about is how over the next few months we will work to match him with an Ethiopian family to be adopted. That little baby has hope, and will have a wonderful family and a bright future because of donors like you.”

8. The Ask

This is where you ask for the donation. There are two ways to approach the ask. For renewing an existing donor, you should ask for a specific amount, for example:

“That why I’m asking you to continue your partnership with us to make this great work happen with a donation of $N.”

For a new donor—or any case in which you don’t know how much to ask for—you can use a range. We call this the Elevator Close and have a great video and sample script that you can access below.

Once you ask for the donation, stop talking. Don’t talk. Just wait. Sometimes this will be painful, but it’s important that you remain silent and wait for the donor to speak first.

Writing your Pitch Path

Now that you know the key steps of creating a great donor pitch, here’s how we’d recommend creating your own Pitch Path.

• Take a few minutes and write a couple of bullet points down for each of the sections.

• Open up a Word Doc or Google doc and use your computer’s dictation software (hit “fn” key twice on a Mac) and just talk through your bullet point to create your first draft. This makes your draft much more conversational—a truer reflection of how you naturally speak.

• Once you’ve dictated your first draft, take a break. Come back to your pitch a little later and then review and edit it. Watch for places where you are excited reading it or you lean in wanting to know more. That’s usually a sign that it’s connecting with you and that passion will come out in your pitch.

• Your goal is to write a 750-900 words pitch that takes about 7-8 minutes to deliver.

• At this phase in our workshop, we would have you meet with a pitch coach to strengthen the language in your pitch. During our coaching sessions, we listen to your pitch from a major donors perspective and give you specific one-on-one feedback on how to improve any areas of weakness.

• When you have a draft that you feel works, you can practice your delivery and memorize the specific words and emotions you want to convey. A great way to practice is to record yourself on your phone giving the pitch and then review it. We all hate seeing ourselves on video, but it helps you improve quickly.

Once you’ve drafted your pitch and memorized it, you can start using it in formal donor meetings and other less formal contexts such as media interviews, conversations with board members, or even casual conversations.

What’s great about our Pitch Path structure is it’s modular: you don’t have to use the whole thing; you can instead use smaller sections of it as needed. If someone sitting next to you on a plane asks what you do, you can immediately launch into your Mission and Need story. If a donor casually asks you for a short update on what’s happened this year, you can rehearse your plans for today and tell your impact story.

Each time you repeat your pitch in formal and informal settings it becomes more and more a part of your thinking and how you approach your work.  That big vision of what you dream of accomplishing becomes more and more attainable as you partner with donors to make it happen and tell the story of the work you do right now.

And there’s another key benefit we hear about over and over from nonprofit leaders who develop a clear Pitch Path: peace of mind—the confidence that comes from knowing exactly what you are going to say to a donor, the confidence of knowing you can share your big vision, make an emotional connection with your stories, and provide concrete details about how you’ll execute your plans and get the job done.

Take 10 minutes right now and start writing your own Pitch Path.

• What’s your big vision for the future of your nonprofit? How will you tell the story of the people you impact?

• How will the future be different because you, your team, and your donors have partnered together to make the world a better place?

If you are interested in learning more:

We create a step-by-step video course on building a pitch available on Udemy:  How to Ask for a 6-Figure Donation).

For more information on our other fundraising training, visit our website at 7FigureFundraising.com

*Students name has been changed

2020 has not been easy for anyone in the live training business. At our 7-Figure Fundraising workshops, we provide high-end fundraising training for nonprofit leaders on how to ask for 5, 6, and 7-figure donations. In 2020, we pivoted our in-person training to a live online format taught on Zoom. It took a lot of work, testing, and trial and error to make the switch. Here’s what we’ve learned along the way and my hope it helps others switch to virtual.

Mindset

Don’t think of this as your same training just done on Zoom. It’s completely different.

There’s a magic to in-person training. For the students, they get to meet other interesting people, block time off on their calendar and are in a different location free from many typical distractions.

Live online training is different. You can’t control the environment for your students. It’s hard to have them meet other people in the class, and it’s often impossible to be distraction-free working from home.

Accept that you can’t replicate an in-person experience, but you can create something different. You can create training that is entertaining, actionable, and useful. Also, because it’s online, you can lower your price, which allows people to attend who usually couldn’t afford it.

Here are some key ideas to consider.

• Teaching on Zoom for two hours is so much more exhausting than teaching in-person for two hours- The exhaustion improves with time, but it is still more mentally tiring than in-person. There’s just something about teaching to a screen that drains energy, where in-person teaching tends to increase energy.

• Use a second monitor - It’s hard to teach and train when you can’t see the responses of people. We set up a separate oversized monitor right below our camera to show the entire class in the gallery view during the whole course. It made it much easier to speed up or slow down the content based on the student’s reactions.

  

• 7-minute rule - Student attention spans are much shorter. You need to have things change up every 7 minutes to keep people engaged. To keep it exciting, mix both education and entertaining content. Show a movie clip, have them do an exercise, have them think for a minute, and write how it applies to them.

• Think more like live TV than a live classroom- People are comfortable with watching live TV, so make your training fit a pattern they are familiar with and understand. It might mean more work on you as the creator, but it keeps students engaged. For our workshop, we decided to use two cameras so we could change the camera shot of the instructor to add variety.

• Make students work, but design a sense of accomplishment and completion throughout the training- We redesigned our entire workbook and handouts to make it more fill in the blank and added clear areas for them to write and engage with the material. Our goal was to put students on the edge of acceptable difficulty. Enough blanks to create a sense of accomplishment and capture the big point when they completed a section, but not so many that it got annoying.

• Match slides to the workbook - The challenge with fill in the blanks in a workbook is what if you forget to cover one to the blanks when you present? The simple solution is to match every fill-in-the-blank form in the workbook to have the phrase on the slide. As long as you advance the slide, the student will get to fill in every blank. The presenter still has the freedom to teach and not continually need to make sure they are saying the exact fill-in-the-blank phrase since it’s already on the slides. (I wish I’d thought of this myself but saw it done well at a Dave Ramsey Entreleadership workshop.)

• Think about the one point you want them to remember one year from now-  Each day of the workshop, we tried to design one point that our students would remember one year from now. The one point helps clarify the content and makes sure you are conveying the big ideas of the topic. Sometimes with the material you’re covering, it’s impossible to make it only one point, but it’s a good goal to have one overarching theme for each day of content.

• Even when virtual, have a physical component- If you want students to engage with a workbook, print it and send it ahead of time. We sent a book, a moleskin style notebook, and a workbook to every student. Many people don’t have great at home printing options, and you don’t want them trying to find paper or ink 20 minutes before your class starts. You can get your workbook printed in small print runs from a variety of online vendors. We use SmartPress to print our workbooks. Bonus tip: pay the extra 15% to have it printed on heavier paper and use the soft feel cover. The small extra costs add a lot to the student’s experience using the workbook.

  

• Make a custom box - we used PackLane to create a custom box to send to our students before the workshop. PackLane has a great online tool that makes designing your custom box easy, and it’s very affordable. After the workshop, one student told us how nice it was to have the box since she knew everything she needed for the workshop was there in one place.

• Self-selection bias is very high right now - people who sign up for training right now, likely really need it to help their organization. Or they are very tenacious. Either way, you will get some of the best people you’ve ever trained.

• It doesn’t have to be easy - People like to have a challenge so don’t dumb down your training to the lowest common denominator. If it’s hard, that is okay. Just make sure you are teaching it in the best way you know-how, but it’s okay to push your students outside their comfort zone and challenge their beliefs. Just make sure if the student makes a significant effort to give them a big payoff.

We hope this list is helpful as you are thinking through your own training.  The key to remember this is all a big experiment with no right or wrong ways to do it.  So have fun, try new things, and don’t be afraid to test some crazy ideas.  You never know what will work out or what amazing things you can create.

This newsletter is a periodic look at ideas, strategies, and concepts you can apply to make you better at persuasive communication.

I’ve set up this newsletter to share more in-depth analyses and strategies with clients and friends.

Thanks for reading and being part of the newsletter,

Trevor