How to Captivate Your Audience with Your Origin Story
In every entrepreneur’s journey, there’s a moment when you know it’s time to share your idea with the world. We love working with leaders who are passionate about challenging the status quo and creating new narratives about the world we live in, and we believe great storytelling rallies people to turn ideas into reality.
Every superhero has their origin story. Our passion is helping leaders uncover and refine their own. As we’ve coached founders in the art and science of the pitch, we’ve seen how powerful stories move audiences to action.
Here are three steps to crafting a story that will transform your pitch:
1. Tell the Story of Your Journey
You can bring your best accomplishments and credibility to the pitching stage, but still face a skeptical audience. It’s not that you aren’t up to the job. It’s just because they don’t know and trust you yet. When you tell the story of how you got here, you establish your emotional credibility.
Introduce the problem you are working to solve and why you care about it. Include the tough choices, fork-in-the-road moments, and failures that made you who you are. Your story doesn’t have to be dramatic, but it does need to be authentic.
2. Share Your Turning Point
Every entrepreneur has that moment in their story when everything clicks and they realize their idea could change the world. Make this the essential turning point in your origin story. Be sure to give your “aha moment” plenty of weight in your pitch, and make sure your audience can feel the turning point. Your moment of inspiration could spark a connection that leads to a great partnership.
3. Explain Why This Work Matters
The final connecting piece of your pitch is how your personal, emotional story relates to your work. As you shift from naming the problem to presenting a solution, it’s important to clearly explain why this work matters so much to you.
Your origin story will likely give you clues to your why. Maybe you remember picking up plastic on your favorite beach. Or maybe you saw firsthand the difficulties of navigating the healthcare system. Something powerful sparked the determination to make your idea a reality, and passion is contagious. Let yours shine as you give your pitch.
How We Help Leaders Sharpen their Storytelling
We are passionate about helping entrepreneurs succeed with their world changing ideas, and we believe storytelling is one of the most powerful tools you can have. This is why pitch coaching is one of the core services we offer. We’ve helped over 300 founders develop captivating pitches that cut through the noise and build meaningful connections.
Donna Hazard’s TEDx Talk
We worked with Donna Hazard from SeaAhead to shape a talk about the power of bluetech for TEDx Boston. Her personal story about her love for the ocean cuts through the doomsday predictions and inspires hope and possibility for her audience.
CIC-JETRO Biotech founder training
We’ve worked with biotech founders in the JETRO/CIC program to craft high-impact storytelling that helps them get to the heart of their “why” and build an emotional case for their ideas, so they can pitch with confidence.
If you’re looking to up your pitch game, give us a shout.
We’d love to be on your team. Get in touch, and let’s discuss how we can help.
