W W W. S E E D A N D S PA R K .

C O M

Art of the Pitch

@seedandspark
YOUR PITCH IS ABOUT YOU.
What are your goals?
What is your/your team’s
number one priority?
This is the most important
question to tackle before you get
started with your pitch because
what you focus on hereafter will
depend on your answer.
What are you trying to DO
with this pitch, if it’s
successful?
● Build skills
● Build career in ______
● Make money
● Get your project seen
● Change the world
You won’t walk away with one pitch to rule
them all

Your pitch audience will be different every time, and you’ll need a
versatile pitch to achieve your goals regardless of who you’re speaking to.

You don’t need to reinvent the wheel, but one size wheel doesn’t fit all

(it’s not mixing metaphors if both metaphors are round)

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 In the room

5,000,000,000 Questions

Why me?
Why this?
Why now?
Why you?

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 You are a storyteller.
Let’s take a step back: what is a pitch?

Pitching is just the quick way in which you tell us the story of your
story and the story of you

You have to be able to use your words not only to make your art,
but to convince others to get on board. 

On board to invest, to follow you on social media, to consume your

work, to hire you, to care about your work.

So… always, always tell your story

as CLEARLY and COMPELLINGLY as possible. 5
 Hard Truth

To make your project (and career in general),

you must talk to people
Friends / family

Advisors / mentors

Collaborators / actors

Investors

Your audience
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Practice makes perfect
Perfection is not the goal: you’re a person, so be a person

Your Pitch

Who Who you

you are want to
reach
 Do your homework

You’re meeting with someone. This someone is also a person.

What do they need?

What are you offering them?
Why would they want to enter a long-term relationship with you?

If your meeting isn’t planned and you can’t do your homework, don’t start with
your pitch. Ask them: what do you love working on? What are your goals?
(Importantly: NOT “what are you looking for?”)

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 Time to practice!
Rules for you, the pitcher:

Don’t get defensive.

Only ask questions.

Hold yourself to your time limit.

Don’t take feedback or suggestions at face value:

where is the confusion, the problem area?
It’s not the feedback itself that matters- it’s why they feel the need to
offer it you should be interested in
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 Exercise #1

You have 5 minutes to do your pitch.

Your audience (of one or of many) have 3 minutes to ask questions
about:
• Clarity
• Specificity
• Purpose

Your audience should not give feedback or make suggestions.

.
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 Clarity, Specificity & Purpose

CLARITY: Can you elaborate on X? Can you give an example of Y?

What else is it like?

SPECIFICITY: Who exactly? What exactly? When exactly? What key

detail might be most effective?

PURPOSE: What are you trying to accomplish? What is the exact goal?
What is the why?

Feel free to give your audience this slide directly!

Ready…Set…GO! 11
 Exercise #2

You have 2 minutes to do your pitch for one other person.

That other person now has 2 minutes to give your pitch back to you.

Again, your audience should not give feedback or make suggestions-

only repeat your pitch back to you as they remember it.

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 Questions?
Don’t log off- we’ll practice pitches after Q&A!

Follow us: @seedandspark

Contact me: crowdfunding@seedandspark.com
 10 minute break! Go revise your
pitch, make yourself notes, and if
you responded that you wanted
to practice your pitch LIVE today,
drop a message into chat to let us
know you’re still in!

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 Practice time! We will call your
name and you can unmute and
pitch. We WILL cut you off after 2
minutes.

Afterwards, all other attendees

should ask in the chat questions
about clarity, specificity, purpose.
THAT’S IT! 15
 What next?

Keep practicing. Remember: you’ll need to vary your pitch slightly depending on
your audience!

Stay curious. Ask questions of everyone so you have a better understanding of

what your audience's needs and goals are and how your pitch can speak to them.

Listen up. Don’t get defensive- if someone is misunderstanding your pitch, they
might be confused, but it also might be your pitch.

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 There’s More!

Want to practice with your fellow attendees? We’re going to leave the
Zoom call open for the next 10 minutes so you can connect. Possible
icebreakers:
Name, location, format (features, series, shorts, etc), favorite
vegetable

Please don’t share your email publicly! Use the private chat function to
share contact information safely.

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