Marie Perruchet is a former BBC news correspondent, the author of One Perfect Pitch, and the Business901 Podcast guest next week.
Joe: We should practice these stories. We should practice them within the organization. Should we have a storytelling hour?
Marie Perruchet: Yes, you should. I know it’s hard to organize because there are a lot of misconceptions about the myths of storytelling. You don’t need to turn on the fire pit and grill the marshmallows.
Most people think they have no story, but they just need to look under the carpet because they have a story. A story is always true. You don’t need to invent. You just need to look and reflect and find it. There’s the method in the book too, to find it. Doing it in an organization, it needs somebody who can moderate it and offer feedback.
To your question of how can we do that in an organization, yes you need practice, practice until you get it. The image that I like to use, like when you’re driving. The first time you learn how to drive, you’re maybe earlier than 16, if you do it with your parents or a member of your family on a parking lot or in any parking lot, or if you’re 16 or 18, at the beginning you’re very stressed. You’re around the wheel and of course, your parents are very stressed because they’re scared. But then, after many, many miles or many, many kilometers, at our age, we are doing things that we’re not supposed to do when driving that I won’t mention, but we all know what they are.
When you’re pitching, it’s the same. You should be able to pitch and then react to what the audience is feeling; if they’re taking out their phone, checking their Twitter feed, and then make sure that you’re really talking about them. Also, why it is important to practice is because you’re creating those reflexes and it boosts your confidence, and you’re able to really think about the audience and be much more convincing.
About: Marie Perruchet is a former BBC news correspondent and the founder of One Perfect Pitch, a consulting firm based in San Francisco. Her new book on the art of pitching “One Perfect Pitch: How to Sell Your Idea, Your Product, Your Business–or Yourself” was the topic of our conversation.