Storytelling is Everything

Whether you are pitching a product, an idea, or a solution, 𝘩𝘰𝘸 you tell your story is often the deciding factor in your success. The same applies in interviews - you only have a few minutes to make your story compelling enough that the interviewer 𝘸𝘢𝘯𝘵𝘴 to listen, and remembers you long after you leave the room.

Take Elisha Otis, the inventor of the elevator safety brake - a device that would prevent elevators from falling if the hoisting cable broke. In 1853 he publicly demonstrated this mechanism by hoisting himself up several stories in an elevator and then having the rope cut. The safety brake engaged, stopping the elevator from crashing to the ground, at which point Elisha declared "𝘈𝘭𝘭 𝘴𝘢𝘧𝘦!"...the orders came flooding in and the concept of an "elevator pitch" was born.

I'm not suggesting that you need a death-defying stunt in your next pitch or interview, but how you tell your story is often more important than the content itself. You can have the best slide deck in the world but if you can't deliver it clearly and concisely, that deck won't save you. Same goes for interviews - you can be the smartest applicant there is but if you can't demonstrate your passion and curiosity 𝘢𝘯𝘥 keep your audience engaged, you probably won't get the job.

I'll be honest, during my first pitch for Perfectly Hedged I was a bag of nerves. I didn't need to be, I actually earned the client's business. But it wasn't my CV that closed that deal, it was the story I told and the urgency it created.

Actually, if I'm being 𝘳𝘦𝘢𝘭𝘭𝘺 𝘩𝘰𝘯𝘦𝘴𝘵 my first pitch was to my wife, convincing her that giving up a steady salary to start a business from scratch was a good idea.

What's the best story you've told, or been told in a business setting that immediately grabbed attention?