How to pitch events to speak: The structure of effective pitches
Many years ago, I lost a dear friend.
To CrossFit.
(Taps chest. Points to sky.)
Understand, at the time, CrossFit wasn't a popular but off-putting cult with exercises most normies don't need. Back then, it was just an off-putting cult with exercises most normies don't need.
(Read it again.)
Naturally, some of my friends were interested in CrossFit. For ... reasons?
In fact, the morning of one friend's wedding, the groom decided to take us to a private workout. It was my first and last time inside a CrossFit Church. Gym. Warehouse. Thunderdome?
Anyhoozles, we all had a surprisingly good time because of the camaraderie among old friends, and I almost began to come around on the idea of CrossFit. It was still a cult with exercises most normies don't need. But it felt less off-putting.
Until the green smoothies came out.
"Here," my friend said, shoving into my face what I can only describe as a piece of my lawn blended into a cup. "Drink this. It's good. I promise."
And thus I encountered the green smoothie problem.
***
The green smoothie problem is what I now call the issue many of us face when trying to pitch ourselves and our ideas for buy-in. We share something that WE know is worthy, obvious, unique, delicious, but then THEY don't see it quite that way.
What gives? What's their problem?
Actually, we're the problem. The way we pitch is the problem. We're really good at just handing others something we're convinced is good, but we haven't given them any reason to care.
"Here," we seem to say. "Drink this. Say yes to this. It's good. I'm good. I promise."
That's a tall ask. Unlike my friend of literal decades, handing me a literal smoothie, the people you're pitching haven't built up years and years of trust in you. As a result, when we pitch, we create what I call the Context Gap.
WHAT WE KNOW and WHAT THEY KNOW are very far apart. When we haven't shown them what we see by writing a better pitch or explanation, we create this divide, which causes others to want to close that divide, and they do so by simply anchoring to other things they know.
When I saw the green smoothie my friend handed to me, I thought about grass clippings. I thought about moments from movies where wealthy people went to lifestyle gyms with in-house bars and took shots of ... something. What? I don't know. It looks gross.
Had my friend not had decades of goodwill built up, I would have rejected the smoothie on the spot. It's the same for when you pitch yourself to others in your field. They hear or read your words, and without the full story and enough context, they start to make sense of it by anchoring to other things around them—which makes it harder for you to stand out.
So what can we do better? It's not like we can build up years of trust with others before pitching them—at least not with most people. Well, in addition to doing all the upfront work to ensure we're already on their consideration list, we can improve our pitches with a single reframe in mind:
Stop pitching your ideas. Pitch why your ideas matter, why they're urgent, why they're a must-have.
Don't tell them all the ways you'll teach a topic. Show them the one major change they'll receive.
Stop pitching topics. Pitch your premise.
We need to face facts: we are much better at pitching an idea or speech blurb than we at pitching why others would PICK that idea or blurb. These are different things.
To pitch better, remember to close the Context Gap and never just hand others a green smoothie, expecting them to drink it. Instead, take them on a small but powerful journey right within your pitch language, from where they're at in their current understanding (or context) to where you want them to be (namely, they "get it" and also say "yes" to it—and to you).
There are 4 parts to this pitch:
Align with the audience. Who are they, and what do they want already? What do they struggle with in trying to get it?
Agitate the pain of that struggle. Raise the stakes to ensure the pain is both clear and a priority to relieve. Ensure this all feels urgent, like a must-have, not a nice-to-have. Remember, you're not just "yet another expert on XYZ." You're you, and you have something nobody else can say about your topic.
Assert the premise of your talk. What is the insightful reframe on this familiar topic you plan to argue for and illuminate to others? Given what others want (align) and what they struggle to do (agitate), what do YOU think they need (assert) ... which they've not yet considered, and others aren't talking about?
Invite them to experience the transformation provided by your talk, listing a few benefits of attending the talk and a few obvious, practical takeaways.
Here's an example: My resonance-over-reach keynote speech. I want to hand you the idea of resonance. I think you should care about it. Here: drink this. But I've spent literal years on the journey to understand WHY resonance is important, urgent, delicious. You haven't. An event organizer hasn't. A podcast host hasn't. I need to take them on this mini-journey of their own to close the Context Gap (align-agitate-assert-invite). So my pitch might sound like this:
TITLE (ownable, punchy, gripping):
Resonance Over Reach
SUBTITLE (plain language, obvious, desirable):
The Surprising, Sustainable Way to Stop Chasing Attention and Become the One Buyers Seek
DESCRIPTION (align-agitate-assert-invite):
You've built your business by sharing your expertise, but now you're ready for things to come easier. You want to win ideal clients at higher prices and with less friction, but it's been an exhausting slog to figure out what to say and how to say it so prospects rush your way. Making matters worse, modern marketing feels exhausting, like you're on the hamster wheel, plenty of motion, but not enough momentum. In a world where everybody obsesses over marketing more, the question becomes:
How can we matter more?
You don't need to be the biggest or the best to influence the market, grow your business, or leave your legacy. Instead, you need to become the 1 thing others pick when surrounded by infinite choice: their favorite.
In this eye-opening session, public speaking and storytelling expert Jay Acunzo will show you what it takes to resonate. You'll learn to distill your ideas into your clearest, most memorable message yet, turning scattered thinking into more compelling words. You'll see how scrappy business leaders win on the impact of their ideas, not the volume of their marketing, and how influential storytellers turn their expertise into ideas others keep sharing. While your competitors need to get in front of buyers 10 times a week, you'll say things your audience thinks about 10 times a day.
Don't market more. Matter more. Stop chasing attention. Become the one they seek. Think resonance over reach.
***
More and better opportunities await you, if only you'd stop blasting away on social media and get better at pitching yourself.
The thing is, you can't just pitch "yourself." You need to show them what you already see. Don't describe your ideas. Describe why your ideas matter.
Then, once you get familiar with this approach (and I hope my framework helps!), you can go one step further to consistently get booked to speak at events or guest on shows: You don't describe your ideas. You don't even describe why your ideas matter. You describe why your ideas matter TO THIS SPECIFIC GROUP.
It's the eventual customization that matters most, so you can claim more and better opportunities across your industry.
You can learn how to develop, deliver, and customize your pitch—plus get some accountability and coaching from me—in my new Premise Pitch Challenge.
This program, happening December 1, is designed to help you...
🎤 land more and better speaking engagements
▶️ secure more and better guest webinars to your ideal audience
🎙️ appear as a guest on more and better podcasts and video shows
🙌 and generally make your value quickly and readily apparent, relevant, and differentiated.
More details and a quick overview found here.
Although the challenge is a "7-day challenge," expect to invest the equivalent of 1 business day of your time both learning and executing, spread across that week.