9 tips to nail a timed pitch

Nine Miss Germany Studios finalists went up on stage and pitched their hearts out on Saturday. Each had prepared a sixty-second and a three-minute pitch. This was a live show with an online audience, so they needed to stick to the allocated times.

All of the pitches were inspirational, personal, and on point. None of the finalists ran over time. They were incredible.

It was my job to help them. Here are some of the tips I shared with them.

1. Kill your darlings.

You have a thousand things you want to share, but which matters most? What's the BIG idea? If you're running over your allotted time, you'll need to chop out storylines, even if you love them—you'll need to kill your darlings, so let the crappy, distracting ideas fall to the floor and only take the big idea to the stage with you.

2. Time everything.

Always practice with a timer. Read your text aloud. Don't mumble or whisper—belt it out! Grab your phone and time yourself. If you're consistently running over, you will have to kill your darlings.

3. Use pace to create space for pauses.

People who can't kill their darlings will rush through their pitches at break-neck speed, leaving their audiences rattled and confused. If you've got sixty seconds to pitch yourself, you should be aiming at a run time of fifty seconds at normal speed without pauses (I call this ZONE 2 pitching). Then, you can work with pace to create a rhythm for your pitch and create space for those impressive pauses without running out of time.

4. Practice is perfect.

Practice doesn't make perfect—it is perfect. There's no better way to gain total control of your pitch than practising it. The aim is not to become word perfect; no, you should be aiming for flow perfect and be able to work within a framework that allows variations, confidence and wiggle room for improvisation without rambling.

5. Get out of your head and embrace ambition.

We tend to overthink things and worry about what people might think about us, what we look like or our language skills. We can't control what others think about us, but we can control our preparation, passion and ambition. Your head will screw you over. Your ambition will pull you through.

6. Aim for the people who matter.

It's tempting to want to win over an entire audience. Audiences are multi-headed beasts with different points of view, needs and interests. Aiming for them all can end in emotional disaster. Aiming for the people who matter could change your life and theirs forever.

7. Your pitch is part of your purpose game plan.

You've finished your pitch, and people have questions. Investors, customers, and journalists want to know more, so your pitch must be part of your game plan. At the core of that game plan must be your purpose, the "why" behind your big idea, and the "why" the audience should care. Your purpose is the red thread of your pitch, and having one will help you nail it within sixty seconds.

8. Become comfortable with being uncomfortable.

You need to know yourself and become comfortable with being uncomfortable to do this. Don't aim to become good at pitching—aim to become expert at being uncomfortable.

9. It's your heart that people want to see.

You've embraced ambition, and now it's time to open your heart and show the world who you are. You'll find that your love for what you're pitching is the quickest, most effective way to lead people towards your big idea.

Luisa Gallardo Leon , Jil Berning , Edda Manteufel , Lu 璐 Zhang 张 , Anna Hof , Valentina Busik , Dr. Anja Konh?user , Laura-Charlotte Lebrecht , and Lucy-Llonna Larbi did an incredible job implementing these ideas, and I'm very proud of them all.

I think they found these ideas helpful, and I hope you will, too.

If you're heading off to SXSW, Possible or maybe preparing for the OMR and would like some coaching, please get in touch. I'm more than happy to help in exchange for money.