Say your name after the calves and cows

Have you ever been at a party where you start a polite conversation with a stranger, and somehow you two have a surprisingly good connection. Your conversation takes a surprisingly pleasant turn, away from the cows and calves. (Talking about cows and calves…that’s probably a Dutchism, one of the best I know. It means making small talk). Anyway, you have this great conversation with a stranger. One little problem: they said their name when you weren’t really interested yet. And now it would be too awkward to ask again.

The same goes for your pitch. For the jury you are just a stranger in a long line of probably boring strangers. So I have a tip for you:

Do not start your pitch, or any presentation really, with your name. Don’t do that, ever.

You have probably experienced this on conferences, people get up the stage and they start mumbling their name and their function and their credentials and their university and their faculty and their affiliations and blablabla. You secretly check your phone, don’t you? I do that too ;)

And when you pitch, the jury might be too polite to do that right in front of you, but in their mind they doze off. They might think about what train to catch to get home in time, or what’s for dinner tonight. Whatever it is, they are not paying attention to you, they are not remembering you. So make sure you do NOT start with your name. You will say your name later, at a moment when you have full attention of the jury and they will actually remember it. Ok?

There are so many things that almost everyone does. If you have the courage to stop doing that, you set yourself apart from the crowd. And that’s good, because then people remember you and your message.

So; never ever ever start your talk with your name. Wait until you have the full attention of your audience, so they'll remember it.

You’re welcome ??

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Or the real question is actually, do you want to get the grant you deserve??

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Have a nice day,

Susanne