This post continues a conversation I had with Brendan after one of our classes last week. It dovetails nicely with Mark's post on different iterations of the pitch and reflects a bit on Prof Z's conception of our audience as advocate, agnostic or antagonist.
Brendan mentioned in class that an elevator pitch can come across as scripted, rushed and therefore inauthentic. If the listener identifies what you are saying as the "elevator pitch" and it has clear endpoints (i.e. introduction and "the ask,") the listener knows exactly what to tune out. Such a force-fed pitch surely leads to the endless road of "here's my card, call my assistant..." and our dashing our heads against the rocks of endless voice-mails and emails.
How then, to optimize our pitch for authenticity and spontaneity? How best can we weave a clear pitch with a concrete "ask" into all types of conversations with every kind of audience (advocate, agnostic and antagonist) in a way that naturally flows with the context of our conversation?
Many have compared the improvisational art form of American jazz music to the American democratic experiment. Wynton Marsalis, one of the contemporary masters and stewards of the form talks about jazz and democracy with Sandra Day O'Connor and Bill Clinton.
I'll apply its insights to the elevator pitch. First, you have to know whom you are talking to (playing with.) Each musician brings their own ability and style to the performance. Second, you have to pay attention to the content of each conversation (the chord structure underpinning the melody.) When I as a tenor sax player see a "two-five-one" chord progression, I know what it's going to sound like. I know what we are talking about at that instant and I know where the music (conversation) is going.
Most importantly, I have to have practiced all of the scales that correspond to these chord progressions. When I master the scales (the vocabulary of business or social impact, etc.) I can effortlessly construct riffs (specific melodic lines) that dovetail perfectly with the chord changes. I can create tension within the music with these riffs to get the audiences' attention and spontaneously elevate the band to a higher level of intensity. With a well-practiced riff, I can resolve the tension, relieving the audiences anxiety and creating the shared sense of cohesion, oneness and groove within the band that is the very telos of improvisation.
What's key is that I have spent countless hours practicing my scales and learning the riffs. I can insert them into my improvisation without conscious thought. And hopefully, they are steeped enough in the decades of jazz music that they can serve as waypoints for my bandmates, signaling what kind of sound, style and mood I'm trying to create and where I'm going from here.
With an elevator pitch, we have to know our scales. We have to have mastery of the vocabulary of business. My bandmates expect me to know the super-locrian scale and how to use it. A VC partner expects us to know ROI, break-even points, etc. We have to have riffs already memorized. Series of phrases that we can effortlessly insert into the conversation to achieve the desired effect within the conversation's context. I expect that a super-locrian scale over a dominant seventh chord is going to create tension and generate a musical response from the band. This expectation is predicated on my knowledge of chords, scales and my bandmates. If I'm paying attention to my audience and the conversation context, I can predict how a certain talking point (riff) will impact the recipient of my pitch.
Jazz improvisation is all about inserting the right notes at the right time to create dynamism within the band and take an audience to another place musically and emotionally. Taking the A Train to the Elevator Pitch is all about inserting the right phase, the right buzzword, the right number at the right time to move your audience further towards advocacy for your venture.
Duke Ellington - Take the A Train
Joe Henderson - Take the A Train
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