Fomo Academy: Tips for pitching on stage
Pitch coach Dan Renwick gives some advice to help us shine on stage this event season.
Dan Renwick is an entrepreneur and owner of Dan le Man Pitch Coaching. I popped along to meet him in his Heldeke Bottle Shop, in Tallinn, for a cup of tea and a lesson how how to pitch on stage.
“There’s no perfection in pitching, its just about being human,” Renwick tells me, which puts me at ease, as we settle in.
Naturally, given the setting, I ask him if dutch courage (taking a drink of alcohol) is the best way to calm your nerves before an on-stage pitch, and I was happy to hear him give me the same answer as my own mantra, when I have to put myself in the spotlight - ‘it’s not nerves, it’s excitement’!
“Focus on the audience, not yourself,” Renwick explains. “Think of yourself as the host making sure they’re okay.” This should distract you from focusing on yourself and how you look to them.
Problem areas
Renwick says that one of the biggest issues founders have with pitching is getting hung up on the word count, "they think their startup is too complex to explain in just three minutes and convince themselves they need more time." He explains that three minutes is not how long you have to talk but “how long you have to clearly explain what you do, the problem you solve, and what you need from the audience”.
“If you can explain your startup and what you do and what you need right now in less than three minutes, I will give you €100k,” he says to me. “If we had that deal, would you do that right now?” Believe me when I say, if I actually had a startup, I’d take the challange on!!
But as Renwick says, the reality is, if you can’t explain your startup clearly and concisely in a short amount of time you are the one that loses out.
To stop this from happening I was given a full run down of tips to help me to shine on stage and articulate what I need to say, when I need to say it. Here are a few things I learned from Renwick:
Be authentically yourself
Authenticity is the #1 rule of pitching on stage. The main goal is to feel comfortable on stage, explaining what you do and what you want in your own way. Renwick says we shouldn’t try to copy someone else’s style, use an “over-rehearsed tone” or “fake confidence” as the audience will question it and might find it harder to trust or believe you. Be yourself.
Know your audience
Who are you actually speaking to? Is it investors, other startups or accelerator managers?
You need to be clear on what you want from this specific audience. What problem have you, that they can help solve? Are you looking for money, advice or contacts? When you truly focus on a specific audience, your content becomes more direct and a lot less vague.
Control and awareness
Control of your body movements, fidgeting, gestures, control of your voice, particularly the pace is important. You control of the room by how you engage the audience, handle interruptions etc, and control the situation. You are in charge, what do you want to gain from the interaction?
And awareness goes hand-in-hand with control. You should be aware of the situation you’re in whether that is on stage or at a networking event. Be aware of how the other person is reacting to you. You are always responsible for how you show up. Mentors can guide you to improve this but you must do the work and decide to make the changes.
Are you nervous or are you excited?
Renwick tells me that the physical feeling before going on stage is the same for nerves and excitement. If you think you are nervous he suggests reframing it as excitement - it uses the same energy but the outcome is much more positive. Instead of trying to “get rid” of nerves, channel them.
And a great tip is to stay away from anyone who asks you “How are you feeling, are you nervous?” It is a toxic backstage question. Just focus yourself and get excited for your time in the lights.
What to do if you draw a blank
It’s important to remember your pause feels longer to you than to them and what feels like an age is usually only a second or two in reality. If it does happen then use your slides/visuals as anchors, glance at the slide and recall the one key point you meant to make there to bring you back on track.
Remember, nobody knows your script so if you skip a word or two, or change up the order, then only you know it happened. Always practice recovering in rehearsal – simulate tech issues, time cuts, and distractions so that 'blank' feeling isn’t new on the day.
Practical pre-stage prep
Focus on your breathing. If you need to breathe in for a few seconds then breathe out for slightly longer than you inhale. But it is important to do what works for you whether that is going for a walk, a run, listening to pump music, going through your pitch, or just totally switching off. Do what serves your best in the moment, even headstands or handstands if that’s your thing.
Arrive to the stage in plenty of time. Situations before stage will always differ and you must learn how you best get stage-ready under different conditions. Things go wrong, slides can take a minute to load, you need to get mic’d up and shown how to work the clicker. Don’t leave it all to the last second, be prepared with some buffer time for unexpected situations.
Script your pitch
The typical speaking rate is 110–130 words per minute so for three minutes, that’s roughly 330–390 words max. Script your pitches, don’t just keep practising and hoping you’ll be under three minutes, it does not work that way. By scripting your pitch you make sure that within the allotted time you can get all the important information across. Once you have the script down, practice it over and over so you know where you can take a breath, pause, and on which key words you’ll move the slides.
The anatomy of a pitch
Problem, solution, market size, team, ask, business model and traction. You don’t have to start with 'problem' – you can start with something that will prick the ears of your audience.
Use a structure table for each section:
- Goal: What do I want the audience to understand after this part?
- Visual: What slide or image is on screen?
- Spoken words: Script or speech-to-text draft for that segment.
- Check: Spoken words + Visual = Goal
This is part of a Fomo Academy Pitching Series where we will take you through how to present your pitch on stage and how to put together different pitch decks for pitch competitions, investor meetings and sales meetings.
