“A coach is someone who asks you to do something you don’t want to do so you can be the player you want to be.”
You want to change the world.
How would you pitch that?
You know you’re smart. You know your idea is brilliant. And you know you’re passionate about what you’re working on. So how come nobody else is buying what you’re selling? Maybe it’s not the ideas they’re not buying. Maybe it’s you.
To sell your idea is to sell yourself. So, if your ideas aren’t selling, take a look at who you’re being. Do you not understand your idea — and the world — well enough? Are you not credible? Are you trying too hard? Are you out of sync with the moment? Ideas don’t sell themselves. So while you’re working on perfecting your next big thing, let me help you perfect your pitch.,
A pitch is different from a speech because it a direct request to join you in your venture. There’s a format it has to follow. There’s a way to present. And there’s one thing, above all, you have to know.
People aren’t going to invest in your technology or in your business plan. They’re going to invest in you.
An investor waiting to hear your pitch only wants one thing, and she wants it badly. She wants to connect with something that will make her day. That something is you and your idea. The idea by itself isn’t enough, no matter how good it is. What any investor wants is to go home at the end of the day and say, “I just met the most interesting person today and he’s got this idea…”
The people you’re pitching to want to win as much as you do. Be the one person they’re going to hear today who really gets that.
So let’s work on your pitch, individual coaching or join a Pitch Camp.
“Dain has years of expertise in helping entrepreneur companies. His friendly and open approach ensures they get the best mentoring, focusing on the gaps in their business which he highlights, ensuring they can fast track forward! With his help, we won Ocean Exchange, the first major award we received.” — Mairi Wickett, WITT Energy
The Power of Leadership Presence
There’s a period of time in most management careers when it’s enough to deliver results and make your numbers. That’s what you’re there for, that’s what’s asked of you and that’s what you do. But, when executives begin to reach the VP level in most organizations, technical and functional competency are no longer enough. At that level, everyone is producing results. If an executive wants to advance to the next level and aim for the C-Suite, something more is needed. We call it Leadership Presence.
Some people are born with a natural ability to be present to the needs of others, with the ability to walk into a room and size up the relationships instantly. It’s a natural gift, but anyone can learn it. And anyone who does learn it can make a difference to their peers, to their organization and to their career. As a leader, your ability to make a presentation — literally, to present yourself — whether to a large group, around a conference table or to your CEO, is a critical leadership skill.
Dain shows that Leadership Presence comes from the quality of being present to the people you’re addressing, to listen but, even more, to “feel the room.” It comes from a heightened level of social intelligence, from a sense of how to maintain your physical appearance, how to speak and how to listen. Dain coaches leaders on how to find and express your authentic leadership self; on how to express yourself as a deeper, more competent and less self-serving leader.
Speech Coaching
To paraphrase Abraham Lincoln, the world will little note nor long remember what you say on that stage, but they will always remember who you were. Every presentation is a leadership moment and creating a leadership presence is as important as the words you speak: maybe even more important. Dain doesn’t care about the tricks of the speech-making trade, he cares about your authentic self and how you can use it to communicate what matters most.
Dain works quietly and confidentially with leaders in all walks of life and at all stages of their careers. Basketball players, Formula 1 drivers and movie stars have coaches; why shouldn’t you?
“Over time and cultures, the most robust and most effective form of communication is the creation of a powerful narrative.”
Communication Coaching
Do you ever feel like you’re shouting into an empty box? Do ever wonder if anyone can hear you? Do you watch people sit at a conference table and nod their heads at what you’re saying, and then watch them do absolutely none of the things they said they would do? Before you go postal, consider this: maybe you’re the one who needs to change, not them. People crave leadership, they want to hear what you have to say and they want to be inspired. Dain helps leaders build a presence to their communications, focus their messaging and engage their teams. He can help you, too.
“If you can’t explain something simply, you don’t understand it well enough.”
Culture Coaching
Does your company have the culture you need to meet today’s challenges? How about tomorrow’s? And how big is the gap between where you are and where you need to be? It’s an important question because big, big changes are coming your way. (How big? Watch the video below to find out.) How will you prepare your team for innovation in changing times? How will you prepare yourself? Dain coaches leaders in how they can build a culture of innovation that can change the world.