Business Tutorial: Tips to Successfully Pitch Your Ideas

Learn how to pitch ideas to an audience in a fun and engaging way, with creative director Nick Eagleton

Ever find you’re able to think of some great ideas, but don’t know how to “sell” them to your audience when it comes to that all important presentation? Do you panic and freeze, or just find you aren’t able to articulate your thoughts in a clear and convincing way?

Pitching ideas is a real skill that takes practise to perfect. Luckily, creative expert Nick Eagleton is on hand to help.

Nick, who also goes by the name Playful Saboteur, has over 20 years’ experience in branding and design. He’s worked on everything from landmark arts and culture projects like Shakespeare's Globe, to the world's largest and most valuable professional services brand, Deloitte. In 2019, he co-founded the independent branding studio Saboteur with a mission to “set brands free.” His approach to teaching creative thinking is to give practical advice that can be easily implemented and help people produce better ideas.

In this video tutorial, he gives us his essential tips to pitch ideas successfully in a fun, engaging, and dynamic way.

Tips to Successfully Pitch Your Ideas

1. Tell stories, don’t make presentations

DON’T make a boring presentation

How many boring PowerPoint presentations have you had to sit through in your working career? Pitching an idea doesn’t have to be long, bland, and businesslike. Remember, you are talking to real people, so it's more about what you’re saying than whether or not you’ve used fancy tools.

DO tell a story

Stories connect with an audience because they are able to reach people on a more emotional level. Think about how your audience thinks and feels, what they do, love, and need, and then use that as a starting point to tell stories that are more real and emotionally engaging.

2. Remember one thing

DON’T make a long list

Just because you have thought of a lot of ideas, doesn’t mean you need to list them all. In all likelihood, you will just lose your audience and they won’t remember any of the key points.

DO know your most important idea

Choose the one idea you want your audience to remember and focus on that in your pitch.

3. Show, don’t write

DON’T write loads and read from it

It’s tempting to write everything down in case you forget what you’re going to say, and then use your notes or visuals as a safety prop to read from. Keeping your head down is an easy way to lose your audience’s attention, so remember to keep notes to a minimum and look up.

DO make it simple and visual

Whether you've used a few key words or even done some drawing, keep your visuals simple so they don’t overwhelm your viewers.

4. Show your enthusiasm

DON’T apologize

It’s ok to be nervous - we all are when we’re pitching new ideas - but apologizing for your work and not believing in your ideas when you have put so much time and effort into preparing will only make it harder to convince your audience.

DO be enthusiastic

You don’t have to deliver the slickest, smoothest presentation, but enthusiasm is infectious. If you go in with a confident, positive attitude, you’re more likely to win over your audience.

5. And finally, rehearse!

Rehearsing is key if you want to feel really prepared. Practising beforehand with another person to listen to you is the best way to hear your own words out loud and organize your ideas. Even professionals like Nick rehearse before a big pitch, so they are 100% ready for the real thing.

If you’d like to learn more tips and tricks for creative thinking, then check out Nick’s upcoming Domestika course “Creative Thinking 101: Generate Groundbreaking Ideas.”

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