Life Is A Speech
Room Review Report
01The situation
- Who
- A founder preparing a pitch
- The room
- A small group of investors, ten minutes plus questions
- When
- In three weeks
- What they brought
- A draft deck and rough notes
- What worries them
- The questions that come after the pitch
02Where you are today
Story, Presence and Impact, scored out of 10
03What is already working
- The product is explained in plain language.
- It is obvious you care about the customer's problem.
- The slides are clean and uncluttered.
04Your one priority
Open with the problem, not the company
The first minute covers who you are and how the business began. A room decides whether to listen in the first sixty seconds. Start with the problem you solve and who has it, then say who you are.
How the first minute is spent, in seconds (invented example)
Now
Who I am28s
How it began20s
The problem12s
Suggested
The problem25s
Who has it15s
Who I am12s
The ask8s
The sixty seconds are the same. What the room hears first is different.
05Three practical changes
Story
Merge slides 2 and 3
The background slides repeat each other. Use one slide and one sentence of history, then move on.
Presence
Pause after the key number
You speed up when you reach the figures. Stop for a full second after the main number and let it land.
Impact
End on the ask
The pitch trails off into a thank you. Finish on the specific thing you want the room to do next.
06One exercise: The thirty second answer
- Write down the hardest question you expect.
- Answer it out loud in thirty seconds or less.
- Record it on your phone and listen once.
- Repeat until your first sentence is the answer, not the lead in.
07Next steps
- Do the exercise twice this week, with two different questions.
- Rehearse the new first minute out loud, standing up.
- If you want a second pair of ears before the real thing, book another session or ask me about coaching.