- The Surprising Truth Behind What Makes People Take a Chance on You

- Introduction

- People who change the world around them aren't just brilliant... they're backable. They have a seemingly mysterious superpower that lies at the intersection of 'creativity' and 'persuasion.' When backable people express themselves, we feel moved. When they share an idea, we take action

- The opposite of success isn't failure—it's boredom

- You can't wait to be asked to share your ideas, because that day may never come

- Step 1: Convince Yourself First

- What moves people isn't charisma, but conviction

- If you want to convince others, you must convince yourself first

☆ Instead of rushing out to investors, founders would be much better off if they took the quiet time to understand why their startup is worth investing in

- You have the most attention from investors in the first few minutes. Most investors arrive with questions, and if you proactively show you understand their principal concerns, you earn their attention for the rest of the pitch

- While bullets share what you believe, fully formed paragraphs force you to explain why

- A big part of convincing yourself is accepting that throwaway work is a natural part of the process

- Do the work before you share with the outside world. You need to be the most passionate advocate. You need to be inspired before you inspire anyone else

- Step 2: Cast a Central Character

☆ Great storytellers don't just focus on a central character, but also a central reader. Instead of addressing millions of people, they'll imagine they're sharing the story with one specific person

- Great stories help you see yourself in the story

☆ Walk through the sample customer's story—what she at, what kind of dog, the next dream destination. Make the customer the star, not the market

- Don't just give a quick description of your customer; visually walk through the customer's experience

- A storyboard helps put the backer in the shoes of the person you want to serve because most of the time, your backer isn't your customer

- Step 3: Find an Earned Secret

- No notes

- Step 4: Make it Feel Inevitable

☆ What is the shift in the world that is making your idea matter?

- 'People will reject a gamble in which they might lose $20, unless they are offered more than $40 if they win.' - Daniel Kahneman

- Loss aversion is twice as powerful as the pleasure of gaining

- 'If I said no to 100 percent of the ideas I hear, I'd be right 99 percent of the time.' - Venture captialist

- If the fear of betting on the wrong idea is twice as powerful as the pleasure of betting on the right idea, then we can’t neutralize the fear of losing with the pleasure of winning. We can only neutralize the fear of losing with…the fear of losing.

- As creators, our job isn’t to use FOMO to manipulate backers, but rather to neutralize their fear of taking a bad bet. Though it may sound strange, FOMO can make a risky bet feel safe because it shields us from the risk of being left behind. This feeling of inevitability rarely comes from the argument that we should change the world, but rather from the argument that the world is already changing—with or without us.

- Don't make the case that it should happen, make the case that it's already happening

- Showing that change is inevitable means showing that your vision isn't necessarily unique—just slightly ahead

- FOMO's blood brother is momentum

☆ Have a vision of where the world is going, not where the world should go

- In Steve Jobs iPhone launch speech, he continuously made the point that the world had already been headed in the direction of the iPhone, and now... it was finally here

- Step 5: Flip Outsiders to Insiders

- It Might Get Loud (about Jimmy Page) #documentary

- 'If they feel like it's their idea, then we all win.' - Tommy Harper

- Share what it could be, but not exactly how it has to be

- Most great political speeches include three stories: the “story of me,” “the story of you,” and most important, the “story of us”—what happens when we join forces and work together

- First, identify a gap in your idea that relates directly to a strength in your backer

- Second, learn as much as possible before your meeting. Although you will be highlighting a gap, you still want to be able to engage your backer with the right questions and discussion

- In emails to potential investors, this dermatologist would emphasize how “your retail background” and “my clinical background” could be a nice fit. Not only did that set the relationship up with a collaborative tone; it also showed investors that he had done his research—and wasn’t simply sending a template email to every investor he could find.

- We all want to feel as though what we said and what we did mattered

- When pitching a new concept, your idea can't be 100 percent defined

- Step 6: Play Exhibition Matches

- Your likelihood of success inside a pitch room depends on one key thing: practice

- 'When you're practicing, don't share an overview of what you're going to share. Share exactly what you're going to share.' - Oren Jacob

- 'If you're not embarrassed by the first version of your product, then you've launched too late.' - Reid Hoffman

- Ask people to repeat your idea back to you to get a good sense of what's actually resonating

- Look for a collaborator, coach, cheerleader, and cheddar (pokes holes in your ideas)

- 'Knowing what you don't know is more useful than being brilliant' - Charlie Munger

- “When I play jazz, I go into a gig with a lot of confidence. But the confidence isn’t what you think. It’s not that I’m going to play it perfectly. It’s knowing that I’m for sure going to screw something up. But because I’ve practiced so much, I have confidence that I can recover. Knowing that makes me feel bulletproof onstage.” - Josh Linkner

- You need 21 practice rounds

- Step 7: Let Go of Your Ego

- My ego, my extreme desire to impress people in the room had created distance, not connection. No matter how professional or friendly I acted, people could always tell when I wasn't at ease

- Express, rather than impress

- Once you lose your audience, it's very hard to get them back

- No matter the industry or setting, people are more confident when they're in 'huddle mode,' showing their idea rather than describing it

☆ Don't present, show the way you think about it

- 'You've got to learn your instrument. Then you practice, practice, practice. And then, when you finally get up there on the bandstand, forget all that and just wail.' - Charlie Parker

☆ 'Forget yourself' - Maureen Taylor

- We speak more confidently when we're representing someone else

- Represent your customer

- We tend to be more passionate when we're advocating for someone or something other than ourselves

- Focus on what your customer needs

- People need to know about Twos

- I know what we're building is different from what you're used to investing in, but if we get this right, we could change the way writing things down works

- Most people aren't going to like my idea, and that's okay, because what I really need are a few people to love it

- 'Most of the fear we feel is self-induced. But we can see this only when, instead of pushing the fear away, we pull it in and examine it more closely.' - Jerry Colonna

- Conclusion: The Game of Now

- There are those who play the Game of Someday and those who play the Game of Now

- 'The difference between what we do and what we are capable of doing would suffice to solve most of the world's problems.' - Mahatma Gandhi

- All backable people eventually realize, when you get dismissed, there is always another room

- The three words that hold most of us back from the Game of Now: 'I'm not ready'

#BPTWTD ✌️

Use code 'BALLER'