Tuesday, December 24, 2019

Fwd: Fareed's 2019 Books of the Week



---------- Forwarded message ---------
From: Fareed's Global Briefing <GlobalBriefing@newsletters.cnn.com>
Date: Tue, Dec 24, 2019 at 9:22 AM
Subject: Fareed's 2019 Books of the Week
To: <stevescott@techacq.com>


Insights, analysis and must reads from CNN's Fareed Zakaria and the Global Public Square team, compiled by Global Briefing editor Chris Good
 
Dec. 24, 2019

Fareed's 2019 Books of the Week

Note: The Global Briefing is on a two-week hiatus, but we'll bring you a few updates during that time, including what you can expect to see on Fareed Zakaria GPS on the next few Sundays.

As 2019 comes to a close, here's a list of Fareed's books of the week from this year, recommended at the end of each show. (They weren't all books in 2019: The list includes podcasts, TV shows, and the January/February 2020 issue of Foreign Affairs, e.g.) For your holiday reading, viewing, and last-minute gift-list-making:

12/22/2019 Impeachment: A Handbook by Charles Black and Philip Bobbitt
12/15/2019 the January/February 2020 issue of Foreign Affairs
12/08/2019 Prisoners of Geography by Tim Marshall
12/01/2019 The American Story by David Rubenstein
11/24/2019 "American Elections: Wicked Game," a podcast hosted by Lindsay Graham
11/17/2019 The Invisible Bridge by Rick Perlstein
11/10/2019 Don't Be Evil by Rana Foroohar
11/03/2019 Succession, an HBO series
10/27/2019 Safe Enough Spaces by Michael Roth
10/20/2019 Impeachment by Jon Meacham, Timothy Naftali, Peter Baker, and Jeffrey A. Engel
10/13/2019 Age of Ambition by Evan Osnos
10/06/2019 The Meritocracy Trap by Daniel Markovits
09/29/2019 The Education of an Idealist by Samantha Power
09/22/2019 Talking to Strangers by Malcolm Gladwell
09/15/2019 On Writing by Stephen King
09/08/2019 The Song of Achilles by Madeline Miller
08/25/2019 Our Boys, an HBO series
08/11/2019 The Professor and the Madman by Simon Winchester
07/28/2019 Democracy and Dictatorship in Europe by Sheri Berman
07/21/2019 The Guarded Gate by Daniel Okrent
07/14/2019 Leadership by Doris Kearns Goodwin
06/30/2019 A Gentleman in Moscow by Amor Towles
06/23/2019 The Conservative Sensibility by George Will
06/16/2019 The Island of the Day Before by Umberto Eco, Longitude by Dava Sobel, and Circe by Madeline Miller
06/09/2019 War and Peace by Nigel Hamilton
06/02/2019 The Shadow War by Jim Sciutto
05/26/2019 "Against the Rules," a podcast by Michael Lewis
05/19/2019 A Thousand Small Sanities by Adam Gopnik
05/12/2019 World Without Mind by Franklin Foer
05/05/2019 Our Man by George Packer
04/28/2019 Working by Robert Caro
04/14/2019 Accidental Presidents by Jared Cohen
04/07/2019 Open by Kimberly Clausing
03/31/2019 Melting Pot or Civil War? by Reihan Salam
03/10/2019 The Third Pillar by Raghuram Rajan
02/17/2019 Billion Dollar Whale by Tom Wright and Bradley Hope
02/10/2019 A Foreign Policy for the Left by Michael Walzer
02/03/2019 Crude Nation by Raúl Gallegos
01/27/2019 The Death of Truth by Michiko Kakutani
01/13/2019 Roma, a film by Alfonso Cuarón

To keep up with Fareed's books of the week, and to see some from years past, you can find a running list here.
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Monday, December 23, 2019

Fwd: Here's your Quick Pitch Guide...



---------- Forwarded message ---------
From: Oren Klaff <oren@pitchanything.com>
Date: Sun, Dec 22, 2019 at 6:18 PM
Subject: Here's your Quick Pitch Guide...
To: <stevescott@techacq.com>


THE PERFECT ELEVATOR PITCH CREATES DESIRE IN 60 SECONDS, JUST DON'T MAKE THIS MISTAKE...


THE PERFECT ELEVATOR PITCH CREATES DESIRE IN 60 SECONDS, JUST DON'T MAKE THIS MISTAKE...

What's the ONE question I get from even the smartest dealmakers?

"Oren, If I only have a minute to give an elevator pitch, what do I say to get the deal?"

Great question, but here's the problem...

Just by asking this question, you're already heading in the wrong direction, setting yourself up to make the BIGGEST MISTAKE possible.

The PURPOSE of the elevator pitch is NOT to get the deal.

Wait... what?

To explain all this, I'm going to show you how I researched, prepared, then executed the elevator pitch for selling 20 MILLION LIGHT BULBS to U.S. President Jimmy Carter.

Right here, in this email.

But first, let's clear up the PURPOSE of the elevator pitch...

THE SECRET TO THE ELEVATOR PITCH IN 81 WORDS:

When people deliver their elevator pitch, they've got one goal in mind: get the deal in 60 seconds. So they rush through the details, skip to the offer, then attempt a "trial close."

But when you do this, you look desperate, push away the buyer, and kill any hope for a deal in the future.

Because the "elevator pitch" IS NOT an accelerated version of the full pitch designed to get the deal... Instead, it's designed to do something else entirely...

When most people think elevator pitch, they imagine an episode of Shark Tank…

You know the scene — 6 "Sharks" planted in their chairs like a Judge sending innocent people to death row.

If you're the victim, you'll "get the opportunity" to creep up on stage, where you've only got a few minutes to get their attention, then get the deal…

BUT THAT IS NOT AN ELEVATOR PITCH.

Because the elevator pitch isn't designed to "get the deal"...

It's designed to get you the CHANCE TO PITCH.

Ideally ... a phone meeting. Or maybe in-person...

But either way, once you're in the REAL meeting, only THEN can you properly pitch your deal (without cutting out the critical elements of an "Oren Klaff"-level pitch).

To explain, here's how I prepared to pitched 20 Million light bulbs to former U.S. President Jimmy Carter…

(Take notes, because you can copy and paste this Quick Pitch Guide for your own elevator pitch)

THE GOALS:

  • Grab his attention and generate desire within 60 seconds
  • Pitch the entire business in under 5-minutes
  • Reframe light bulbs as new, exciting and interesting
  • Get a commitment for a full 1-hour meeting

THE CHALLENGES:

  • Get a U.S. President interested in 20 million light bulbs.
  • Pitch one of the most boring products in the world as sexy, new, and exciting.

THE PREPARATION:

Here's my thinking and approach..

First, I knew the entire pitch had to be limited to a maximum of 5-minutes.
Anything longer than that, and the President's handlers would break it up.

Which means we'd probably end on a desperate note. NOT GOOD.

Better for us to be in control of the meeting than the Secret Service.

So if we don't grab their attention in the first 60 seconds, then the deal is toast. I'll show you how I did that in just a moment...

Second, I did the math.

With a total of five minutes for the pitch, and considering that the average American speaks at around 120 words per minute…

My total "budget" was just 600 words.

Third, we have a BIG problem...

Because there's ZERO way to make these light bulbs sexy. They just aren't much to look at.

So I would have to get all the excitement from "human drama" (you'll see what I mean)...

THE RESULT:

This is one of the most emotional (and effective) presentations I have ever used.

After the company started using this introduction, new orders came rolling in.

The key lessons? Make it personal, make it about people (not technology) and make the problem really BIG.

So here's the pitch I gave...

Mr. President,

HAVE YOU LIT A KEROSENE LAMP RECENTLY? Of course you haven't.

KEROSENE FUMES WOULD BURN YOUR EYES. You would get dizzy. And you'd end up with kidney damage.

Truth is, when the sun goes down and it gets dark, You don't even think twice. You simply flip a switch that gives you light, and you carry on business without interruption.

But there are a lot of people who cannot flip that switch to get energy and light.

For example, large populations in Africa have to do things you would never even consider:

... they make their children study by the light of KEROSENE LAMPS or walk alone several miles at night to use a community streetlamp.

Burning kerosene is a waste of money. It causes health problems, and it's extremely dangerous.

But as bad as these problems are - they are also easy to solve, and worth solving.

As you're about to learn, the kerosene problem is not only serious, it's very, very big:

10 million lives and 10 Billion dollars.

Mr. President, the next 4-minutes are dedicated to our business, and how we make money providing light and energy to those who need it most, eliminating the need to use toxic fuels for light around the world...

WHY THIS WORKED:

Two BIG reasons why this worked…

First — I was able to take a completely un-sexy product, and generate immediate intrigue about it.

If you're selling Superbowl LIV (2020) tickets, with built-in demand, you might not need to care about this…

But most of us have to sell things that are BORING, and "plain vanilla" - so we have to generate intrigue to gain attention.

Secondnotice something missing?

I mentioned NOTHING about how these lightbulbs work, or what their cool features are.

THIS IS IMPORTANT!

Because the point of the elevator pitch is NOT to tell people about your product... it's to get them INTERESTED in hearing more about it.

Then once they're INTERESTED in your product, this puts YOU in control of the situation. Suddenly, you don't "need" them anymore…

Now they need YOU.

This is how you eliminate "neediness," and is the situation you ALWAYS want to be in…

--- Oren

Final thought: I know I made this look easy…

Simply put, I've done this a thousand times, with a thousand different companies, in a thousand different situations.

But after pitching to all these different buyers, in all these different deals, we found they share just ONE thing in common:

HUMAN NATURE.

This means that no matter what language they speak, or what culture they have, they all follow the prime rule of human biology: people want what they can't have.

So does that mean this elevator pitch can work for you?

In almost every case, the answer is YES.

But then you might ask…

"Oren, how do I get in front of someone to even GIVE them my elevator pitch?"

"Oren, how do I practice this pitch so it feels authentic?"

"How do I pitch my product once I'm actually AT the 1-hour meeting?"

Great questions, and I'll share more on that next week. But in the meantime, I'm in Sonoma with family enjoying the beautiful California coast...

What about you?











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