Teachable Moments

Earlier in the month I was blessed to spend some time with a very wise man who shared his personal development plan with our young professionals Bible study. I spent nearly the whole time downloading every word of wisdom that he shared, most of which I have incorporated into my own goals. There is one extraordinary thing he shared that I want to pass along: the desire to execute teachable moments.

When was the last time you shared a word of wisdom that really made someone think or directly impacted their life? I can say with unfortunate confidence that I don’t know. Each of us, regardless of our standing in this world, have the opportunity to make an impact just with the words that we speak. Whether that impact of words is positive or negative is up to you. But the reality is that we each face teachable moments. One of my new goals is to execute those teachable moments.

The more I thought about it, the more I realized executing teachable moments is actually a pretty delicate process. First you have to identify the opportunity. Then you have to speak. And it’s hard to share words of wisdom without being condescending or arrogant. In addition, our world is filled with an excess of forced teachable moments. Marketers like to call that phenomenon social media. Everyone has an opinion to share, an angle of expertise, or simply some garbage to add to the landfill of voices that dominate the Internet. So your challenge is also to be meaningful, relevant, and compassionate. Executing teachable moments is everything about the other person and nothing about you.

Starting now I’m going to try and do a better job of executing teachable moments; whether that be simply correcting the behavior of my 10 year old sister, encouraging a stranger having a bad day, or interjecting wisdom into a business meeting. In any case my goal is to live a life of excellence that directly adds value to others. I would challenge you to do the same; certainly it is an opportunity to make the world a better place with a few simple words.

Can you think of a time someone executed a teachable moment in your life? Have you successfully executed a teachable moment for someone else?

Crafting a Compelling Pitch

One of my favorite parts about entrepreneurship is pitching. Actually, let me clarify: I hate pitching. But I love all the preparation that goes into it. Pitching is incredibly strategic, clever, and meticulous. Everyone does it but very few do it well. I’ve always been fascinated by startup pitches and try to learn from others as much as possible. That’s why when I came across Mark Suster‘s post “I Buy Dead Magazines (the art of the intro …)” I dropped everything to reconsider my own pitch. Especially given the stage of my own startup, I’m not sure there is any better way to spend my time.

Mark’s post shares one of the best examples I’ve seen as far as pitching goes. The example is a brilliant pitch introduction from the CEO of Formation Media, Sam Jones. Mr. Jones’ introduction starts out with, “I buy dead magazines” followed by a moment of silence and a smirk (I suspect). Whoa. If you’re the one Mr. Jones just introduced himself to, how can you not want to know more? This reminds me of a similar tactic used by Tim Ferris, who says he is a “drug dealer” when people ask him what he does. You either want to know more or you don’t. And given neither of these examples are your typical response, my guess is most of the time people want to know more.

I’m not here to steal any thunder, so make sure you go and read this blog post. I learned a lot and am confident you will too. But beyond passing along this link, I wanted to pose a challenge. One that I’m taking on myself. Can you come up with an equally compelling introduction for yourself or your business? Force yourself to brainstorm 20 one-line introductions that have a similar “say more” effect on listeners. Then, share those lines with friends, family, and complete strangers. Gauge reactions and try to find out which introduction is the most compelling.

In a future post we will discuss the second half of the pitch (aka what happens after you get the “say more” reaction), but for now I just want to focus on this first part. I’ll be working on this myself and will share my results once I’ve had a chance to brainstorm and test. If you’ve done the same, I’d love to hear your thoughts. Happy pitching.