How to Pitch
Last Monday, True Voice English pitched for a Scottish EDGE Business Award for funding to market our Practice-led English Course for Artists & Designers.
You can find generic language tips for pitches and presentations across the internet. We’ll not waste your time with fluff, but share our best tips for short pitches, refined through the process of pitching to Scottish Regional EDGE and assume you are a professional with good industry knowledge, needing to pitch an idea or a product to a grant board, bank or angel investor.
I haven’t done much public speaking recently. In the past I’ve lectured in both art and English, but crafting a 3-minute pitch is a different public speaking skill (fortunately Jennie is more practiced than I am – as you will discover).
It took a lot of work (that’s tip 1, start early), but we were extremely well supported by Scottish EDGE throughout, who shared webinars to support applicants and answered all our emailed questions quickly.
If your own application has a similar support infrastructure, use it. It helps to know which tone to use (Scottish EDGE: friendly professional) and what a high standard looks like. It also took a little stress out of the situation to be in the room with familiar faces from the training calls.
If you are less well-supported, this blog will help.
We also have an offer for L2 English users to help perfect your pitch (below).
“Public speaking is the number one fear for most people, in fact, more people fear public speaking than dying!”.
Jennie Reed, True Voice English
Tailor Your Pitch
No 2 funders will be looking for the same angle, so find out what the priority is for yours.
In the case of Regional Scottish EDGE 2025, it was driving Scottish economic development and job creation in rural communities.
Every successful applicant in our region was a business relating to health, well-being and/or excellent, artisanal produce – which is more than a trend – it’s alignment with aspirations of how Scotland promotes itself internationally: in harmony with lifestyle, landscape and nature (our national zeitgeist).
Swimming with the tide will always be easier than going against it, but it is not the ultimate factor.
Research your judges we were advised.
Know what they are passionate about.
Who Can Help?
Who in your network can help you?
Pitching to peers (not just friends and family) is important as they will give educated feedback.
Jennie is part of a membership community that includes someone with experience on panels evaluating pitches for a bank. This input was invaluable (even if the process was uncomfortable) and enforced that what is clear to you is not necessarily clear to your audience.
Make Every Word Count
3 minutes is not much time to establish your industry marketplace and trends, and share how you fit in, but it is essential.
Words count. We reduced, then reduced again.
In a 3-minute pitch, 450 words is optimum.
When you practice out loud, if there is a part that reliably trips you up, then simplify it now and make it easy for yourself.
Jennie’s Tips
It Can Be Scary
Public speaking is the number one fear for most people, in fact, more people fear public speaking than dying!
Regular practice of speaking in front of an audience is the first thing we can all attempt to do more often so that we feel more at ease when the situation is forced upon us.
Over the last 18 months or so I’ve been attending Toastmaster sessions with Stirling Speakers.
Honestly, through this organisation and my regular participation, I’ve learned so much and I’d recommend it to anyone who is nervous about speaking in front of others, or anyone who needs to present for their job, in order to learn good techniques for keeping people engaged and understanding how to reduce your fear.
Toastmaster’s is an international organisation and there are groups which meet up regularly in most cities.
Some of the tips I’ve picked up over the last 18 months have been:
Smile
Smiling tricks your brain into believing you’re feeling happy, smiling sends signal to your brain to relax and helps convey a sense of calm to the rest of your body.
Body Language
Before you speak, make sure you’re standing in a confident stance, use open hand gestures and be aware of keeping your hands as relaxed as possible. Twisting or gripping your fingers can be distracting and can indicate nerves and a lack of confidence. Although you’re likely to feel nervous, if you’re pitching to ask for funding you need to seem confident in your idea so that people will want to invest in you and your business.
Breathe
Remember to breathe, and take your time while talking – rushing through your speech will give a feeling of panic and anxiety, which will be passed on to your audience. Consider your words and timing carefully, so that you can be precise and have the impact you want.
Pause
It’s okay to pause, in fact, this can be really powerful. So often when we speak we use filler sounds and words, such as ‘um’, ‘ah’, ‘er’, ‘like’ and ‘you know’, these are perfectly acceptable in regular conversation and are a natural part of human interaction. However, when you’re presenting in front of an audience, limiting these as much as possible can be the difference between you sounding confident or sounding like you don’t really know what you want to say. Practice stopping yourself before you ‘ummm’ and just pause, this can make the next part of your speech much more impactful.
Don't Apologise
If you trip over your words or feel like you’ve messed something up, you don’t have to apologise or explain you’re feeling nervous. Everyone probably assumes that you’re feeling nervous and if you point it out they’ll be looking for other signs. Whereas, just moving on with your message will allow your audience to focus on what you’re saying, rather than looking for proof you’re nervous.
Don't Worry If You Miss Something
Your audience doesn’t know what you prepared, so even if you miss out a whole section you wanted to say, try not to dwell on it, because no one else knows that was part of your speech. It’s better to move on and focus on the next bit.
Ruth’s Tips
Get Used to the Discomfort
There is so much in the process of pitching that makes you vulnerable. Especially for creatives. We are asking our ideas to be poked and probed and pulled apart for public scrutiny.
You will need to ask for help and support, whether it’s childcare on the day or a kindly banker sharing wisdom that is difficult to hear. Work on receiving all criticism as a gift*. This is a fundamental business skill.
Look after your mental health in ways that make sense to you.
Personally, I needed a lot of distraction on the days running up to the pitch, so I sought displacement activities (which included reorganising the whole of the Blue Noun language school library and adding labels with a label maker).
Everyone’s happy place is different, but some are proven. I also booked a sauna session for the evening before.
Hot/cold therapy clears my mind, calms me down and crucially – helps me sleep!
As it turned out I also ended up in the sauna with the dean of a university who generously gave me further tips from his public speaking experiences.
Enjoy yourself, he told me.
Enjoy Yourself
Simple advice, but the best I received in the whole process.
It didn’t calm my nerves but it changed my outlook.
It’s hard not to see pitching as make or break pass or fail, but it’s an opportunity to show up as an expert, to learn from the best, and to make contacts with other entrepreneurs and extend your community.
As judge Mark Scott said when closing the event, entrepreneurs need to be with entrepreneurs.
Hit Reset
One last piece of advice came from my sister Jenny when I shared that we were not grant winners.
Give yourself a couple of weeks before you make any big decisions.
Sage advice from someone in academia who has to pitch every couple of years for department funding to retain her job.
Regroup and explore your next options rested and with a clear head.
Give yourself processing time.
Set yourself a reward for showing up and being brave. (I’m off to Manchester tomorrow to see one of my favourite French singers, Zaho de Sagazan).
It’s a big adventure, a purposeful step into radical self-care – and detox from the whole experience.
True Voice English Founders
Jennie Reed (left), a pronunciation specialist and Neurolanguage Coach®, and Ruth Pringle (right), a real-world English specialist are the True Voice English course designers, but not the whole team.
Choose to learn English for Art Purposes with us and you’ll get daily creative challenges, and regular conversations with Scottish artists in their studios – all supplemented with a light touch of English coaching by language coaches with different ways of helping.
Our online course for artists is not English lessons!
It’s a graduate-level Practice-led English Course for Artists & Designers that trains you in English for Creative Careers.
Are you ready to express your creative vision with confidence in English?
Sign up for our newsletter (below) to see how you can get involved in our upcoming English course designed specifically for artists, creatives, designers and architects.
Let’s unlock your full potential together!
Further Information
Scottish EDGE has a great YouTube Channel, including pitches.
*If you are uncomfortable with criticism, it’s worth reading Business Made Simple by Donald Miller, it has a convincing chapter on this.
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