1: Imagine we are watching a stand-up comedian.
Early in their performance, they tell a joke or story. Then, throughout their show, they refer back to the earlier joke. It’s a proven way to get laughs and build momentum in their set.
Hollywood producer Brant Pinvidic calls this technique the “call back.”
We, too, can use it in our presentations, he writes in his terrific book The 3-Minute Rule: Say Less to Get More from Any Pitch or Presentation.
2: How do we do it?
We begin our pitch with our “reason for being,” Brant writes. “It’s the question of why we got interested and where the idea came from, and, crucially, how we figured out the idea was good.”
When we share this information, we tell our audience why they should care.
To create our call back, we ask ourselves, “When did I realize I was right?”
“Is there a story or a moment that verified all our thoughts and assumptions about our proposal?” Brant suggests. “What happened that made us realize what we were thinking was true?
We opened our pitch by telling our audience how our idea came to be. The callback is when we share the moment we knew we were right. What was it that gave us that validation?
“It’s metaphorically the moment we say, ‘See what I’m talking about!'” Brant notes.
3: When Brant pitched the TV show Bar Rescue, he said there were two benchmarks of successful cable TV shows: big personality and expertise.
Both were required: “For the audience to buy into the over-the-top personality, there needed to be real depth,” he said.
Brant talked about how Gordon Ramsay “was known for his combative style and rants, but he had the goods to back it up,” Brant writes. “He is that good of a chef.”
Simon Cowell is the same way. Yes, he “was mean, but he was always right,” he notes.
Brant then recounted how Bar Rescue host Jon Taffer had a big personality and the knowledge and depth to back it up.
The call back came later in the pitch when he shared the story of Jon’s Butt Funnel insight for successful bars: We “literally funnel the people to a spot where they have to touch butts to get through.”
“It was the perfect time to call back to my reason for being,” he writes.
“When Jon pulled out a blueprint of a bar he was designing and showed me how he used the Butt Funnel, I knew there was so much more to him than just the big personality,” Brant recalls. “Jon knows as much about bars as Gordon does about restaurants.
“Can you see how that dovetails perfectly?” he asks. “I reinforced that Jon is an expert with serious knowledge, which is what I was saying in the opening. Crucial here is that I didn’t say it straight out at the beginning. I let the facts and the information do the work.”
More tomorrow!
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Reflection: How can I use my “reason for being” and “the callback” in my next pitch or presentation?
Action: Do it.