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My laptop crashed during a client presentation at a coffee shop in Austin last summer and I had to finish the whole thing from memory on a napkin.
The guy actually liked my off-the-cuff version better than the slides I had prepped, which made me wonder if I overthink my proposals now, has anyone else accidentally improved a pitch by having tech fail on them?
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white.keith9d agoMost Upvoted
Had the exact same thing happen with a client in Denver. Power went out mid meeting and I ended up sketching their revenue model on the back of an envelope. They signed the deal a week later and said my "whiteboard energy" sealed it. Since then I started every pitch with one slide and a sharpie. @brooke_murray nailed it too, prep can just be a security blanket. Try forcing yourself to start bare bones and add slides only when they actually help the conversation. What happened after the napkin pitch, did you lock down that client?
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the_elizabeth9d ago
Working without slides forces you to actually talk to people instead of reading at them. Your napkin pitch probably had more energy and real connection because you weren't hiding behind a screen. People buy from people they trust, not from well designed bullet points. Maybe the lesson here isn't that you overthink things, but that polished slides can actually get in the way of genuine conversation. If I were you, I'd take a hard look at how much prep work is really helping versus just wasting your time.
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brooke_murray9d ago
Ask yourself honestly: how much of your prep is for them versus for your own nerves?
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