The Pop-Up Pitch - Dan Roam’s visual storytelling approach to planning presentations

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

There are many different ways to plan a presentation, including outlining, mind mapping, and storyboarding. In 2021 Dan Roam added another with his book The Pop-Up Pitch (The Two-Hour Creative Sprint to the Most Persuasive Presentation of Your Life). A description on his web page claims: 

 

“If you’re busy but you want to create a great presentation, I wrote this book for you.

 

This whole book is about how to spend two hours creating ten pages that will transform your audience in seven minutes, no matter what story you need to tell.

 

Your pop-up pitch combines clear words and simple pictures that evoke specific emotions, so that your story is enjoyable to hear, memorable to see, and inspires the action you need.

 

The next time you have an idea to pitch, try this story line. It works.”

 

Toastmasters typically give five-to-seven-minute speeches, so Dan’s approach may appeal to them.

 

In his book Dan describes two tools, which are THE VISUAL DECODER and THE 10-PAGE PITCH TEMPLATE. Templates for both can be downloaded at his web page. A redrawn version of the Visual Decoder is shown above. It fits on both sides of a single sheet of paper. You fill in each page by drawing a picture. Pages 55 to 63 illustrate how to do this with the example of Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone.

 

The more detailed 10-page pitch template is as follows:

 

P1 TITLE: WHO & WHAT

Title Page:

Give your pitch a Who & What title.

(Emotion = CLARITY)

 

P2 OUR COMMON GROUND

Our Common Ground:

Establish an authentic connection to your audience and the issues that concern them Show them you know them, for real.

(Emotion = TRUST)

 

P3 THE COMING PROBLEM

The Coming Problem:

State the facts and numbers that might be so scary that no one really wants to look at them.

(Emotion = FEAR)

 

P4 AN EMOTIONAL WIN

An Emotional Win:

Paint a picture of what it might feel like to have already solved the problem.

(Emotion = Hope)

 

P5 THE FALSE HOPE

The False Hope:

Admit that the hoped-for simple solution won’t really work at all.

(Emotion = SOBERING REALITY)

 

P6 AN AUDACIOUS NEW REALITY

A Fairly Audacious Reality:

State the bold alternative; the slightly crazy yet potentially viable solution that just might, with courage and commitment, work.

(Emotion = GUSTO)

 

P7 WE CAN DO THIS FOR REAL

We Can Do This, For Real:

Walk through your bold alternative with a grounding sense of real possibility; get into a few key details to show there’s no real reason to fear them.

(Emotion = COURAGE)

 

P8 CALL TO ACTION

Our Call To Action:

List the five things that need to get done first to make it happen. Take personal responsibility for two. Request help with the other three.

(Emotion = COMMITMENT)

 

P9 EARLY BENEFITS

Early Benefits:

State at least two near-term measurable benefits that getting started now will trigger.

(Emotion = REWARD)

 

P10 THE LONG WIN

The Long Win:

Close with an unexpected giant win that could truly come to pass once the new solution becomes the new normal.

(Emotion = TRUE ASPIRATION)

 

The three core components are the Beginning (P2, P3, P4), the Middle (P5, P6, P7) and the End (P8, P9, P10).

 

There is a thirty-minute YouTube video by Kelly Kingman at Kingman Ink titled VBQ O1: Dan Roam Explains the 10-Page Pitch Template.

 

I haven’t tried his 10-Page Pitch Template yet.