A recipe for Conviction

Conviction is an attractive characteristic in a talk and an absolute necessity in a pitch.

To make this a valuable discussion, we first must agree on the definition of conviction…

Conviction is the total belief of the speaker in the value, importance and future of their cause, as experienced by the audience.

The emphasis on that last part of the sentence is essential. A big part of my coaching involves bringing out the conviction that founders have but find difficult to express. Because the key is the transference of conviction from you to your audience. You want them to share your conviction for your proposed course of action.

Historic examples

Let’s look at some famous historical examples. Winston Churchill was thrust into a significant time and place in history. But the reality is that he carved his place in that history by expressing his conviction in what he believed.

His predecessor, Neville Chamberlain, felt that Europe should be left to sort out their affairs and that Great Britain should remain an island and deal with the outcome after everything had settled. However, Churchill felt strongly that there was a real danger in doing nothing. Not to mention the moral turpitude of this course of action.

As the Nazi war machine threatened Britain, Churchill expressed his conviction that it was better to fight to the last to remain free than to submit to the “Nazi boot upon the neck”. He expressed this conviction through his powerful Fight Them on the Beach speech to the nation as France fell and soldiers were being evacuated across the channel from Dunkirk in his first month as Prime Minister.

This is the point of conviction in his talk; it was to transfer his conviction to the audience. Having managed the almost miraculous retreat and rescue of 335,000 soldiers at Dunkirk, the nation was patting itself on the back. Churchill knew he needed to honour that success, but he needed to stiffen the spines of his fellow citizens for a protracted and intense defence to come.

In this talk, regarding the Dunkirk evacuation, he said:

“We must be very careful not to assign the attributes of a victory to this deliverance. Wars are not won by evacuations.”

And Churchill closed with the now immortal words:

“ Even though large tracts of Europe and many old and famous States have fallen or may fall into the grip of the Gestapo and all the odious apparatus of Nazi rule, we shall not flag or fail. We shall go on to the end; we shall fight in France, we shall fight on the seas and oceans, we shall fight with growing confidence and growing strength in the air, we shall defend our Island, whatever the cost may be, we shall fight on the beaches, we shall fight on the landing grounds, we shall fight in the fields and in the streets, we shall fight in the hills; we shall never surrender…”

This speech galvanised citizens to prepare an organised defence against the imminent invasion attempt.

John F Kennedy

Another famous speech by a head of state that was used to galvanise a nation was given by John F. Kennedy at Rice University in September 1962, as he announced his goal to land men on the Moon within the next ten years.

“We choose to go to the Moon. We choose to go to the Moon in this decade and do the other things, not because they are easy, but because they are hard, because that goal will serve to organise and measure the best of our energies and skills, because that challenge is one that we are willing to accept, one we are unwilling to postpone, and one which we intend to win, and the others, too.

It is for these reasons that I regard the decision last year to shift our efforts in space from low to high gear as among the most important decisions that will be made during my incumbency in the office of the presidency.”

Again this speech made clear the vision and objective and laid out the why, and in so doing, engaged a nation to take action, to organise and ultimately accomplish something that many people thought to be impossible.

Martin Luther King

And finally, let us look at another expression of conviction, not by a head of state but by someone who lived and died for his convictions, Martin Luther King Jr. He spoke eloquently about the suffering of “the Negro” in the United States of America and how they had been given a promissory note of justice, a cheque that they had come to cash in.

Then he turned to the vision:

“…I have a dream that one day even the state of Mississippi, a state sweltering with the heat of injustice, sweltering with the heat of oppression, will be transformed into an oasis of freedom and justice.

I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character. I have a dream today…”

In all of these examples, the orators have expressed their vision and their conviction in that vision in such a way as to have their audience adopt this vision and conviction as their own. We find our first lesson in this, but I will return to that moment.

First, I must address those thoughts you may be entertaining: What does this have to do with me? I am not trying to change the world. I want to launch my business, get investors, get people to join me on my project, or support the cause.

And the point is that all those things require you to express and transfer conviction to get the desired outcomes. If you want investors, they will only invest their money in someone they see is invested (has conviction) in their success. Similarly, people will devote their time to the project when they know the leader is invested in seeing it through.

Let’s look at the lessons we can learn from these examples.

A Recipe for Conviction

In thinking through this, I devised seven steps to help you create momentum for change with your presentation.

1. Vision and Conviction are linked

These are inexorably linked. You cannot have conviction without vision, or there is no direction for the passion to move in. Equally, vision without conviction is hollow and impotent, without passion driving the project, business, or cause it will founder.

2. Find it. Don’t fake it

Your vision and conviction must be authentic. Manufacturing a vision and conviction never works effectively. The good news is that even if you are not clear about your vision and conviction or believe you have none, it can be excavated and brought to the surface by digging into your beliefs, values and ideals.

I had one experience with a speaker for TEDxRuakura who decided they would speak on a topic they thought would interest the audience. This was not the topic we thought they would be talking about. But apparently, they had become bored with their work over the previous few years. The problem is that although this topic was trending in the zeitgeist, this speaker had little involvement.

When my requests for the speaker to focus on their expertise were rejected, I got them to find a personal connection with this topic they were pursuing. We did find someone in the family with the issue. But it was a manufactured conviction that came across as somewhat inauthentic and ended up being the weakest talk of the event.

The point is that you don’t want to manufacture your conviction for your vision. It is far better to spend some time in self-reflection to find the core of your conviction. Often this is where the actual value of a coach can be seen.

3. Paint the vision

At the opening, I pointed out that the vision and conviction must be expressed. The effectiveness of the expression will determine the success or failure in transferring conviction to the audience. To do this, you need to paint the picture of the ideal future. Often this will mean painting what will happen if nothing is done or the worst comes to pass.

4. Why is it important to you?

Authenticity must be established by explaining why this problem and vision are essential to you. If you profess conviction, but it isn’t obvious why you would have a stake in the situation, you will be met with suspicion. The reason must be logical as well as emotional.

5. What are you willing to sacrifice?

If you ask your audience to be invested in the vision you share, they need to know that you are ready to put yourself on the line somehow. Investors considering investing in your company want to be assured that their money and interests are being looked after by someone willing to put equal effort or value into the business.

6. Create a powerful hook to use as a clarion call later

Each of the examples we looked at in history had a powerful hook that summed up the critical vision of the talk. The essence of the talk could then be summoned just by giving voice to those few words, even though they represent just a fraction of the entire speech or presentation.

“We shall fight on the beaches, we shall fight on the landing grounds, we shall fight in the fields and the streets, we shall fight in the hills; we shall never surrender….”

“We choose to go to the Moon. We choose to go to the Moon in this decade and do the other things, not because they are easy, but because they are hard

“I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.”

This is not easy and is the most optional of the steps outlined here. Going forward without this hook is possible, but a great hook can blow up your momentum beyond anything that can be accomplished by the other steps alone.

7. Give a passionate call to action

A pitch or speech of this nature is about creating momentum. To start that momentum, there must be a call to action. You must ask something of the audience. The action you demand should be the first step of a series of activities that will take you all from the present into the future vision you have described.

Conclusion

Following these seven steps can enhance the vision and conviction expressed by your pitch or talk, generating the momentum you need to create change.

In the comments, let me know of your experiences with conviction in pitches, both good or bad, whether they were pitches you witnessed or were part of.

Snippets is a section where I take some engaging text I have come across in the previous week and comment on it.

This week’s Snippet is a short one. I saw a short video on social media from National Geographic which told the story of a tea grower (I am assuming in India) who stopped using herbicides to control weeds. Elephants had been avoiding the place due to the herbicides. But now, the herds move through the tea crops.

Tea contains toxins that do not agree with the elephants, so they leave the tea alone but eat all the growing weeds, threatening to choke the tea crops. And they leave behind a rich fertiliser.

This balance of nature is impressive and is why I firmly believe there will be a massive resurgence in the power and value of indigenous knowledge worldwide. I think that opportunities to invest in that indigenous knowledge will be repaid in abundance as we fight to bring our planet back into some balance.

Unpacking Wisdom is a weekly section where I dive into a famous (or not so famous) quote and explore how this can apply to the Compelling Communicator.

I came across this quote this week and couldn’t believe I hadn’t seen it before. Anyone who has worked with me on their TEDx talk or startup pitch will have heard my version of this many times.

Confidence comes from repetition. This was true of my early experiences in Martial Arts, both as a fighter and then as a coach, and again much later as a speaker and pitch coach.

The more you have experienced certain situations, the more confident you will be the next time that situation arises.

People often say that a memorised speech sounds robotic or wooden. But that is what a poorly memorised speech sounds like. You can elevate your presentation to another level by putting in the work. You can be present in the room, relaxed, and still put your message across with impact.

But as Arnie says, it will take work.

What I am up to this week…

Professionally:

I have been exploring new opportunities in the podcast realm.

Recreationally:

The Chris and Sam Podcast was at Fieldays this week. Sam & I interviewed exciting people doing exciting things. You can listen to these conversations at the bottom of this page: The Chris and Sam Podcast Events.

What I am reading:

I picked up my heavily highlighted hardcover copy of Action! -Nothing happens until something moves by Robert Ringer this week.

What I am watching:

I watched the Amazon mini-series Shiny Happy People and started watching Succession.