Anything Goes : First pitch session by Kasey Hill

Congratulations on doing your first Pitch Session, Kasey Hill! I've done a few Pitch Sessions. The feedback helped me get better at written pitches.

Hello Kasey! I had my first pitching session at the Deauville Green Award a couple of weeks ago where my project was selected. I was told with a very short notice so it was quite stressful for me too, especially going after two more experienced pitchers. It was good though, people like my project and the panel provided me with helpful advice :)

Osiris that is awesome! Congratulations!

Maurice Vaughan I haven't done the written pitches yet. This one was in person and ughhh lol I have a lisp. stutter, etc when I get nervous so tongue tied a lot. I had to stop a few times to get the words out.

Kasey Hill One of the reasons I do written pitches is I feel more comfortable doing them than live pitches. I'm getting better at live pitching though.

Stage 32 has two verbal pitch beat sheets and two written pitch examples if you're interested. Email writerhelp@stage32.com.

Congratulations on your project getting selected, Osiris Doumbe!

So, this site was actually the place where I learned how to pitch. Well, the consultants working with the site taught me how through feedback, but that's still a credit to the site. I was already a professional public speaker, so I transitioned easy, but there is a format and standard to learn that you can easily learn here for cheap. And no, you don't need to be a pro speaker to do it right. In fact, my public speaking was so much better than my writing at first people were actually disappointed to read a script that needed developed after they just heard the best pitch ever.

I will give the best advice I have after doing it for about 3 years now from my own personal experience: relax.

Relax during your preparation. Relax right before the pitch. Relax while pitching, especially when you go blank. Relax about the outcome. And relax if it doesn't amount to anything, even if you felt it went really well.

The pitch is a strong introduction of you and your project, but, even when you get strong interest, this person hearing you still has to take the info back to a team who hasn't met you (usually). That takes a lot of the power out of your hands as you're not there to defend yourself if there's a question or misunderstanding that leads to a pass on you after your materials were reviewed.

Still, you control what you can control and that's that you showed up ready, delivered, you were enthusiastic, and you waited a few months to follow up if you even did at all.

If you're meant to get a greenlight, you will. It just seems to magically happen for the people who are good at this. But there will be many people passing and critiquing.

Stay strong, pitch hard, keep writing, and smile through it all even when you hear no 2,000 times.

Good luck to you!

Congratulations on your first pitch session! I'm proud of you~ I know how you feel, I'm also likely to get pwned by anxiety so my first few verbal pitches were me trying to make some sense and not show I was nervous XD but it's really only scary until you do it. Right now I'm focusing on written pitches until I'm comfortable doing verbal ones again, and I did get a lot of good feedback :)

Danny Range luckily she told me I delivered a very good pitch. But I have an anxiety disorder and it makes my speech impediment worse lol which then of course makes me overthink haha

Kasey Hill I am Bipolar II and have diagnosed severe anxiety, so trust me, nobody understands more than me. I take a pill before I pitch. I take a pill before I can go out and talk to people. I was raised by somebody who inherited it to me without realizing they had it, and it looks like it's been in my family forever and they had no idea. I'm just the first one to submit to a doctor and say I needed help, then we dug into who I am and realized this information.

Never be ashamed to explain why you act a certain way. There is nothing wrong with having a disease that you didn't ask for.

There is a community of people like us that is much greater in number than you know, and that's because the giant elephant in the room is a lot of our parents, employers, and more people we know likely have a disorder and just don't know it because they've never gotten diagnosed or "Don't believe in that shit."

I hope if you make it one day as a writer that you plan to stand proudly for people with disorders. I will as well.

Danny Range I am very big on mental health advocacy ;) I sure will

Banafsheh Esmailzadeh thank you! And yea I plan to do some written pitches too.