The first year of the Maui Writers Conference, a woman walked out of her pitch meeting with tears in her eyes. I walked over and asked her, “Are you okay?”
“’No, I’m not okay. I just saw my dream go down the drain. I put my 300 page manuscript on the table, the agent took one look at it and said, ‘I don’t have time to read all that. Tell me in 60 seconds why someone would want to read it.’”
She said, “My mind went blank. My big chance, and I blew it.”
She wasn’t the only one who got a NO that first year. And it wasn’t that their projects weren’t worthy, they just weren’t ready.
That night, I asked Robert Loomis, Senior Editor at Random House, “What’s happening?”
He told me, “Sam, most of us have seen thousands of proposals. We make up our mind in the first couple minutes whether something’s commercially viable.”
The next day, I stood in the room watching the pitches, and I could predict who was getting interest simply by watching the decision-makers’ eyebrows.
If their eyebrows go up, it means they’re intrigued.
If they don’t move, it means they’re neutral (or they’ve had Botox:-)
If they’re crunched up, it means they don’t get it.
And if they don’t get it, you won’t get their attention, respect, trust or business.
So the next time you’re pitching an idea to your board, boss, kids, partner or parent, your goal is to get interest in 60 seconds, otherwise, it may never get the attention it deserves.
ACTION
Practice the Eyebrow Test.
Next time you pitch an idea, read the room—raised eyebrows mean interest, crunched means confusion. Make adjustments in real time.Nail your 60-second hook.
If you can’t clearly explain why your idea matters in under a minute, keep refining it until you can. After all, clarity creates opportunity.
P.S. If you’re craving clarity on your 60-second hook, there’s still time to join me for CLARITY Weekend in D.C. May 22–24. It could change everything!