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Ive spent the last 24 years as a charity auctioneer on stages around the world selling anything and everything to potential bidders. From Robinhood to Goldman Sachs, the biggest names in business and philanthropy entrust me to win over audiences and secure the sale. When I give talks about selling, I always kick things off with one simple question: Whats the most important part of sales? The answers I get are all over the place and sometimes hilarious: persuasion, charm, bringing good snacks . . . but few people get it right. The most important part of sales is listening. This fact is just as true when youre pitching investors as it is when youre closing a deal. If you want investors to take you seriously, your pitch cant be a one-size-fits-all presentation. It has to be tailored to their interests and needs. Your goal should be to meet your audience where they are, not where you are. Here are three surefire ways to make sure you stand out the next time youre pitching a crowd. 1. Know your audience Before you craft a single bullet point on your deck, ask yourself: Who am I pitching to? What do they invest in? What gets them excited? What have they backed in the past? If your business doesnt immediately fit into their portfolio, find a commonality to draw them in. Help them draw the line from what they know to what youre offering. Show them how your vision connects to their world, even if it takes a little creativity. As a charity auctioneer, Im often handed a sheet of paper with 10 lines about a trip or an item being auctioned off, then am told to get on stage and simply Raise a million dollars. I only loosely employ the notes Im given; I think of them as a reference point rather than the selling point. Because a powerful pitch isnt about reading a sheet of paper and regurgitating factsits about telling a story that taps into the audiences emotions. I find the pain point or the dream, and I make it personal. When youre pitching investors, do the same. Dont just sell your product. Sell the feeling. Sell the why. Tell the story. 2. Find common ground and lead with it In public speaking, I tell people to sell to the thing that unites you with the person across the table. Investors care about your margins, absolutely, but they need to connect with you and believe that you are the type of person they want to invest their time and energy in for the long term. Start your pitch with something that grounds everyone. I like to start with something simple like: Its late in the day. I know youre tired, but I want you to know Im going to bring the energy to keep you awake. That simple acknowledgment shows you are invested in making your time with them as engaging as possible. Then, personalize the pitch. If you looked at their website and saw nothing like your potential investment, address it head on instead of shying away from it: I saw that youve invested in sustainable materials and emerging markets. You might be wondering why youd invest in a platform for teachersbut heres the connection . . . Dont let your audience sit there wondering why theyre in the room. Tell them. Draw the bridge. Find the thread that links your vision to their interest. And if youre pitching something they might be inclined to dismisssay, a luxury product to a tech investorbe ready to pivot. During auctions, I am constantly coming up with different ways that someone might use the item Im selling. A few weeks ago, a nonprofit was delighted to tell me they had secured a ski house in Aspen for their charity auction gala. While they were excited, I thought about it differently. Not everyone likes to ski, nor do they want to visit somewhere in the cold weather. I immediately asked them Can the house be used in the summer too? The broader the appeal, the stronger your pitch. Dont get shut down before you even begin. The more ways you can encourage someone to view what you are selling, the better chance you will have of selling it. 3. Do the work before you get in the room The best place to hear a tough question? In the comfort of your living room. When you are preparing for a big presentation, practice until it looks like you are a natural. You only get one chance to make a first impression, so make it count. Rehearse the pitch with people who dont know your business inside and out. Their questions will expose assumptions you didnt know you were making, and help you refine your message so it lands with confidence. Practice in front of friends, family, former colleagues, or anyone willing to poke holes in your presentation. The harder the questions, the better. You want to know your blind spots before you get in the room with an investor.
Category:
E-Commerce
This week, Maxs critically acclaimed comedy Hacks is concluding its fourth season. The showwhich follows legendary Vegas comedian Deborah Vance (Jean Smart) and her Gen Z comedy writer Ava Daniels (Hannah Einbinder) as the two work together to turn Vances career around and win new audienceshas already been renewed for a fifth season. For showrunner and cocreator Lucia Aniello, thats all part of the plan. She and cocreators Paul W. Downs and Jen Statsky had a five-year arc planned even when pitching the show. Ahead of the season four finale, showrunner and cocreator Lucia Aniello came on the Most Innovative Companies podcast to talk about how she approaches writing, directing, and producing; how the show helps up-and-coming writers break into the industry; and why she doesnt mind working with her husband. This interview has been edited and condensed. Hacks season four is ending this week. Do you feel a lot of pressure to stick the landing? For better or worse, I feel the same amount of stress and anxiety making the show now as I did season one. At that point, there was a different stress and anxiety [because we were thinking] can we even make this show? Will anybody ever watch it? Will people like it? Then the next stress of season two was sophomore album vibes, and then season three was . . . will people continue to watch the show? It continues. It never feels less stressful to me. It morphs into a new different anxiety that’s the exact same amount This show has changed every season. Season one, we’re in Vegas, here’s what the show is. Season two is on the road. Season three is this quest for late night. And now we are in season four actually making late-night TV. So it always has to evolve, but the question of how much does it evolve versus how much you just stick with what people love is a constant delicate balance and battle. Hacks was also renewed for season five this week. You and your cocreators have said youll end the show after five seasons. When did you realize that was going to be the case? We pitched five seasons. Even in the pitch of the whole series, we pitched the very last scene, the finale. [WarnerMedia vice president of original comedy and animation] Suzanna Makkos, who bought the show, stopped us before we got there. She was like, you don’t have to pitch anymore. I’m going to buy the show. You’re a director, a writer, and a producer on this show. How do you balance those three roles? In a weird way, it’s all one role. It’s really about the story. You are figuring it out with your brilliant staff together. You’re using the best ideas that everyone’s contributing. Producing the idea is figuring out we want to spend the budget. As a director, you’re basically taking the story that you want to tell and you’re [dividing] it up into a million piecesevery take, every side that you’re shooting, all of that stuff, and you’re parsing it out, whether it’s everything from wall color to costumes to the casting, to all of those things. Then when you get into post, you sew it all back up and you try to make it the best version of that original idea. I haven’t in my career directed a lot of things where I wasn’t at least part of the writer’s room for. That’s not to say that I don’t think that a lot of people can take those things and elevate it, but for me, it’s really a cohesive story. There’s a billion calculations constantly, but if I didn’t have the writing, producing, directing hats on all at once, I wouldn’t be able to assess it as well as I do. Your husband, Paul W. Downs, is a cocreator of the show. He also acts in it and youre in the writers room together. Whats that been like? Paul and I met doing improv comedy at UCB. We didn’t start dating immediately. We were just friends. We did a lot of improv together over the years in New York. Thats how we got to know each other, Improv is a very supportive community. Literally, it’s yes, and and trying to make the other person better by agreeing and getting on board and trying to make them look as good as possible. So in a weird way, all relationships should start doing improv together because you learn to be a team. I am his number one fan, and I have been since the first day I saw him perform. I love writing for him. He directed three episodes of this season. I did five or six. We’re together so much. We work so much. If we weren’t also married, I would never see him because we were working so much at the time. So it’s actually a marriage saver in a lot of ways. How do you create an inclusive culture in your writers room? I haven’t really come up in traditional writers’ rooms. Jen Statsky, one of the shows co-creators and showrunners, worked in late-night, then The Good Place, and came up through the writer’s ladder. But Paul and I came from a DIY background. We made a lot of videos, we made web series, then we worked on Broad City where we wrote and directed on all five seasons. What made Broad City a unique thing was it didn’t feel like people who necessarily made a lot of TV made that show, but in a way that made it feel fresh. Between our untraditional background and her more traditional background, I like to think we have a pretty good respectful room. More than one of our writer’s assistants have been hired into our writer’s room. We’ve had editors direct. We really try to promote from within. That’s not to say that we’re perfect by any means, but we are conscious of trying to foster a healthy environment and pipeline for people. There is inherently a power dynamic when you are the boss. I was friends with a lot of people before hiring them. It puts a weird power imbalance in those relationships, which I don’t love. But on the other hand, I love hiring people I’m friends with and I think are so great. I think I’ve come to terms with the fact that there is a text thread that Im not on, and they might talk about going to see a movie together. And they did go to a Sound bath last week and they didnt let me know, and that’s fine. The WGA released a stat that TV writing jobs declined by 42% in recent years. Every day I read about how writers are not able to get jobs in writers’ rooms or don’t have access to residuals anymore. What advice do you give aspiring writers or people who want to break into the industry? Its a brutal time, especially in comedy. Personally, I started on Broad City, which is a Comedy Central show. I made a mini series at Comedy Central called Time Traveling Bong. I worked on another Comedy Central show, Nora from Queens. Those not only paid me but they helped me get better at my job. That network doesnt exist anymore. That was almost like eight years of my life and other people behind me don’t get to have that. When I look at who’s just churning out comedies, there isn’t really a place to do it. I am concerned for the comedy pipeline in terms of people getting experience and breaking out. I am lucky enough that I do hire writers. Some people we hire because they make really funny videos, and sometimes we might read a spec that is really good, or sometimes it’s just a standup who we think is really funny. Recently there’s somebody who just runs a very funny Instagram and Twitter I asked her if she had a spec and I read it. It can come from anywhere. Somebody can makea short film that is really good. Doron Max Hagay did an incredibly funny short film called Marina Tire. I didn’t know him but I saw the short and we loved it. He was the only guest director that we had this season on Hacks. That was literally just from seeing his short film on Vimeo or whatever because a friend of mine had posted it. It’s so random how you can get that break. I would say whatever format seems most natural for your voice, do that. If that can get in front of people, thats all that matters.
Category:
E-Commerce
Every other day, someone rolls out a confident take: Gen Z isnt really all that different. Give them a few years, they say, and theyll fall in line like every generation before them. Its a comforting storyespecially for those who built the system they expect Gen Z to fit into. But after years of teaching Gen Z, studying their values, and listening to what they need from work and leadership, I can say with certainty: Its not that simple. And pretending it is might be the biggest leadership blind spot of our time. Gen Z didnt grow up in the same world their managers did. Every generation faces unique strugglesbut those struggles shape different expectations, different instincts, and different realities. For Gen Z, those realities include climate anxiety, political polarization, mass shootings, pandemic isolation, and economic instability. They watched institutions crumble in real time. Their parents raised them in a world with constantly changing rules, a workplace that doesnt always reward loyalty, and an environment that makes it seem like success involves passing the stress test. What Gen Z actually wants When Gen Z employees walk into a workplace, theyre not trying to conform. Theyre looking for clarity. Theyre looking for fairness. And theyre looking for leaders who make sense. I surveyed 175 Gen Z college students, ages 18 to 21, and asked them: What leadership traits do you most value in a boss? What helps you feel engaged at work? The answers werent radical. They were grounded, human, and refreshingly reasonable. Here are the top 10. 1. Organization: Clear expectations and structured leadership 2. Respect: Fair treatment and valuing individual input 3. Communication: Honest feedback and transparency 4. Positive Attitude: Supportive, motivating tone 5. Approachability: Leaders who feel safe to talk to 6. Flexibility: Some autonomy in how and when work is done 7. Fair Pay: Transparent and equitable compensation 8. Responsibility: Leaders who take accountability 9. Trust: Confidence in leadership decision-making 10. Acknowledgment: Recognition for effort and contribution What struck me was not how surprising the results were but how basic they were. Gen Z isnt demanding perfection. Theyre asking for what most generations have wantedbut theyre less willing to tolerate its absence. They arent disengaged. Theyre discerning. The importance of empathy That distinction matters. In my conversations with executives, I often hear frustration: They dont want to pay their dues. They push back too much. They ghost interviews. But when I talk to Gen Z, what I hear is something different: I want to understand the why. I need a boss I can actually talk to. If I feel invisible, Ill leave. Gen Z isnt fragile. Theyre focused. Theyre not afraid of hard workthey’re just not willing to do it in a place that treats them like a cog with a college degree. They want work environments that align with their values: fairness, flexibility, and the radical notion that people deserve to be treated like people. And if they dont find it, they move on. Not out of entitlement, but out of self-preservation. Because theyve learnedsometimes the hard waythat no job is worth your dignity. And they dont see burnout as a badge of honor. Thats where empathy comes in. Not the curated kind, where a company posts a mindfulness webinar at noon and sends passive-aggressive emails at five. Im talking about real, grounded empathythe kind that shows up in how leaders communicate, take responsibility, and follow through. Its not about being soft. Its about being steady. And its the difference between a boss who manages tasks and a leader who earns trust. I call it engaged empathy: leadership that listens, adapts, and holds firm when it matters but never forgets its leading people. Its not about coddling or over-accommodating. Its about removing the guesswork from work and building trustday by day, word by word. Somewhere along the way, leadership got tangled in bravado. But Gen Z doesnt respond to that. They want and respond to consistency, communication, and yes, kindness. The best leaders Ive observed dont perform strengththey embody steadiness. A generation forging their own path Theres something Ive been thinking about a lot lately: Gen Z isnt waiting to be moldedtheyre choosing whats worth shaping themselves around. And thats not a sign of weaknessits a sign of agency. Its easy to compare them to how we were at 22, to say Theyll figure it out, and move on. But the truth is, theyve come of age in a different world. Of course, they see things differently. Thats not a threat to traditionits an invitation to evolve. When the workplace grows to meet its clarity, we all benefit. Burnout goes down. Retention goes up. Cultures become more thoughtful and more human. Leadership becomes something people want to follownot something they endure. Wouldnt that result in a better workplace for us all? So no, theyre not like you were at 22. And thats more than okay. In fact, that might be exactly what the workplace has been waiting for.
Category:
E-Commerce
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