It’s Never Over Until...

I’m a firm believer in never giving up until you’re certain it’s all over.
The pitch presentation isn’t always the finish line.
Sometimes it’s just a pit stop on the journey.
And a bad pitch doesn’t have to mean that it’s all over.
I’ve been in the industry long enough to have heard countless stories about disastrous pitches, where the agency refused to take ‘no’ for an answer.
They returned to the office, not with their tail between their legs, but with a fire in their belly.
So they stay up all night, bash out some great new concepts and have an honest conversation with the prospective client.
They said “We know we dropped the ball but we want this more than anyone else.”
And the following day, they go in there and prove it.
And they win.
It’s like classic mythology – what feels like a disastrous ending, isn’t an ending at all.
It’s a phase known in storytelling circles as ‘The Ordeal’* and it’s the life-or-death moment where the hero realises what’s needed to ensure victory.
The phase immediately after?
That would be ‘The Reward’.
So go on, be the hero.

*see Christopher Vogler’s The Writer’s Journey