Performance Pitching

Two Tuesday’s - November 10th & 17th

2 Week Bootcamp with Producer Nicole Dunn & Motivational Speaker and Author, Eli Davidson...

Most times you only have one shot to pitch you, yourself, brand or your book. You’ve got to get their attention in a short amount of time. This workshop is for anyone who has an idea and wants to pitch it. Authors, Experts, Brands, Business Owners, TV Show ideas, Segment Ideas, Book ideas…You’ll pitch and we’ll give you tips and suggestions to help you brainstorm to create the perfect pitch.

In this workshop Motivational Speaker and Author Eli Davidson teams up with Team Emmy Nominated Producer & Creator Nicole Dunn, to help you get into the pitching game. Television Producer Nicole Dunn has personally pitched in over 200 meetings (Network Executives, Development Executives, News, Show ideas, Experts, Authors, Directors, Producers, Publishers) Put Jet Fuel in your pitch!

Being able to write a good pitch is an important business tool to have, no matter what line of work you’re in! You’ll learn to craft your pitch to be unique and stand out from the rest of the crowd. People will respond and return your calls, and book you! You’ll be able to pitch something that people care about hearing more about.

With a well-written pitch you will attract the interest of almost anyone (Producers, Directors, News, Editors, Book Publishers – even your boss!)

Each class will focus on your pitch. We’ll hear everyone’s ideas and help you make them spectacular. The first class is hands on! Everyone must come with a pitch. Not only will you learn from other people’s pitches, you’ll learn from your own.

• How a great logline will book you every time.
• How to be relevant.
• You’ll learn that doing research about who you are pitching and their target audience will land you the job or not.
• How to spot a news trend and piggyback off of it.
• You’ll hear examples of good pitches vs. bad pitches.
• You’ll hear examples of good tips vs. bad tips.
• You’ll work on perfecting a 30 second elevator pitch that you can use to pitch anyone with.
• What Ideas are worth pitching?
• What problems are you solving?
• What solutions are you offering?
• How to Deliver.
• How to follow up.

CLICK ON THE LINK BELOW TO REGISTER NOW!
http://www.dunnpelliermedia.com/Dunn_Pellier_Media_Consulting/Schedules.html
Two Tuesday’s - November 10th & 17th 2009
6 PM PST

CALL IN FROM ANYWHERE: 6:00 PM PST

2 Weeks for $249.99
$1000 dollar value!

How do I get pitch meetings?

How do you get pitch meetings once you have a reality idea that you think is sellable in the marketplace?  Its harder than ever before to sell an idea in Hollywood.  (Movies or TV) There are so many obstacles, a lot of competition and now with the recession, its even harder than ever to 'break in.'  It takes more than knowing the right people, its determination and sacrifice to create and sell a hit.  You could have all the knowledge and the skills, but if your blueprint isn't set on Hollywood Success - you could very easily FAIL.  Giving Up is not an option in my world.  It isn't enough to be in the right place at the right time - you also have to be the right person with the right idea in the right time.  

When I first started pitching my ideas in the marketplace, I didn't have someone booking my meetings and introducing me to key executives in the industry.  It was all ME!  And if you are reading this, there is a chance that you don't either.  What did I do?  I came up with my own strategy to stand out from the rest of the world trying to pitch.  

Here is what I did.  I got and still get a daily subscription to Variety.  I would read all about the reality shows that were being bought and sold in the marketplace, as well watch key executives moving from place to place.  I created my own HOT LIST of up and coming executives and production companies that I wanted to get a meeting with.  (I still have a HOT LIST) 

I would then pick up the phone and call their office, introducing myself and try and set a "meet and greet."  (This may be easier for me, because I have Producing credits and do know a good amount of people in my industry).  This can be a simple coffee meeting or a lunch meeting. What this did is it enabled me as a Producer to meet executives and find out what they were looking for in regard to Reality TV Concepts.  It also gave me a chance to introduce myself and give them my background and talk about some of the projects that I was currently developing. After my meeting, I would immediately send out a Thank-You note in the mail.  This gave me the leverage to be able to set a future meeting to pitch my ideas.   I did this with Evolution USA and now I can get a meeting there anytime if the idea is something that they are interested in. In fact we pitched there with Jose Canseco.

Since then the tables have turned, and I have a great management team as well as a great lawyer.  I have been pitching so much that I now get any meeting, with just about anyone I want in town.  Well, I take that back...Mike Darnell is a hard one to get a meeting with even if you have a big star attached (Christopher Titus).  Last year I blogged about how he cancelled 7 times, even as I was pulling into the Lot for the meeting.  

I do a lot of homework to see what is being bought and sold in the marketplace. That is one of the benefits of having a manager (and Variety subscription) to help guide you with all of the inside information.  Every three months we update our list of what the networks are looking for.  It dramatically changes. We recently pitched a big NEW network and what we found was that they loved all three of our concepts.  The next day they called and said "wait, we only love one," and the next day they called and said "scratch that - we love a nugget of what you had in that one that we decided we didn't like."  So what was a makeover show is now a reality game show.  Its crazy.  Now, we are in the process of pairing up with a game show runner who's agent is friends with my connection at Sony, and who knows where it will go from here.  I think it could be a big one.  But, then again it all goes back to "being in the right place at the right time - and being right person with the right idea in the right time."  

There are so many ways to get introduced and have an in...I've used friends of friends, networking groups, cold calling...How are you getting your meetings?  I'd love to hear all about how  your creative plan worked to get a meeting with a top executive.  Inquiring Minds want to know!

Pitching - Your Own Personal Art Form

With all of the meetings that I have had - I know pitching is an art form. Well...in some ways its been my very own personal art form. I say this because I have such a creative mind and things are always popping into my head in regard to show ideas.

I started pitching at a really young age. I can remember going to the bus stop in second grade and listening to Katie Lanigan's stories from the previous night's TV watching. They were the most wonderful stories about Charlies Angels, Fantasy Island and the Love Boat. Katie told every detail as if it was the most exciting thing she ever saw. She remembered every juicy morsel, even what they wore, said and what the major plot of each show was.

You see my parents let us watch the nightly news, but anything after 8 p.m. was off limits. Big drag for me as a kid. Move over "Brady Bunch" Katie was my own entertainment reporter! It was a love/hate relationship; me loving to hear Katie's stories and me hating the fact that I couldn't join in on the conversation. Instead, I went to school, and embellished her stories about her TV time into my own stories, like I had watched every episode described at the bus stop that day. If I look at it clearly, this was the start of my pitching - in second grade mind you!

It really didn't materialize into anything until 2004, when I had a great writing partner. We thought that with the crap reality that was on TV, we could come up with great shows! And we did. I remember our first pitch out, we got a development deal for an idea. While that show didn't ultimately get a green light, I learned a ton about the process of developing a reality show for television. It's given me part of the foundation for where I am today.

I have found that I can think of an idea very easily. Lots of ideas. But its like playing the Roulette wheel with Networks and production companies. I found that my art form has been enriched and perfected by many factors in my life. I know now you have to work and color the room... paint that picture so that they can see it inside, like I did in second grade. The fact is that you have so little time to do so!

I am thanking Katie for what I learned in second grade. We still talk once a week and she still remembers every detail about our childhood and about all of the shows she watched and retold to me. Thanks Katie!

Canseco - Bonaduce Fight

I thought for sure that Jose was going to whip Danny's butt. Even though I pictured Danny to be a dirty fighter. From what Jose said, Danny trained hard for the fight. I think that Jose was holding back and didn't really give it his all knocking Danny out. Maybe they had some sort of arrangement so that neither of them got knocked out?!

As Sports Illustrated wrote, "The 6-foor-4 Canseco jolted the 5-6 Bonaduce a couple of times in round 1 and a couple more in round 3. Bonaduce, who played Danny Partridge on the "The Partridge Family," never went down. Bonaduce predicted he would be knocked out, only to hang in there and land a few body blows on the hulking Canseco. There were few big blasts and most of the crowd of 1,500 at a suburban Philadelphia ice rink started to leave before a decision was announced."

"He hit me harder than I've ever been hit my entire life," Bonaduce said. To Read the full article click on the link in the main header of my post. Maybe this is the start of some GOOD publicity in a good light for Jose, as fans didn't boo him...I am rooting for him 100% - for more reasons than just the fact that I like him, we want to sell our show. He deserves a second chance.

First Pitch of the Year - Go Team!

This week team Canseco had its first pitch! I felt that the pitch went well. I like the fact that this production company was genuinely interested in talking over the possibility of combining forces to develop our idea further. I am not thinking past anything more though, good meeting and I am leaving it to the Universe to deliver. They have done some really impressive shows over the years and have been in business for more than 20 years. This is the type of company that our team would love to join forces with! Someone that has a great reputation, doesn't do a bunch of crap options with a bunch of projects just to have tons of projects on the boards and to get it off the marketplace - but does a deal because they believe in it and that it will go to a series. So, on to the next pitch on Tuesday! This time different pitch, different celeb.

Through the Grace of the Universe - Jose has entered my world!

The Universe is good to me. It only took less than a week for it to give me the answer that I was looking for! I am now in contact with Jose Canseco's team. They like the concept and we are meeting up to build on what I have created. I am currently reading Jose's book "Juiced," and am learning a bunch about Jose and of course, steroids. I just loved the A&E documentary that Jose's team and Heidi Northcott did recently, which is what inspired me to want to create a show around him. I believe that he will reconstruct and rebuild himself to become strong again!

I had a pitch meeting this week at PB&J Television. I just loved the ladies there! I am confident that they will want to develop something with the talent that I presented to them.

I am looking for a paying producing gig, while I get my own projects off the ground, so if you know of anything please get in touch with me!

I'll Come Up With your Next Big Idea!

I have been working with Authors and Experts to come up with clever pitches to help elevate them onto the morning shows, talk shows, reality shows etc. Some of the same questions from people constantly come up...

How do I create a sell able angle for myself?

How do I write a clever pitch that will catch a TV Producer's eyes to put me on TV?

How do you I find and create a hook for my brand?

What are sound bites anyway?

Hire me for a consultation and then you hire me for my two day minimum and I will help you come up with something clever that you can use to market yourself to Producers. You'll go from getting no response to being on TV faster than you can say "I want to be on the Today Show!" I help you think outside your box = your brain. So, its like having 50 brains all in one hot Producer - that's me Nicole Dunn!