The Perfect Pitch

(Year 4, Week 12)

Collaboration

The heroes found their groove during the second week of session three. That groove being, ownership over the community. For the past couple of sessions, the guide had been running collaboration launches at 10:30. It was apparent that the heroes felt they needed a strong transition from core skills to collaboration. They had asked the guide if she could prepare something each day to help them get settled. So, in true adult fashion, the guide took over. After a few weeks of it being guide controlled, the heroes approached the guide and said;

“Hey we love the collaboration launches but we would like to lead them instead.”

A splendid idea! 10:30 went from groans of meeting on the rug to;

“I am so excited to lead the collaboration launch!”

And lead they did. Over the course of the week, the heroes collaborated on the following topics:

What it means to be a leader.

Badge book reviews.

Organizing a Secret Santa exchange.

The heroes came up with the best ideas. When it was guide led, the conversations were all about intentionality and working hard to achieve goals. When the heroes took over, their imaginations ran wild. When they organized Secret Santa, they came up with an amount, drew names and even had their fellow travelers write down the things that they love. They enjoyed chatting during collaboration about getting gifts for their friends and talking about what they think they would be excited about opening.

Intentionality is important. Reaching goals is important. But, arguably the most important aspects of the Discovery Studio are; loving learning, being with friends and growing together. It was easy to see that their Secret Santa project was bringing them closer to one another and bringing joy to them on their journey.

Visuals

The heroes had been invested all week in perfecting their pitches. One of their challenges during the week was to create a visual for their pitch. This ended up proving to be rather difficult for certain heroes. The following questions arose:

“What is a visual?”

“Why would the audience care?”

“I can’t think of anything to write, let alone a prop!”

This brought up a great question among the heroes;

“What could we show or create that the audience would really care about?”

Pitches are hard enough, let alone adding in a visual. Many of the heroes spent the next thirty minutes drawing up ideas, only to erase or destroy them, thinking they weren’t world class enough. After about an hour, something happened that sparked delight in the heroes. One of them got up and shared a video of some world class pitches. Watching them take their learning into their own hands never ceases to amaze and inspire.

For the next hour, heroes got to work. Cardboard was flying, glue thrown about and laughter everywhere. They were so inspired and excited to take on the challenge. Some heroes made picture boards while others propped up their pitches using foam. One of the heroes used a witty joke, hoping to bring in the audience with their humor and natural ability to tell a story. It was really inspirational to see what the heroes really excel in. Wether that is creativity, humor or attention to detail. They not only used their talents to create some works of visual art, but helped their fellow heroes who were struggling. That might be what life is all about anyways, using ones strengths to help another.

Voting

Last session the heroes participated in Game Quest. The objective was to create a game and then pitch it to the audience (the parents) and explain why their game was the best one. The winner of Quest was supposed to get a board game of their choosing. However, with the new regulations, the heroes had to host exhibition online. This led to a few issues in voting.

The guide didn’t bring this up to the heroes. Just patiently waited to see if they would make a decision. On Wednesday, the heroes decided that they were going to watch the pitches themselves and vote on a winner. They gathered around the rug and upheld their Rules of Engagement and watched every single pitch that was documented on the school’s YouTube channel.

For some heroes, that was tough. Watching themselves on TV felt embarrassing and a little unnatural, while others really enjoyed the process. Afterword, they chatted about what they did well and what they could have improved on. Some of the heroes believed that they could have better prepared their game pitches. They thought they could have moved less, talked louder and even explained their game in a more concise way. Some of the heroes thought they could have added or took a few things away from their game, to make it more entertaining. There were however, quite a few heroes who didn’t think any improvement was needed. They thought they focused well during Quest time and they believe they worked incredibly hard on their pitches.

Exhibition may have been way different than expected. Yet, the heroes got so much out of the experience. Never before have they been able to watch themselves at Exhibition and reflect. It was incredibly powerful and even gave them ideas on how to prepare excellent pitches for their Quest during session 3. Reflection is a huge part of the Discovery studio, so moving forward, there will be a lot of focus on finding ways for heroes to ‘playback’ their exhibition experiences.

Perfecting Pitches

The heroes are winding down to present their pitches next week. They started to feel the pressure and were getting nervous about exhibition. Pitching is hard. Especially if someone has never pitched before. Here were some of the concerns from the heroes:

“How do I do pathos?”

“I just keep stuttering. How do I give a nice pitch?”

“What if my family doesn’t think it is good?”

These were great questions to discuss with the heroes. What does make a good pitch? Does it matter what others think? Does losing the pitch contest necessarily mean someone is bad at pitching? The week was full of philosophical discussions around what is ‘good,’ ‘better’ or ‘great.’ Some examples the heroes brought up were spot on:

“What if you have great information but you aren’t that good at showing emotion?”

“What if you get tongue tied easily but are really funny after you get over stage fright?”

“Guide, I am seriously too scared to give my pitch, can I do it when I am older?”

These questions that they posed truly had no right answer. The consensus they landed on was working with one another to get feedback and find the confidence within themselves to walk away and say, “I really did the best I could.”

One of the best moments to happen in the studio came late in the week. While the stress of pitches had really latched onto some heroes. Others, had a smoother time. At the end of the week, one hero walked up to the front of the room and delivered her practice pitch to her fellow heroes. What was so incredible is that just one year ago, this hero did not want to participate in one of the quests where they had to pitch a class pet. Instead she helped her fellow heroes by editing their work and giving them feedback. Within one year, this hero found her ‘pitch’ voice and had absolutely zero fear about stepping up in front of her fellow heroes and delivering not only an incredible pitch, but one full of voice, passion and research.

While we sometimes see heroes not take on certain challenges in the studio, it is a great reminder that in the grand scheme of things, that shouldn’t be an area of worry. Some heroes need more time. Some heroes need to be more experienced. Some heroes need to deeply care about a challenge and others just need the right setting with the right mindset to hit a goal.

This is the magic that runs deep throughout the Discovery studio, watching the heroes grow on their own individual journeys.

Hero’s Choice

Friday is always a wonderful, high energy day. Full of chaos, work and fun. If the heroes their goals during the week, they are able to move into free time in the studio. They work hard and definitely play hard.

Hero’s choice was a blast in the studio. A few heroes chose to work on core skills to hit their soaring levels, other heroes decided to hang out with friends and work on passion projects and some heroes were in the lunchroom playing board games. Hero’s choice is that time where all the hard work comes to fruition and heroes get to really make the choice of how they spend their time and how they reward themselves after a long week.

One of the most powerful moments during hero’s choice didn’t go unnoticed. A few of the heroes had stepped out of the Discovery studio and the guide went to ask them what they were up to. She found them in the Adventure studio, working away on passion projects with older heroes. Seeing the heroes move along on their journey is incredible. Watching them spread their wings and slowly move out of the Discovery studio, because they have their sights on their next Adventure, is exactly what Hero’s Academy is all about.

Wrap-Up

The week was heavily focused on pitching and creating the perfect pitch. The heroes were tasked with developing strong visuals and pitching in front of their peers. Easier said than done. A lot of the heroes got over their stage fright and stepped up to the plate to deliver powerful and fun pitches. The heroes took control over the studio by running collaboration and making it a fun experience. They were so excited to plan out their Secret Santa gift exchange and really focused on setting standards to accommodate everyone in the studio. They voted on the board games from last session and came out with a winner; Lilya and Julia’s game: Quiz Me Quick. They ended the week by having fun in the studio and working towards their next big goal, participating in the Adventure studio.