Anxiety reframed can make business pitches more effective

It may be possible to turn anxiety into a superpower in some scenarios, recent research with entrepreneurs indicates.  

The study found that if entrepreneurs preparing to make a funding pitch connected their pitch anxiety to their passion for their venture, judges ranked their performance higher. Perhaps even more importantly, the judges were also more likely to recommend them for funding.

This emotion reframing involved the entrepreneurs recognizing that they were feeling anxious partly because the project means so much to them. Entrepreneurs who tried other strategies to deal with pre-pitch anxiety, including suppressing or distracting themselves, did less well. The findings were reported in the Journal of Business Venturing.

What the researchers say: “Emotions are not your enemies. They can be your friends. I would encourage people to understand the cause of their emotions and see if they can harness that energy for more positive outcomes,” said the lead author.

Building on psychological research on emotional regulation, the researchers designed a three-part study to better understand how anxiety impacts people making funding pitches for new businesses. First, the researchers surveyed entrepreneurs about how they managed anxiety before a pitch and found that most used distraction, 49%, or physical strategies, 40.8%, such as deep breathing. Another 14.3% tried to detach themselves from the emotion. Only 12.2% reported trying to reframe their anxiety in a positive way.

For the second part of the study, they surveyed participants and judges before, and after, pitches at new venture competitions at two southern California business schools over the course of three years. They found that judges gave more favorable evaluations to the student entrepreneurs who tried to reframe their anxiety as linked to their passion for their projects.

Finally, the researchers tested this reframing strategy in an experiment with about 100 college students in a business communications class. The participants picked a charitable cause they cared deeply about and made a pitch to judges for funding. They were then randomly assigned to receive instructions to manage their emotions before the pitch, either by distracting themselves from their anxiety or by connecting their anxiety to their strong feelings for the charity.

The judges rated the persuasiveness of the students who had used the reframing strategy higher and were more likely to recommend funding their cause.

The researchers found that anxiety was still present and noticeable in all the pitches, no matter the strategy the presenters used, but only connecting the anxiety with their passion turned it into an advantage.

Raising funds is one of the most critical challenges entrepreneurs can face, the researchers said. Other research has shown that entrepreneurs may be very psychologically attached to their ventures, and they feel their idea is part of who they are.  “Although anxiety can be seen as debilitating or undesirable, there's a flip side to it: if you are anxious, it is often because you really care.”

So, what? I believe that admitting and making a point of your anxiety triggers a compassionate reaction in your audience.  We are wired to feel empathy when we imagine ourselves in the position of the other person—when we “feel their pain,” we want to help them, and we feel good about ourselves when we do—we get a hit of the reward neurochemical dopamine.

Your support of the anxious person, who admits their anxiety, is like a charitable donation, and neurogenetically works in the same way.