pitch unfairly

Cheat Codes · Just for fun

Nellie Bly, 1889. Pitched unfairly, 2026.

One dress, one bag, and a fictional record to beat. Same story, same numbers. Rebuilt the way we'd pitch it today.

Template: Trip pitch

  • 72 days, 6 hours, 11 minutes
  • 1 hand-bag
  • £200 around her neck
Play the 2026 deck Read the real story Steal the structure
1889 Trip pitch

Nellie Bly

One dress, one bag, and a fictional record to beat.

Legend
Original craft
Unfair

The story→10 slides

It's a live deck. Press start, then scroll or use the arrow keys, or play it full screen.

Play the 2026 deck

Nellie Bly's trip pitch, slide by slide

Every slide opens the live deck right where it is.

  1. Nellie Bly deck, slide 1: Around the world in 75 days. 01Around the world in 75 days.
  2. Nellie Bly deck, slide 2: The record is 80 days, and its holder is fictional. 02The record is 80 days, and its holder is fictional.
  3. Nellie Bly deck, slide 3: Four steamers east, the rails home, back before Fogg. 03Four steamers east, the rails home, back before Fogg.
  4. Nellie Bly deck, slide 4: Gold in a pocket, notes in a bag around my neck. 04Gold in a pocket, notes in a bag around my neck.
  5. Nellie Bly deck, slide 5: Everything fits in one hand-bag, except the second dress. 05Everything fits in one hand-bag, except the second dress.
  6. Nellie Bly deck, slide 6: Every objection already has a backup plan. 06Every objection already has a backup plan.
  7. Nellie Bly deck, slide 7: “Start the man, and I'll start the same day for some other newspaper and beat him.” 07“Start the man, and I'll start the same day for some other newspaper and beat him.”
  8. Nellie Bly deck, slide 8: The paper gets a serial. The readers get a guessing match. 08The paper gets a serial. The readers get a guessing match.
  9. Nellie Bly deck, slide 9: Fogg's clock runs 80 days. I stop it with a week to spare. 09Fogg's clock runs 80 days. I stop it with a week to spare.
  10. Nellie Bly deck, slide 10: Thursday, 9:40 a.m., on the Augusta Victoria. Back in 75 days. 10Thursday, 9:40 a.m., on the Augusta Victoria. Back in 75 days.

Then · 1889

How it really went

Read the real storythe story, via Wikipedia and Bly's own book, Around the World in Seventy-Two Days (1890)
  1. In 1888 Bly asks her editor at the New York World to beat Phileas Fogg's 80 days
  2. The office says it planned to send a man; no woman could do it
  3. She answers she'll start the same day for another paper and beat him
  4. A year later: "Can you start around the world day after tomorrow?"
  5. She packs one hand-bag and goes in one dress, with £200 around her neck
  6. Sails from Hoboken on the Augusta Victoria, November 14, 1889, 9:40 a.m.
  7. Detours to Amiens to meet Jules Verne
  8. Cosmopolitan sends Elizabeth Bisland the other way the same evening
  9. Learns in Hong Kong that she is in a race
  10. The World runs the Bly Guessing Match; about a million readers enter
  11. A special train races her from San Francisco to Chicago
  12. Jersey City, January 25, 1890: 72 days, 6 hours, 11 minutes

Now · 2026 · 10 slides

What we changed

  • The race map runsThe globe from above the North Pole: Bly east, Bisland west, Fogg on his novel's schedule. Scrub to any day and see who is where.
  • The bag really closesPack her actual list item by item. Everything fits at exactly 100%, the cold cream hogs the bottom, and the second dress pops the clasp.
  • Fogg's clock stops earlyA split-flap clock counts down 80 days and stops at 7 days, 17 hours, 49 minutes to spare, above every rival finish line.
  • The cost of a no, in her wordsHer actual comeback to "send a man", set as the headline, with the office's reply on a telegram.

Steal the structure

Build your trip pitch like Nellie Bly did.

  1. 01 The trip in one line Where, how long, and the one constraint that makes it remarkable.
  2. 02 Why now What makes this the moment: the record, the deadline, the window that closes.
  3. 03 Route and plan The route on a map with dates, and how you will know where you are on any day.
  4. 04 Budget One number, then where every part of it lives.
  5. 05 What's in the bag The packing list, proven to fit, including what you are leaving behind.
  6. 06 Risks and backup plan Every objection you have heard, who raised it, and the backup for each.
  7. 07 The cost of a no What happens if the answer is no, said plainly.
  8. 08 What everyone gets The upside for each person who has to say yes, not just for you.
  9. 09 How we'll know it worked The finish line as a number, against the benchmark and the rivals.
  10. 10 The ask with a date What you need, line by line, and the exact day you leave.

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