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How to Perfect Your Elevator Pitch · Earn Your Leisure

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  Speaker 1: So okay, talk about elevator pitch, yes, and seven steps
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  Speaker 1: to nailing your elevator pitch. Yeah. So first things first,
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  Speaker 1: is anyone that's listening to this if you're going to
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  Speaker 1: be pitching, whether it's at invest Fest or you're going
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  Speaker 1: to be pitching at any place, the first thing is
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  Speaker 1: you want to have a clear and concise message. Who
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  Speaker 1: are you, what do you do, who do you serve?
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  Speaker 1: What is it that you're actually giving to people? What
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  Speaker 1: do you want the judges to know or the investors
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  Speaker 1: to know? So have a clear and concise message. The
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  Speaker 1: second commandment that I would say is make sure that
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  Speaker 1: you know the problem. What's the problem that you're trying
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  Speaker 1: to solve. Lots of times I've seen people come and
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  Speaker 1: pitch Rashad and they really don't know what the problem
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  Speaker 1: is that they're trying to solve. They just want to
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  Speaker 1: sell a product to you or say, hey, can you
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  Speaker 1: invest in my product? So you have to make sure
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  Speaker 1: that when you're pitching with your message being clear and concise,
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  Speaker 1: you need to make sure that you also know what
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  Speaker 1: the problem is. And then third know the solution to
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  Speaker 1: the problem. Right, what are you trying to solve? I
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  Speaker 1: understand you want to be able to have a tech company,
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  Speaker 1: but what is the what is the solution or what's
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  Speaker 1: the problem that's being solved, Then what's the solution?
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  Speaker 2: What are the.
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  Speaker 1: Vehicles to solve that problem. The third thing is make
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  Speaker 1: sure that you know your market stats, right, what's going
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  Speaker 1: on in the market, in the industry right now. A
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  Speaker 1: lot of people don't do their research on the industry stats,
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  Speaker 1: which leads to the next one. Who's your competitor? Right?
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  Speaker 1: I've seen people do pitches and we don't even know
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  Speaker 1: who your competitor is. You just tell us all about
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  Speaker 1: the business. But if we were to go deeper beyond
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  Speaker 1: a sixty minute elevator pitch, a sixty second sorry elevator pitch,
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  Speaker 1: and let's say you all were to ask more questions,
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  Speaker 1: one of the questions that investors are going to ask
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  Speaker 1: is who your competitors are? What's the market So because
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  Speaker 1: of that, it's important for anyone that's pitching to do that.
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  Speaker 1: Make sure that you're using proper visual aids. That's another
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  Speaker 1: thing too. I'm not really sure how it's going to
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  Speaker 1: be for investments when we get there, but if there
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  Speaker 1: are going to be visual aids, make sure that your
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  Speaker 1: visual aids are not all over the place. Make sure
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  Speaker 1: that you're not using all these different fonts and colors
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  Speaker 1: and everything like that. Keep it clean, keep it fresh.
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  Speaker 1: But make sure that everyone, every judge that's looking or
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  Speaker 1: any investor that's investing into what are interested in what
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  Speaker 1: you have to say, can understand it clearly in your
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  Speaker 1: visual aids. I will also say, just making sure that
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  Speaker 1: as they go to their pitch that they speak clearly
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  Speaker 1: that they understand. And also do a call to action.
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  Speaker 1: We've had pitch I've sat and pitched up matches or
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  Speaker 1: pitch competitions. Where so what are you asking for? You
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  Speaker 1: never really say what you're asking for. Be clear and concise,
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  Speaker 1: and make sure that whatever the call to action is,
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  Speaker 1: that it is clear, it is realistic. I'm looking for
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  Speaker 1: two million dollars to do what with? What's the budget?
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  Speaker 1: What's the forecast? What's the numbers? That's another one. Know
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  Speaker 1: your numbers right, What are the numbers going to? Where's
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  Speaker 1: this money going to? When is it going to happen?
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  Speaker 1: Most investors don't want to be married long term to something,
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  Speaker 1: so we want to make sure that we understand. I'm
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  Speaker 1: an investor myself, make sure that we understand what's the
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  Speaker 1: return on investment? Do we get equity right? All of
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  Speaker 1: these things are what people should be considering when it
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  Speaker 1: comes to their elevator pitch, whether it's sixty seconds, two minutes,
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  Speaker 1: five minutes, even up to a thirty minute pitch.
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  Speaker 2: A tremendous insight because we get pitched all the time. Yes,
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  Speaker 2: and so you actually have now just helped us and
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  Speaker 2: I'm sure everybody that's listening will take those from it
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  Speaker 2: as well. Yeah, you said that vocal health is important,
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  Speaker 2: and so these things sounds like how I will prepare
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  Speaker 2: as I'm going to the stage. Yes, but there's that
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  Speaker 2: build up, And we talked to a lot of people.
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  Speaker 2: We just had a pitch competition a few months ago,
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  Speaker 2: and people were talking about the anxiety that it felt
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  Speaker 2: leading up to the day. So what are some of
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  Speaker 2: the type of things that you suggest for people leading
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  Speaker 2: up to the event. What should they be doing at
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  Speaker 2: home the week before, the month before to prepare themselves
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  Speaker 2: for this moment, this five minute moment that could change
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  Speaker 2: their lives potentially?
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  Speaker 1: Absolutely, First things, practice practice, practice practics. There's there's a
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  Speaker 1: couple ways in which a person can practice right Troy.
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  Speaker 1: So the first thing I'll say is practice in the mirror.
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  Speaker 1: See yourself, so you can see how your facial expressions look,
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  Speaker 1: see if the nerves are taken over, right, see yourself.
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  Speaker 1: And lots of times people do not like to see themselves.
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  Speaker 1: They don't even like to hear themselves back. Right, You'd
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  Speaker 1: be surprised that a lot of anxiety that happens on
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  Speaker 1: the stage happens because of what people are going through
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  Speaker 1: in their personal lives and it just comes over in there.
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  Speaker 1: So practice, practice, practice, practice in front of family and
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  Speaker 1: friends and peers, a mentor, a coach, right, and also
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  Speaker 1: record yourself on video and watch yourself back with no judgment.
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  Speaker 1: That's one of the ways in which you can actually
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  Speaker 1: help yourself prepare for the pitch. Another one is actually
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  Speaker 1: do what we call mindfulness, walk through the pitch without
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  Speaker 1: you having to say something. So, how am I going
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  Speaker 1: to enter the stage, How am I going to intro myself?
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  Speaker 1: How am I going to speak what I need to say?
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  Speaker 1: How am I going to exit the stage? How am
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  Speaker 1: I going to leave?
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  Speaker 2: Like?
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  Speaker 1: All of that is what we call mindfulness, whether you're
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  Speaker 1: performing as an entertainer or speaker, that's one of the
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  Speaker 1: things that I'll tell people sit through in mind do
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  Speaker 1: mindfulness of it. Another way to prepare is breathing techniques.
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  Speaker 1: Believe it or not, there's a couple breathing techniques that
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  Speaker 1: I tell people to do. One is the four seven
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  Speaker 1: eight is you breathe in for four counts, you hold
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  Speaker 1: it for seven counts, you breathe out for eight counts.
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  Speaker 1: What this does is it triggers what we call the
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  Speaker 1: parasympathetic nervous system, which is if you're having like a
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  Speaker 1: warm bowl of super ice cream and you're kind of
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  Speaker 1: like calm, where there's something called the sympathetic mode, which
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  Speaker 1: is that fight or flight mode. The moment people get
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  Speaker 1: on the stage, their palms get sweaty, they want to
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  Speaker 1: use the bathroom, their knees want to buckle, their mouth
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  Speaker 1: gets dry, and so mindfulness breathing helps them to trigger
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  Speaker 1: that PMS, that parasympathetic mode. I always say too arrive early.
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  Speaker 1: I tell people go to the venue, see what it
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  Speaker 1: looks like like, look at the stage, sit down in
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  Speaker 1: the chair, and actually visualize what it's going to look like,
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  Speaker 1: the audience that's going to be there. Walk yourself through
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  Speaker 1: it as you do. Mindfulness but be in the environment
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  Speaker 1: as well. That's going to help a lot in preparing
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  Speaker 1: and then also to making sure that you have a backup.
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  Speaker 1: One of the up I had a pitch competition that
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  Speaker 1: I was a judge at. One of the persons forgot
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  Speaker 1: their visuals and so they did a whole entire pitch
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  Speaker 1: asking for a whole bunch of money with no visuals whatsoever,
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  Speaker 1: mess up their entire elevator pitch. And so I tell
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  Speaker 1: those that are preparing, make sure you have a backup.
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  Speaker 1: If you're going to be doing something where you're sending
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  Speaker 1: something electronically, make sure you have something on a USB drive,
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  Speaker 1: a Google drive, some sort of electronic drive so that
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  Speaker 1: your anxiety can actually decrease, because lots of times people
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  Speaker 1: kind of cause their own anxiety to because of lack
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  Speaker 1: of preparation. So those are practical things that they can
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  Speaker 1: do to prepare for their pitch.
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  Speaker 2: Just a follow up, because a lot of times people
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  Speaker 2: will confuse anxiety with nervousness. Yes, some people will say
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  Speaker 2: it's healthy to feel nervous. So it's healthy to feel
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  Speaker 2: aks before something because you're prepared for it. You want
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  Speaker 2: to deliver it. Yeah, you want to do a great job.
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  Speaker 2: Is it healthy or when does it not become healthy?
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  Speaker 1: Absolutely, it's absolutely healthy to be nervous. I was nervous
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  Speaker 1: coming here because I've never met you guys in person.
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  Speaker 1: I'm like, what are they gonna ask me? I don't know.
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  Speaker 1: So there's some called good nerves. You just can't allow
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  Speaker 1: those nerves to take over and become your master. And
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  Speaker 1: that's where anxiety comes in. Anxiety and angst really says
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  Speaker 1: what if something happens, and what do I need to
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  Speaker 1: do to prepare just in case what have happened? So
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  Speaker 1: there's something between wisdom and then allowing anxiety to take over.
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  Speaker 1: Wisdom says, you know what, let me have a backup.
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  Speaker 1: That's not anxiety, that's just wisdom. But anxiety is like
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  Speaker 1: all of the intrusive thoughts going through your head. That's
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  Speaker 1: literally just thoughts. Two things that I've learned in life, guys,
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  Speaker 1: no one owes me anything, and never create a story.
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  Speaker 1: Anxiety is the culprit that helps people create stories that
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  Speaker 1: literally don't even exist. And so because of that, absolutely
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  Speaker 1: there's a difference between nerves and anxiety. Nerves is good, right,
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  Speaker 1: but you don't have to let it master you.