My episode of Pitch What's Possible (and the Finale) are now live! 🍿
“I've learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.”
― Maya Angelou
There's only so much that you see in anything that is filmed, edited, and released. I hope that founders are able to glean some solid key takeaways from this AWS Startups' Pitch What's Possible series, but I also want to shed light on all the stuff that contributed to my pitch for Glou Beauty. Makeover shows are so fun, but there's so much more that happens behind the scenes.
🍿 Below is the teaser for Glou's Pitch What's Possible episode.
Please like, share, and save these tips for yourself, or a founder who is working on perfecting their pitch.
Here are my "3 non-obvious lessons for founders working on perfecting their pitch".
Lesson 1: Your “on-stage” pitch ≠ Your actual 1:1 investor pitch
The goal of your on-stage pitch is to make people want to have a conversation with you. It’s not about convincing people to buy into your startup or invest.
I’m not a natural public speaker. At all.
The “before” version of my pitch, in this episode, was a version of my pitch that already had years of work behind it.
I was the kid dry-heaving outside my drama class. Even after gaining enough confidence in high school to participate in school assembly skits, in university I felt so out of my element in my first year pre-business intro class that I had to go to therapy for the social anxiety that prevented me from raising my hand in class even though my grade depended on it. Even after I got into business school, I would have panic attacks from the anxiety of networking events.
After grad school, I put myself in Second City's improv program. After 4 years of improv and acting, I had made my way into the Toronto comedy scene! I had a show at one of the major comedy venues in the city with my little troupe, scheduled for March 2020...
Pitching is not a competition. But it also kind of is. Whether on a Zoom in front of an angel group, or on-stage at demo day, you’re competing for the audience’s attention. You have to bring something that is more interesting than whatever is on people’s phones.
My pitch got to where it is because of my performance training, and treating each pitch like a performance.
If you’re thinking, holy shit, I don’t have the time or money to pour into years of performance training, then the McGuire Method is a shortcut to figuring all this out!
Lesson 2: Curate your content
Control the conversation by strategically choosing to include or NOT include certain information.
I decided to not include an explanation about the nuances of pre-owned beauty products.
I found that people who inherently "got' what Glou was about wouldn't ask about hygiene/used products. People who didn't, would get so stuck on this that it didn’t matter what other compelling evidence I had.
Your job as a founder is not to convince people what you're doing is amazing, but rather, finding your champions.
The Q and A period after a pitch can feel like a big unknown, but you can omit content that you know people will ask about.
I think of a 3 minute pitch and 3 minute Q&A as a 6 minute pitch with audience participation.
Lesson 3: Know the difference between wisdom and advice
There is no substitute for experience. Especially founder experience.
So many people think they know startups from working in the space and having seen a thousand examples on how to build a company. But the sacrifices and rollercoaster of emotions as you navigate high-stakes decision making in a glamourized world with unwritten rules and smoke and mirrors at every turn, can only be understood by someone who has been there.
From choosing investors, cloud service providers, banking, and beyond, work with people who have been in your shoes. The difference in the level of service you get is staggering.
But remember, every founder journey is different. Just because a founder did something one way, does not mean that experience is replicable.
Everyone comes with their own biases, so make sure you take everything offered as another data point to inform your overall journey.
UPDATES: The Finale Episode—Now Streaming!
Glou Beauty's "before" episode is still gaining over 1M views per day, but my performance in the finale episode is WHERE 👏 IT'S 👏 AT 👏.
I was just in NYC for the Pitch What's Possible Finale Watch Party and it was lovely to be reunited with the cast and crew that made this series happen. 🥂
🏆 Getting to hear the audience laugh and clap, as I saw myself pitch on the big screen, was the best feeling.
So if you haven't already, go watch the Finale episode and let me know what you think!! 😇
🍿 Watch the finale now! 🍿
My pitch starts at 27:24, because we gotta save the best for last 😉
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