This episode is brought to you by P and C Bank. A lot of people think podcasts about work are boring, and sure they definitely can be, but understanding a professionals routine shows us how they achieve their success little by little, day after day. It's like banking with P and C Bank. It might seem boring to safe plan and make calculated decisions with your bank, but keeping your money boring is what helps you live or more happily fulfilled life. P
and C Bank Brilliantly Boring since eighteen sixty five. Brilliantly Boring since eighteen sixty five is a service mark of the PNC Financial Service Group, Inc. P and C Bank National Association Member FDIC erness What's Up? You ever walk into a small business and everything just works like the checkout is fast, the receipts are digital, tipping is a breeze, and you're out the door before the line even builds. Odds are they're using Square? We love supporting business that
run on Square because it just feels seamless. Whether it's a local coffee shop, a vendor at a pop up market, or even one of our merch partners. Square makes it easy for them to take payments, manage inventory, and run their business with confidence, all from one simple system. If you're a business owner or even just thinking about launching something soon, Square is hands down one of the best tools out there to help you start, run and grow.
It's not just about payments, it's about giving you time back so you can focus on what matters most ready. To see how Square can transform your business, visit Square dot com backslash go backslash eyl to learn more that Square dot com backslash, go backslash eyl. Don't wait, don't hesitate. Let's Square handle the back end so you can keep pushing your vision forward.
So okay, talk about elevate yes, and seven steps to nailing Yeah. So first things first, is anyone that's listening to this if you're going to be pitching, whether it's at invest fest or you're going to be pitching at any place, the first thing is you want to have a clear and concise message. Who are you, what do you do, who do you serve? What is it that you're actually giving to people? What do you want the judges to know or the investors to know? So have
a clear and concise message. The second commandment that I would say, is make sure that you know the problem. What's the problem that you're trying to solve. Lots of times I've seen people come and pitch Rashad and they really don't know what the problem is that they're trying to solve. They just want to sell a product to you or say, hey, can you invest in my product?
So you have to make sure that when you're pitching with your message being clear and concise, you need to make sure that you also know what the problem is. And then third, know the solution to the problem. Right, what are you trying to solve? I understand you want to be able to have a tech company, but what is the what is the solution or what's the problem that's being solved, and what's the solution how what are the vehicles to solve that problem? The third thing is
make sure that you know your market stats. Right, what's going on in the market in the industry right now? A lot of people don't do their research on the industry stats, which leads to the next one. Who's your competitor? Right? I've seen people do pitches and we don't even know who your competitor is. You just tell us all about the business. But if we were to go deeper beyond a sixty minute elevator pitch, a sixty second, sorry, elevator pitch, and let's say you all were to ask more questions.
One of the questions that investors are going to ask is who your competitors are? What's the market? So because of that, it's important for anyone that's pitching to do that. Make sure that you're using proper visual aids. That's another thing too. I'm not really sure how it's going to be for investments when we get there, but if there are going to be visual aids, make sure that your visual aids are not all over the place. Make sure that you're not using all these different fonts and colors
and everything like that. Keep it clean, keep it fresh. But make sure that everyone, every judge that's looking or any investor that's investing into what are interested in what you have to say, can understand it clearly in your visual aids. I will also say, just making sure that as they go through their pitch that they speak clearly that they understand, and also do a call to action. We've had pitch, I've sat and pitched up matches or pitch competitions. Where so what are you asking for? You
never really say what you're asking for. Be clear and concise, and make sure that whatever the call to action is, that it is clear, it is realistic. I'm looking for two million dollars to do what with? What's the budget? What's the forecast? What's the numbers? That's another one. Know your numbers, right, What are the numbers going to? Where's this money going to? When is it going to happen? Most investors don't want to be married long term to something,
so we want to make sure that we understand. I'm an investor myself, make sure that we understand what's the return on investment? Do we get equity right? All of these things are what people should be considering when it comes to their elevator pitch. Whether it's sixty seconds, two minutes, five minutes, even up to a thirty minute pitch.
That tremendous insight, because we get pitched all the time. Yes, and so you actually have now just helped us, and I'm sure everybody that's listening will take notes from it as well. Yeah, you said that vocal health is important, and so these things sound like how I will prepare as I'm going to the stage, yes, but there's that build up. And we talked to a lot of people. We just had a pitch competition a few months ago, and people were talking about the anxiety that it felt
leading up to the day. So what are some of the type of things that you suggest for people leading up to the event. What should they be doing at home the week before, the month before to prepare themselves for this moment, this five minute moment that could change their lives potentially?
Absolutely? First things, practice practice, practice, practice, And there's a couple ways in which a person can practice, right, Troy. So the first thing I will say is practice in the mirror. See yourself, so you can see how your face expressions look, see if the nerves are taken over, right,
see yourself. And lots of times people do not like to see themselves, They don't even like to hear themselves back right, You'd be surprised that a lot of anxiety that happens on the stage happens because of what people are going through in their personal lives and it just comes over in there. So practice practice, practice, practice in front of family and friends and peers, a mentor, a coach, right, And also record yourself on video and watch yourself back
with no judgment. That's one of the ways in which you can actually help yourself prepare for the pitch. Another one is actually do what we call mindfulness, walk through the pitch without you having to say something. So, how am I going to enter the stage, How am I going to intro myself? How am I going to speak what I need to say? How am I going to exit the stage? How am I going to leave?
Like?
All of that is what we call mindfulness, whether you're performing as an entertainer or speaker. That's one of the things that I'll tell people, sit through in mind do mindfulness of it. Way to prepare is breathing techniques. Believe it or not, There's a couple breathing techniques that I tell people to do. One is the four seven eight is you breathe in for four counts, you hold it
for seven counts, you breathe out for eight counts. What this does is it triggers what we call the parasympathetic nervous system, which is if you're having like a warm bowl of super ice cream and you're kind of like calm, where there's something called the sympathetic mode, which is that
fight or flight mode. The moment people get on the stage, their palms get sweaty, they want to use the bathroom, their knees want to buckle, their mouth gets dry, and so mindfulness breathing helps them to trigger that p ands
that parasympathetic mode. I always say too arrive early. I tell people go to the venue, see what it looks like like, look at the stage, sit down in the chair, and actually visualize what it's going to look like, the audience that's gonna be there, walk yourself through it as you do mindfulness but in the environment as well. That's going to help a lot in preparing and then also to making sure that you have a backup. One of the u I had a pitch competition that I was
a judge at. One of the persons forgot their visuals and so they did a whole entire pitch asking for a whole bunch of money with no visuals whatsoever. Mess up their entire elevator pitch. And so I tell those
that are preparing, make sure you have a backup. If you're going to be doing something where you're sending something electronically, make sure you have something on a USB drive, a Google drive, some sort of electronic drive, show that your anxiety can actually decrease because lots of times people kind of cause their own anxiety to because of lack of preparation. So those are practical things that they can do to prepare for their pitch.
Just a follow up, because a lot of times people will confuse anxiety with nervousness. Yes, some people will say it's healthy to feel nervous, or it's healthy to feel anks before something because you're prepared for it, you want to deliver it. Yeah, to do a great job. Is it healthy or when does it not become healthy?
Absolutely, it's absolutely healthy to be nervous. I was nervous coming here because I've never met you guys in person. I'm like, what are they gonna ask me? I don't know. So there's some called good nerves. You just can't allow those nerves to take over and become your master. And that's where anxiety comes in. Anxiety and angst really says what if something happens, and what do I need to
do to prepare just in case what have happened? So there's something between wisdom and then allowing anxiety to take over. Wisdom says, you know what, let me have a backup. That's not anxiety. That's just wisdom. But anxiety is like all of the intrusive thoughts going through your head. That's literally just thoughts. Two things that I've learned in life guys, no one owes me anything, and never create a story. Anxiety is the culprit that helps people create stories that
literally don't even exist. And so because of that, absolutely there's a difference between nerves and anxiety. Nerves is good, right, but you don't have to let it master you.
An illegal alien from Guatemala charged with raping a child in Massachusetts. An MS thirteen gang member from Al Salvador accused of murdering a Texas man of Venezuelan charged with filming and selling child pornography in Michigan. These are just some of the heinous migrant criminals caught because of President Donald J. Trump's leadership. I'm Christy Noman, the United States
Secretary of Homeland Security. Under President Trump, attempted illegal border crossings are at the lowest levels ever recorded, and over one hundred thousand illegal aliens have been arrested. If you are here illegally your next you will be fined nearly one thousand dollars a day, imprisoned, and deported. You will never return. But if you register using our CBP home app and leave now, you could be allowed to return legally.
Do what's right. Leave now. Under President Trump America's laws, border and families will be protected.
Sponsored by in Space, Department of Homeland Security,