John is Guest on School for Startups Radio – The Perfect Pitch
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[vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]John Livesay is guest on School for Startups Radio sharing tips on how to deliver the perfect pitch to secure VC funding. Join host Jim Beach everyday at 6:00am and 6pm EST as he interviews entrepreneurs and great authors that can help you grow your business, or start one.
Jim is known for this belief that entrepreneurship is not about creativity, risk, or passion. Jim’s first book, School for Startups, was published by McGraw-Hill in June 2011 and reached as high as number 9 on Amazon’s business section. Promoting the book, he has done over 100 radio interviews, was featured in a UPS commercial, was referred to as the Simon Cowell of venture capital by CNN, and was excerpted by Entrepreneur magazine and the Wall Street Journal India.[/vc_column_text][vc_empty_space][vc_column_text]Listen Now![/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row]
Secrets on Stamina and Funding
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“Building businesses takes tremendous stamina, and success isn’t achieved without it.” Margaret Heffernan Author The Bigger Prize
When you work out, you lift weights and you do a set, take a rest break and then do another set that is usually heavier, followed by another rest break. What makes us think we don’t need a rest break for our brain muscle too?
Instead of not fueling our brains with proper nutrition, many of my start up CEO clients don’t take time to eat right let alone take time to rest their brains.
Result: Burnout
Is this how professional athletes prepare for the Superbowl? No they rest, the eat right and prepare. Pitching an investor for funding is the Superbowl of meetings. One YES can change the course of your business and your life.
Productivity tip: Instead of working 4 hours straight with no break and no food, sprint for 50 minutes of complete focus and then take a 10 minute break. You will have better ideas and get more done with the rest break than with no break.
Just as running a business is a marathon and not a sprint, preparing your pitch for an investor requires the same preparation as a marathon. Let’s get you fueled with the right sales strategy and make sure you check off all the boxes investors have before they say yes to you. Contact me for a complimentary 15 minute Situational Snapshot Analysis to see how to stop burnout and get stamina for your investor pitch.
Pitch like your life depended on it!
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Imagine you were in the ocean with real sharks! It would sure make a great story and that is one of the keys to a making a great pitch to investors.
What would you feel?
I. Scared or excited? Fear is never good for giving a pitch-that just gives you stage fright. What is the solution? Become a Hall of Famer. Preparation is when you get the butterflies in your stomach to fly in formation.
What one Shark Tank winner says :
“Proper planning prevents poor performance,” he said. “Before I went on ‘Shark Tank,’ I watched every episode twice and created a flow chart of potential questions based off each Shark’s personality. There wasn’t a single question I wasn’t prepared for.”
II. Focused or distracted? Being in the moment and taking the investors on a journey where you explain your vision, your passion and why your team is the best to make the vision grow is essential to making your pitch work.
You have to show how you:
1) Make it up-what makes this idea unique and what problem does it solve?
2) Make it real -show your proof of concept
3) Make it reoccur- what is your traction?
III. Committed to surviving or surrender to defeat, aka UNDERWATER?
Here’s what Jay Acunzo is NextView’s Director of Platform says about the importance of storytelling to get funded:
“Luckily, every story from nursery rhymes to Shakespeare to stellar startup pitches can be distilled into three parts: a status quo, some conflict, and a resolution.”
To make sure you pitch with the same passion, perseverance and preparation you would need to survive a shark encounter, schedule a 15 min call with me to see if and how I can help you not just survive, but thrive!