Launch Youniversity

Turning Good Intentions into Reality in Your Career, Business and Life

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060: Why Your Pitch May Not Be Working

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Why Your Pitch May Not be Working via The Launch Youniversity Podcast
The Launch Youniversity Podcast
060: Why Your Pitch May Not Be Working
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SUMMARY:

You happen to find yourself on an elevator with a person of significance and you have a just a few seconds to pitch them what you’re doing. That’s what an elevator pitch is: Selling an idea in a clear and concise manner, in a short amount of time, and inspiring the person you’re pitching to take action. Whether you know that analogy, or this is the first time hearing it, your elevator pitch matters. Good ideas die with bad communication. This episode is about finding, refining, and improving your pitch.

Welcome to episode 60 of the podcast.

LINKS + RESOURCES:

JOIN THE WAITLIST FOR ELEVATOR PITCH

Elevator Pitch is an online, workshop-style video course that guides you through proven methods to shape, hone and sharpen your message and polish your delivery. It includes a printable, digital workbook with exercises providing the step-by-step directions and the writing space you need to develop your pitch as you go.

Following the process outlined in Elevator Pitch, you’ll have crafted your pitch in approximately four hours. How could a stronger, clearer message impact your next presentation, sales call or team meeting? Make your next presentation your best presentation with Elevator Pitch.

Registration for Elevator Pitch is currently closed. It will open soon. Sign up for the waitlist so you don’t miss the next enrollment.

THREE TAKEAWAYS:

If you can’t say it simply, you don’t understand it well enough.

The goal here is to keep it simple. When you pitch a product, you want to tell people who can tell other people. Nobody is going to share your idea with others if they can’t understand it.

A great idea, poorly communicated, is a stalled, unfunded and unsupported idea.

You might have the greatest idea in the world, but if you don’t know how to communicate it well then it’ll never get off the ground. When you’re building out your idea, practice how you would simply and concisely explain it to others. (And practice it again and again and again.)

Your pitch is like your packaging.   

Think about the experience of buying a brand new iphone from the Apple store vs. buying a used one on ebay. One comes in the crisp white box, headphones perfectly folded, screen protector on. The one from ebay will probably arrive in a padded yellow shipping envelope. Which one would you be more excited for? That’s because packaging matters, and your pitch is your packaging. Don’t rely on the fact that you have a great idea and think that the communication doesn’t matter. The communication is what makes the experience great.

036: How to Turn Your Idea Into a Business with Courtney DeFeo

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How to Turn Your Idea Into a Business with Courtney DeFeo
The Launch Youniversity Podcast
036: How to Turn Your Idea Into a Business with Courtney DeFeo
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Summary:

The Launch Youniversity is a community of entrepreneurs and intrapreneurs who want to turn their big ideas into reality. Courtney DeFeo is an expert on doing just that.

As an intrapreneur, Courtney refined her process for bringing ideas to life for a company. As an entrepreneur, Courtney dreams of new ways to grow her business each day.

On today’s episode, Courtney is sharing her experience and advice on growing an idea, presenting it to others and turning it into a thriving business.

Welcome to episode 36 of the Launch Youniversity Podcast.

Links + Resources:

CourtneyDefeo.com

Pathway to Launch: Imagine

Pathway to Launch: Validate

ABC Scripture Cards

Three Takeaways:

1. Not every idea is a good idea. And that’s okay.
Courtney has come up with some incredible ideas, both for her business and for companies she’s worked for. But for every great idea, there were a bunch that didn’t work.

As launchers (and really… just humans), our ideas feel like our babies. We want everyone to love every idea and for it to be wildly successful. But that’s not realistic. You will have ideas that never get off the ground, but it’s okay and normal. It doesn’t mean you’re a failure. And it certainly doesn’t mean you should stop dreaming of ideas. Keep pressing forward, the right idea will come at the right moment.

2. Collaboration over competition.
Courtney had to actively seek (and be open to) collaboration over competition in when she was an intrapreneur. When Courtney worked in a corporate setting, she often had to pitch her ideas. If you’ve done this, you know how vulnerable of a position this is to be in. You’re not only sharing your idea, but you’re giving other people the power to change it. But, nine times out of ten, when people speak into your idea, their feedback will elevate it. So don’t shy away from the “That won’t work, but this will…” or “That’s great, what if we add…” conversations. The collaboration might be exactly what your idea needs to be successful.

This applies to entrepreneurs as well. You might not be competing for a boss’ attention, but you’re competing with other forces in the marketplace. When Courtney created her ABC Scripture cards, she noticed that Pinterest was driving a ton of traffic to her site… but not converting to sales. After a little investigation, she realized that her cards were wildly popular on Pinterest, but every post was about how to make the cards yourself.

Instead of trying to shut down bloggers who were giving DIY tutorials on her product–or pretending they didn’t exist–Courtney leaned into the marketplace desire and released her own DIY tutorial. By serving her potential customers well, her web traffic jumped and she was able to get more eyeballs on the other resources and tools she had available on her site.

3. Waiting now will pay off later.
When you’re passionate about your idea, you want to shout its success from the rooftop. That happened to Courtney when she landed her first celebrity client.

When the order came through, she wanted to post it everywhere. But Courtney’s husband reminded her to wait and that the celebrity didn’t ask for that. So she waited. And because she waited, the celebrity later talked about how much she loved the product on massive, national platform. Had Courtney bragged to the marketplace about having this celebrity client, she might have missed the better opportunity.

011: When Passion and Creativity Collide: An Interview with Morsel’s Hillary Sparks

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When Passion and Creativity Collide: An Interview with Morsel’s Hillary Sparks
The Launch Youniversity Podcast
011: When Passion and Creativity Collide: An Interview with Morsel's Hillary Sparks
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Summary:

This week, Launch Youniversity is honored to be joined by Morsel creator, Hillary Sparks. A year ago, Hillary launched a subscription based newsletter, Morsel. Morsel is uniquely designed and delivered monthly digest featuring her favorite Atlanta-area restaurants. In this episode Hillary describes her milestones and what the first year looks like for new launchers. We hope you enjoy our conversation with Hillary as much as we did.

Welcome to episode 11 of the Launch Youniversity Podcast.

Links + Resources:

Three Key Takeaways:

1. Time Management is the key ingredient. Hillary serves at the founder of Morsel, but she also has a full time job that she excels in too. Her advice: Factor out your weeks and weekends. Determine what all you can finish in a day without letting either of your jobs fall off the plate.

2. Get out of the way! There’s a very good chance that you are the only thing standing in the way of your launch. That’s the bad news. The good news is, you can solve your own problem by getting out of your own way and just starting. No, it probably won’t be perfect in the beginning. But if you’re 70% – 80% there, you will learn a lot in that margin.

3. Connect with your supporters. This includes friends and family. They can critique content at a different level and a different way. It will be hard, but try not be defensive. Take their critiques with an open mind and continue to ask them questions about their feedback. This is called the validate stage of The Pathway to Launch.