How to Perfect Your Elevator Pitch

This is an I Heart Podcast, Guaranteed Human.

At Oppenheimer, we're proven because we're grounded in discipline.

For 145 years, we've been building and protecting wealth through every market cycle,

with precision, clarity, and the courage to think boldly beyond the moment.

This is what market-tested legacy looks like, for this generation and the next.

Put the power of Oppenheimer thinking to work for you.

Wealth management, capital markets, investment banking.

Running a business is hard enough.

Don't make it harder with a dozen apps that don't talk to each other.

One for sales, another for inventory, a separate one for accounting.

That's software overload.

ODO is the all-in-one platform that replaces them all.

CRM, accounting, inventory, e-commerce, HR.

Fully integrated, easy to use, and built to grow with your business.

Thousands have already made the switch.

Why not you? Try ODO for free at ODO.com.

That's ODO.com.

Wasabi is purpose-built to free your business from skyrocketing storage costs and fees from the big guys.

Wasabi is the go-to provider for professional and collegiate sports teams around the world.

Check out Wasabi's AI-enabled intelligent media storage, Wasabi Air.

In the industry's only cloud storage service with triple protection against cyber criminals.

Wasabi, driving innovation in data storage for up to 80% less than market competition.

Try for free at wasabi.com.

Wasabi Hot Cloud Storage, proud partner of iHeart Podcast Network.

Oh, could this vintage store be any cuter?

Right.

And the best part?

They accept Discover.

Accept Discover?

In a little place like this?

I don't think so, Jennifer.

Oh yeah, huh.

Discover's accepted where I like to shop.

Come on, baby. Get with the times.

Right. So we shouldn't get the parachute pants?

These are making a comeback.

I think.

Discover is accepted at 99% of places that take credit cards nationwide.

Based on the February 2025 Nilsen report.

Support for the show comes from public, the investing platform for those who take it seriously.

On public, you can build a multi-asset portfolio of stocks, bonds, options, crypto.

And now, generated assets, which allow you to turn any idea into an investable index with AI.

It all starts with your prompt.

From renewable energy companies with high free cash flow to semiconductor suppliers growing revenue over 20% year over year.

You can literally type any prompt and put the AI to work.

It screens thousands of stocks, builds a one-of-a-kind index, and lets you backtest it against the S&P 500.

Then, you can invest in a few clicks.

Generated assets are like ETFs with infinite possibilities, completely customizable and based on your thesis, not someone else's.

Go to public.com slash podcast and earn an uncapped 1% bonus when you transfer your portfolio.

That's public.com slash podcast.

Paid for by public investing, brokerage services by open to the public investing ink, member Finra and SIPC.

Advisory services by public advisors LLC, SEC registered advisor.

Generated assets is an interactive analysis tool.

Output is for informational purposes only and is not an investment recommendation or advice.

Disclosures available at public.com slash disclosures.

So, okay.

Talk about elevator pitch.

Yes.

And seven steps to nailing your elevator pitch.

Yeah, so first thing 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?

A lot of times I've seen people come in pitch, Richard,

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.

What are you trying to solve?

I understand you want to be able to have a tech company,

but what is the solution or what's the problem that's being solved and what's the solution?

What are the vehicles to solve that problem?

The third thing is make sure that you know your market stats.

What's going on in the market and 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 60-minute elevator pitch,

a 60-second sorry elevator pitch,

and let's say that 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 investors.

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 $2 million to do what was.

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 60 seconds, two minutes, five minutes,

even up to a 30 minute pitch.

A tremendous insight, because we get pitched all the time.

You actually have now just helped us.

And I'm sure everybody that's listening will take notes from it as well.

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 or 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 is a couple of ways in which a person can practice, right?

So the first thing I will say is practice in the mirror.

See yourself.

So you can see how your facial 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 will tell people, sit through in mind, do mindfulness of it.

Another way to prepare is breathing techniques.

Believe it or not.

There's a couple of breathing techniques that I tell people to do.

One is the 4-7-8.

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 a sympathetic mode, which is that fighter flight mode.

The moment people get on a 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 PNS, that parasympathetic mode.

I always say to arrive early.

I tell people, go to the venue.

See what it looks like.

Like, look at the stage.

Sit down on it in the chair.

And actually visualize what it's going to look like.

The audience that's going to be there.

Walk yourself through it as you do mindfulness.

But be 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, I had a pitch competition that 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.

What so ever.

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.

So that your anxiety can actually decrease.

Because lots of times people kind of cause their own anxiety too.

Because of lack of preparation.

So those are practical things that they can do to prepare 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.

It's healthy to feel angst before something.

Because you're prepared for it.

You want to deliver it.

Yeah.

You want to do a great job.

Yeah.

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.

What?

Are they going to ask me?

I don't know.

So there's something 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 in angst really says, what if something happens?

And what do I need to do to prepare it just in case what if 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.

The nerves is good, right?

But you don't have to let it master you.

Wisabi is purpose-built to free your business from skyrocketing storage costs and fees from the big guys.

Wisabi is the go-to provider for professional and collegiate sports teams around the world.

Check out Wisabi's AI-enabled intelligent media storage Wisabi Air.

In the industry's only cloud storage service with triple protection against cyber criminals.

Wisabi, driving innovation and data storage for up to 80% less than market competition.

Try for free at wisabi.com.

Wisabi Hot Cloud Storage, proud partner of iHeart Podcast Network.

It's tax season. And by now, we're all a bit tired of numbers.

But here's an important one you need to hear.

$16 billion.

That's how much money and refunds the IRS flanked for possible identity fraud.

But it's not all grim news.

Lifelock monitors millions of data points per second.

And alerts you to threats you could easily miss on your own.

If your identity is stolen, they'll fix it.

Guaranteed.

Save up to 40% your first year.

Visit lifelock.com slash iHeart.

Terms apply.

Pro drivers live for race day.

But for small business owners, every day is race day.

That's why gulling pro with Lenovo Pro matters.

One on one advice, IT solutions and customized hardware powered by Intel Core Ultra Processors

keep your business on the right track.

Business goes pro with Lenovo Pro.

Sign up for free at Lenovo.com slash pro.

With Bolly from iShares, you get access to both monthly income and growth potential in one simple ETF.

It's the best of both worlds.

Discover Bolly.

iShares large cap premium income active ETF.

iShares.

The market is yours.

Visit www.iShares.com to view perspectives for investment objectives, risks, fees, expenses,

and other information that you should read and consider carefully before investing.

Risks include principal loss in the use of derivatives which could increase risk and volatility.

Monthly income is not guaranteed prepared by BlackRock investments LLC.

Want flexibility?

Take yoga.

Want flexibility with your health insurance?

Check out United Healthcare Insurance plans.

Underwritten by Golden Rule Insurance Company, they offer flexible, budget friendly medical dental and vision coverage that may be right for you.

More at UH1.com.

This is an iHeart podcast.

Guaranteed Human.