Valuetainment - November 15, 2022


The Science Of Raising Money As An Entrepreneur


Episode Stats

Length

29 minutes

Words per Minute

183.36095

Word Count

5,496

Sentence Count

480

Misogynist Sentences

1

Hate Speech Sentences

1


Summary


Transcript

00:00:00.000 We're going to do two things today. I'm going to talk a little bit about the stages of investment
00:00:04.020 and how you fit into there so you have a Google Maps of kind of knowing where you are and knowing
00:00:09.760 how investors look at you. And then I'm going to take you through the pitch deck. And pitch deck
00:00:13.800 is more than just reaching out for investment. So I'm going to cover those two things and see if I
00:00:18.720 can actually use a piece of technology here. So let's go through the five points. First of all,
00:00:25.080 the business life cycle. We're going to take you through so you know where you are, because
00:00:29.840 some of you understand, but maybe you don't know how investors and others look at you and maybe how
00:00:34.440 a bank would look at you. Then seeking investment, know why and when to get it. The investors know
00:00:42.240 the animals that are out there in the investment jungle and which animals you should be talking
00:00:46.140 to at which time and which to avoid. Then the uses of capital. Know what is and what isn't bankable
00:00:53.000 and how they look at you as you try to raise capital. And finally, the meat and potatoes of
00:00:58.600 this presentation today, which is I love, is the pitch deck. Taking you through the three tools,
00:01:05.160 which is your elevator pitch that you make in two minutes. Some of you are really good at doing
00:01:09.240 that. I've seen some of them today. Some of you are a little longer and you can be concise and even
00:01:13.260 more powerful with the story that you're so passionate about. And then the deck itself. And I'm
00:01:18.600 going to show you, you can present yourself in 15 slides to your bank, to someone you're recruiting,
00:01:24.080 or to potential investors. Let's jump in. The life cycle. The key to running a company and then
00:01:34.060 communicating with these constituents is really knowing where you are. This is the Google map
00:01:40.540 of where your company is. Your company is somewhere on this chart. You could be a startup and you're
00:01:47.780 down here in the valley of death where you've been trying and trying and trying. You had an idea,
00:01:51.940 you've burned through some money and it's just not working. And you need to just go on to the next
00:01:57.340 one. Thomas Edison said, I didn't fail a hundred times making a light bulb. I failed a hundred times
00:02:03.400 making a light bulb. Right? I found a hundred ways not to make a light bulb. Well, he ultimately
00:02:09.040 succeeded. But sometimes you give it up and that's a valley of death. But you're more experienced for
00:02:13.560 your next run. You finally go up to, that's where seed and startup and early stage are. You ultimately
00:02:20.140 break, break even. There's an exit there. Sometimes there's early exits where someone knocks on the
00:02:27.020 door. Hey, we love what you're doing. It's very, very early. And we're going to go take it. If
00:02:30.960 anybody knows the history of YouTube, you know that they sold very early for what everybody thought
00:02:35.900 was an insane number to Google. Had they waited some years later, it would have been 10x that.
00:02:41.720 Nonetheless, it was an early stage and they said, okay, we'll do it. Then you finally come up for your
00:02:46.540 truly established company. Next exits usually happen up there where it's repeatable, where somebody
00:02:52.660 maybe in your ecosystem says, hey, you're doing it. You're doing it right. You're repeating it. You've
00:02:58.140 really got something going on here. You know what? I think we want to add you to what you're doing.
00:03:02.700 Could be a competitor. Could be another company that wants to add you to make what they do more
00:03:06.740 powerful. You know, you make peanut butter, they make chocolate. Together you make Reese's peanut
00:03:11.360 buttercups, some combination like that. Finally, you get to the high growth. And many of you in
00:03:16.420 here are there, where you're talking about the pain points of high growth. And that's why you're at
00:03:20.580 Sales Leadership Summit. That's why you're at Business Planning Workshop. That's why you're there.
00:03:24.560 And there are pages in this book already that you've got these stars next to, because you're
00:03:28.700 trying to eliminate those pain points and drive it even higher. You may exit by reaching a certain
00:03:36.060 point and selling to a competitor across town, but at that. And finally, the home runs, where you get
00:03:42.600 out there to late stage, and then at 65 or some time, you decide to do it. But this is the Google
00:03:48.240 map. Your company is somewhere on this, and knowing where you are and how to talk about the stages
00:03:54.600 with investors is important. Then we get to seeking investment. Know why and when. What's really
00:04:02.540 interesting is I hear some of you saying, hey, I want to go out and raise capital. What do you need
00:04:06.960 to do? Well, we really don't pay ourselves, you know, the full amount right now. We've been, you
00:04:13.320 know, kind of ramen and pizza and Red Bull at midnight. And I said, so wait a minute. So the cost
00:04:19.360 that you show when you make your little financial is not the real cost of your business? Well, it's all
00:04:24.400 we can afford. I get that. But if you were paying natural cost, you'd actually still be losing money.
00:04:30.060 But you're prudently not spending that because you don't have it to spend. Okay. Well, when you
00:04:36.200 talk to investors, it's not that you need money to right size your cost. It's that you haven't scaled
00:04:42.420 to get to the size where you can afford the natural cost of the business. It's understanding how to
00:04:48.560 convey all that. It starts at the seed stage. Hey, we're founders. I got a business plan. We have a
00:04:54.240 full P&L. We have our MVP, minimum viable product. And we have a go-to-market plan. And I put some of
00:05:00.580 my own money in it. And I'm just looking for 200 or 500 to go to the next base. Check. Startup phase.
00:05:07.460 You're a backable CEO because your idea is working. And you've got some traction. And you've got a few
00:05:13.200 people that have joined you, your early management team. You have a beta product that's actually in the
00:05:18.220 market. And you've got a few customers. You have some revenue. And so you're at what we would call
00:05:23.760 a series A point, actually trying to raise money to then go to the next milestone. Repeatable. Now
00:05:30.260 you're in business. You didn't just have a few first customers. You got more, more, more doing the same
00:05:36.060 thing the same way, hiring another salesperson, training them the same way, and going. And you're
00:05:40.820 off and running. Many of you that go to the Sales Leadership Summit have talked about, wow, I'm glad I came
00:05:46.880 here because it really showed me how to build my sales team for success at this repeatable stage.
00:05:52.720 And you've got a team. It's got a little bench. And you've got your product roadmap.
00:05:56.660 You're adding customers. Maybe you've gotten several million dollars now in sales. And you'd be at what
00:06:02.320 we would call like a series B level. And finally, growth. And growth can go on for 15 years.
00:06:07.700 Pat was almost eight years in business before we got the expansion capital for PHP. And he said, hey,
00:06:13.940 I'm making profits. It's a very profitable business. But I want to build this into a truly
00:06:19.780 technology-enabled insurance distribution agency of the future. To do that, I'm going to double down
00:06:26.240 on technology. I've got all these millennials selling for me. They expect everything to be on mobile.
00:06:31.000 I need to be ahead of the game. I can't wait for the industry. I need to do this.
00:06:34.860 See how that works? What a wonderful story for expansion capital. And he got it, including someone
00:06:40.060 named Oscar De La Hoya that joined in. He says, I love that you're reaching out to the Hispanic
00:06:44.240 community. So you become a magnet for the investment there. The investment kind of helps
00:06:49.740 define you because you've got a good story. And it is harder to find great companies to invest in
00:06:55.940 than it is to find money. Now, all of us that have started companies, like me, will tell you it's the
00:07:00.500 opposite. It just seems painfully hard to find money. Well, sometimes that's true.
00:07:05.440 Then we get to investors. Know who you should engage. This is really interesting.
00:07:12.600 I have people come up and say, hey, a friend introduced me to a private equity guy, and I
00:07:18.000 want to talk to him about raising money. But BizDoc, how should I talk about it? Tell me about your
00:07:23.520 company. One and a half years old, three of my friends and I just graduated Syracuse University.
00:07:29.260 Bup, bup, bup, bup. I'm like, hang on a second. What kind of sales do you have? We have about
00:07:34.720 half a million in sales we've done, believe it or not. Well, if you're talking to a private equity
00:07:38.860 guy, I think you're talking to the wrong person. Now, think about it. If you knew a friend that
00:07:45.880 was a doctor and you had something wrong with you, wouldn't you say to them, what kind of doctor is
00:07:51.240 it? They said, well, what's wrong with you? Well, I went skiing, and I've either got a strain or a
00:07:56.760 tear in my knee. I took a bad fall on snowboard. That's it. And he says, your cousin's a doctor,
00:08:02.540 right? Can I go see him? Well, that's not what you would say. You say, what kind of a cousin is
00:08:05.880 your doctor? He's a gynecologist. Okay, probably not the one to go see for my knee. So you, we have
00:08:12.000 these times in life we do that. But if someone's got money and you've got an early stage, you know,
00:08:17.600 company, it's like watching football. Thumbball, jump on the ball. That guy's got money. Well, but
00:08:23.660 you're out of sequence. Do you see what I mean? So who is the first investor in your business?
00:08:29.140 You. And you will continue to be that. If you haven't put some skin in the game,
00:08:36.160 even 25 grand that you scraped together because you gave up every subscription you have, you gave
00:08:41.640 a cable, you did everything you could and you saved it, that's meaningful to first investors.
00:08:47.460 You have some cash you saved and you put skin in the game. So it's you. Then there's FNF. That stands
00:08:54.160 for friends and family. And it really should be friends and family that have money to lose
00:09:00.180 because you're asking them to make a single high-risk investment in an early stage in a
00:09:06.580 startup, meaning you. But they've got love, relationship, and trust that's built in.
00:09:12.220 So you've got to protect each other when you do friends and family. They're going to come back to
00:09:16.620 you and ask, hey, when is that business going to be profitable so you can give me some of the money
00:09:21.200 back because your niece, that's her college money? You're like, whoops. Make sure it's money to lose,
00:09:28.880 that there's understanding there. Finally, there's angels. Angels are investors. They're usually
00:09:33.980 independent that come in during that stage. And then you get to VCs. After you've crossed out of
00:09:39.800 here, the valley of death. And so who's most responsible for the valley of death? You. You have
00:09:46.240 to walk over the hot coals and make your successes and get to your points like every other startup has
00:09:52.160 had to do. Then you get to VCs who can carry you along for many different phases. And then CBC.
00:10:00.220 That stands for corporate venture capital. Google has a group called G Ventures that is corporate
00:10:07.360 venture capital. And they invest just like an investor would. But it's corporate. And maybe you get
00:10:14.100 some benefits of working with Google. Maybe you don't. But it's their own investment. So it's
00:10:18.840 similar to venture capital. The venture capital is usually agnostic. Corporate venture capital within
00:10:24.480 companies. Finally, way over here, you get PE firms. PE firms are usually exit investors or people that
00:10:32.940 want to pay you for a majority of your business. And be careful. It may also come with you sticking around
00:10:39.380 for three years and getting a new boss and finding out you're being rolled up and merged with other
00:10:44.780 things. But PE firms usually exit investors. So when I gave the example of the three guys from Syracuse
00:10:50.640 get it, I'm saying, wait a minute. So you know somebody who's a PE guy? Well, unless maybe one of the
00:10:56.980 gentlemen or women at the PE firm is an independent investor in startups and might be doing that
00:11:03.400 personally, okay, different story. You see? That makes them an angel. So you have to be in sequence
00:11:10.760 where you're going to do it. And finally, strategics. Those are large companies in your industry that may
00:11:17.800 invest in you. And that would be Google putting Google money, not G Ventures, but Google money in
00:11:24.480 to be maybe 50% of your business and then buy the other 50% later. And by the way, if you ever looked
00:11:30.820 at that, you'd be astonished at the number of acquisitions Google does. They acquire like three
00:11:36.520 small companies a week. They're not all headlines. And by the way, so does IBM. So does people like
00:11:42.760 Oracle. It's really amazing. So know the investor landscape. Well, gosh, BizDoc, how do I find this
00:11:49.620 out? Look at their webpage. They will tell you what stage they invest. They will tell you what sectors
00:11:55.480 they invest in. They will tell you their check size and whether they make minority investments early on
00:12:01.280 or they make a majority investment like a PE firm want to own you later. Here's a quick website from
00:12:06.920 TCP. They're in Dallas, Texas. I just found it because I thought it was so nicely laid out.
00:12:12.440 This is our investment criteria. We happen to like to invest in Texas so we can keep an eye on the
00:12:17.120 things we invest in. We are specialty and management buyouts. If you have a partner that wants to
00:12:21.940 leave or an idiot brother you'd like to buy out, there are those. Then that's what we do. And we
00:12:26.960 have deep experience in healthcare services and SaaS software. So if you're not any of this, don't call
00:12:33.680 them. But if this is where you are, you're like, wow, they're going to be very interested in speaking
00:12:37.960 to me. So it's usually easy to find the harmony if you just kind of look, you look long enough.
00:12:44.460 Okay. Now the use of capital. What is and isn't bankable? Investors invest in only three things.
00:12:52.980 People, product, and time in that order. People is that you are a bankable CEO and you've got a team
00:13:01.040 around you and a product that's working in the market or you need time. So when you think about
00:13:06.740 that, people say, what are you going to use the money for? I need to get a CTO, expand my tech
00:13:11.320 team, invest for a year so that the next version of my software that I built with engineers as an
00:13:18.120 MVP will be ready. Got it. So you're building this to go scale and that's what you're using the
00:13:23.900 investment to. Yes. Time, product, and people in some combination. I hope that makes sense because
00:13:30.140 many of you talk about, well, I need to hire five more salespeople. Okay, well, wouldn't salespeople
00:13:35.460 pay for themselves by selling something? Well, the first three kind of are kind of art, but I need
00:13:40.220 more. It's like, wait a minute. Then you need to really get your sales, you know, together. There is
00:13:45.820 a great example that came recently, and some of you may be in this room, so I won't name the company
00:13:50.480 name. And they were like, hey, we need some investment capital and some advice on how to do it because we
00:13:56.900 want to buy a small competitor that's got a really good sales force and a really good customer list.
00:14:01.960 And together, we think we do fantastic in this industry. Wonderful. Why do you want to buy
00:14:08.700 salespeople? If you've got the better product, then optimize your sales organization. And we began
00:14:15.640 to talk about it and ask some probing questions. And we're like, you know what? You're right. I'm
00:14:20.360 thinking about this wrong. And what if you bought that other company and those salespeople didn't like
00:14:25.720 you? They really wanted their mommy, their old boss, and she was wonderful, and they loved her.
00:14:32.000 And then they slowly leave the company after you buy it. Well, now you went out, got all this money,
00:14:37.480 bought this company, merging them together like the Brady Bunch, didn't quite work, and some of the
00:14:43.120 children left home. That's a disaster. Instead, they sat back and looked at it and said, you know,
00:14:48.600 you're right. What we need to invest in is optimizing our sales team. So often, looking through the use
00:14:55.800 of capital kind of tests your assumptions about what you're doing with the business and how you're
00:15:01.140 investing in it. Okay. Let's get to the fun stuff. Pitching. Three tools. A great presentation of your
00:15:11.020 company and two scripts. A clear and concise elevator pitch. That's your hook. You quickly,
00:15:18.040 concisely, with enthusiasm, explain people the problem you're solving, what you're doing.
00:15:22.920 10 to 15 slides. Concise. And then a nice verbal narrative that goes along with the slides.
00:15:29.640 Because, generally speaking, you've thought ahead and sent the presentation in the same language that
00:15:34.100 the person speaks. So you don't call them and read it to them. I've had folks that we do Zooms and are
00:15:39.400 just reading this to me. And I said, hey, you sent it to me a day ago. I read it. On each slide here,
00:15:44.900 fill in the blanks for me. I want to hear your heart. I want to hear your passion. I want to hear
00:15:49.680 the story behind the story. I can read the slide. So the elevator pitch. Why is it important to have?
00:15:57.300 It forces you to focus. And some of the things that you've seen here already here at Vault is
00:16:03.080 communication and focus. You know, six ways to focus, six ways to hold accountability, things like
00:16:08.480 that. You need to put that to yourself, too. Focusing. And it also doesn't require the listener
00:16:14.300 to overly focus and try to decode. Because you're focused and they can just hear what you're doing.
00:16:21.000 And it calls them to answer. And in your elevator pitch, you cover your problem, differentiator,
00:16:27.280 your solution, some numbers. Organizing your thoughts. Have you met a person where you said,
00:16:35.520 hey, maybe you met him in the hallway here? You said, hey, um, tell me about your business.
00:16:41.360 And 10 minutes later, you really have to go to the bathroom because you've been delaying that.
00:16:45.300 And you still don't understand. Have you been through that? I've been through situations after
00:16:49.960 20 minutes, the beer is warm, the pizza is cold, and I still don't understand the core differentiators
00:16:55.080 of their business. But I'm sitting there being polite and listening. How many people have done that?
00:17:00.360 I did that early on. Have you ever done that to somebody? Okay. It's a rite of passage.
00:17:06.360 So great pitches, great elevator pitches answer this question, why? Why did you do this? Why is it
00:17:13.000 interesting to the customer? Why are they buying? And the right story with the right examples will get
00:17:17.860 the investors excited. Along the way in doing that, know those differentiators. People say, why?
00:17:26.040 Why isn't it invented yet? Why you? Why today? You know, why didn't DoorDash do it? What customers
00:17:34.760 love about you the most? Do you know? Let's play a game called Name That Company, okay? I'm going to
00:17:41.640 give you, I'm reciting pretty much from memory, because I've read it over and over, an actual,
00:17:47.040 this is an actual elevator pitch that a company did, I think it's 2008, maybe 2009. Are you ready?
00:17:53.800 Okay. Hope you're not asleep. It says, hi, my name is Brian. Do you have a minute?
00:18:02.360 Yeah. Okay. This will only take me two minutes, I promise. I notice you're here at the conference,
00:18:10.040 and your badge says investor. You invest in early-stage companies? Yes, I do. May I take two
00:18:15.400 minutes? Yes. But make it two minutes. I need to just step aside, make a call before we go back in.
00:18:20.240 Great. I'm in the hospitality space. My partners and I believe that we have a solution that brings
00:18:28.160 two needed things together. There's a company called Couchsurfing that did a survey that found
00:18:33.460 that 30% of Americans would be willing to run out a room of their house or their house itself for a day
00:18:39.480 or two when they're out of town. It's also been found that you have, for people 25 to 40,
00:18:47.620 the most difficult, challenging budget for any trip is usually the lodging. Airfare is usually,
00:18:53.880 you can get something cheap, but the lodging is usually the most expensive part and the most
00:18:57.800 difficult part when you're trying to put a trip together. Well, guess what? We help get these two
00:19:02.880 sides together. We've made what is basically an eBay where someone could put their house up for two
00:19:08.740 days of rental, and someone could find that. We make 15% in the middle. That's our business.
00:19:15.700 Before you think I'm crazy, we've already done 3,000 nights in six months here in San Francisco,
00:19:21.520 so we think it's working. I appreciate you listening. Could we trade phone numbers and maybe I talk to you
00:19:28.460 some time about it? Name that company. Exactly right. Do you see that? Research showed we have
00:19:36.320 done 3,000 nights. We make money 15% in the middle. So if you're an investor, you're like, well, you know
00:19:43.320 what? This is sort of a service product, so an Airbnb for hotels. Yeah, you know what? Let's talk.
00:19:48.940 Get it? Any company can boil it down. Anyone can boil it down.
00:19:53.320 So then you get to the pitch deck at Stealth, the story in detail, because now they've agreed to give
00:20:01.480 you a meeting. Fantastic. You want them to be hooked. You want that elevator pitch to be so clear
00:20:10.180 they can't ignore it. They're like, wow, that was really interesting. And what did you also just teach
00:20:14.800 them about yourself? You can answer the question with passion quickly and beautifully. And now they're
00:20:21.520 thinking about how you might talk to customers, win customers, talk to your team. There's a lot of
00:20:26.360 evaluation that goes on in that two minutes. Well, I really haven't talked about this. You dance around
00:20:31.800 a little bit. Now you're a dancing CEO. You don't want that. You want that first date to be sharp.
00:20:38.040 You only have one chance to make that impression. So let's go through the pitch deck and say, Tom,
00:20:44.020 how is it that I can get all this into 15 slides? I can't. Let me tell you. I've seen decks. People say,
00:20:50.820 let me send you a deck on my company or a quick deck. And I get 45 pages. The entire whiteboard
00:20:58.960 in your office doesn't have to end up on PowerPoint. How many have done that to somebody?
00:21:04.280 Have you got any feedback on that that says, my gosh, what have you sent me here? This is all you
00:21:09.440 need. Section one is problem, solution, and timing. Four slides. What is the problem you're solving?
00:21:19.200 Why does the customer think it's a problem? Why do you think it's a problem for the customer?
00:21:24.420 What's the magic that you're solving? Airbnb. Problem? It's expensive to have a short-term trip,
00:21:30.460 maybe just to see a ball game. Lodging is expensive. Maybe I could just stay at somebody's
00:21:35.600 condo for two nights for less than what the Marriott Courtyard will cost me. Bingo.
00:21:40.100 What's the magic? It's an app. It's easy. You could find that house quickly. What makes
00:21:46.540 it special? We only take 15% in the middle, so we're making money on it. Then the business
00:21:51.620 model, how you make money. Wholesale play, selling subscriptions, and then why do it now?
00:21:59.060 So what's the problem? What's your magic? What's your business model, how you make money,
00:22:02.740 and why do it now? Problem, selection, timing. That's all you need. Then you go into, okay,
00:22:10.840 are there enough dogs to eat your dog food? What market are you serving? How many people are there?
00:22:16.740 Is that number growing? You know, well, we're, you know, we sell things to young mothers. Okay,
00:22:23.240 that market's growing. What's your competition? Competition is funny. How many people got in business
00:22:31.120 and at first thought that maybe had no competition? We're so different, we have no competition.
00:22:35.660 Come on. There you go. Okay. Honesty prevails. Yep. We did it too. Jammed that mobile. We made games
00:22:42.360 for mobile phone. We boldly went into some of the largest venture capitalists in Silicon Valley,
00:22:47.800 and on the competition side, we said, we compete with boredom. They reacted just like that. They're like,
00:22:56.820 okay. Okay, guys. Yeah, you do have a competitor. You just don't realize that it's the game boy that's
00:23:03.800 in the backpack, and you're talking phones. So you can't be clever with it. You have to be honest
00:23:08.640 about what the competition is. Yes, there will always be competition, and who are they?
00:23:13.700 Then the timeline. What is your history? What traction do you have? What milestones you copied? I got my
00:23:20.640 friend from college to join me. I got two engineers that have been with me. We've got 3,000 nights we've
00:23:25.640 already sold here in San Francisco. Boom. Market competition timeline. Finally, who's running this?
00:23:34.340 Are you making money? And what are you asking for? Here's my team. Here's the details of the people
00:23:41.180 that have joined us. We've got a good little team now. Here's the results we have to date. Meager they
00:23:47.340 may be. We're losing money at the moment, but at the end of six months, we won't be. But here's our
00:23:51.760 financial results. And finally, here's the ask. Here's how much we'll need, and here's how long
00:23:57.200 we think it's going to last. Because we're raising money now, then we're going to raise money here,
00:24:02.260 and then we're going to be off to the races. Or we think this is the only money we'll raise,
00:24:07.300 we'll break even here, and then we're off to the races. This is it. That's the whole deck,
00:24:13.480 and it packs into 10 to 15 slides at most. And then the narrative. You don't read the deck.
00:24:22.420 On every slide, you passionately make a point and add it so they can see your passion, feel your drive,
00:24:29.820 see how you think. Use the opportunity to let them read your deck, and then you add the color so that
00:24:38.100 they get the feeling for you as a person from end to end. And stay within your personality.
00:24:45.200 I've had some really fun Zooms where the person on the other end was performing their presentation,
00:24:51.000 not making a presentation. Do you understand what I mean? Like they've done it this way,
00:24:55.140 they watch Steve Jobs, or they watch a video over here with the guys from Google or something,
00:24:59.840 and they're really kind of performing, and it's kind of fake. You know, you can fake it and try to be
00:25:05.100 Steve Jobs or Elizabeth Holmes. Remember, she tried to be like Steve Jobs, the Theranos girl,
00:25:10.280 and now she's going to jail. Don't fake it. Because if somebody tries to fake it, it's almost
00:25:14.860 like Elvis singing Nirvana. You're listening to it, and it makes no sense, right? You'll come as you are,
00:25:22.240 as you were, as I want you to be. You're listening, you're like, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait,
00:25:28.700 what was that? My brain is so confused. You know what? That's what you're going to do
00:25:33.900 to your listeners. That's exactly what you're going to do. Be yourself. Let your style come out. Let
00:25:41.220 your passion come out. Let everything come out. So, you know, I may only raise money once. Why do I
00:25:48.820 need to have a pitch deck? I'll tell you why. Your pitch deck is part of your strategic planning
00:25:53.900 process, because it always helps you focus. Second, it helps you recruit key team members.
00:25:59.480 And it's not just when you're starting. Five years into it, your critical person may be a VP of
00:26:05.940 sales, and you're this big, and they're at a company this big, and you're trying to get them
00:26:10.700 to jump. How many people have had the issue of trying to get a person you absolutely want to
00:26:15.760 have your company jump? Yeah, look at that. A lot of you. How do I get them to come here? It's part of
00:26:22.940 it. Speaking to friends and family. Whether you're raising money or just communicating what
00:26:28.120 you're doing, especially if that happens to be your spouse. And she says, I just don't know what
00:26:34.100 you're doing. Or he's like, I don't understand what it is you're up to. Engaging a bank. You'll go to a
00:26:40.780 bank for a credit line. Asset-based financing. They need to hear it. And you come in there, and they're
00:26:47.220 evaluating you. And they're going to look at your numbers, sure, but they're also going to be
00:26:50.840 underwriting who they think you are as a dependable leader to deliver the outcome.
00:26:58.080 And then, of course, speaking to investors, and also when it's time to sell the business.
00:27:02.200 When you sell the business, always the first answer is, I don't need to sell the business. I
00:27:06.540 could continue. Because here's what we're doing. Here's where I'm going. And by the way, let me show
00:27:11.680 you. I'll give you my 15-page deck. I'll explain it. I know where I'm going. I know what my next moves
00:27:16.320 are. If you want to buy it, maybe we talk. But always have it. Because the best position,
00:27:22.260 if someone's coming to buy your business, is being able to say, no, we'll keep driving. Thanks.
00:27:27.180 Appreciate you coming. Appreciate this. So your pitch deck should be part of your strategic planning
00:27:31.880 process. You always know. Check your compass stock. And it will infect all of the people in
00:27:37.660 your organization because they know where you're going. It's part of the compass that you're setting,
00:27:41.180 along with your culture, your accountability, and what you will and won't accept at the business.
00:27:46.960 So here's my keys for success on this. Know your differentiators. That's number one for me.
00:27:53.280 Know why you're in business. Know why people love you. Know the truth of all that. And have a
00:27:58.820 bitchin' elevator pitch. Sorry for the word. But have that down for you speak to anybody. People here,
00:28:06.700 people you're trying to recruit, the whole list I've given you. Then that crisp pitch deck. It's part
00:28:14.080 of your strategic plan and your compass. And a compelling narrative that goes along with the
00:28:19.580 pitch deck. What's very interesting, and you should do this, go take a look at some of the presentations
00:28:24.880 Steve Jobs made where there was only a chart or an image on the screen. And he just narrated through
00:28:33.040 it. It's one of the best examples I've ever seen of really emotionally tying to an audience and
00:28:39.820 putting it together. Now, don't try to be Steve Jobs, but look at the example of how the spoken word
00:28:46.120 compelled you and the graphic and the chart backed it up. So I hope I've left you better than I found
00:28:54.520 you with this. And this is what value attainment is here to do. Also leave you better than you found
00:28:59.360 you. Everything we do aligns with that. Whether it's the monthly mastermind webinar, elite
00:29:05.840 masterminds, one-on-ones with Pat himself, sales leadership summit, the vault here, business
00:29:11.800 planning, online digital courses, business strategy, sales system, art of public speaking. We've got these
00:29:18.100 resources here to equip you. And part of this presentation was to kind of underline where and
00:29:24.880 how you can be so much better equipped, you know, preparing to look for investors, or even if you're
00:29:31.360 never looking for investors, preparing someday to acquire a competitor or to sell your business. I assume
00:29:37.100 that's everybody's plan at some point. And I have a course that mirrors this called Pitch Deck PhD that
00:29:44.340 walks you all the way through. So with those, we have a little time for Q&A, and I think that's where we're
00:29:51.340 going to go now. But my name is Tom Ellsworth, the BizDoc, and on the core part of this presentation,
00:29:56.200 I hope I left you better than I found you. Make some noise.