• Tweet

• Tweet

Last night, I presented the vision and aim of TeenBusinessForum at a Meetup in DC.  The event, was sponsored by NetSquared and the event was called SpeedGeek Show & Tell.  There were 8 presenters in all, and we each had about 7 minutes for both the presentation and feedback.  Anyway, let’s get to the exciting stuff.  I presented much less about the TBF business forums and much more on what I believe in, how I will go doing that, and how TBF is the medium to do that.  I don’t believe that’s the typical presentation format.  The norm is to start with the company or product, then what it sells, how it benefits customers, the price point, and then maybe why the company was started.  I definitely got people’s attention because my belief about entrepreneurship spoke to a lot of them.  Here are some things I learned.

Start With Why

I had 8 slides and I didn’t even get to talk about what TeenBusinessForum is until the 4th slide, almost half way into the presentation.  Why did I do that?  Well, if you remember, I linked to the TED talk by Simon Sinek many times now on how great leaders inspire action.  I decided to take his Golden Circle model and start with why I founded TBF.  So I began the presentation with the beliefs I had about entrepreneurship, entrepreneurs, and the world.  From that beginning, I saw several eye contact and nods in the room which indicated to me that some believed what I believed in, and maybe they will take up my vision as their own.  My next slides talked about how those beliefs can be obtained with this strategy- to empower teen entrepreneurs to be the next generation of business leaders.  And then, I talked about TeenBusinessForum being the platform to do that.  By this point, people were very interested in this project because some could identify their beliefs with mine and take up the TBF vision.

Overcoming Fear Of Public Speaking

This was absolutely my first public speaking engagement to a crowd of about 50-70.  I remember being nervous right up to the presentation.  And then it left me.  What happened?  I wanted to present so badly that nothing could stop me.  That was the key.  I didn’t even know I was presenting until the day before and didn’t finish my slides until a hour and half before the event.  I had been emailing the organizer to find out about the event, past presenters, audiences for well over a month.  I had committed so much to the event already that I could not possibly back out.  And also my passion for entrepreneurship, changing the world, helping teen entrepreneurs took over.  At that point, it was about telling stories and trying to  inspire and less about facts and figures.  I was rewarded when someone in the audience commented on my passion and how it will sell.  How great was that?

My Plan For The Presentation

I planned for a 5 minute presentation with 5 minutes of Q&A.  When told later that I only had 7 minutes total, I asked the time keeper to give me a heads up when I was at the 4 minute mark so I can finish off the presentation and get to the feedback.  That was important to me- to see and hear the reactions of the people in the room for both the idea, and the way I presented.  I had 8 slides, but only 5 of them had talking points.  I went the approach of 1-minute per slide.  That worked out well.  One of my slides at the end was an image of many different logos that included Mashable, Inc, Entrepreneur, Washington Post, etc.  One of the things I wanted to do was to generate press, or have press come to me.  I was hoping that someone in the room could connect me with those organizations that are interested in what I was doing.  I saw this done only once at another startup presentation event and thought it was ingenious.  The presenter was looking to get written up on similar websites and publications.  The result?  About 6 months later when I looked at his website again, he was written up on many of them.  (In case you’re wondering, his site is CoupleSpark.com.  Thanks Kunmi.)  Also, I had 5 index cards that I prepared to remind me of what I wanted to talk about.  Five cards, 1 minute each.  On one of my cards, I wrote down answers to some of the questions that I might be asked.  That way, I won’t be surprised.  And yes, I got asked some of those questions.

Goals And Outcome

I had 3 goals- bring awareness (promote the brand), connect with the or generate press, and connect with possible strategic partners.  It’s still very early but I definitely accomplished the first.  The press may or may not come depending on who I’m able to connect with.  And I hope to talk to a few people who liked my ideas to see where things go.  Things look promising.

[Image Credit: feuilllu]