Hi there and welcome to the Everyday Entrepreneur podcast where I, Caitlin Fritz help you reach your entrepreneurial potential. Together we can build your dream social impact business so that you can leave a legacy beyond your nine-to-five. Hello, hello, and welcome to this week's episode of Everyday Entrepreneurship. If this is your first time here, welcome. My name is Caitlin Fritz. I am an award winning entrepreneur, business coach, and. and enterprise educator. I have been in your shoes starting a tech for good business from paper prototypes and some really terrible sketches all the way to being in Forbes. And on that journey, I have fell in love with supporting other entrepreneurs, business owners, and founders. And I'm proud to say, as of this summer, I have supported over 750 incredible entrepreneurs from across the world. And What I want to talk about today is something very close to my heart, something I really love, and that is pitching. So I was having a think before this episode, and growing up, I don't really think I enjoyed public speaking that much. And it wasn't until I don't even know when that it all suddenly changed. I realized that if you are able to harness the power of your voice. and communicate clearly, you can make a way bigger and better impact. And this is even more true when it comes to business. There are millions of great ideas out there, but there are few who can communicate them in a way that resonates and engages the audience. So what I wanted to share in this kind of snappy episode are A few tips you should be thinking about when you're creating your pitch. I've been working with founders a lot over the past couple of weeks because they're raising investment before summertime, some are in competitions for funding, and others are You know, having these conversations with partners and advancing to that more formal business pitch stage. And in these conversations, I realized that there are four C's you should remember when you're creating and executing your business pitch. And guess what? I'm going to fill you in on what those four C's are. So, the first C. This one's kind of obvious, but it's the content. The content of your business pitch is the most important thing when it comes to your communication. The slides, those are nice to have. Props, once again, those are compliments. You are the storyteller of your business, and your content needs to be able to deliver that story where your business has been. I tell founders, I would much rather you spend 60, 70, 80 percent of your time creating and practicing the content in your pitch than designing the sleekest, prettiest slides. Because that content is why those investors, those judges, or those potential partners are here. Now, the second C ties in very nicely with content. It's the construction. I believe that pitches very much can be designed and altered given the audience's needs and your communication style. There's not a one size fits all, this is what you need in a business pitch. But the order in which you tell your story The way you construct that narrative is so important, because you are basically taking the listeners on a ride, and you don't want to be on a school bus. That's stop, go, stop, go, stop, go. You want to be on a train that is smooth as butter. So what that means is making sure the construction of your content follows an order. In practicality, what this probably means is having an introduction and opening, maybe something like introduce your team, set the stage with your problem. What you don't want to do is introduce your business, jump into the solution, mention the market, go back to the problem. Then maybe we'll go over here and talk about our team, but then, Maybe we'll come back over here and talk about competition. That zig zagging is what will lose your audience's attention. So, map out your content, your key points, your narrative, and then think strategically about that second C, the construction. The third C really builds on both of those. And that is clarity. Whoo, one of the hardest jobs is to be the communicator of your business. And making sure that everybody walks away having a clear understanding of what you do, how you do it, why you do it. I spoke with a founder recently, and one thing they said was, Well, I gave my pitch. And the audience, they just didn't get it. They didn't even get it. And I flipped the table a little bit and said, you know, whose fault is that? Is that really the audience's fault? Or is that your fault? And as founders, as business owners, we need to take responsibility for the understanding of our audience, meaning it is our job to make our business proposal. Our value proposition and our pitch as clear and understandable as possible. So if you are able to ace the content you're wanting to deliver, nail the construction, clarity should fall into place. Clarity also means that you can communicate and articulate. Clearly, you might have great content in a wonderful construction. But if you're speaking as you know, 60s, if you're speaking so fast, you know, 600 words a minute, that is not being a clear communicator. So this one ties into both what you're pitching, but also how you are pitching it. And the last of the four C's. So I have to admit, um, I feel like we as a society, if we want to use that big of a broad brush, really favor charismatic founders. We kind of have this charisma bias where if someone is a great Public speaker, or they have lots of bubbly energy. They must be the best founder, the best pitcher for the job. And don't get me wrong, I've been guilty of that. People come up to me and be like, That was an amazing pitch, you have great energy. And I know that wasn't my best pitch, but I did overcompensate on energy. And I kind of want to flip it on its head and not say charisma as the fourth C. But confidence, whether you are introverted, extroverted, somewhere in between. If you have confidence in what you are delivering, in authenticity in your content, in your story of your business, that speaks volumes. And confidence doesn't need to be the loudest, the bubbliest. It just needs to be assurance and kind of that Unspoken authority you have as a business owner. Confidence, like anything, is a muscle that you work over and over and over again. So it's something that can be practiced where I feel like charisma or extroversion, you know, that's a lot harder to practice. So, let's think confidence, not exactly charisma. So those are the four C's I want you to think about when it comes to designing and delving into your business pitch. So remember if you want to support, so remember to support you on your next business pitch, think content, construction, clarity, and confidence. Now for those who don't know, I do offer one to one pitching support. So if you're interested in that, definitely drop me a line, there'll be a link in the show notes. And I'll I'm really excited because coming up on the Everyday Entrepreneurship Podcast, we have some really cool interviews, which I know you will be psyched to hear. Um, I don't want to give away too much yet, but be on the lookout. We're going to have some longer episodes with some great founders. And for all of those in the UK, I hope you are enjoying this summertime weather. And wherever you are, I hope you are staying safe. And well, as we start this summer season. So if you enjoyed this episode, please give me a like, subscribe, review. They honestly make a huge impact on ratings and where we are seen. If you've also enjoyed it, share it with a fellow entrepreneur, a friend, and be sure to check out my YouTube channel. where I'm going to be showing you more hands on, workshop style content for you to really build, grow, and scale your impact led business. That's it. So until next time, this is Everyday Entrepreneurship. Thank you for joining me for this episode of Everyday Entrepreneurship. To stay tuned and most up-to-date, subscribe wherever you listen to podcasts. You can follow me Caitlin Fritz on Instagram. And if you have any questions about building your business with Impact, drop me an email with the link in the show notes.