Living the Startup Life

There was a VC to my left, a VC to my right, and an audience full of Anderson MBA students. Every person in the room was older than I was, had more experience, and had more schooling. I could feel my heart thumping against my chest right before the speaker panel started. I started feeling that same feeling that I’ve dreaded for so many years. You know the feeling. It’s that nerve-wrecking, stomach twisting, palm-sweating feeling that makes your voice tremble when you speak and makes you look like a total loser in front of the people you are speaking to.

I was asked to be a speaker at the Entrepreneur Association Conference at UCLA Anderson by my good friend Paul who is a 1st year at the school.

[I want to bring up website design really quick (since this is a marketing & PR blog). If you click on the link above, you'll notice a very unique website. It scrolls to the right, is done in pure flash I believe, and is in full black and white with some color jpegs. The advantage is that it plays to the theme of innovation; however, I feel that there are more drawbacks and disadvantages to the site than there are advantages.
First of all, since the site is done in Flash, one cannot copy/paste anything from the site nor can one Ctrl+F and search for certain words throughout the site. The black and white makes it look sad and depressing. If you have every seen the Anderson culture, you'll notice that it is fun, vibrant, and alive. The website does not play to the brand of the school.]

So was I nervous? Yes. Every speaker gets nervous no matter how good they are.

“There are two types of speakers. Those that get nervous, and those that lie.”

Did I do well? Yes. I feel that I was able to hold my ground and offer some great insight on the entrepreneurial side of things. Which leads me to the point of my post: if you have not fully prepared for your speech, if everyone in the room has more experience than you, if the other panelists are people who are absolute experts in the industry that you are in, and if the audience members can easily think that they are better than you, how can you make yourself seem impressive so that everyone in the room respects you and sees you as an expert in your field (or at least on par with everyone else)?

The key to everything in life is confidence.

You will be able to accomplish 99% of the challenges in your life successfully if you have the confidence to do it.  Fear comes from uncertainty; confidence comes from preparation and the belief in yourself that you can do anything.  When it comes to public speaking, there are two ways to gain absolute confidence:

1. Practice, practice, and practice like a madman so you absolutely know the material
2. Keep putting yourself in public speaking situations so that it becomes as natural as breathing

I used to be a nervous wreck when it came to public speaking so I did #2 from above.  I constantly put myself in public speaking situation by starting Bruin Consulting, establishing the UCLA Case Competition, starting a consulting firm, and leading the business development and marketing side for Future Delivery.  Whatever your fear may be, if you put yourself in a situation where you have to constantly face your fears, then you will eventually overcome them.

By the way, I just say Fist of Fury on TV.  Bruce Lee is so damn amazing!!!

My colleagues (Yu-kai, Shin, Gabe, and Garren) and I went to an event tonight called The First 100 Days of a CMO. The presenter was Scott Hamilton from Allign and he spoke about how a CMO can successfully integrate himself within the company and ultimately lead the company to success. Overall it was a great presentation and what I want to write about is something that stood out in my mind during the event.

The room was full of people in their mid 30’s. My colleagues and I had badges on that read “students” so that people would be able to recognize us and place us in the right seats (not that they couldn’t distinguish simply by looking at our young faces). During the event, Scott asked us to get into groups and run a case study about how to effectively quantify the commitment of your marketing team.

To be honest, I wasn’t that into it and I merely sat back while everyone at my table discussed some points. After listening to what they had to say, I commented on my view points, added to their ideas, and began to sum everything up into bullet points and key topics. To my surprise (surprise because everyone was at least 10 years older than I was), everyone loved the direction that I was headed towards and chose me to be the speaker for our table. They wanted me to present my ideas.

The funny thing was that Yu-kai Chou, who was sitting at another table, was chosen to speak for his table as well. Now what’s going on here? We are literally fresh out of college, and we’re asked to present the ideas when there are people here with 10+ more years of experience than us. Yu-kai and I decided to analyze the situation and we came out with these conclusions:

1. We speak with authority and confidence

If you want to demonstrate that you know something and can contribute to the topic, you need to speak with confidence and in factual statements when adding your ideas. Yu-kai and I speak through people - not just at them - when we are adding out points of view. Speaking through a person means to actually project your voice through them, so it’s like you’re talking to them as if they were two steps back from where they are standing. We also speak with authority by giving clear, concise ideas with concrete stories to back up our ideas.

2. We synergies ideas

Yu-kai and I not only look to contribute our own ideas, but we look for the synergies between all of the ideas. How does this comment relate to the other comment and how can it further our project. It is one thing to acknowledge that the person had a great idea; it is an even better thing to take her idea, mix it with yours, and come out with an even more powerful idea.

3. We lead with questions

Yu-kai and I love leading with questions. This means that we begin every team conversation with probing questions that make everyone in the team contribute. We do not want to give a lecture and tell everyone on the team what to do; instead, we know that 5 heads are better than just one, and by creating an environment where everyone feels confident and free to contribute their ideas, we generate the perfect setting for the best ideas to flourish.

4. We summarize points and make it concrete

Yu-kai and I both summarized the ideas and strategies of our tables. Not only did we summarize them, but we articulated the ideas to our team in a clear and concise manner so that everyone understood the exact steps that we were taking. We also acknowledge the person who made the contribution for each point so that they feel praised and rewarded for their efforts.

These 4 reasons are why Yu-kai and I were both chosen to speak for our tables. Learn to use these traits successfully and you too will become a leader.