Do you ever just have one of those amazing all-day flights where you’re above the clouds and you feel like you could achieve anything? Ha, yeah, I don’t usually either. Flights are generally a grind. But Saturday (September 9th), was a lucky flight, and thank goodness because it led up to a significant pitch I had to deliver to a huge Manhattan fintech audience on Monday morning.
Blessedly, I had a window seat and a beautiful skyview of middle America as we flew across what seemed like endless farmland. Flying over Chicago and the great lakes was particularly wonderful, I know they’re huge but even from the air it seemed as if we were flying over ocean; they seemed to go on forever. At the San Francisco airport I had just purchased a new book, Megyn Kelly’s Settle For More. After zipping through half of her book from San Francisco to somewhere over Illinois (Megyn, an Independent, has led a very interesting life, much of it not what you might expect) I popped open my laptop.
My own life has been one heck of a journey these past couple of years in particular, fueled by an effort to build the life that I want. With each risk that I take, and there are many, there have been wrong turns, failures, and amongst those confusing, frustrating hardships, small wins that are building slowly upon one another. I’m starting to see the light at the end of the tunnel. Creating a life that feels good, feels exciting, and feels like a genuine fit is hard, it’s f*cking hard. It’s like searching the sea for a sunken ship; there’s no direct marker that you’re in the right place, you just have to let your senses guide you and when you think you’ve found something good, really dig into it, go deep. Sometimes you hit the bottom and there’s nothing there for you. Sometimes you find a mermaid on the way. And sometimes, if you’re really lucky, you find treasure.
Without much concern if it’s something that anyone would actually want to read, I’ve begun writing a book about my experiences on this journey. Writing down the thoughts and experiences that swirl around in my brain is rather cathartic, so it’s worth the while.
I thought maybe on Saturday’s flight that I would write a page or so, but goodness if I didn’t motor through eight full pages. Lots to get out.
Finally, somewhat begrudgingly, I turned to my pitch. I needed to ensure I had my 2:46 portion memorized by heart.
I was flying to New York for Finovate’s Fall fintech (financial tech) conference, held in Midtown Manhattan, September 11th-13th. There were to be about 80 companies pitching their technology on stage, and the company I went with, Voleo, was to demo its millennial-friendly investment club app. My job was to explain why this technology is particularly beneficial to beginner investors and to the millennial / Generation Z demographic.
I stared out the window into the blue sky and fluffy white clouds and rehearsed the words over, and over, and over. Nerves were starting to become excitement to get on stage – I’m one of those people who loves public speaking and relishes the opportunity to do a good job of it. When enough felt like enough (there is a point to which you can over practice), I pulled out Saturday’s NYT. The kind lady next to me, drink in hand, saw the newspaper and said, “oh, this is wayy more fun!” and handed me her Glamour magazine. I laughed and thanked her, crying just a liiiittle bit inside. Fun is not a substitute for understanding world events, business, and markets… Especially when you’re headed to a fintech conference.
But I didn’t want to seem rude, so I read through the magazine and did enjoy it. I believe that all publications offer value, and I thoroughly appreciate Glamour’s work to normalize conversations about sex for women and editorial promotion of many body shapes, I just want to be able to go into a field dominated by men and hold my own on the issues of the day. Those issues are generally covered in trade publications or newspapers.
With traffic, I didn’t get to my hotel until about 7pm and thought it was probably best not to find a fun champagne cocktail somewhere fabulous. Boo. So Saturday night was an adventure of finding great New York pizza (I succeeded), stocking up on travel essentials and new makeup from CVS (I’m newly obsessed with this), practicing my pitch in my room, spending a little more time with Megyn’s book, and calling it an early night.
Sunday our team spent much of the day rehearsing and did a practice pitch on the renovate stage, which I bombed. I completely blanked and forgot a critical portion. Not a great start. Afterwards we did many more rounds of practice and decided it was time for dinner and a drink.
Sunday night I set my alarm for 6:00am with plans for yoga, a leisurely shower and plenty of time to iron, feeling very excited for the next morning. Our team was pitching fourth at 9:30am.
Monday morning and I woke up at 8:00am. The alarm never went off (I had brilliantly set it for PM). No time to wash my hair, no time to iron. I literally got ready in 15 minutes and did my makeup in the Lyft.
As soon as I got there we rushed backstage to get our mics set up. I ran over the words again a few times, trying to work out the nervous energy that was building. I had decided not to bring cue cards on stage with me and just pray that I really had memorized it all. I don’t know what it is, but something happens when I go before a large crowd of people (and this crowd was enormous, in the hundreds), I just get zen. The pitch went perfectly. Somehow despite being frazzled and feeling tired and hungover from the two drinks I had at dinner, it was the best version of the pitch I’d given; natural and on point. Thank f*cking goodness because it was filmed for distribution across Finovate’s channels as well as Voleo’s.
I’m very happy to report that Voleo went on to win Best of Show, as voted by the audience, along with 5 other companies who pitched over the first two days of the conference. On Wednesday morning I joined representatives from each of the companies on stage for a panel, as seen below (not the best photo, I know, but it’s the best I can find).
What I’ve taken from this experience is a little bit of treasure: a bump in self confidence on a stage and a renewed desire to pursue what feels natural to me rather than following the path that feels more conventional. I very much look forward to sharing more on that soon!
Cheers!
Olivia
