When people find out that my sister and I had a business that we pitched on Shark Tank, I usually get two questions. “What was your product?” and “What did you learn?”
So I’m going to go ahead and give you the answers to both of those questions. Ready?
The answer to the first question is, “It doesn’t matter.”
The answer to the second is, “Not much.”
Thanks for coming to my TED Talk.
OK, so I should explain myself a little bit more. Obviously, what product each entrepreneur pitches bears some importance. And let me tell you. I have learned A LOT from the experience.
It just took a couple of years to get there.
- Your physical product doesn’t matter.
And you can bet your sweet cheeks on what I’m about to say all day long. Your product is secondary to EVERYTHING. People don’t buy what you’re selling. People buy YOU.
That’s right. YOU are your brand. There’s only one you and if you aren’t being authentic and adding value, don’t expect folks to jump all over your product. YOU are more important than the product. And, contrary to popular belief, nothing truly sells itself.
I’d also encourage you to take some sage advice from Tommy Boy:
- Lessons don’t come right away.
When you walk away from an experience like pitching on Shark Tank, the immediate lessons that come with it (at least in my case) can seem brutal.
The Sharks weren’t too gentle on us.
Our deal with Mark Cuban fell through. Our sales weren’t that great after airing. People were trolls. I found myself asking, “Why on earth did we do this? This was a horrible idea.” We spent so much time, money, energy—all the things—and we felt defeated.
If you want to be an entrepreneur, expect to fail. Period.
Growth happens from failure. If you’re not willing to risk things and know that you could fall flat on your butt, then business ownership is not for you. You have to embrace the challenges to learn from mistakes and make adjustments. It’s OK to experience hard lessons. You use these to shift your mindset and adjust your course.
- Other people’s opinion of you are none of your business.
Looks like Dr. Wayne Dyer was the OG who coined this concept. But it’s so dang true, y’all! YOU are responsible for the way you respond to adversity. YOU are responsible for how you react when someone says something hurtful about you or your product.
How should you respond? Well, you can go about it a couple of ways. The Southern way: “Awe. Bless your heart!” (This is total code for “That’s complete horseshit, you jerk.” )
OR, you can try the logical way: This person is walking around with limited facts about me and my product. They don’t have all the information they need to make informed decisions. That’s it. It really IS that simple.
