The Key To Success As An Entrepreneur, Colleen DeBaise

Wes Schaeffer
April 19, 2018

Remove the polish and make it personal to help your story sell

Stream below or right click here to download the episode.

“The Wall Street Journal. Complete Small Business Guidebook“
“Start a Successful Business: Expert Advice to Take Your Startup from Idea to Empire (Inc. Magazine)”
- Many entrepreneurs are driven to start a business because of a pain point they want to solve
- Sara Blakely, founder of Spanx
- Time, patient, effort, resources are required
Mint.com founder was struggling with his personal finances became his own first customer
Be willing to adapt and modify your initial idea
“The Lean Startup: How Today’s Entrepreneurs Use Continuous Innovation to Create Radically Successful Businesses,” Eric Reiss
- Start with your MVP—Minimum Viable Product
- Netflix and Amazon
- Elon Musk
Things will never be perfect to launch so launch
So much common sense is overlooked
“Staple yourself to your customer’s order.”
Get new ideas from new people
- Conferences
- Mentors
- Masterminds
- Co-working
Your pitch is too polished and impersonal for bonding with the media
- Highlight the quirky bits of your entrepreneurial journey
- “We (in the media) are not investors.”
- “If it bleeds it leads.”
- Make it personal
- Share your secrets to success, your growth hacks, your secrets, your morning routines
- Create a hook around a “news peg”
- “Fast turnaround” – less of a profile piece and more current
Her favorite entrepreneurial story is Warby Parker, online eyeglass retailer
- They disrupted the status quo

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