Gratitude Monday: Pitching a fit

My department at work sponsored a six week class whose aim is to teach our colleagues some of the principles and methodologies of coming up with workable business ideas. You know, like “Airbnb for dogs” (an actual thing, which I know because they just closed a $40M round of funding a few months ago), or Birchbox for demolitions (not an actual thing. That I know of. Yet).

After a month and a half of learning and practicing this, the culmination was a pitch competition: each of the eleven* of us had to pitch a business idea to a panel of three judges, with six finalists being chosen to go one more round, where they post a two-minute video of our pitch to the Intranet, and our colleagues throughout the company vote on two final winners.

(*Eleven because, while five people dropped out well before the pitch week, four more just announced less than a day before the big session that they wouldn’t be participating. No particular reason, beyond, “stuff happens.” Lesson learned for the next time we do this: we make people sign an agreement that if we spend this money bringing an external instructor in to teach you, you drag your sorry ass to the finish line.)

Well, dear reader, I’ll cut a long and shaggy story short: the good news is that I did not disgrace myself. The bad news is that I’m one of the finalists and therefore have to cough up a video. (Even though I am not eligible for the prize, since my department is putting this thing on. And it’s a good prize.)

And I would rather swallow ground glass than be in a video, much less be the only person in a video.

Well, but (and this is the focus of my gratitude) I am not without resources. Friends of mine run a photography and videography studio, and I traded them an hour of my writing work for them shooting my video. I spent a good part of the day yesterday with them, working on this (and the writing project). It was fascinating, because although I got plenty tired of hearing my voice muff my spiel take after take in front of the green screen, they kept me going, and I’m almost looking forward to seeing the finished product.

And therefore, in conclusion, I’m grateful that I did not have to go through this ordeal all alone, just me and my laptop cam.

Thank you. I actually will be here all week, and you should definitely tip your server.