For my Entrepreneurial Finance course, the second Entrepreneurship class I have taken so far, everyone was required to pitch a business idea and then group projects would form around these ideas and run for a portion/most of the semester. Through these groups we would determine feasibility, develop business plans, and present a final presentation. It’s still the beginning of the semester so we just did pitches last week and my idea was ranked high enough that a group was actually formed from it! In the case that I make a million dollars in the future, I won’t tell you my idea just yet.

My idea had grown enough on me that I was willing to sign up to pitch at IdeaStorm. IdeaStorm is a roughly 2 hour event in which students are pitching their business ideas -under 60 seconds- to a panel of judges. There are monetary prizes. I was revved and ready to go.

Unfortunately, my nerves got the best of me once it was my turn.

I’ve never been an atrocious public speaker. I did bits of theatre in high school and a relative calm tends to settle over me before I present. Not today. Today I blundered all over my pitch and psyched myself out. Naturally, I want to beat myself up about it. And I did a little in the moments following my pitch. However, I plan on taking this as a learning experience and using this experience to better my pitch next time. I look forward to it.