Jenny and her Entrepreneurial Journey-Week 2

OK, RMMFI Followers, this is Jenny again, a little intrigued and a little energized by what has happened for the seven of us over this past week in the RMMFI Boot Camp for entrepreneurs. Each week is made up of 2-3 evenings of learning, cohort-style, around a table or in front of a projector, and one more day a week finds each of us sitting with mentors and hashing out details and re-imagining visions. We each from the start took on a mantle of accountability that maybe few of us had ever experienced in the context of being a business owner. It is conversely and unexpectedly powerful, all that accountability. It creates an even more active dream, puts a big target on the emerging vision of each of us RMMFI entrepreneurs, and causes each business to take palpable shape.

The very first shape it takes is that of our ventures explained in that proverbial Elevator Pitch. Oh yes. And this is what happened: Not only did every one of us women and men find a way to mull through wording and think through what it is that each of us REALLY does (and wants to do), we stood up to the challenge of creating an elevator pitch worthy of its salt in the beginning scheme of things, when we are front-loading our learning in order to create viable businesses in which we can find our success. In other words, we created words that work.

The Elevator Pitch: We were trying to time ourselves to 30 seconds of describing what we do – accurately – with as much relevance as possible – and as many or as few words as it would take to create as much buzz as we could about our ventures. We all began rough, with some of us with smoother edges than others, but all rough. Poring seriously over the task that Jeremy first assigned us, we each took it just as seriously, even through the laughter of a newly-formed cohort team. We were, at that point, a motley crew of men and women obligated to their dreams now. We were to be concise, to evoke feelings and clarity with our words, and thus show the public just what’s under the hood of this enterprise we are each hard at work scheming and strategizing.

We even stood up to present our elevator pitch to the room that very first day. We don’t much anymore. No, not anymore, really, unless we really want to. Now a bit more comfortable in our stride, we have even jumped into brainstorming positioning statements (look at us!), and mapping out a beginner’s marketing tool. The shape of our elevator pitches is becoming clearer and beginning to pack a serious punch. It is exciting. Reality likes to intrude, though. This is where the questions are starting to get more personally relevant, starting to point towards the everyday, day to day challenges. Game on.

AARP is proud to collaborate with Rocky Mountain MicroFinance to offer scholarships for those 50 plus to pursue entrepreneurial opportunities.