3. “Runners High”
Designer note: Need a graphic for the following scenario
(explained below in talk track). Include this copywriting with the
graphics
Step 1: Get out of bed/
Leave your home
May take you a while to
warm up but you start your
workout
Get a “runners high”
and feel good you did
this
Towards the end of
the workout you start
to question your
insanity
4. Founders High
• Designer note: Show ups and down hill graphic using the
following coprywriting
Took that first step and
decided to launch that
business
Start working and
see some progress
Hit some hurdles
Hit some more
hurdles
A breakthrough
5. Am I in the Right Place
First-time entrepreneurs Feeling Stuck & Unmotivated
Show an icon
of a person
starting their
journey at the
bottom of a
moutain
Show an icon
of a person
midway
struggline
6. How do you Become an Entrepreneur?
You simply BE
51.4% of entrepreneurs have at least a bachelor’s degree.
Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation
Designer note: Possibly a graphic on an entrepreneur and graphics of an exam or test with an x and a degree to show it’s
not necessary
7. Build and Build Some More
Being an entrepreneur takes consistency. The more you build and the
longer you stick with it the better you will get
Designer note: Create graphic on the right side showing saying no to
starting with a lot of money and on the left show building
8. What Does Success Take?
Myth: A great idea leads to a successful business
Idea
Team
Marketing
Consumers
Business
Model
Timing
Luck
Strategy
9. The Idea is Just the Beginning
Ideas alone don’t make money
Designer note: show graphic of idea starting at the beginning and
a full unknown journey after that. On the unknown part of the
graph please headline it with the title “Execution”
10. The Reality
Great idea + poor execution= can lead to great failure
Poor idea + great execution= can lead to great success
Designer note: please make this look nice
11. My First Ask:
Motivation can be a good driver but it’s not way to sustain and keep
that consistency.
(Nike just do it logo) Just Keep Doing It
Designer note: Have a race flag icon at the beginning of the
line/journey
12. What is Your Driver?
What are you doing this for and WHO are you doing this for?
Money, Fame, Power, Status, Innovation, Social Impact (designer
note: make this a graphic)
13. Understanding our Why Helps Bring Strength
for Consistency and Clarity
North Star
Founder
Commun
ity
Mentors
Personal
Tribe
14. Your Levels of Defense
Designer note: need animation graphic of one wall being broken
down at a time.
Personal Tribe,
Founder Community,
Mentors
Your Why, North Star Your Grit
Talk track: Congrats on taking the first step, which is usually the hardest. Not because we aren’t smart enough but usually because of our own limitations, beliefs, and of course life itself. Maybe it’s been hard juggling a family or your full time job has been taking a toll on your mental and physical strength. Whatever it was that was holding you back from starting your entrepreneurial journey, I want to be one of the first ones to congratulate you on this first step. From here on out continual steps forward. You may not fully believe in yourself yet, almost every founder and corporate executive I talk to say they still feel those days of imposter syndrome. So ignore those thoughts in your head asking yourself “Am I ready yet”. You may not know everything now and hey, if we’re being honest none of us will ever get to the point where we know everything. Mastery, if we want to look at that as a goal takes time and most importantly DOING. So I am excited to embark on this journey with you and I promise to be here for the ups and downs that will inevitably come.
Talk track: Analogy of running or going to the gym. It’ll be hard to take the first step getting out of bed or leaving the comfort of your home, then your happy you did it and if you stay long enough you kind of end up regretting it and it gets hard again
That’s the life of an entrepreneur. You may start with good intentions but you never start or you’re in this program and you may be feeling motivated for a while but when a road block hits and another one and another one you start to lose hope
Talk track: You may have attended a workshop or heard about the incubator through social media and was feeling that “Founders High” when you decided to sign up. But you may be asking yourself, “Am I really in the right place?” As a reminder this incubator is for entrepreneurs who have yet to start their journey and those who may have started but are feeling stuck. So whether you are pressing the start button for the first time or the reset button this incubator will help bring clarity and actual progression of your business. It doesn’t matter if you are building a fintech company, bakery, agency, or ai-based startup. The principles that we dive into can and will be applied to your individual business.
Talk track: If you want to be an entrepreneur you simply be one by becoming one. Unlike a doctor or lawyer there is no exam no bar you need to pass. You just build! You may have it in your mind that you need a high level education in business, finance or engineering to call yourself an entrepreneur. Instead, we call you founders and entrepreneurs day 1 for simply taking this first step. However, your focus should not be on labels and creating business cards with CEO in big bold letters. Having a title is the easy part, doing the work deserving of the title is the hard part. Which we’ll dive into here shortly.
Talk track: There are no strategies inside this program that requires significant capital. We do this not only to reduce the barrier to entry to entrepreneurship to those facing financial hardship but also it’s just a smart way to start. Pouring thousands or hundreds of thousands of dollars into an IDEA that has no guarantee that it will be successful can be very risky. Even early stage startups who want to raise venture capital at the earliest stages are having an uphill battle as investors typically want to see some pretty significant signals that the idea has the opportunity to be profitable in the future. Instead of going out and trying to raise money or get a loan is to simply “spend” our time by building.
Talk track: We will talk more about the success equation in lesson 3 but for now I want to touch upon this notion of our idea. Some of you may be very excited about your idea and may feel like a genius, love the confidence by the way. Others may have a rough idea in the direction you want to go but no solidified plan yet. Either way, you have an opportunity to become successful as we move forward in the program. A popular myth is that a great idea will lead to a successful business. But an idea is simply that, just an idea. It is one of many components when building a business, and one that often changes throughout the life of your business.
Talk track: The truth is a great idea is just that, an idea. Ideas don’t make you money. The buck stops there if that’s all you have. It’s about execution.
Talk track: If you end of having a poor idea but you execute correctly, you’ll end up pivoting and getting to a great solution. We will get into what typically constitutes as a “good idea” in Module 3. But for now, if you have a business idea in mind and you haven’t started, just understand that at this early stage, your idea is an hypothesis
Talk Track: I mentioned earlier that I promise to help guide in through the fun times and the really crappy times. My ask to you is that you stay consistent and become resilient. We will talk more about mindset in the later lessons and throughout the program because it is such an important aspect of entrepreneurship and something that needs continual practice and attention. But for now, I want you replace motivation as your driver with something more permanent and impactful. Use that new driver to just do it and then keep doing it.
Talk track: We won’t go to into this today but I will point you to some amazing additional resources at the end of the lesson. It is important that we put it in here because not everyone has done this helpful step. Often times, sitting down alone with our thoughts and asking ourselves important questions can be very difficult. We may not feel it’s worth our precious time or have any benefit but both reasons are false.
Talk track: You may have heard this also being discussed as “your north star”. When things get tough you will have this community, the mentors, your personal tribe and your why to lean on and remind you why you started this journey in the first place.
Talk track: When things get difficult you will go through a wide range of emotions and as a result you defenses will be challenged. After a blow you may lean on others for support, guidance, and inspiration. Next you may have to sit down and really reflect on why you started in the first place, but finally you will need to rely on yourself to plow through. Because at the end of the day no one is going to save you. You have to want it bad enough to continue to move forward.
Talk track: I know this may seem like a weird stat to end on but I want to make this clear. We all have an idea on the stats of business, how 1 in 5 are bound to fail in the first year. We know it’s a difficult journey full of uncertaintiy and at times lonliness. But because of all those reasons involving our why we choose to go through it. And I want to assure you that even in the off chance this isn’t a profitable venture for you, it will be worth it. You will grow in more ways than you think and be even more prepared the next time around.
