How my entrepreneur pitch competition 'Mompreneur' approach reduces anxiety | Opinion

I am a licensed counselor, corporate trainer and an entrepreneur, who is all about doing no harm as I work with founders and leaders. I challenge my clients, offer a nurturing and safe space to grow and win.

It's important to me that there is an option that does not keep you up at night agonizing over only saying 150 words during your 90-second business pitch. Each pitch competition has its own guidelines.

Entrepreneurs must be able to follow instructions, deliver what the judges are expecting within a specific timeframe and from what I have seen, entertain in order to win. There are great opportunities for entrepreneurs to pitch ideas to investors, but not every event is for everyone. It's quite daunting.

On July 22, the Powerhouse Panels & Pitches: Women Inspiring Women offered a $3,000 prize to the first-place winner. According to the Score Nashville event site, the goal was to learn, network and be empowered.

I was so excited about the opportunity to learn from Aireka Harvell, who has won many pitch competitions. She offered us personalized feedback on our pitches.

Score Nashville put on a whole conference of workshops on pricing, networking, grants and funding. I enjoy conferences, yet the pit of my gut was reeling in anticipation all day.

Hear more Tennessee Voices: Get the weekly opinion newsletter for insightful and thought provoking columns. 

My pitch approach lowers anxiety

I could not focus on the empowering activities, because my anxiety was through the roof. I felt unseen being one of the 38 pitchers as we were not recognized publicly for showing up for ourselves.

I networked with a lady who did the virtual class, but did not go through with pitching. I believe every pitcher should have been acknowledged.

Well, the process of the Mompreneur Pitch Competition that was held on July 30 was set in motion on June 1, which was my one-year anniversary of being the Nashville Startup Grind director.

I decided to celebrate this anniversary by putting on a pitch competition for someone like me, a mom entrepreneur. After my experience in other pitch competitions, I wanted it to enhance while nurturing and supporting the participants.

Hear from Tennessee's Black Voices: Get the weekly newsletter for powerful and critical thinking columns.

Your Goal Concierge, Inc. and Startup Grind— a global startup community giving startups the education, opportunity and access they need to build, grow and scale, partnered with Mothers Overcoming Marginalized Systems (MOMS), non-profit, to offer a Mompreneur Pitch Competition.

The judges consisted of Dr. Aikyna Finch, PCC, Eileen Murphy, PhD, Corey Hart and Bill McCleskley. Every single participant won brand awareness with this competition through specialized promotion and crowdfunding.

Funding is an obstacle that every startup has to conquer, yet let us not forget the importance of brand awareness— which is a byproduct of traditional pitch competitions. Our innovative approach put brand awareness in the forefront.

Your state. Your stories. Support more reporting like this.
A subscription gives you unlimited access to stories across Tennessee that make a difference in your life and the lives of those around you. Click here to become a subscriber.

Latoya Mitchell, CEO of Alise Anthony Designs, stated, “After taking your pitch class, I completed my portfolio. I posted the flier you created for me on my Facebook page. That was huge for me.”

This fresh take on pitch competitions considers the emotional and mental aspects of a person. We all want to be witnessed and validated for our efforts.

Erica Kesse, founder of Your Goal Concierge, Inc. Nashville Startup Grind Director, is a Nashville native and MS in Clinical Mental Health Counseling, MA in Civic Leadership graduate of Lipscomb University, residing in Nashville, TN 

This article originally appeared on Nashville Tennessean: How my innovative pitch competition approach reduces anxiety