Positioning Yourself Powerfully with Investors - Kick off Livestream

Welcome everybody to our very first LinkedIn Live at Global InvestHer and Leader Like You, and we are so thrilled to be with you today. Thank you for taking a few minutes of time out of your busy day to learn more about positioning yourself powerfully with investors. My name is Anne Ravanona. I am founder and CEO of Global InvestHer. I'm your host for today, and also, you know, the partner of the wonderful Robert Kahn from Leader Like You. So I would like to introduce you to Robert. How are you, Robert?

Good morning to everybody and good afternoon as well. I'm doing great. It's good to be here. Thank you for having me.

So I would love every— any of you who are here, you know, tell us in the comments if you have any specific questions you'd like to know about the course. We're going to go through a lot of things. And we want to make sure we handle them all. So put them in the comments and don't worry if we don't handle them live in these 30 minutes. Robbie and I, we will answer them for you in the chat afterwards in the comments, if that's okay with you. So let's start at the very beginning as to who we are. Very briefly, those of you who may not know who I am. So I am a woman entrepreneur serving and advocating for women entrepreneurs for the past 10 to 15 years. And I created Global Invest Her as a platform as a place for female founders to learn about funding and get funded faster. And in our past, Robert and I have had the, had the wonderful pleasure of working together, um, uh, when I was a leadership consultant. And I'd like to hand over to Robert so that everybody can get to know you a bit better. Robert, tell us a bit more about you and your background.

Well, great, thanks, Anne. It's so nice to be here. So I'm a coach, trainer, consultant. My background is in public relations, marketing, and before I started as public relations and marketing, I worked in finance, manufacturing, online and offline industries. Now, for the past 21 years, I've had my own company and I focus on 3 levels of content. First of all, I help people with presentation skills. Presentation skills is not always in front of PowerPoint. Presentation skills can be entering a room, exiting a room, saying yes, saying no, asking for more, asking for less. With presentation skills, I help people on positive impact and maximizing positive impact to get more of what we want more of the time with less hassle, less resistance, and more buy-in. So, with how we present and how we create positive impact, After that, I help people on leadership. Now, sometimes you're leading ideas, thoughts, ventures, meetings— is helping people lead to get willing followers. And then the last thing I work on is emotional awareness. So when we're pitching or proposing, is that we're aware of what's going on inside ourselves, how it's potentially coming across, And then we're able to use a bit of brain space to ask ourselves, is what I'm doing right now working for me? Is it working for those around me? And if it's working for myself and those around me, how do I continue it by design? And then it's about reading the room to ask yourself, is what I'm doing working or not? And if any part of you says that what I'm doing might not be working, is really helping to shift to say, what do I need to do more of, less of, or differently to get a better result? So I work in French, Spanish, German, and English. I've helped many organizations around the world and many people through media training, entrepreneurs, female entrepreneurs, and I'm really excited to be part of the Venture with Investor.

So Thanks for, thanks for that, Robbie. And I think it's very important that you do get to know the breadth and depth of Robert's experience. He's been working with a lot of incredible corporates and founders for a long, long time. And you really are also an expert communicator, Robert, also with NLP. And that's important because it helps us understand a little bit more each other's behaviors. So can you tell us a little bit more about Why we created this particular course?

Well, the reason we created the course is because everybody has a unique story. And because we have a unique story, when we meet people, they're immediately and subliminally sizing us up for, is this a trusted advisor? Is this somebody who's competent, confident, get the job done? And do they send the signals that I can entrust them with my money? Is this an entrepreneur who's going to lead a venture? Now, the way we do that is how we walk and talk, carry ourselves, conduct ourselves, how we hold ourselves. So the reason that it's been so important for me to create the course is to help people almost above the line and below the line. What's the external story I tell? How do I lead and manage myself while I do it?

And I think that point is really critical, Robert, because, you know, for many, for many entrepreneurs, you know, we are passionate about building the business. So we get focused on the problem we're trying to solve, who we're trying to solve it for. And then these investor meetings, actually pitching for funding, is a part of the role that we really don't enjoy. And in fact, you know, many, many of female founders and entrepreneurs in general that I have interviewed and spoken to, they, when I asked them to describe what it's like for them looking for funding, they say it's like a dark hole, or it is dreadful. They feel like they are in a swimming pool full of sharks. So I think understanding that a lot of entrepreneurs are coming from that, I think one of the key benefits of this particular course is that you're going to give them the keys to kind of unlock behavior, to understand, to read certain signals. And as you importantly said, to manage your own Internal talk, what you're feeling and thinking, which is super important.

And Anne, if you'd like, what I could do is talk just briefly about the model if you want to expand the view and I can tell people about it. What I do is I train people around 3 archetypes. And in these archetypes, I want the entrepreneurs to show up in an assertive space, which means they're in touch with their own needs and feelings, though they're able to hear what's going on around them across the table. And this is a power-with dynamic. Now, the world is not based on just power-with dynamics. They may meet people who are curt and short and to the point, who have 4 other meetings, who only have 8 to 10 minutes for somebody. And so they may show up in the authoritative archetype, which is a bit power-over. Now, I would not want an entrepreneur to themselves portray themselves authoritative. Though, it's through the microbehaviors helping them understand, how do I need to react to this? What do I need to demonstrate and show when somebody is power over to me? Because the third archetype is apathy, power under. And there are really small cues that we tell Do we demonstrate with our body, our voice, our tone, our gestures that could spell power under? And if we're coming across as power under, we might not be sending those signals of trusted advisor, competent, confident, able to get the job done, and you can entrust me as an entrepreneur with your money. So my objective is how to react to this, not become that, and really help people hold themselves high and work in the, the power with space, which is a conscious response frame. And, and I really want to help people make an enjoyable opportunity to tell their story and learn how to do it and be successful by design, not by chance, through conscious trained responses instead of unconscious reactions. And once people get a hand on this, well, they can quite simply enjoy it just a bit more.

I love that, Robert, because I really do. I love the way you'd say taking it from the unconscious responses to the conscious responses and to enjoy the process. I think that's a really important message because of what I said earlier, that for many, many entrepreneurs, looking for funding is like a dark art. It's not something they enjoy. So I really like that idea of helping entrepreneurs approach those conversations with investors with more joy, with more confidence, and to see each other, as you say, with power with. So instead of seeing the investor up here as power over— and you will explain all of this, we're going to go into a little bit more detail from based on what you've just shared— but really, I think it's something that I share a lot. We need to help entrepreneurs go into those conversations already seeing each other as partners at the same level, and as you say clearly, in the power with. And then as you say, what you can go into the room like that, what happens? Tell us, walk us a little bit more through each of, you know, the key things that people are going to learn on this course. So for example, if I walk into the room And I'm going in, feel confident, and yet as soon as I get there, I have 2 or 3 investors and one of them is going to play bad cop and he starts off with the bad cop. So what is that and how can we manage that situation with what you're going to learn on this course?

Well, we're going to look at 3 video scenarios, and in the video scenarios, we're going to see how somebody conducts themselves and, and works with the invisible power dynamics in the room. And some of the voice, tone, gesture, body dos and don'ts. Where do I place my intonation? Where do I move my head? I mean, if I do this during an investor meeting, you know, that could spell apathy. Or if when an investor says something to me and as an entrepreneur, I take a step back and become a smaller expression of myself. So we're going to look at all this stuff. We're going to look at the 3 scenarios. We're going to look at a power over, power under, power with dynamic. And in the bite-sized course, we're also going to look in the workbook to say, where are times and places in your life where you may show up this way, this way, or this way? What do you need to be aware of? What are the things you need to put on your checklist? And for me, a checklist is vital. Even before we got on the live today, I looked at my checklist. Robbie, be careful of this, this, this, and that. And a checklist is an organized opportunity to raise your game. And at the end of the day, it's about being a larger expression of who you already are and convincing the people across from you of that story so that they will see, hear, and understand your compelling message.

And I love that, that part of what you're saying, Robert, because it— one of the key things that investors look for at the very beginning of the pitch, and particularly for those early-stage founders, is they want to understand the founder's story. And that can be particularly difficult for some people just to kind of express themselves and tell them the depth, share the depth of their experience without feeling like they're bragging. So, um, there's— that's one aspect to it, and it's very key that investors really, want to understand the founder story, who you are, why you set up your company, why you chose to solve that particular problem, and why you're sitting in front of me, the investor, because like, why have you chosen me to speak to? So I think that is another important component that, you know, people go into this realizing that they're going to come out with really practical skills, you're going to arm them with skills and ways of noticing behaviors and how to handle specific situations? Like, take for example the Q&A with investors during that pitch or that investor meeting. Robert, how would you give us some tips, like, just from your experience on how to handle particularly challenging questions?

So my suggestion, first of all, is to help entrepreneurs be congruent, not to be somebody else, to be themselves. And when answering difficult questions, short sentences, to the point, no more than 5 sentences, and posing the voice at the end of each word. So downward inflection so that it sounds like you're coming across from the NLP standpoint with what we call credible voice instead of going up, which could be perceived as a question or doubt. So it's really training people where my voice needs to go. How do I hold my body? How do I know when I get to my 5th point and then I just need to stop? So it's short, sweet, to the point, and help people be true to themselves. Never ever try to create something, a new person. It's about being congruent.

I love that. I mean, it is about being congruent. And in fact, it's one of the key things that investors look out for. What they absolutely hate are people, you know, entrepreneurs who come across as being too arrogant, Robert. That's the thing they absolutely hate. or if you come in with too high evaluation, or you haven't done your homework on them, the investor, and who they are as people. So it's also about being congruent in you yourself and being respectful to the people you're going to meet. Because I think because of stress, a lot of entrepreneurs may, you know, prepare those investor meetings and those pitches with like focusing on the content, you know, really, really focusing on the content instead. And instead of Working also on the delivery and thinking, what is that other person on the other side of the table? What do they need? And I think that is an important part of your Agentic Communication model because you help entrepreneurs to look at people at the other side of the table, to think of their needs as well as your own needs.

And what's important for everybody. And maybe it's important also to let people know that this isn't the end of the story. This is just the beginning of a bite-sized course. And then after this, we're gonna be looking at creating a community, going further on Q&A. Maybe you could say a bit more about that before we get off the live.

Absolutely. So when you join the course and you have the link, I'm gonna share the link again, actually, while I'm speaking, it's gonna come up across your screen now. So when you join the course, you will also be invited to a private community where you'll be able to interact with other founders who are taking the course with you and also to ask your questions to Robert. So take advantage of that. And then Robert and I will also— you can also within the course at different sections, you can also ask questions, put comments. So that's another way. So there's 2 ways already. Once you're inside the platform in your course, your student version of the course, you can ask questions, make comments, and also join in the community. And then Robert is— and I are working very closely on preparing what's the next stage? What's the next level to help you with your success that we can do to bring you forward, to help you to prepare for those investor meetings and to feel much more confident? So Robert, tell us a little bit more about who this course is for and who it's not for.

So from my perspective, the course— well, the course will help everybody on presentation and impact skills. It's primarily for entrepreneurs it's been targeted to female entrepreneurs. Though when I went back and looked at it and showed it to people around me, they said, well, this is absolutely for male entrepreneurs, female entrepreneurs, anybody that wants to get their story across in a succinct and, as I said, congruent, authentic manner.

And I think that's, that's important to say. It is like all entrepreneurs. And the reason why We at Global Investor, we put the focus on the female entrepreneurs because that's who we serve primarily. And that's when I went to Robert. I said, Robert, I really want you to bring your skills and your knowledge specifically to female founders, not because there's something wrong with us, not because we need fixing. It is also because there is more of a tendency to have less confidence or to— for female founders to be perceived as having less confidence when it's not necessarily the fact. So I think that's, that's also an important thing. So as we kind of move towards the end of this broadcast, I wanted to share with you the actual new website. So you're going to see now, I'm going to share with you now what the page looks like that we've shared, that link that's going across your screen. So as you can see here, this is the course page. So you can learn a little bit more about the course. So you will have a lovely introduction video from Robert. For those of you who may not see this live and don't have an opportunity to meet him yet, you can learn about his key messages here. And we share, you know, how it's going to help you. And the fact that what Robert is sharing with you, this agentic communication model, it is tried and tested, isn't it, Robert? I mean, this you've been using and trying and testing with Thousands of leaders over many, many years.

Thousands of leaders and entrepreneurs. Also, from a media training standpoint, I work with people to get their story right, to get it out. Also, in telling who they are, in handling the difficult questions, and even working together with the people in the room to make it better.

And I think that, that's, that's, that's very, very important. It's like handing the questions, working the room, building your network, networking while you're doing it as well. That's also an important aspect to it. And here's a quick overview of what you'll find in the course. At the very beginning, there's a quick video to share how you use the reader, which is fine. You'll have an introduction from Robert here. I'm going to click down so you can see on the page. You can actually have a look and see, hmm, what are we going to do? We explain to you what you learn, like to remind you why you're here, the things you're going to learn and how you're going to learn it. And Robert walks through the tool and then through the different, the 3 different parts of the, of the, of the tool that he described. And we also have some great bonuses for you. What's, what's interesting in the way we've done this, we want to make this, this is a bite-sized course. So we want it easy for you to access, easy to digest, easy to apply what you're learning. So easy to access, Once you buy this course, you have access to it 24/7 on any of your devices. So even when you're a busy entrepreneur and traveling, if you can still travel where you are, uh, despite COVID, you can have a look at your course. And I would really encourage you to do so while you are on the road, or if you're on your way to an investor meeting and you have some of that time before, it could be good to kind of use some of the things that Robert covers in the course as a refresher before you go in, and indeed afterwards to debrief for yourself or with your colleagues if you go in with several people from your team, just to kind of say, okay, how did we do on this?

Where were we?

Were we power over? Were we power under? Were we power with? And what could we have done differently? So I think it's important to say this course is for you even if you haven't set up your company yet, because the skills you're going to learn are about communication skills that help you in your personal life too, don't they, Robert?

Absolutely. I mean, if you haven't set up your company yet and you're looking to go down the entrepreneurial path, you know, one of the recommendations is you're going to want to do informational interviews. So as you do informational interviews, my suggestion is always ask for 3 more contacts. Who else do I need to talk to? People will be more likely to give you those 3 contacts when you yourself are showing up confident, competent, able to get the job done with the trusted advisor. So, here's a word I don't use a lot. It behooves us. It's in our interest to build these skills.

It's in our interest to build these skills. And we actually have a message here from Chloë Priscilla Baumgartner. And I'm going to share the comment here. She's asking, she's saying, this is awesome. Here's what she says. Look, Super awesome. Where can we find this beautiful wheel graphic? Well, the good news is that the wheel graphic, the model that you should— that Robert shares is in the course. You get it as a PDF so you can have it with you all the time. Uh, you want to know where can we get the link that's floating across the screen? I have placed it in the chat box. So if you go into the chat here on the live, you'll get the link. And do not worry, as soon as we finish recording, immediately after, we will put the link in the comments so you can go straight away And check it out.

And I wanted just to add something here. It's not only will you get the wheel though, we're gonna look at the microbehaviors. And the microbehaviors are the really important components to— you'll want to create your own checklist based on the microbehaviors. And each one has a set of microbehaviors to be aware of. So, I'm looking forward to hearing, you know, how this works for people, where you're successful, and how it sets you up for future success as well.

And I think one of the key things that I love about what the way you've structured this course, Robert, is that it's not just a video of Robert talking at you. Sure it isn't, Robert. How do you do it in the course? Because you do something very unique to be able to debrief and to see what do these behaviors look like.

So this is a course, it's 3 videos that I filmed in the UK with an unsuspecting group of people. Wanted to work on their personal assertiveness, and they brought me in and they said, we're more than willing to do this. And I said, I set up the scenario, and you're going to— none of this is staged. The only thing that's staged is I decided which one of the 3 archetypes I was going to use as I went in, though the reactions around me are all human, authentic reactions. And it was with— it was a group of, of, of female business leaders. We— I think we had 45 women and 15 men in the room who took the course in March, came back in June, had some amazing shifts. And I talk about them, and we look at this, and, and they've given me permission to use this to help other people. So I'm, I'm excited to share Real-life scenarios with people.

I love it. And so while we're in the kind of final phase of this, of this live, feel free to put more comments if you've got any burning questions you'd like to ask, like Chloé did in her comment. Feel free to put it in the comments and then check in the chat here on the stream. You can see the link to the live course. So I think that's very important that you say, Robert, because I think that's very impactful. that within the course, there are videos with you actually demonstrating what each of those behaviors look like and the microbehaviors that you've been talking about. And then debriefing it with those people live that you had with you live. And in the workbooks that we give to you when you join this course, you'll be able to do that self-reflection yourself. Isn't that right, Robert?

Yes, it allows people to take a step back and say, you know, where do I have concerns with this? What do I need to get better at? What are my strengths? What are my challenges? What needs to be my action plan? So, all of that is part of the Bite-Sized Learning course.

So, if you had one thing, one key message that you wanted to share with people about this course, Robert, what would it be?

I would say that the one thing would be, as you go in it, write down, record yourself at the beginning of what are the things you'd want to say about your organization, your company, your venture, and then record it. And then take the course and re-record yourself afterwards so you can compare the two. Very often that allows you an anchor point to say, wow, look at what I've done and look how I've improved. And I would encourage people to see everything we do in the boardroom. as an opportunity to sell ourselves and always as an opportunity to get better. And to go in with that mindset that this is a journey. It's not a one-time unique experience. Each time I need to debrief, I need to take notes. I need to understand, you know, what went well. What do I need to do even better next time? So track it out, create yourself a learning path and enjoy the voyage.

I love it. Enjoy the voyage. And that's cool because as part of the bonuses that you will get with this course, Robert has shared one particular podcast episode with the JIGGER model. Robert, do you want to tell them about that? Because I think— Well, there's a couple of them.

I think we have one also called the Mommy and Daddy Effect of when we show a little bit too much apathy. And JIGGER is finding out what gives me joy, where I need to have gratitude, what regrets I have, and what's my request. And it could be joy, gratitude, regret, request for self. Or it could be joy, gratitude, regret, request for my team. And it's a process people can use to debrief and improve.

That's great. So again, another practical tool. And then another bonus that we give, so just to Chloé's question earlier on, you will get the PDF of the Agentic Model that you can print out and have it with you or keep it with you on your phone when you're traveling and have it always at hand to be doing that personal reflection on your own learning journey. And the other bonus that we do is we give you access to our InvestHer podcast where you can actually listen to investor interviews. So I have interviewed many, many investors from all around the world and asked them all the kind of tough questions, things you'd love to know, so that you can see that they're real people and understand a little bit more about what it is they're looking for before they invest, who they are, their type of funds, and they also give a lot of practical key tips. So as we wrap up, Robert, I wanted to say thank you so much for being with us. Thanks for creating this course with us. We're very excited at Global Investor to get this out to you all. We want you all to succeed. Isn't that right, Robert? And these tools are really about putting, you know, giving you the tools, the tips, the tactics, practical things that you can use as an entrepreneur on a daily basis.

You know, I was in the airport in Brussels a couple of years ago and I heard my name, Robert Kaplan. And I turned around, I did not recognize the person. And she said, though I know you because I watch your stuff and I wanted to let you know it worked. And I was like, what worked? She said, when I pitched, it worked. And, and just the other day, I, I got an email from a person who said, I actually got the funding I wanted. I got the dream amount of funding. I would have never dared ask for it. And I learned how to do so through working together with you. And we had some coaching sessions as well. And she said, I have to let you know that I saw, I saw them a couple years ago, and I went back for another panel presentation, and one of, one of the VC people took me aside and said, I saw you a couple years ago and something has certainly matured, something's improved in you, and I wanted to let you know You have a vote of confidence and we're behind you and we're with you. And she said, of course, part of it was my success. So she said, Robert, I think what you did is you helped me really tailor it and coach me through the process. So I look forward to hearing those kinds of stories from you.

We really do. We both look forward to it. And as I say, stay tuned because Robert will be making himself available to give you more one-to-one coaching and many other opportunities. So this is just the tip of the iceberg, isn't it, Robert? We just want to give you— this is The taster, get a foot in the door. And afterwards, you're going to have lots of opportunities to work with Robert in different ways that are specific to your own needs. So check it out. We'd love to hear what you think and wish you a great day. For those of you who are in different parts of the world, have a great rest of your day. See you very soon on InvestHer Academy, where you can learn all about the course. I'll put the link in, in the comments. Thank you again, Robert.

Fantastic.

And last chance saloon. So those of you who missed this, live and who are watching the recording, because you'll see it on, on our, um, on our LinkedIn. Just want to say we have another one of these LinkedIn Lives on Wednesday, Robert. So isn't that right? Wednesday at 5:30 European time, so 8:30, uh, I believe it's 11:30. 11:30 East.

Yeah, Eastern Standard Time and 8:30 Western.

8:30 for those early birds in Los Angeles in the Valley. Exactly. So if you missed it here, don't worry, you have another opportunity to hear from Robert live and learn more about this course. Thank you everybody for being with us today. Have a great day and we look forward to seeing you very soon. Bye. Bye.