I'm on TV! A personal letter from founder, Minette Yu

Look ma, I'm on TV!
A month ago, I got wind of a last-minute opportunity to be on a Shark tank like show called Elevator Pitch, hosted by Entrepreneur Media. It was late Friday afternoon, and the filming starts only a few days later in Hollywood. I thought, "This is scary, but what do I have to lose?" So I applied and immediately got accepted to pitching on the show for my company, StoreyLine. I flew to LA a couple of days later.

It was my first time being filmed in a studio, in front of so many cameras. I'm not scared of public speaking, but this is a totally foreign environment for me. I was shaking uncontrollably. But I was determined to step outside my comfort zone and challenge myself. The results do not matter. That thought helped me complete the rest of the filming. 

This experience means a lot to me personally, because I did something similar when I first immigrated to the U.S in freshman year of high school. I didn't speak much English back then and was invisible. To change that situation, I decided to do something big - I decided to run for Vice President of the student council. I drafted my speech in Chinese and translated it to English, and I got up early every morning to practice the speech. And then finally, I gave that speech in front of the whole school. I was also shaking uncontrollably then, but the confidence and recognition I gained propelled me to shoot for something beyond my wildest dream - Harvard. And that changed the trajectory for the rest of my life.

So why not just try, what do we have to lose?

Here's the entire episode: https://www.entrepreneur.com/video/391538