From the course: Getting to Yes: Advice for Female Founders on How to Get Funded

Removing fear from the ask

From the course: Getting to Yes: Advice for Female Founders on How to Get Funded

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Removing fear from the ask

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- So, we as women, need to learn to ask a little bit better, but I think we have a very natural fear of this and I think part of it is because we are worried that we're going to hear the answer and it's not going to be something that we like. We put this into our heads. But also, too, we just don't have the skillset. We don't have a process. We don't have a way to deal with this. We haven't done it enough. My first job out of college, there was no ad in the paper for this job. I had sent out over, I think, about 400 resumes to law firms and it was a really difficult time to get a job in law at the time. L.A. Law was really big and everybody had gone to law school. I had talked to as many people as I could. The economy was terrible, no one was hiring and I happened to notice that it was an ad in Crain's Chicago Business for a new firm that was starting back up and I had spent some time in Japan and spoke Japanese, so I knocked on the door, and I said to them, you know, I'd love to come interview for your firm. They were doing international transactions between the United States and Asia. I thought this was an incredibly perfect fit. They said well, why don't you come in and talk? And they said, you know, Tracy, we really like you. We think you're terrific, but we are just not hiring at this point and we're not hiring any lawyers. And I said, oh really, are you hiring for anything at all? And they said well, you know, we really could use a receptionist. And I sat and I thought and I said, I'll take it. I had just graduated from law school, I had passed the bar, and yet, I took a job as a receptionist because it was in the place where I wanted to be. I had a job, I had a foot in the door and I was able to get started. This job wasn't advertised, but I had to ask and I had to not take no for answer and keep asking so that I was able to make that first step. So, one of the ways you can take away the fear too is through gratitude. Being really grateful about getting a no. When you're sitting down and having conversations about funding with people, you're going to be meeting some really interesting people with really great experiences and a no is almost better than a yes in some ways. And if you at this way say look, I'm going in there and I may not get capital, but I'm going to get some really great advice and direction and sometimes when people see the holes in your theory, they're actually building your business plan for free. So be grateful for that and if you look at each and every meeting or opportunity that you have in that way, it's a lot easier to take that meeting.

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