THE BIG IDEA WITH DONNY D. . . MY TWO MILLION DOLLAR IDEA!
I love Donny. And not just because I was on the show or because Flying Wish Paper® won the Viewers’ Favorite award. I’ve watched Donny on CNBC’s THE BIG IDEA forever and have taken many points of inspiration and direction from Donny and his guests.
So I was THRILLED when I got the call last week to present Flying Wish Paper on the ‘new million dollar idea’ segment that runs nightly on Donny’s show. In this segment, Donny brings out three entrepreneurs to give an elevator pitch: 30 seconds to tell him the basics about your product, including your inspiration, the product description, and why it’s such a great idea. Then his random panel of three judges for that particular show review your pitch, product & general presentation. They are VERY TOUGH!
Prep time is five days from the first phone call to ACTION. What a whirlwind! I barely had time to get my hair colored, much less focus on the pitch. Let me just say that a 30-second elevator pitch is much, much shorter than you realize. Especially when you’re trying to consolidate a four-page marketing brief into exactly six sentences. That is one fast elevator.
From an audience perspective, this segment is extremely entertaining. Donny gives you 30 seconds and THAT IS IT. If you fumble, you will fail. And he will admonish you on national TV. The entrepreneurs all look just a little panicked as they wait for ‘the go.’ The challenge is to match Donny’s level of exuberance (and teeth). Then, ‘the go’ and you can see the presenter’s eyes roll into the back of his head as he tries to remember the pitch, or the spit flying from his mouth as he tries to get all the words out in time.
I, of course, was determined to stay poised. I had my pitch memorized a few days ahead of time, rattling it off in all the usual places: the shower, the car, the grocery aisles, the pharmacy(!), in front of the mirror to practice my appropriate level of exuberance. Then the night before the morning taping, the producer ‘suggested’ a change to my pitch. The intro had to be written again – more importantly – memorized again. It’s only two sentences, but that’s asking a lot when I spent three days getting this down perfectly. Hello! Over 40 here!
Taping was at 8am at KATU – super nice crew and especially talented make-up gal. I paced for about an hour and then got in position for my two minutes of fame. The mic guy set me up, the make-up gal fussed over me, the producer put my earpiece in…and there’s Donny! Running through his early guests and working his way toward me.
“MILLION DOLLAR IDEA” comes on, and the first lady launches into her pitch (judges hated it), second lady goes (judges loved it) and I go (judges were split). The panel were three men and I just have to ask: Where are my lady judges? Men may appreciate Flying Wish Paper in that it’s much better than other party activities they’ve grown to hate, but women LOVE IT. The third judge gave Flying Wish Paper a jubilant thumbs up, and that ended my segment on a high note.
The show is so fast. There is certainly not enough time to introduce Flying Wish Paper in all its glory. It’s time to bring something new to the party, and this is it. I hope you’ll take time to look at my product page, and then order a bunch a stuff(!).
There’s nothing else like it, and it’s my TWO million dollar idea! - Julia