They lose the night before
There’s a moment I still remember with surprising clarity.
Detroit.
A hotel room that looked like a paper bomb had gone off.
Pitch drafts everywhere. Notes layered on notes. Highlighters. Coffee cups. Nervous energy humming just under the surface.
Becca (our Chief Development Officer) and I were on the floor, on the bed, pacing, sitting, standing — running round after round of the same pitch.
Rewrite.
Reorder.
Tighten a line.
Cut a word.
Practice again.
This was the Regional Finals of the WeWork Creator Awards. Before you even get near a main stage, you have to pitch judges privately — and if you don’t pass that gate, you’re done.
No audience.
No applause.
Just sharp eyes, fast questions, and very little patience.
Ya know… zero pressure, right? 😅
We rehearsed until the words felt less like memorization and more like muscle memory. And when it was finally time?
We nailed it.
Zero death. Only slight mental blackout — my nerves were so damn high that I’m pretty sure my soul left my body momentarily. And yet we still found a way to maintain presence, clarity, and confidence. This. This is why you practice.
We were selected as one of five semifinalists — which meant pitching the very next day on stage, in front of a packed theater, livestreamed across WeWork’s global network.
Every ounce of prep? Worth it.
The celebration (and the quiet work no one sees)
After the initial pitch, we were starving. Adrenaline burns calories, apparently.
We grabbed lunch. We had a beer. We let ourselves feel proud — before knowing if we’d advance.
And then… back to work.
Because that’s the part most people skip.
That night, Becca and I lay in separate beds, practicing a revised pitch. Again. And again. This time, she’d be pitching solo.
Same story. Sharper arc. Cleaner close.
Eventually, our eyelids betrayed us.
Finals pitch day
Years later at this point… the next day is mostly a blur — except the taxi ride to the final pitch event.
That ride was pure nerve-filled excitement. And I had officially transitioned into my most important role: Becca’s pre-pitch emotional support animal.
Grounding. Reassuring. Keeping the energy steady instead of frantic.
Because no one talks about this part enough:
You don’t lose deals because you’re bad at what you do.
You lose them because your nervous system hijacks your message.
What that experience taught me (that I use every day now)
That year, as CMO for Bunker Labs, a national nonprofit helping veterans become entrepreneurs, I co-wrote the pitch that secured a $360K WeWork Creator Award and advanced us to the NYC Grand Finals where we would present on stage at Madison Square Garden theater AND ring the Nasdaq opening bell (images of that at the end of this post).
Two companies in our support ecosystem went on to win $1M each.
And it wasn’t because the ideas were flashy.
It was because:
the message was clear
the stakes were understood
the delivery was regulated, grounded, and confident
the belief was embodied, not just spoken
That combination — strategy + psychology + belief — is what actually moves money.
Why I’m telling you this is because…
Most of the women I work with don’t need more ideas.
It’s not even that they necessarily need more content.
They often don’t even need more tactics.
They need:
visibility and clarity under pressure
messaging that holds up in real conversations
systems that support them before panic sets in
and confidence that’s built, not forced
That’s exactly why I built GrowthSquad.
Not as another loud marketing space.
But as a place to stop building your business inside your head and start building it with support, structure, and real momentum.
If you’re tired of feeling like you’re almost there… but something keeps wobbling when it’s time to sell, speak, or show up — you’re not broken.
You’re just unsupported.
And you don’t have to do this part alone.
👉 Join us inside GrowthSquad
A grounded, no-BS space where marketing meets mindset, science meets intuition, and strategy actually sticks.
— Christine
P.S. – When you join (even at the free level) you get instant access to:
A friendly network of smart, curious business owners
Weekly co-working sessions
Monthly live challenges
Monthly Power Hour Hot Seats (weekly for Premium members): Live reviews of YOUR messaging/offers/funnel
Client Attracting Bio Template
Course Kickstart: How to go from Idea to Income
The Naughty List: A self-audit to call out what’s not working in your business habits
Recomendations on business building tools I use and love
