I walked out of my first Next Canada interview and immediately got roasted
But that moment taught me something I’ll never forget
For context: I was selected as a finalist for NEXT36 where we had 4 consecutive interviews ~20 mins apart for a chance to become one of Canada’s next generation of high-impact founders
The first thought that crossed my mind was: this is the perfect opportunity to test out Audora, an AI communication coach I’m building.
It helps you articulate your story so clearly that investors and clients have no choice but to say yes, whether it’s a pitch, a sales call, or any opportunity that comes your way
So 5 minutes before my call, I started doing some vocal exercises which helped warm up my vocal muscles and calm my nerves
That didn’t last for long tho…
My interviewer (one of the cofounders of Next Canada) opened with a very dense, complex question
I had a good answer in mind… but I didn’t know how to explain it properly
Imagine two roads with the same start and end, but one of them is simply a straight line and the other one is a long, wiggly road.
I took myself and my interviewer through that wiggly road.
It all started with my first sentence sending me off track. From that point on, I was scrambling to recover but that clear, straight road I could have taken is nowhere to be found. All I saw was that wiggly road I was stuck on.
It all started with my first sentence taking me off track. From that moment on, I was scrambling to recover, but the straight road I could’ve taken was gone. All I could see was the wiggly one I was stuck on.
it all started with my first sentence sending me off track. I spent the whole rest of my answer trying to recover from that but in the moment, it’s very hard because all you can see now is that wiggly road. The clear straight line is out of sight
after Audora finished roasting me, it suggested a very simple but powerful, science-backed fix: use speech frameworks
In stressful situations, structuring your response is sometimes very hard, but following specific speech frameworks like PREP Method helps.
As a result, you not only reduce the cognitive load for yourself, but also for your listener.
With that insight, I went into my second call with more confidence, knowing exactly what held me back in the previous one. Same with the third and fourth
by the last interview, the contrast was wild. If same person watched both my first and last interview, they would assume we’re two different candidates
Audora still has a long way to go, but it’s already helping me unlearn the bad habits I’ve picked up over the years
One feature I’m excited about building is real-time tracking of where you are in your response to help you remain on track or get back into it
is that something you’d find valuable?
It’s close to what Cluely tried to do, but more focused on augmenting your speech rather than making you relying on AI for what to say (if you need an ai to spoonfeed you answers, you’re ngmi)
If you want to try getaudora.app early, you can join the waitlist & get 50% off by completing the survey
I’d love to learn more about how you guys handle stressful calls and what you do to learn from them. Drop your thoughts in the comments or let’s chat about it :)
P.S. NEXT36 results drop in 24 hours. We’ll soon find out if Audora helped me enough to earn that spot
scratch
While Audora is far from finished, it really helped with helping me pinpoint exactly what was off in my delivery and how to overcome it.
One feature that I think might be useful would be tracking what I’m saying in real-time and showing me where I’m currently at in terms of my speech framework and some way to keep you on track and not go towards that wiggly road.
But let me know what you guys think. Would that be something useful?
It’s close to what Cluely tried to do, but more focused on augmenting your speech rather than making you relying on AI for what to say (if you need an ai to spoonfeed you answers, you’re ngmi)
If you’d like to give Audora a try, join our waitlist and 50% off by completing the survey attached to the waitlist
I’d love to learn more about how you handle stressful calls and what you do to learn from them. Drop your thoughts in the comments or let’s chat about it :)
Because what happened is I started my response going towards the wrong direction. And of course I can’t take back what I said, so I had to focus on trying to recover from that bad start. But then that also brought about an even more chaotic structure. And the loop continued until I ran out of things to say that
which I had a good answer to but didn’t know how to properly explain it
So I started rambling on a
Just finished up my 4 NEXT36 interviews…
they taught me something I couldn’t have learned without failing first
here’s what happened
Going into the interview, I had one goal in mind.
After looking at the interview structure, which was four consecutive interviews with around 20 minutes in between each one, I knew it would be the perfect opportunity to test out getaudora.app, an AI communication coach that helps you go into every high-stakes meeting with the best version of yourself.
every meeting as the sharpest, clearest and most articulate version of yourself.
that helps you go into every meeting as the sharpest, clearest and most articulate version of yourself so you never miss out on any opportunity, whether it’s a job, an investor, or a huge client
The first thought that crossed my mind was: this would be the perfect opportunity to test out getaudora.app, an AI communication coach that helps you articulate your vision so clearly that investors, clients, and even your Next36 interviewers have no choice but to say yes so you never miss an opportunity to secure a partner, close a client, or land an investor
It all started with the first sentence that I said. It directed me towards that wiggly road and spent the rest of the answer because now I had to focus on trying to recover from that bad start. And the loop of trying to get back on track continued until I ran out of things to say (end of road)
So instead of going on a straight line, I went up, down, and all around.
I knew something was off in my delivery, but I didn’t know what it was.
So I asked Audora, and it immediately flagged the issue: zero structure
an AI communication coach that helps you articulate your story so clearly that they have no choice but to say yes, whether it’s an investor pitch, a sales call, or any opportunity that comes your way