McCoy College Graduate Student Named Entrepreneur of the Year

Javyn Stubbs, a McCoy College Marketing Research and Analysis (MSMRA) graduate student and Vice President of the Collegiate Entrepreneurs Organization (CEO), was recently named Entrepreneur of the Year at the 2020 Global CEO Conference. The pitch competition participants were tasked with running their own social media campaigns for their 90 second pitches in a People's Choice Award Format competition. The winner of the competition would be determined based on accumulation of likes, comments, and shares for each submitted video with the winner being dubbed 'Entrepreneur of the Year'. Over 60 pitch participants uploaded their presentations with Javyn's pitch presentation being revealed as the winning video during the conference.  

Javyn is no stranger to the concept of entrepreneurship and has used his time here in McCoy College to hone those skills by being involved in the Texas State collegiate entrepreneur organization, as well as being part of the Center for Professional Sales which he says has greatly impacted his development into a business leader.

We were able to catch up with him to get some insight on how this project and his entrepreneurial spirit came to be. 

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How did you come up with the idea for your pitch?

When I was a junior in high school, (Chicago, Illinois) I took a sports marketing class which had a two week focus on entrepreneurship. My teacher told us the easiest way to come up with an idea for a new service or product was to think of a problem in our own lives that could be solved or improved upon. I will be honest, my first idea was really futuristic and I was told by my teacher it couldn't be done because the technology wasn't there yet. No harm done! 
 
I thought more about common difficulties in my life and remembered I would always get in trouble with my mom for forgetting to put a replacement bag into the trash can. So I thought, the easiest way to solve this problem would be to have a trash can that does this for you. When presenting this idea and going through the business plan to my class, it was apparent that this product has potential. 

How has your McCoy College classes helped to prepare you for this competition?

In a pitch competition, not only is knowing how to sell yourself and your product important but so is having a detailed business plan to showcase why your product or service has great potential to be successful.  
 
I obtained my undergraduate degree in marketing with a sales concentration at McCoy College and am now enrolled in the M.S. in marketing research and analysis graduate program, so how could I not been fully prepared for this competition. I have learned a great deal on how to sell from Mr. Arthur Noll, Mrs. Vicki West, and Dr. Aditya Gupta through their classes and the side conversations we've had. The sales concentration program really helped me to develop my skills in public speaking, discovering needs of potential customers and being able to sell effectively. I was also taught the steps of successful selling in Mrs. West’s class which I believed helped me get as far as I am in this competition. I remember going to Mrs. West’s office hours and asked her for help on my pitch last year for a local pitch competition. When I asked her for help, she plainly said use the sales steps we learned in class and after doing just that, I ended up winning first place in the competition. 

Through my time at McCoy I have learned valuable skills, concepts and developed different ways of thinking as it pertains to business as a whole. I have learned marketing principles, pricing strategies, creating strategic alliances, financing options and so much more that I was able to implement in my pitch for the Global Pitch Competition. 
 
In short, the classes I have taken in McCoy College helped to prepare me for the Global Pitch Competition by developing my skills and understandings of business concepts.

How has your involvement in CEO helped to develop your skills as a business leader?

CEO has definitely helped me develop my skills as a business leader as this is an organization that practices what it preaches. We have many successful entrepreneurs and business owners speak to our organization. CEO also has workshops on how to develop a pitch, how to market oneself and other various workshops that help with professional development. This has been a huge help to me as the organization is very hands on. 

Once I got involved at the leadership level in CEO, I was able to harness and develop my leadership skills even further. It is one thing to be a member, it's another to experience being a leader within the organization. Being vice president in CEO has helped me lead conversations while at the same time listening to all input, facing and overcoming challenges, leading by example and being able to create a direction for the organization to strive towards. 

In short, being a leader in CEO has given me great experience and taught me important skills that I will cherish forever. I have learned and am still learning what leaders sometimes face when running their own companies. 

What is a lesson you have learned while at McCoy?

Failure doesn’t mean quit.

During my first local pitch competition, I did not do very well. About 15 seconds into my pitch I froze and couldn’t remember anything about my pitch. All that I was able to say was what my product was. It was terrible and embarrassing! After the presentation, I spoke with Dr. Daspit and Dr. Fox to ask what I could do to improve (although there wasn’t much to critique since I didn’t get much information out). Nevertheless, they both were willing to help me practice and polish my presentation.

During the next pitch competition, I practiced my pitch many times and was sure that my performance would not turn out like last time. After pitching a second time the next year, I took first place locally and am now in the top 100 for the Global Pitch Competition. My determination of working on my pitch and improving helped land me in the global competition. I could have easily given up when I failed the first time but I didn’t. Me failing didn’t mean my product idea was bad, it just meant I needed to improve on my speech delivery. CEO, Texas State faculty, and my own determination helped push me to success as I am now competing at the global level.