BELFAST — Last April, local entrepreneur Kathi Langelier, owner of Herbal Revolution Farm and Apothecary, was dropping off an order of her plant-based products at a Midcoast store when she had a chance conversation with an acquaintance who asked her how her business was going. The friend mentioned Greenlight Maine as a potential funding source.

Greenlight Maine is very similar to ABC’s Shark Tank, in which small Maine entrepreneurs get a chance to bring their dream businesses before a host of reality show judges, with the ultimate goal of winning $100,000.

“I was so busy that afternoon getting ready to fly down to a trade show in Chicago, when I realized the deadline for application was the very next day and they needed a video,” she said.

Some people might have just let the opportunity go with such short notice. But, she filled out the application and had her husband, Gus, shoot a quick video at their organic farm in Union.

“It was so horrible,” she said of the application video. “I didn’t have time to keep trying to film a pitch and it came out blurry.”

To her surprise, she heard back from the producers of Greenlight Maine a month later in May. “I was shocked. I was like, ‘Wow, I wonder what the rest of their entries were like.’”

Langlelier was invited to pitch the producers with 50 other potential contestants. Out of that round 26 candidates for the show would be considered.

It kept getting better. Or worse, depending on how Langelier saw it.

“I’ve never pitched anything in my life,” she said. “And I had no time to practice. I went down to Portland in a room of four judges, who all have varying backgrounds in business, marketing or funding. I had mixed feelings about how I answered the questions. But, I found out a week later I made it to the next filming round of Greenlight Maine.”

Not only that, but one of the judges whom she thought she hadn’t really impressed happened to be from Island Institute and he nominated her for a $3,000 grant.

“It was a life saver and has gone completely into the capital of supporting the business,” she said,

The practice pitch day in front of the host was in Bangor in July. They picked Langelier to go first and then they saw the look on her face. “They saw me hesitate, so they let someone go first, but when I got up there and my mind went completely went blank. I couldn’t speak. I stood there like ‘Yup, I’ve got nothing,’” Langelier said.

Luckily they didn’t boot her out at that point. “I took the next couple of days off, wrote my pitch and practiced it all day long,” she said. “I’d grab people and ask them to critique me.”

Two days later, she was back up in Bangor for the first live taping of the show in which Herbal Revolution was competing against Mike Mwenedata, founder of Rwanda Bean Company. Each contestant had to pitch the judges and answer questions. Comparatively to the last two times, she felt better about her performance.

“For how nervous and sweaty I was, I was just happy I made it through,” she said. “The key information I managed to get out was that there is a need to take control of our preventative health.”

Langelier appeared on the sixth episode and like all of the contestants, did not know the outcome until it aired on Nov. 5. After a turbulent week, she gathered her family around her as they watched the show and when the judges announced that she’d won that round, everyone in the room whooped, screamed and hugged.

“I was stunned. I just took a second trying to process it,” she said.

The last of the 13 episodes of Greenlight Maine airs Jan. 21, 2017.

“Once all of the rounds are over, all 13 of us have to go back to Portland again and pitch to judges once more,” she said. “The judges will choose the final two to compete, plus a wild card people’s choice. The three people advance on to pitch for the $100,000.”

Stay tuned as Penobscot Bay Pilot follows Langelier’s journey.

Kay Stephens can be reached at news@penbaypilot.com