Elevator pitches are your foot in the door

What do you want to do for the rest of your life?  Where do you see yourself in ten years?  What is your business idea?  If you are one of the many that finds answering tough questions like these with confidence a challenge, you might end up feeling that the world is leaving you behind and not giving you the opportunity.  The truth, however, is that opportunity doesn’t have patience.  If you want things to happen, you have to prepare yourself for when the time is right.  And the way you prepare yourself is to practice elevator pitches for the things you care about.

The clock is ticking. Can you pitch your dreams in time and persuade others? (© Victor Morell Perez)

What interests you is what you care to answer with confidence

Think of your interests in two areas.  The first are those that deal with the short term.  For example, I love rock climbing and I can spew out conversations on that topic with ease.  This will be the same for you.  The second area, and this is the important one, deals with the long term.  The example here would be something like what do you want to do when you are in the last ten years of your career? Questions like these come from people who hold opportunity in a sealed envelop and a persuasive answer takes you one step closer.

Your interests in the long term requires two things.  The first is effort to make your interest as clear as something in the short term.  The second is commitment so that you pursue your interests with the passion that makes it turn into a reality (it doesn’t happen on its own).  What you need to solve this riddle to to discover your obsessions.

Develop your elevator pitch and practice

Do you see the statement right below the Guts to Glory logo above?  It is basically a slogan that summarizes what this blog is all about.  A slogan answers the question “what is it?”  Without this short and sweet statement, people would have a difficult time understanding this blog.  Without it, people would go somewhere else or would subconsciously try to summarize Guts to Glory in their own mind so that they can be confident that this blog is right for them.  By having this summary, I’ve given visitors a good understanding of what to expect.

A slogan is the first part of an elevator pitch, if it is well done.  It has to be very short to be understood quickly.  What remains is explaining why it will succeed.

Developing a slogan and the elevator pitch takes time.  The best thing to do is to write it down and tweak it a hundred or so times until it stops changing. Once this is true, the next part is speaking it out loud, first to yourself, then with friends and then with strangers.  Each phase might even tweak your pitch and will build your confidence in speaking it.

Begin by focusing on one elevator pitch, something simple, like

• What is your job?
• Who do you work for?
• What do you want to do for the rest of your life?
• Where do you see yourself in ten years?

By practising just one elevator pitch and being persuasive, the confidence you gain will transfer to other pitches and other areas of your life.

The final part of an elevator pitch is an open ended question that is connected to your slogan, which continues the conversation down the path that leads to your sale.

For the sake of it, here is my elevator pitch for Guts to Glory (hey, this might be out of date, but never-the-less…).  Ahem.

Guts to Glory is a blog that gives students life changing inspiration for their next phase in life.  Students need to learn life lessons before the school of hard knocks to avoid mistakes in the real world and to quickly achieve the most from their career.  Where did you get career inspiration when you were a student?

Also read

Guts to Glory: Break out of your shell

“Oral delivery aims at persuasion and making the listener believe they are converted. Few persons are capable of being convinced; the majority allow themselves to be persuaded.” Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

“Advertising isn’t a science. It’s persuasion. And persuasion is an art.” William Bernbach

“Speech is power: speech is to persuade, to convert, to compel.” Ralph Waldo Emerson

“Enthusiasm is contagious. You can start an epidemic.” ~Unknown

Related posts:

1. What is “maturity” anyway? How do you get the respect you deserve?
2. DRESS FOR SUCCESS: Be yourself, build integrity, be influential
3. New job? Consider this career development plan
4. Goals and ambitions – how they are more than a statement