What an evening ladies and gentlemen, ladles and jelly spoons, [inaudible 00:00:05] the same. Yes, I’m still experimenting, with how to hold my finder up. I should get one of those little spider things.
So, today’s live, I have actually, is brought to you by my gym session this morning. I was asked by someone. So he said, ” What do you do?” And I had an absolute brain freeze, because over the last few years, what I do, has changed so much. And the way we talk about ourselves in what we do, full stop has changed. Very rarely now do we- evening Jenny, very rarely now do we get, I am a teacher, I am a graphic designer, I am a priest, I am a chef.
Most times people want to hear more. So we have over the years, the crazies have been coined an elevated pitch, which was designed, pretty much she could get from somewhere to somewhere in a building, telling someone what you did and keeping them intrigued. I fumbled this morning little bit like I am now really. I mean, oh God! Okay, well, what is it I do? And it made me think of this quote from Absolutely Fabulous, that amazing show. And in it, Eddie says to bubbles, “What is it you do Bubbles?” and Bubbles goes, “What I do, I do not really know.” And I just remembered that I looked for how to Google and look for a meme to show you guys but could not find one. But I just remember that, ” I do not really know.”
So in the last week, for example, for me, I have done financial controlling stuff, I have coached a couple of people, I have performed in a show, I have done a photo shoot, I am working on producing another show, I have done a lot of writing, I have been a mum, I have been a friend, I have been a sister, aunty, all those kind of things. There is so much that goes into, “What I do.” And so sometimes it is, “I do not really know.” But I wanted to talk about this elevated pitch get back to it, because I need to do some work on mine, I absolutely need to get back to doing some work on mine.
So before when I was younger I used to go, ” Yeah, I am a singer.” Then I went through a phase where I was a sales manager, I had that accounting phase, God knows how that happened. Do I look like an accountant? Sorry, to all the accountants out there, just not my cup of tea anymore. So I wanted to talk about how you do it. Because it is not just about business, we get asked as a friend. So what do you do? And for some women who are stay at home moms, for example, they get really embarrassed, some of them get embarrassed, and they do not want to talk about it because they feel that do not do something, which is just bullshit. They might spend their day wrestling three triplet, nine year old triplet boys. Now that’s a big job. And you could make your elevated pitch on what you do on that pretty fricking funny.
So when someone does ask you, the goal is really to show them a little bit about who you are and what you do without bombarding them with information and boring them senseless, because that’s not the point, okay? So you want to not talk too much, you want to make it relevant to them, you want to talk about more about the problems that you solve, rather than how you do it. Because, Uber for example, when they were probably first starting to talk about Uber, the problem was getting people, all of these cars being made useful by getting people from A to B. Creating a new business, if they have said all we want to develop an app that people can log in, and then they push a button, and then they will be able to get someone to come and pick them up. And that person will then take them somewhere else. People signed out by then, okay. So you want to make it relevant and snappy, the whole elevator 30 second thing.
A USP if you have got one, if you do not know that is, it is a Unique Service Proposition or Unique Sales Position sometimes people say. You want to maybe talk about your target market. So if you are a wedding celebrant, for example, and you only do weddings where people like getting dressed up in country and western clothes.I really come up with random things. Then you probably not going to want to do a big pitch in a lift talking to someone who wants to have a wedding on a harbor. Let us find out a little bit about them before you actually go into it. You might also want to start asking questions. Find out what the other person does, and if you can relate what you do to what they do.
I should also recommend not having a particular script, I think there is a few words you need to have, to get out exactly what you do do unlike myself this morning at the gym. But then you want to modify it depending on who you are with and the situation that you are actually in. Being in a networking function is going to be really different to being at a mom’s lunch, which is going to be different to being in a boozy cocktail bar.
So you need to have fluidity in there and don’t be completely on the script because people then see that as really fake. And they are not going to want to work with you, or be your friend if you are doing an elevated pitch on a friendship. Because we kind of have to do that, as well. If you are on a date or meeting someone who could be a friend for the first time, you are giving them your elevated pitch. They are deciding within 30 seconds if they want to go to the next sentence with you. And that elevated pitch it is kind of like speed dating on speed. It is snappy, got it. Okay, put it on head could it get in there and get out quickly.
Some people say in elevated pitches you should give some of your financials and talk about, the great financials that you have achieved in business, etc. Or talk a little about your team. I do not think that is necessary. I think that is really necessary if you are trying to do big pitch to a VC firm or something, not just a snappy what I do.
Another way to get around it is if you are getting a bit controlled, which I possibly could have done this morning is talk about what you do in a day. Sort of a VA for example, someone says, ” what do you do?” ” I am a VA.” a lot of people are not going to know what a VA is. But if they say, “Well, I spent the first half of my day creating graphics for a client then I did some proofreading, I typed sent some documents, I worked out for not.” You could do it, you can mock it up, embellish it that way to get people more interested, which is a great thing. You want to make elevated pitches conversational I think. I do not think they should be one sided and scripted, as I said, because it is boring as birdshit.
So there is a lot of generators online, no head it could just set a Google and actually like type in a couple of words and I did. In back in my full on business coaching days, I had a couple of worksheets that you could go through in order to craft your elevated pitch. I am actually going to go back and work on mine because it does need work. And this morning, I ended up saying, “What do I do? I entertain educate and empower people. And I do that through various methods, coaching, speaking, performing, and producing events that are going to enlighten people in some way.” So that kind of came out at the end of it. But I did get a bit [inaudible 00:07:20] to start with.So I need to do some work on that. And I encourage you all to do the same. Like what do you do? What do you do for work? What do you do for social life? What do you do with your friends? All of those things, where if you build it, if you do or do not agree with it, we are on display 24/7.
So our whole life is like an audition. You are meeting someone at a networking event, you are meeting someone at a restaurant, you are talking to someone in a coffee shop, it is all, that is your audition. That is your moment so come up with something to describe you and what you do. That is going to make them feel great for having met you. So I am going to work on mine. I am going to post it later when I finished it and not get to blabby about it. And Charlie says hi she can be cuddles again.
Have a great night everybody. Thank you for watching.