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The Problem With Your Elevator Pitch–And How To Fix It

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To be fully prepared for a networking event, you need to have your elevator pitch.  Much has been written about crafting this short 20-30 second introduction about yourself and your business, company or services.  Much of what has been written is not good advice.

My advice to craft your elevator pitch (also referred to as your “30-second pitch”) is to provide at least one interesting hook which prompts the listener to ask another question about what you do.  Alternatively, it should provide enough color that it is memorable while also easily conveying what it is that you actually do.

Deborah Greyson Riegel offers some very sound, practical advice in her Fast Company article.  Here are the highlights:

  • Don’t speak the way you write.
  • Utilize common vernacular (aka, use the simplest language possible).
  • Turn your pitch into a question.
  • Practice saying your pitch out loud, with feedback.
  • Be willing to forgo your pitch entirely.

Read the full article.

Deborah Grayson Riegel is a communication and behavior expert, and is the president of Elevated Training Inc. and MyJewishCoach.com. She is the author of “Oy Vey! Isn’t a Strategy: 25 Solutions for Personal and Professional Success.”

Who is on your team?

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Most successful people will say that networking has played an important role in their success.  I would challenge anyone who says that his or her success was completely self-determined.  Your professional network is a critical factor in your career success.  Actors, athletes, artists and musicians, entrepreneurs, scientists, architects, educators, politicians, lawyers and doctors can all benefit from a solid professional network.

Your professional success is a team effort . . . the question is, “who is on your team?”

Your team, or professional network, includes Read more

LinkedIn Maps to Visualize Your Network

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LinkedIn Maps is a tool for visualizing your professional network.  It takes only a few minutes and reveals clusters, gaps and connectors in your network.  Here is mine:

Leadership Inspiration for 2010

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Happy New Year!  For the start of 2012, here is a bit of leadership inspiration from Mike Myatt, Forbes.com contributor and a leadership advisor to CEOs & Boards, and author of the book Leadership Matters.

This One Leadership Quality Will Make or Break You

One of the most often overlooked aspects of leadership is the need for pursuit. Great leaders are never satisfied with traditional practice, static thinking, conventional wisdom, or common performance. In fact, the best leaders are simply uncomfortable with anything that embraces the status quo.  Leadership is pursuit – pursuit of excellence, of elegance, of truth, of what’s next, of what if, of change, of value, of results, of relationships, of service, of knowledge, and of something bigger than themselves. In the text that follows I’ll examine the value of being a pursuer…

The conclusion of the article says. . . “All leaders would be well served to go back to school on what I refer to as the science of pursuitology.” Read the full text here.

[Editors Note: I like Myatt’s new term: pursuitology.😉 ]