Elevator Pitch 101: How to Create a Compelling Elevator Speech to Persuade Others & Promote Yourself | Arman Chowdhury | Skillshare
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Elevator Pitch 101: How to Create a Compelling Elevator Speech to Persuade Others & Promote Yourself

teacher avatar Arman Chowdhury, Confidence thru Communication

Watch this class and thousands more

Get unlimited access to every class
Taught by industry leaders & working professionals
Topics include illustration, design, photography, and more

Watch this class and thousands more

Get unlimited access to every class
Taught by industry leaders & working professionals
Topics include illustration, design, photography, and more

Lessons in This Class

    • 1.

      Introduction

      1:08

    • 2.

      What is an Elevator Pitch?

      2:23

    • 3.

      Mistake with Elevator Pitches

      1:54

    • 4.

      Gun to the Head Strategy

      3:29

    • 5.

      Custom Fit Delivery

      2:56

    • 6.

      Keep Refining

      2:59

    • 7.

      Bonus Tip: Networking Events

      1:42

    • 8.

      Final Project

      3:03

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About This Class

Time is money.

And if you are drawing out your message with unnecessary details, then the other person will lose focus.

 

An elevator pitch is a concise persuasive idea.

Are you capable of delivering it?

 

Being able to deliver an elevator pitch the correct way will open up a lot of opportunities.

Whether you are talking to strangers, at a networking event, or deciding to work with an acquaintance on a serious business idea.

 

However, the type of elevator pitches we have been taught is too formal.

And gets us focusing on all the wrong things.

 

In this beginner’s class on the topic, you will learn:

  • What is an elevator pitch?
  • How to know your idea very well.
  • The concept of trimming the fat.
  • Custom-fit delivering your approach.

Along with plenty of other topics to sharpen your pitching game.

 

In the end, you will be given a final project to create a compelling elevator pitch that you can deliver to others.

 

Since this is a beginner’s class in the field, you do not need any prior knowledge of the subject to understand the course.

 

If you are ready to sharpen your pitching game, then I look forward to seeing you inside!

 

Meet Your Teacher

Teacher Profile Image

Arman Chowdhury

Confidence thru Communication

Teacher

 

Hello, I'm Arman Chowdhury. I am an engineer, public speaker, and writer who currently owns the company, ArmaniTalks. The ArmaniTalks company aims to help engineers and entrepreneurs improve their communication skills so they can express themselves with clarity and confidence. 

 

A few of the core communication skills covered include public speaking, storytelling, social skills, emotional intelligence, and creativity.

 

Throughout my career, I have served in the hard skills fields of aerospace engineering, electrical engineering & systems design. Some of my experience with soft skills include serving as the External Vice President of my Toastmasters club, former communications chair of the Tampa BNI chapter, and publishing... See full profile

Level: Beginner

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Transcripts

1. Introduction: Time is money, my friend. And if you're taking way too long in order to make a point, I want to know something. The other person is no longer paying attention. Have you ever heard of an elevator pitch before? You know, one of those pitches that you give an elevator ride. The elevator is very symbolic in nature. What it really represents is time. Are you capable of getting the main points of your message and distilling it down in a compelling way that other people can understand. If not, then that's what this class is for. This beginner's class on creating elevator pitches, you're going to learn what exactly is an elevator pitch. The ability to take a complex message and make it simple. How to custom fit your approach along with a final project at the end, where you're going to be able to create your own elevator pitch. Does that sound interesting? If so, then I look forward to seeing you inside. 2. What is an Elevator Pitch?: An elevator pitch is a short, persuasive idea that is being delivered. Normally when you're picturing an elevator pitch. You may have this Hollywood phenomena where there's this protagonist in a movie that has a lot riding on this one certain idea. And finally, he's capable of going into the elevator with the big boss, the one that makes the decision. And he's been preparing for this moment. He's sharing this idea in such a compelling way by trying not to show that he's out of breath because he was chasing this boss down and write one he's about to make his big hay maker point. What happens is that the boss has reached the floor. He couldn't even give a call to action. Maybe you'll see the boss again later on. Although there is some realism in regards to this scenario, this is Hollywood. You want to understand that an elevator pitch can be given anywhere. Do not think that just because it has the word elevator in it, that you have to wait for. An elevator like atmosphere where you're chasing down someone. A lot of times people are coming to you. You're hosting an event and people want to know what it is about your elevator pitch in this scenario doesn't have to be 10 s or you are huffing and puffing away. Instead. You're capable of drawing it out while centering your message on the central points. That's the main thing that we want to understand in regards to elevator pitches. When we're talking about being concise is not an idea of time. It's more so an idea of message. Are you trimming the fat? Are you focusing on the substance of your idea? If so, then you're understanding what it means in order to give an elevator pitch. 3. Mistake with Elevator Pitches: There's a few things that people get wrong in regards to an elevator pitch. One of them is that they're too rehearsed. They've been practicing so much based off of this Hollywood mindset that they're raising the stakes a little too much. And they feel as though that how well they worded is going to determine the impact. So they just memorizing the elevator pitch. There's no magic behind this. So once they're delivering their message, the other person doesn't see fire in their eyes. Another thing that people get wrong in regards to the elevator pitch is that they don't really know their idea. They feel as though they know their idea, but they don't know it. If you know an idea, you do not have to memorize anything. You just know it. Do you have to memorize who you are, what your name is? No, It's because you know who you are. The purpose of this class is to build a holistic understanding in regards to the elevator pitch. So you center it on knowing the idea. It doesn't matter which angle you're approaching the ideal from. You know, it. You can answer questions on it. And the more that you can answer questions on it, despite how hostile the person may be that's asking you the question. That is when, you know the central points of this idea and the idea just flows out of you. This is the approach that we're going to take. We're not going to focus on memorizing anything. We're going to focus on knowing this idea inside and out. 4. Gun to the Head Strategy: Okay, so to know the idea, we're going to do the gun to the head strategy at this is a strategy that we used to do in one of my public speaking clubs where, let's say a mentor is over here trying to tutor his men t, the mentee, the person with a lot of speech, anxiety is feeling all these emotions. And since they're feeling all these emotions, they're losing sight of what the speech is about. And this is causing this nervous individual or to ramble. So the mentor is likely the mentee. Hey, I have a gun right now. I'm going to shoot you. I'm going to kill you. If you do not tell me what your speeches about 10 s. And that's when the mantle is like 10 s. My speech is 8 min long. How can I possibly tell it to you in 10 s? Then the mentors like 8 s go. And simply being put in this position takes away the noise in the mentees mind. And now they're focusing on the signal. At the true essence of the message. Which you want to do is you want to simulate a very similar situation. By the way, how much you believe in this situation will determine whether or not the gun to the head strategy is effective. If you're like, I know there's not really owed on, then you're not going to get the advantage of this exercise. Put that gun to your head. Now ask yourself, what exactly is your speech about your elevator pitch? What is it about? And here's the thing. You may be tempted to give yourself, let's say 1 min to share this idea. Whatever default amount that you chose divided in half. So if you chose one-minute, give yourself 30 s. This is little creatively cheat code. Creative people do not give themselves more time because adrenalin plus more time equals anxiety. Instead, a creative people take away time. Adrenalin minus time equals creativity. So get this gun and pull it through your head at divide the time and see if you can share what the speech is about. If you can't, for some reason, I chances are you don't really know this idea as well as you initially thought, this is good. You being by yourself and realizing, I need to level up my study game, I need to understand this idea a little bit better. Is good in your private time rather than when you're out in public. So do more research, study this topic more and see why you can't distill it down in less time. Once you have done the proper research, comeback, get this gun and aim to do the gun to the head strategy. 5. Custom Fit Delivery: Let's say that you're someone that teaches soft skills. And more specifically, after the gun to the head strategy, you don't teach soft skills to anyone. You particularly follow your content towards the needs of an engineer. It's because you were an engineer before. And you understand a lot of the pain points that hard skills dominant fields tend to have. So if you're over here giving the elevator pitch, one thing that you want to remember is that human beings have this thing called the so-what sticker. Which means anytime you're talking to them, envision that there's the sticker on their forehead. Which rights? So what or if your sticker has more, Let's say real estate rights, Wasn't it for me? This is important to understand because we need to custom fit our approach in terms of delivering this elevator pitch. Let's say you're talking to a legitimate, awkward engineer. You are going to deliver your elevator pitch much differently to them than, let's say, someone who's highly charismatic. And this person is not necessarily an awkward engineer, but instead, they have a company that employs a lot of awkward engineers. The delivery is going to be very different while the message remains the same. So this is why we're predominantly focusing on knowing the idea very well. Because when you know the idea very well, it's very easy for you to alter the delivery. Nowadays with so many options of people don't want to, let's say go to a fashion store and buy a suit that someone else war, right? Let's say the other person is extra large and your medium know does not go into do. Instead, there needs to be a custom fit approach towards the suit. Likewise, there needs to be accustomed fit approach towards your elevator pitch. So distinct about this real quick, I don't be one of those people who relies too much on reciting lines. Because if you're reciting lines too much, then you're going to speak to an awkward engineer the same way that you're going to speak to the Charismatic CEO. Instead. Know your speech very, very well. And then envision that there's a sticker on their forehead. That rights. So what 6. Keep Refining: Just when you think you figured it out, one word can change everything. You ever watch wrestling growing up? I used to be a big, big fan of wrestling. There was a certain period where I wait for my parents to go to sleep so I could sneak downstairs and finish up these wrestling matches. Well, as I became an adult, I started to get a curious about wrestling once again. And I started to read books. In regards to the wrestling business. The CEO, there was a period where he was focusing predominantly on a creating a wrestling business. This was his elevator pitch. And during that time, the main audience members were single men. That would come. They'll buy, let's say one ticket. They will buy a drink. And they would want these wrestlers to kill themselves of fighting in order to entertain them. So the CEO realized that this was an okay, a business. But he wanted something more. He couldn't necessarily put his finger on it, but he knew that there was a chance for having something more. So he kept on working on his elevator pitch some more. And eventually, one word changed everything. As he was brainstorming. He realized that he was not in a wrestling company. Instead, he was in a wrestling entertainment company. Entertainment. That word was that level of refining that he needed to understand that his target demographic was not that one guy who came just bought one ticket. But instead, what the entertainment paradigm he could sell to a family, let's say a for mom, dad and two kids. And with this understanding, these two kids would probably want toys, merchandise of their favorite wrestler, something that this solo gentleman in his mid 40s probably wouldn't have wanted. So the more that you are refining your elevator pitch, the more that you're going to be given opportunities. In the form of words. One word can change your entire philosophy just like it did with this gentleman. From wrestling company to wrestling entertainment company. So keep on practicing, keep on refining. And you'll see that these opportunities are presented in your industry as well. 7. Bonus Tip: Networking Events: It's great if you're learning by herself, but it's even better if you're practicing your elevator pitch in real-world situations. Or download one of those networking apps. You could check out, meet up. You could go to a local BMI meeting and practice are giving your elevator pitch where you have an actual person possibly asking you follow-up questions. By doing this, you get a real-world understanding of how to deliver your message to a human. Because you are delivering it to a human. That's one of the things that we were discussing earlier, where some people lose sight, that these people have a sticker on their forehead that says what's in it for me. So when you're practicing, you'll often see that your elevator pitch is going very well. This person does not have any follow-up questions, but instead, they want your business card because you explained yourself so well. Other times people are like what? I still don't quite get what you do. And this is when you have more awareness in order to play around with your wording. There's a lot of networking events. You just got to download one of those apps. Let's say meet up and see some of these events near you. And these are great opportunities to keep on distilling your message down and have a real world lab in order to experiment width. 8. Final Project: For the final project, you have to create your own elevator pitch. You're not just memorizing this pitch, but instead, you're creating this pitch on an idea that you know very well. You have to persuade someone to do something and to test how well you know it. You have to deliver it to two different groups of people. Earlier on in the class, we were talking about the individual who owns a Soft Skills company that teaches communication skills. We talked about how their message was going to alter just a little in terms of delivery when speaking to an awkward engineer versus a Charismatic CEO. Another example is when a D, a CEO of a wrestling entertainment company, I can deliver their elevator pitch to the parents versus the kids in order to persuade them to come to his match. The delivery is once again going to be different. So I want you to know this idea very well and to explain this idea to two completely different groups of people. Now you may be like, Okay, but I only have one target audience for my industry. Doesn't matter. I get creative. Let's say you're speaking to one at Target member for your audience. Also alter that with a skeptic. Someone who doesn't quite understand what you do, get as creative as possible. But what you want to make sure you're doing is you're getting this elevator pitch and delivering it to two different groups of people. This will allow you to be dynamic in terms of your delivery. Once you're done with the elevator pitch, once you're done delivering it to two different groups of people, I want you to create a report talking about your experience. Was it difficult to deliver one message and two different ways? Was it pretty easy because you knew this idea very well. A word you every now and then, sounding repetitive, really memorizing lines, get as detailed as you possibly can and create a report on this experience and post it on the final project section right below, I look forward to reading it. Polish up your message. My friend, attention is plummeting nowadays. So those who can get to the point effectively will continue to thrive. If you enjoyed this beginner's class on how to create an elevator pitch. And you want to learn more about communication skills. Be sure to check out our money talks.com, which has plenty of my blogs, videos or podcasts, books, and plenty of other content or money talks.com, go on and check it out.