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.
Arman Chowdhury, Confidence thru Communication
