We think downplaying ourselves and not talking about ourselves will make us relatable and we don't want to outshine other people but actually it's a turnoff people see that you lack vulnerability and they take less interest in you.

Hey everybody welcome to the art of charm i'm your host Jordan harbinger today another much anticipated episode of the aoc toolbox perfecting your elevator pitch we're going to talk about things to make sure you have in your pitch.

Your qualifications your wants to needs the value upfront getting your presentation down why and how you can practice and something called self reflective analysis which will have your pitch evolving as you use it so that welcome to the art of charm we bring together the best thought leaders teachers and exceptional individuals to teach you how to be a top performer in life love and at work.

And if you're new to the show we'd love to send you some top episodes and our toolbox including episodes just like this where we discuss body language and nonverbal communication networking persuasion negotiation and everything else we teach here at our boot camps here at aoc in the US just text charmed to 3 3 4 4 4 that's c h a r m e d to 3 3 4 4 4 everywhere else go to the art of charm calm.

We don't have all the answers but we definitely have all the right questions alright let's talk to johnny and a j about our elevator pitch.

A lot of people write in and ask and I know a lot of guys come to boot camp and ask how do I explain what I do or what I do isn't very exciting and I know that we've struggled with this kind of first hand in real life so what do you guys do about the whole elevator pitch that it's unavoidable it's a very common question that you're going to get asked in common.

Conversation when you're meeting people for the first time it's one of the simplest topics to discuss when we all learn small talk is what do you do for work what's your job and I know for us from personal experience we started this over eight years ago we were pretty timid and we didn't want to talk about what we did well because there be a lot of questions that we weren't prepared to answer right.

So we tried our best to defer deflect and finally we learned that we had to disclose.

Obviously it's important that you convey enthusiasm in your response because no matter how boring your job is if you don't explain it in an enthusiastic way the other person is going to completely tune out so no matter what it is that you do even if you're not enthusiastic about it.

We want to start explaining things on an emotional level.

Okay, so what do we need to include in an elevator pitch?

Well, I think there's three important pieces. I mean first is your qualifications and that's that's going to come out of people are going to be asking you how long have you been doing that and so that's part of that your ones and needs you should also have that because and discussing what you do and who you are.

They're going to be looking for ways to add value to what you're doing and you're going to be looking for the same and other people and so at the end you're also going to have the value that you have you're going to be able to include to let people know what you can do for them.

And it's called an elevator pitch for a reason right it's meant to be brief succinct concise to the point so that if we were to ride an elevator together for a few floors.

I could very quickly understand what it is that you do and how I could help you if there is a chance for me to help you so that's why it's even called an elevator pitch it's meant to be short brief and to the point and I know a lot of times when we start thinking about what it is that we do.

We want to throw the kitchen sink at them and talk about all the different benefits and every single thing we do and how important we are.

And obviously that's when people's eyes kind of glaze over so you want to make sure that the person who hears your pitch about you and who you are and what is it you do could very easily turn around to the person next to them and say this guy does this and this is why it's so cool.

So if automatically your elevator pitch involves a lot of jargon a lot of words that you would only understand if you work in the industry it's very industry specific.

It's not going to benefit you because other people aren't going to be able to share your story to introduce you to people to understand you on a greater level and ultimately to help you.

I would say if it does have some jargon that you can't get away from because of your industry you might want to have the layman's term part of that ready to go next because the next question is could you elaborate that explain that to me.

So one of the best ways to think about this that we had ever encountered or learned we were actually in DC at an event called summit series and we had an opportunity to do some speed networking so think of it as like speed dating but instead you get to meet a bunch of entrepreneurs in 90 seconds and one of the most interesting guys that we met both Jordan I during this speed dating event.

So to pull this aside after I was like you know what I like you guys but your elevator pitch sucks and we weren't surprised because Jordan I hadn't spent much time conversing about it working together on it to make sure we're in sync and ultimately we were kind of struggling with our job what we do is not nearly as exciting as what other people in this room do so we tried to downplay ourselves and he said guys if I wanted to help you I couldn't even start to help you because it wasn't clear what you guys do but I'm willing to all of you.

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