Today's video is all about the personal elevator pitch.
So whether you're completing an assignment for a business course at school, you're preparing
for your upcoming career fair, or you're just trying to get ahead of the curve and make
sure that you're ready for all of those networking opportunities I shared with you in my past
videos, then turn up the volume because what I'm sharing in today's video is exactly what
you need to hear.
Hey there, I'm Jenna Rein, from theinternhustle.com.
And this is Initiative Muscle Monday.
Helping you to start each week with an intentional step toward a successful future.
Let's do this!
OK, before I go into the standard elements of an elevator pitch.
Because you can look into any video on YouTube about elevator pitches and probably get those.
I'm going to break down what I think is one of the most overlooked aspects of an elevator
pitch.
This is your ability to connect with people.
So think about it.
Most people go into creating a pitch thinking it's all about me!
It's my personal elevator pitch, I have to talk about me, me, me and what I'm looking
for, and what my experience is, and what my strengths are.
And yes, a lot of that's true.
But at the end of the day, people are a lot more open to listening to you, if they have
something to connect with you on.
If they can relate to you.
And so your job is to actually come up with what that is.
Now of course I don't mean neglecting your intro.
Right?
You should absolutely lead a conversation with someone on what your name is and some
of the basics, but if you fail to touch on this connection point within your 30-60 second
window that you have with someone when you're giving your personal pitch, then you've really
missed the mark.
So what do I mean by connection points and how can you do this and play it out in real
life when you're delivering your personal pitch?
Well, if it's someone that you're meeting with who you are seeking -- so, it's a potential
mentor (someone that you would really like to learn more from), maybe it's an informational
interview at first.
Or perhaps it's just someone in the industry that you bump into at a networking event,
but you knew they were going to be there, and so you already had in mind that you wanted
to walk up and say something to them, hopefully you've done your research, right?
And this is going beyond just the basics about them.
Dig in to their past, learn where they got their start in their career, what their personal
interests may be, maybe where they went to school, where they grew up -- these are all
things that you can eventually connect with them on.
And so I made a list of just some of the common things you can keep in your back pocket to
typically bring up in connection with someone.
So let's just start with - Where are you from?
This is one I can still use today.
I live in California, I have for the past decade, but I grew up in the Midwest, and
I spent all of my childhood and my college years in the Midwest.
So still to this day, when I meet someone who's from the Midwest or has some sort of
connection, it's something that I can easily bring up and connect with them on.
And it might even get as specific as some of my favorite places that I used to go to
in Chicago and finding out where their's are.
So there are so many ways you can go, honestly I still do this today with my Uber drivers
-- which that's a little side note: but that's a great place to practice your personal pitch,
just start having conversations with your Uber drivers.
Learn about them, and when they ask in return about you, practice your pitch.
So get to know your Toyota Prius pals, because it is a great way to practice.
Sports, maybe you both were competitive in the same sports or you have a professional
team that you both are super fans for, that is a great thing to bond over.
Same goes for theater, or Broadway shows, or any other special interests that someone
may have.
If you have it too, that's something to connect.
Or, perhaps when you were doing this research on someone you realized that they spent 10
years in the Navy, and your brother is in the Navy now.
That's an awesome thing for you to be able to share and bond over.
People like to be able to speak to their experiences.
And if you can actually speak to it, if you're knowledgeable enough in that area, even if
it's not something that you personally do (again, maybe it was your brother), you can
still connect with them on that.
And show interest in what they have done in their past.
Let's see, a good example of this and I kind of just mentioned it, but it doesn't always
have to be about you to make it work.
So this is something that I actually did, personally, when I was going after the Chicago
Bulls internship.
If you have followed my story at all, I had reached out to the strength coach for the
Chicago Bulls and asked him for an informational interview.
Well I did my research on him first, and I found out that he's a Wisconsin guy.
He loves Wisconsin.
Well, uh oh!
I'm an Ohio State person.
And the Big Ten, while yes it's all Big Ten and that's one big happy family, there are
still rivalries, it's sports.
And so I knew that it probably wouldn't be in my best interest to lead with my Ohio State,
instead I brought up in conversation, I made a connection, that my parents both went to
Wisconsin.
And that my dad was a coach at Wisconsin, and that I grew up there.
I was born in Madison, I have a strong affinity to the school in that way, so while I might
be at Ohio State now, it's just because I wanted to carve my own path.
But I know about Wisconsin, and that's something that's super important to him.
Well, it worked.
That was a big big winner and eventually I got more of a conversation with him, and the
internship was forthcoming.
And so again, that wasn't my personal thing.
I didn't go to Wisconsin.
It was my parents.
But I grew up around it, and I could speak intelligently to it.
And made the connection from there.
OK, so at a career fair -- You're not always going to know everything about the person
you're walking up to speak to, right?
So you're probably thinking how can I prepare for that conversation and already know a topic
to connect with them on?
I wasn't able to do my research on them, I don't know where they went to school, because
I don't know what recruiter is going to be standing at that career fair ready to talk
to me.
Yea, I get it.
That's a fair point.
But!
You should go up and give them your standard introduction.
So your name, your major, your year in school, talk to them a little bit about why you're
interested in speaking to them about their company.
And then before you even give them the chance to flip that conversation around and ask you
a question, you need to ask them a question.
So wrap up your part of the pitch and then immediately go "I would love to learn about
how you got involved with XYZ Company and what is it that you love most about working
there?"
There ya go.
You get them talking.
And then you get to actively listen, and while you're listening you need to pick up on what
their interests are.
What is something that you can connect with them on?
So, maybe it turns out you guys are from the same area, great, going back to the where
are you from that we talked about, connect with them on that.
Or you find out that they love that the company gives them a wellness break everyday and they
get to go to their favorite yoga class.
Maybe you're a full-time yogi in your down hours at school, great, that's something that
you can connect with them on.
So again, you can come up with this as you're listening to them.
You don't have to go into a conversation already knowing everything about somebody in order
to establish a connection and show that you're listening and that you have interest in what
they have to say.
And then, finally, if you're at a networking event or a social event, my advice to you
is to try to beat them to the punch with the questions.
So, if you walk up to them first to introduce yourself, or if they maybe approach you, be
the first one to say - "What do you do?" or "Tell me your story."
Because then it gives you the opportunity to pause and listen.
And again when you're listening, you want to be listening for those connection points
and ways that you can continue to add value to the conversation.
And continue to ask follow-up questions until you get something that you can really connect
with them further on.
The key here to delivering a great elevator pitch is to incorporate connection and personal
story.
Is this making sense?
If it is, let me know by hitting that like button on this video.
So you may be thinking, great Jenna, awesome tip, connection, I get it.
I need to incorporate that into my pitch, but I still need to understand what the standard
elements of a pitch are.
Alright, let's go through them quickly.
The first one is, who are you?
So this is your name, where do you go to school, what year are you in school, and what's your
major.
Get the basics out of the way up front.
And again, delivering all of this with confidence is going to set you off on the right foot.
The second thing you want to talk about is What are you pursuing?
And this doesn't need to be your whole career path mapped out, no one expects that already.
If you do happen to have a better idea of that, great share it.
But what I'm really talking about here is what experience do you hope to pursue and
gain in terms of skills you want to acquire, just general professional experience, that's
where you touch on this.
Then you want to talk about any past experience that you may already have.
So this comes down to past work experience, maybe you've already had an internship, you
can share some highlights there.
Otherwise, volunteer and leadership experience within your school community or the outside
community is also great.
And a lot of people think, OK, I don't have a lot of experience yet.
I bet you do.
Just dig a little bit deeper and try to find some things.
But if not, make sure you're really stepping into the next point which is to highlight
your strengths.
Everyone has things that they're good at.
Whether it's a hard or a soft skill, you do have strengths.
And if you don't know what these are, ask the people who are close to you.
They'll be happy to tell you some of the things that they think you're best at.
And then this is also where you really want to tie into relevant connections that you
have with people.
So again, we've talked a lot about the connection points.
If you haven't already had a chance to dig into a conversation with them to understand
what some of their interests are, maybe you at least understand a bit about the company
where this person works, and you can tie some relevant connection points back to that.
But somehow you want to be able to connect the dots for them and let them know why it
is that you're interested in an opportunity potentially with them or with their company,
or learning more from them in the future.
Make it relevant.
And then at the end you want to either open it up for dialogue, if you have time.
So your pitch is pretty much done, you're wrapping it up, so either open it up for dialogue
by asking further questions of them, and really getting to know them so that you do have points
to connect on.
Or you want to make an ask and get to closing the loop.
So that ask might be -- "Do you have any internship opportunities?
Who could I talk to at your company about those?" or "Would you be willing to stay in
touch?
Here's my card, I would love just continue to build upon this relationship in the future
and I would love to follow up with you on LinkedIn as well, is that OK?"
So those are some simple ways to just close the loop, follow up and make sure that you
have an ask of this person.
So there you have it.
Connection and the standard elements that go into making a great elevator pitch.
Good luck.
Go out there and flex your initiative muscle with a polished pitch.
And next week I'll be back with some resume tips, because if you do well with the pitch,
then people are likely following up and asking for your resume next.
So you better have that ready to go.
I'll see you in next Monday's video.
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