Vague title right? Jason Alba at JibberJobber used an old post, "A Question That Haunts Me Wherever I Go", to make some points today about being able to communicate what you do, and who you are. At the time I wrote that post, I really was struggling with an identity, and an ego. "You should know me!" I exclaimed. Wow was I wrong. It was all my fault, and I finally solved the problem.
Elevator pitches are hard to construct, and most people pitch the wrong thing. I'm probably doing the wrong thing in a few eyes, but here is what I finally came up with and it seems to have been working pretty well.
When someone asks me what I do, or who I am , or you know, wants to know what my expertise is, I give them three words "I'm a coder." Not vague, and it does something very important for me. If you're not interested in coders or coding, you say cool and move on. However, it's been my experience that those three words lead to a broader discussion, even if it's short-lived. Usually, the next question is, what is a coder or what do you code? See, now I have the chance to give the person a little more information, and I might be able to frame my answer based on my location, or who is asking the question.
I don't need to sell you on a company or a service if our time is short. I can hand over a business card or tell them to Google my name, Thom Allen, Thom with an H, and say let's chat if you have any coding needs. My website gives them more than enough information. Hopefully I can get their card or name, and now we can start a networking relationship, or better yet, a business relationship.
I've tried the 30 second elevator pitch: "I do this and that, or this and that, and I can do this or that." Some elevator pitches actually derail the opportunity to do business with someone. If your pitch doesn't contain something they are interested in, they just say cool and move on. Lost opportunity.
Again, I'm not claiming this to be perfect, or that it would work for anyone else. All I know is it works for me, I'm not painted into a corner, and I don't feel the need to inundate the person asking with TMI, too much information.
Picture from Robert
