Why Everyone Needs an Elevator Pitch

Most of us know about the “elevator pitch.”  Entrepreneurs use them to capture the attention of an investor when they have a quick opening—like riding in an elevator. It’s also used to pitch ideas for media content, movies, books, and even oneself when seeking a new job.

So why do you need a personal elevator pitch?

To communicate your uniqueness. Because we live in a 15-second world, we need quick and easy ways to help new acquaintances see we are passionate, active, and interesting. 

In my case, even as a retired person, rather than letting age define me as an old guy, senior, etc. with the associated stereotypes, I’d like to be able to define myself as I wish.

So, how do you create your pitch?

  • List highlights of your personal history and current situation.
  • Add current interests and how you spend your time.
  • Incorporate those points into a few sentences, 70-150 words or so. 
  • Wrap it up with a sentence or two of things you want to pursue.


Here’s my effort and my own pitch

  • Some Facts and interests
  • Retired Computer Entrepreneur
  • Nashville
  • Electrical Engineer
  • Pilot
  • Recently widowed 
  • No children/grandchildren
  • Active
  • Fitness
  • Outdoors, particularly hiking
  • Enjoy world travel
  • Photography 
  • Writing
  • Flying 
  • History 

How do I spend my time?:

  • Exercise and hiking
  • Active social life with friends
  • Finding ways to help people who have had abnormally big challenges in their lives.

What am I looking for today?

  • Being with fun people who like to share my passions.
  • Exploring my new life, wherever it is


My Elevator Pitch (30 seconds to say aloud):

I’m a retired computer entrepreneur from Nashville.

I’m recently widowed, without children, and now open to my new life which will be with fun people who want to share some of my passions.

Those passions include:

  • Being extremely fit and very active in the outdoors, mostly hiking
  • Flying
  • Traveling the world
  • Trying to help people who have had extraordinary challenges in their lives.

Know anyone with any interest in doing some of that?


Interestingly I found, and I think you will find, the process of writing this causes you to think about your life and current interests going forward. I’d love to see your pitch. You can email me at dlc@condra.com.

Enjoy the process.


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Image
April Fool's Day 2018, my first day of official retirement. While I've experimented with retirement-like phases in my life, today is the first time I have not been an employee of any company since the day I graduated Vanderbilt  June 1, 1969, took off my cap and gown, loaded up my old Jag, and drove to Carrollton, Georgia to start my employed life as an electrical engineer at Southwire . I started this blog to journal my experience in this new adventure, often referred to as retirement. I made the decision to let my baby, Amplion Clinical Communications, (formerly Dalcon), go because it was time for it to fly completely on its own, with a talented team under the leadership of a strong board and CEO, Frank Grant. I remain on the board there and a committed investor and as positive as ever that it serves a critical need for patients in hospitals. After 45 years together, with me at an office every day, Estelle and I are excited about the new space in our lives this opens u...
Read more

History of Dalcon/Amplion

Dalcon International, Inc. was founded by David L. Condra in 1978, and incorporated in 1979 in Nashville Tennessee. The company initially did business as Nashville Computer Center, subsequently changed the DBA to Dalcon Computer Systems in 1981. The product focus of the company was business computer systems designed to meet the needs of small businesses. As an indication of how early Dalcon was in the Nashville market, it was the first company to be listed under the then new Nashville Yellow Pages listing, “Computers”. Although personal computers were just coming into businesses for use by individuals, Dalcon’s focus was on systems to run an entire small company, which required multiple simultaneous users accessing a common database, which was not then supported by personal computers. Consequently, Dalcon based its solutions on the Alpha Micro , which enabled the development of multi-user application software such as would be required for a business that had a number of peopl...
Read more
Image
Nashville Transit, where do we go from here? The 64/36% margin by which the Nashville Transit Referendum failed was very surprising to me, including the fact that it passed in only 5 of 35 metro council districts. I overlaid the transit map with the Tennessean's voting results map here. Clearly one big factor was how far away a voter lived from a planned route. While the plan promoters emphasized that this system would be expanded to other areas later, there was no indication of when or how that expansion would be paid for. Promoters also believed that new development along the routes would increase the households benefitting but that is a hard sell to current voters. Where we go from here will clearly depend on who becomes mayor and what his/her priorities are, including transit. It would be a shame to lose all the work done and data collected analyzing and designing transit in the area and the enthusiasm of the people who clearly want to see new and better transportat...
Read more