How do you introduce yourself to others — are you getting to the why? Now is the perfect time to fine tune your elevator pitch—your concise and compelling introduction of yourself and your mission.
I had a blast working with students at FSU on this in a workshop format: we asked people to come up and tell us their name, where they’re from, their major, and one thing they’re especially excited about this semester—something they are going to be doing, creating, or otherwise helping make happen.
The follow up question typically was WHY?
As in, why specifically do you love that repertoire? Or why are you so committed to teaching, or writing, recording, creating . . . The why is typically how it makes us feel, or how we see our work affecting others.
The challenge is most of us don’t get past using clichés and generic adjectives. We say we ‘love’ something or ‘are passionate about’ it, or that’s it’s ‘fantastic.’
So what?
These are empty words unless we amplify the meaning by explaining why we feel that way and what we are specifically fascinated by or obsessed with or motivated by. To have impact, we need to get down to what’s essential and real.
One of the musicians, in talking about her love of orchestral playing, described the feeling of power in performing with many others and the emotional journey which left her at the end of a performance with a feeling of loss.
Another musician, who was enthusiastic about teaching, spoke about his motivation to empower his students—and his looking for students’ faces to light up with the “getting it.”
The WHYs of these musicians is what made their pitches memorable and distinctive. The WHY is needed in our bios, grant proposals, cover letters, interviews, as well as in our elevator pitches.
The WHY is our most powerful source for marketing material, and yet it’s routinely omitted — we leave out stating what motivates us, why we got involved in music in the first place, and what our actual mission is.
Re-connecting with the WHY also benefits us directly. It typically increases the energy flow that fuels our creative work, and is the source for contagious enthusiasm that gets other people interested in our projects.
Challenge for this week: Try inserting the WHY of what you do into your introductions and networking situations. This can be simply done when people ask about what you are up to these days, as in, “I’m excited to be working on X, because …”
See how this can transform your interactions with others and how it can transform how you feel about yourself, your work, and your week—once you’re plugged into the energy of your mission.
For an extra blast of the Why, watch (or re-watch) Simon Sinek’s terrific TED talk.
And if you’d like to inquire about receiving coaching from me, details are HERE.
Here’s to your forward motion,
Dream Big, Plan Smart, Live Well
