Learning The Elevator Pitch
The Wrong Way Everything in life has a right way and a wrong way. The best way to teach either is to give examples from real life. The same holds true of an elevator pitch, which is your way of explaining which job you want to do and what city or industry in a positive, succinct, and tidy little package of words.
Why is it called an “elevator pitch?” Imagine you are in an elevator with Microsoft’s Bill Gates. You have only the amount of time it takes for that elevator to whisk you to the next few floors to explain to Bill why you would be a very valuable asset for Microsoft. This means you need to have figured out ahead of time what you want to do and where-and be able to explain it to others quickly.
You may know that you saved your last employer $500,000 by improving a workflow process. Your spouse may know that you caught an audit error of $400,000 for a major client. Your mom may know that your streamlined your employer’s international tax department, saving the company $700,000 but your new employer has absolutely no idea you have accomplished any of that. You need to be able to:
* Explain your accomplishments very positively and very succinctly (in terms of money saved or money made for the company). * Explain why you are good at what you do (based on education or experience). * Share your goals for this new position. * Edit out the boring blah blah blah. * Aim to accomplish your elevator pitch in 30 seconds. * Close by asking the listener for help.
Practice your elevator pitch with everyone you meet-mingling at the Chamber of Commerce mixer, during fellowship after church, interacting at your college reunion, or talking to a recruiter. The person you speak with next may be the person who connects you to your dream job.
There are more wrong elevator pitches than then there are right ones. You might want to look at the wrong ones so you can run in the opposite direction.
The Wrong Elevator Pitch…and Why Too vague and unfocused: “Oh, I’m looking for anything in accounting.” Does that mean you’ll take a job at Liberty Tax preparing tax returns for the employees of Jamba Juice?? Maybe not….
Explaining why you are leaving but not explaining your goals: “Gosh, Dave, with the Senate investigation of Goldman Sachs, I think it’s time to get out of the derivatives industry. Maybe someone will want to hire me. After all, I’ve got an MBA from Stanford and ten years in finance.”
Speaking ill of the last boss instead of taking the opportunity to explain how you can help a new employer: “I have a new boss who is completely unreasonable-I really need to get away from him before I become negative too.” (It appears the new boss’s negativity has already permeated your thinking. Bad sign for new boss….)
The error of rambling about the challenges going on in your current office and not keeping your message succinct and focused on your capabilities: “It’s so confusing and awful right now. Since I’m actively job hunting, I’ve been researching other companies and it seems that every time I get close to applying, there’s an accounting scandal or some really negative press. There’s a great job at British Petroleum, but boy! Now is not the time to apply!
I worry about making the wrong choice and I’m scared to do anything at all. But, where I work now is so depressing-the people whine, the lights are dim, and the place is laid out in manner that only a prairie dog could love! At my level, I’m still sharing an office with two other people! Who ever heard of that!!! Sheesh! And then my boss is riding me and I really dread coming into the office every morning….” And the whining continues….
If the person to whom you are talking walks away more depressed than when you started the conversation, you have utterly failed. Knock it off. It is very likely that you have friends, parents, or a significant other to whom you can vent safely. Venting to a potential employer or someone who could connect you to a potential employer is NOT wise.
In World War II, there was a proverb, “Loose lips sink ships,” meaning that the enemy was alert to any innocently revealed piece of information about troop or ship movements. The same proverb applies to the elevator pitch: if you do not watch your loose lips, you could sink the ship of your career dreams.
The Right Way What is an “elevator pitch” and how can it help you get hired faster? Good question and here is a good answer: Imagine you are in an elevator with Microsoft’s Bill Gates. You have only the amount of time it takes for that elevator to whisk you to the next few floors to explain to Bill why you will be a very valuable asset for Microsoft. This means you need to have figured out ahead of time what job you want to do-and be able to explain it to others quickly.
The elevator pitch is an arrow which has long been in the quiver of sales professionals and is used to see if there is any reason to pursue a full-blown sales call. If you are selling World Book Encyclopedia, this is great elevator pitch: “Are you interested in helping your kids get better grades in school which could turn out to be more scholarships and free money for college?”
Parents who are interested will ask, “How?” This opens the door for sales presentation. As a job hunter, you are the salesperson and what you are selling is your set of education and experience. By giving your elevator pitch, you are one step closer to connecting with a decision-maker, setting an interview, and getting the job offer you want.
Since you are probably not selling World Book, what does a good elevator pitch look like? It should cover a combination of these points: * What achievements do you hope to accomplish at the next job? * What are you willing to do to accomplish your goals? * What are you looking for at this stage? o A higher salary? o Greater job security? o More time to spend with your family or pursuing your interests?
* To achieve one (or more of these), are you willing to contemplate changes to your current situation and the effort needed to accomplish your goals? * Are you seeking to change any of these factors? o Your employer o Your job function o The industry in which you work o The location (Do you want to move from Connecticut to Virginia?) o Company Size (Would you rather work for a Fortune 500 or a start-up?) o Your compensation package.
Do NOT try to cover all of these in your pitch. You can’t. You may be able to cover up to three. First, you need to understand what you want in your next job. This may take some time and discussions with your family so that when you make this career move, it benefits everyone. * Change of location: if your daughter has been accepted to UCLA and her tuition will drop from $22, 021 to zero if you become California residents, that might be a good reason to move to anywhere in the state of California. * The “fizz of new projects:” some people thrive on this and are constantly seeking a new project or company where they can make a difference. * Job Change = Promotion: During the exquisitely exciting employment days of the Dot.com explosion in Silicon Valley, common practice was to take a job offer for a better position and salary rather than express your loyalty to the current employer by waiting for your annual review. Even though times are not as robust in 2000, a job change is still a very viable way to get a promotion and salary increase. Here are a few examples of the right way to present an Elevator Pitch: “For family reasons, we’d like to move to California. I’ve had a successful career with a Florida non-profit where I developed accounting policies which increased organizational efficiencies while protecting resources. I’m looking for a similar non-profit where I can demonstrate my expertise in managing financial returns and guiding the grant process from proposal to award.” (Job opening: Aquarium of the Pacific CFO/VP Finance in Long Beach, CA.) “I’ve really enjoyed developing the accounting systems for a mission-driven high-tech start-up here in Pasadena. I’d like to find an opportunity at a growing venture-capital backed start-up where my skills in building internal controls, applying GAAP principles, and working cross-functionally would make a real difference.” (Job opening: Staff Accountant/CPA at Greentech Start-up, Waltham, MA.)
“I’ve been in international tax management for the last eight years and have progressed through roles with increasing responsibility. I’m looking to join a firm as their International Tax Director where I can lead a team as we build an international tax presence and develop my reputation as a sought-out technical specialist who attracts new clients to the firm.” (Actual job opening: International Tax Director in Chicago, IL at $250,000.)
No one expects to walk out on the stage at the Metropolitan Opera House and sing an aria on pitch without practicing. So too it is here. You can’t expect that you will be able to give an effective pitch unless you delineate what you want to communicate, edit it down, and practice. For most of us, honing an effective pitch takes time and effort. “Less is definitely more.” By being brief, you can communicate effectively your accomplishments and your goals to everyone you meet. Unless you speak up, no one will know how valuable you are and how much you can contribute.
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The Advancement Of The Laundry Basket And Its Great New Functions
If I was to list three different items would you be able to tell me what they all have in common? Well the items are some shoes, a bunch of dirty laundry and a heap of kids coloring books. If nothing is springing to mind then let me tell you the answer.
Let me start off by saying that years ago your laundry hamper used to be a rather unsightly plastic round tub generally with a lid and made in just one color which was white. Well that has changed for the better as they now come in a multitude of colors and styles and are made from many different materials rather than just plastic.
But when all is said and done they are just for storing your dirty laundry. That was probably the case years ago but not any longer.
The best thing about today’s laundry hamper is that you can store almost anything that you can think of in a stylish laundry hamper. These are so different to the old laundry basket that they would not look out of place in a dorm room at college.
The styles have certainly changed and some of these hampers as they are now known even have lining in them for a dryer storage facility. They can store things such as books without them getting damp.
You could find any color hamper you want to match any room in the house such as the nursery or even the bedroom.
A neat little invention that is around today is an ottoman that allows you to slip the laundry basket into it to keep everything looking tidy in the bedroom.
These laundry hampers have certainly undergone some radical changes and it was long overdue. Now the hamper can look good in whichever room you decide to house it and that is certainly helpful to us all.
In addition to laundry, the author also frequently blogs about rolling utility cart and custom metal signs.
Learn Speed Ready Specially Aimed For College And Universities
BE DYNAMIC through SPEED READING methods makes what you read become a part of long-term memory. This is caused by intense concentration. Intense concentration causes the altering of states of consciousness which, in turn, accesses long-term memory.
The other factor is eidetic or auditory memories. You can remember everything you have ever seen or heard, even if you weren’t paying attention to what was said. Your brain/mind, like a computer, stores all memories.
As you start to learn the various methods used in the BE DYNAMIC THROUGH SPEED READING, you’ll notice learning skills improving quickly! It is techniques repeated over and over, with visualization and various other added methods that will help you achieve the results you desire and be the best you can possibly be.
You’ll become a better student, employee, communicator, and decision maker in your life. And only one of your benefits will be that you will cut reading time on reports, memos, correspondence, newspapers, novels, non-fiction, magazine, etc. You will save time, and more time to enjoy life.
If you didn’t know this, let me clue you in to the reality that writers get paid by the word in articles and by % of gross sales (royalties) in book publishing; usually the thicker the book the higher the price and the higher the royalty. Writers are unnecessary verbose. What this means is there are many words within sentences that are just there as fillers; what you have to learn to do, through the Be Dynamic Through Speed Reading program, is only read the words that are essential.
Dr. Jay Polmar and his team wrote the “Be Dynamic Through Speed Reading” program to share these valuable tools with students to help them get the most out of their reading experience. In the past two years he has worked with other educators to bring students the Perfect Learning System (www.perfectlearningsystems.com) which includes Be Dynamic, mind mapping comprehension and memory supports, plus special speed reading software developed to match the Perfect Learning System.
Read Faster in 11 minutes. Guaranteed! Read Faster in 11 minutesover 3 decades experience teaching students in every continent to DOUBLE READING SPEED! The expert teacher offers you his secrets to Read Faster in 11 minutes.Read Faster in 11 minutesSee results immediately!
Learning, Teaching And Learning
How do we teach to each other? How is it that we were taught everything that we now know?
At some points in history, knowledge was elitist and even a forbidden concept. In 399 BC, Socrates explained that he was known as the wisest of all men since he understood that he only knew about nothing. Socrates was ultimately executed because of his unyielding questioning to the Athens population to find out how they knew what they knew.
Today, we still ask Socrates questions and have yet to fully understand the answers; nevertheless, technology is bringing us closer and closer.
Science and technology discovered is that the human brain is capable of processing 10,000 to 50,000 units or single words in one minute. But, these are older statistics from the 1980s, but new technology studying speed reading combined with brain development research indicates that you can most likely read even faster. Most high school graduates read 200 words per minute, down from 252 wpm from 25 years ago. College students, only one or two years older, have improved to 120% words per minute simply from having to read so much and the brain practicing reading so much. Regardless, of your starting reading speed, ” increases for 50-60% the first day is more than likely, in two days of reading practice ” youve doubled your reading speed.
The brain is a computer composed of human organic materials. If you were to consider your brain as the hardware (CPU = Central Processing Unit or a computers own brain) and your mind (the thoughts you think) as the software, you wouldnt be far from what the scientists evaluating the brain believe; that the mind and brain are component parts of our physical bodies is to give us an efficient way to determine more things.
The human mind is connected to our physical bodies to make life more convenient for us to learn and thrive. This amazing tool allows us to absorb a universe of knowledge in many different ways.
Childhood education creates the very first limitations to reading ability. Heres what the first two years usually look like to a young learner of language: 1. First, we are introduced to the alphabet and how each letter sounds. 2. Then, we move on to put letters together into syllables and hear their unique sounds. 3. Later, we formed words and their individual pronunciations. 4. Then, we progressed to sentences and lastly paragraphs, which we read aloud.
In that learning method, we move our lips slowly and carefully so that we would pronounce each syllable and each word clearly. There were entire classes dedicated to learning how to read out loud.
We did pronounced every single word correctly, and then we were praised by our teacher and we felt the thrill and excitement because we were learning so well. Soon, it was determined that we could indeed read, so we no longer read in the classroom out loud. Most of us, however, were still concentrating on the syllables and reading each word out loud to ourselves for confirmation. This phenomenon, called sub-vocalization, is what causes us to have the 200-300 words per minute limitation to our reading speeds in high school and University. Interestingly, its the same speed at which most people talk (unless you live in the Southern US and have learned the Southern Drawl that slows you down even more).
Theres been experiments to show that high school students that use speed reading methods can double their reading speed. When these techniques are practiced on a regular basis, the results are even more impressive.
With the power of the brain and mind combined, you can stretch out and achieve far greater skills. In fact, the amount of words that can be read per minute has no bounds. It is only a persons inner voice that can limit us, stop us and confuse us while reading or studying.
These voices tend to Babble On while you are striving to perform tasks, such as reading. It is the same voice that can make you panic before an exam. It is only when you silence this Babblers voice that you can truly transfer and speed read material at a phenomenal rate.
SPEED READING can assist you to overcome slow reading habits developed from your early education. You can then retrain yourself to read faster.
It is remarkable how your brain and mind have the ability to absorb thousands of bits of information in a small amount of time. You are like many people that read slowly on account of early education. You are slowed down when you are mouthing syllables and words. Even though you have developed these bad habits in early education, its great to know that from this moment on, you can retrain yourself to be a powerful SPEED READER and your potential is limitless.
One benefit of Speed Reading is that it can assist you in reading and understanding written information faster. Speed Reading is useful in careers, especially where you are required to master large volumes of information quickly. Many people run into burn out from information overload. Speed Reading assists you to absorb and retain, for later recall, all the information that you read.
Teach your child to become top performers in University and in the Corporate America. Make sure to check out Dr. Jay Polmar’s most excellent course: The Complete Speed Reading Program — there are personal and corporate editions with goal planning The Complete Speed Reading program , and be a top performer in University and business- be powerful!
Triple Reading Speed With The Complete Speed Reading Program
The Complete Speed Reading Program includes world renown, Be Dynamic through Speed Reading. It’s designed especially for college students who read large volumes of printed material. Sometimes they get frustrated when they can’t keep up with all the reading workload they must accomplish while in college or university.
Instructors and professors who are authors produce an endless stream of printed material, that even the most avid of students struggle to keep up. And it’s not that hard to keep up if you’ve got a properly trained brain and mind – and here’s how to set your mind. It’s an easy step-by-step method that will change your life forever.
The Complete Speed Reading course takes off with a simple 1 hour method that doubles your reading speed, then it teaches everything you need to get straight A’s in college. Eliminate the struggle in learning. With Be Dynamic through Speed Reading, you’ll speed read at twice to three times your current reading speed. You’ll have enhanced memory, recall, concentration, and comprehension as well.
The human brain/mind is capable of comprehending and cataloging from 10,000 to 50,000 units of information every minute (one unit being equal to one word) and this is based upon old statistics.
With Be Dynamic through Speed Reading methods, you’ll gain great strides in self development, your brain/mind will quickly assimilate methods for accelerated learning.
If you study in live speed reading classes taught in major US cities, or use online speed reading courses, or use speedreading software programs, we are sure that your abilities to read better, read faster, and understand what you read will be improved.
Be Dynamic Through Speed Reading is the only speed reading course especially developed for college/university students includes, mind mapping, memory/recall, note-taking, test-taking, and writing papers. By Dr. Jay Polmar, it’s all self-taught in 7.5 hours.
Speed Reading Home Study Courses for your family and for work The Complete Speed Reading Program, for kids, adults, college students, and all levels of the corporation The Complete Speed Reading Program Don’t reprint this exact article. Instead, reprint a free unique content version of this same article.
