Elevator success speech. What’s yours? Aaaaaaand go.
Did people nod their heads in approval? Specifically, the ones you just met? Did it feel good?
There is a different version for everyone as there should be, but I’m beginning to realize if you add a tagline to it, you stand out even more. I think about what my elevator speech is (often enough anyway — especially being a writer), but I had to come up with my own tagline version out of thin air. Case in point to July 2014 where I asked a really scary question to someone. The scariest part for me was the person potentially looking at me like I was nuts and wanting to shoo me off. But he didn’t and I did it. I asked.
With a pounding heart.
Sweaty palms.
Looking him square in the eye.
I wish I had a picture of just him and me of that moment.
I was asking to be part of a bigger story that I’ve invited myself into and he has no idea who I am. He just knew I needed someone to listen.
I’ve done more research in the last year for my vision and I’ve come up with a plan for my future I never anticipated would pique another person’s interest.
It pains me to say I’ve ‘bought into’ another person’s dream based on the process of how I take the business side seriously enough to make an at-bat scenario of the situation they make money off of, and I idealistically wonder if I can really make a living with the concept I came up with out of thin air for their business.
What am I talking about? I’m not ready to say. Very few friends and family know. A few take it seriously, some ask me for updates. Some don’t understand. A comment someone made the other day went like this: “You’ve been working at this a long time.” Correct. This one has been taking time, as it should.
It’s been a 15-month process. Fifteen months. I’ve had to be really patient. I also had to fly half-way across the country for the conversation to even happen in a non-awkward way. If I explain myself and the idea clearly enough, you’d get it. You might think it’s awesome. You might just turn a cheek and walk the other way.
That elevator speech can be practiced 100 times in the mirror, but when it comes down to it and the moment when you get your chance, it never seems to come out the way you rehearsed it.
What you learn is that you realize your dream isn’t scary when you start working toward it. You become self-taught because of the way business is done — and it’s done differently all the time. But it’s still scary because if you screw up, you can piss people off, you can cost someone a lot of money, but the world still turns. If you’re smart and not afraid of change, you evolve your own product as does your elevator speech.
There’s nothing to fear about a dream — your vision. When you prepare, you prepare for a certain delivery, but often what happens is another opportunity comes out of left field and you’ll think to yourself (quickly), “What just happened?” If you’ve prepared enough, you’ll find a certain sense of ease in how you choose to answer the question(s) with confidence.
The following statement can be applied to many individuals everyday lives:
“The goal of any artist is to find some universal sentiment in their art that appeals to everyone. What I hope is that it provokes them to ask questions, no matter what genre it is you come from, and all that matters is that it provokes something valuable to our society.” – Greg Graffin (Bad Religion)
Stand, but don’t stay in the middle,
Rachel
P.S. I’ve been working on trying to blog every day for a project called #101DaysOfBlogging. I’m not sure if I’ll place this message at the bottom of every post:
["This post is part of my 101 Day of Blogging series, inspired by Experience Life magazine’s 101 Revolutionary Ways to Be Healthy, authored by Pilar Gerasimo."]
…but for today, that’s where I’ve chosen for it to go.
P.S.S. I’m not going in order right now. There’s no rules. Just reading and exercising my brain. 