Sixty Seconds With…You (The Personal Elevator Pitch)

I‘ve described elevator pitches before — they’re summaries of an idea, a concept or a proposal, in layperson’s terms, that can be made in sixty to ninety seconds, the time it takes an elevator to travel from the bottom to the top floor with a few stops in between. They can turn a chance meeting (with an audience that is hostage) into an opportunity to convey important information and persuade your audience to act on it.

I was watching one of these TV program ‘fillers’ called “sixty seconds with…” where celebrities are asked a few rapid-fire questions to try to get them to tell something about themselves in less than a minute.

It occurred to me that you could combine these two concepts to create a ‘Personal Elevator Pitch’, a one-minute summary that conveys the most important information about you. I’m intrigued at the idea that this might be a useful ice-breaker, a statement of your identity that could quickly provide some context to strangers for everything you say and do with them thereafter, a shorthand introduction that could help you and others find like minds quickly and painlessly, or at least find common ground and a basis for conversation and consensus.

As usual, I’m my own guinea pig, so here are my suggested questions as a framework for the Pitch, and my personal answers. Let me know what you think.

In no more than 150 words total:

1. Describe yourself (not what you do, who you are). I am…

2. Which of your Gifts (the things you do uniquely well) is potentially the most valuable? My unique gift is…

3. Which of your Passions (the things you love doing) is potentially the most useful? My practical passion is…

4. What is your Purpose (what you believe you were meant to do)? My purpose is…

5. What makes you angry? I am angered by…

6. Describe your ideal community (where, and with what kind of people, you’d ideally like to live). My ideal community is…

7. Explain the most important book or article you’ve ever written. My most important message is…

8. What’s your advice to future generations? My advice to the young is…

9. What would you like your legacy to be, what you’ll leave behind when you’re gone? When I die I wish to leave behind…

String the nine italicized sentences together and you get a kind of personal mantra, an unfinished story. Far too intimate too fast for strangers,though, on an elevator or even at a cocktail party. Pity.