Praciticing Elevator Pitches: 3rd video Critique

00:00 Did you succeed? I don't mean in creating the perfect elevator pitch, but did you succeed in improving in just one area? That's all you had to do.

00:11 If so, congratulations.

00:12 That's great. Because if you can reduce one flaw in your elevator pitch, you can reduce all of them.

00:18 If you look at it one at a time and focus on it one at a time.

00:23 Now, if you didn't make an improvement, typically that means you got greedy and you try to fix five things at once, or you pick something that's just inherently unchangeable, as I mentioned, like your accent or something like that.

00:36 So I'm hoping you made some improve, even if it's slight improvement, if you felt like you said five ums and that was annoying and the first one and you were trying to reduce the ums and this time you said to ums that's an improvement, that's better.

00:54 And don't worry if you say the occasional are some of the most wildly successful people in the world, say I'm all the time, David Letterman, Martha Stewart, even Bill O'Reilly, the most successful talk show host on all of cable news. He says, oh, all the time.

01:14 It doesn't seem to have hurt his career, so don't be hypercritical.

01:18 It's fine to want to make improvements, but don't beat yourself up if you have an occasional or coming out.

01:26 So here's the challenge.

01:27 Now you've ideally seen some improvement.

01:29 I need you to do it again, speak again, record it on video, watch it great yourself.

01:36 But here's the real test.

01:38 And the test is not coming from me.

01:40 It's not me grading you on it A through F scale or a 1 to 10 or 1 to 100 or some speech. Professor, the test is now you can you look at that video and love it? That's the ultimate test because you've seen people give elevator pitches.

01:58 We've all been pitched by somebody, friends, family members to buy magazine subscriptions or candy for school.

02:05 We've all received an elevator pitch.

02:08 So you know what you like.

02:09 You know what you don't like, you know what makes you cringe and think, Oh, how do I get away from this person? And you know, what makes you think, Oh, that's interesting.

02:18 I want to learn more.

02:20 So you know, what's a good elevator pitch and what isn't? I need you to keep practicing on video until you love it, until you can say, Wow, that's a great pitch.

02:33 If I can pitch half as well as that guy or half as well as that woman, I'll be giving a great elevator pitch.

02:40 That's where you've got to be, because unfortunately, if you're looking at a video of your pitch saying, Oh, that's kind of boring, guess what? You're right, it is boring.

02:52 So don't say, you know, I'm tired of this rehearsal.

02:55 I'll just wing it. No, don't wing it.

02:58 Your career is on the line or something is on the line.

03:02 Otherwise you wouldn't be putting yourself out there to pitch.

03:05 So let's get it right now.

03:08 The good news is, I'm not asking you to do this for a 60 minute keynote speech over and over and over again. It's only one minute.

03:16 So you can actually practice it, record it, and watch it 30 times and it only takes one hour.

03:26 So if you're doing some kind of new business venture, you may be spending a year in your life trying to raise money.

03:32 Or if you're job hunting, you could spend six months doing that.

03:36 So to spend just one hour practicing again and again and again, your elevator pitch is a pretty small price to pay.

03:44 Plus, it doesn't cost you anything.

03:47 You're not to go out and hire an expensive camera crew or hire an expensive coach.

03:52 You're your own coach if you follow what I've asked, which is to practice on video and watch yourself.

03:58 Now, the other reason this is key is that if you do this and you get to the point where you can look at that video and like it, it's going to fill you with confidence.

04:09 I mean, part of what makes people bad at giving elevator pitches is you kind of sense in them uncertainty.

04:17 Gosh, I'm not really sure if this is very good.

04:20 I'm sorry if I'm bothering you.

04:21 I know what I'm saying is very interesting.

04:23 It's this tangible sense of lacking confidence, of uncertainty, of doubt.

04:32 If you don't actually know you're giving a great elevator pitch.

04:36 It's perfectly rational to be filled with doubt and insecurity and lack in confidence. And if you haven't seen yourself give a great elevator pitch, why would you be confident? What will give you confidence is not somebody patting you on the back or drinking green tea or meditating.

04:58 You can do all those things.

04:59 But I'm just telling you, that's.

05:00 Not really give you legitimate confidence.

05:03 It's not visualizing the person loving you and giving you a hug and giving you a check.

05:09 What will give you a confidence in your elevator pitch is you actually seeing yourself do a great job.

05:16 That's what I want you to do now.

05:18 Keep practicing on video, watching it, creating it, and tell you love it. If you get it there in one take, great.

05:26 It takes you 30 or 60 or 200.

05:29 Do as many as it takes.

05:30 The person you're pitching doesn't care.

05:33 They simply want your best.

05:35 So why don't you give it to them? So let's do this exercise now.

05:39 It's far and away the most important part of the whole course.

05:42 You can ignore half of what you can ignore 95% of what I say in this course.

05:46 If you do this one thing, I guarantee you you're going to be filled with confidence in your elevator pitch and you're going to be extraordinarily successful.

05:57 Most of the time, nothing's perfect, but this will solve most people's elevator pitch problems. So do it now.