It’s Monday morning, you’re yawning on your way to work sitting in the same rush hour traffic, listening to the same radio station, and drinking the same coffee. You feel like you’re living the same day over again until the elevator doors open in your building and BAM! You are face-to-face with the CEO of your favorite company. Instead of pulling the same old dad joke out of your pocket that you always do when you’re nervous, let’s work on how to connect and maintain a relationship.

We’ll call this, “how to make an impression,” also commonly referred to as the “elevator pitch”. Now, what is an elevator pitch? Princeton University Career Center of Development describes an elevator pitch as “…a brief (think 30 seconds!) way of introducing yourself, getting across a key point or two, and making a connection with someone. It’s called an elevator pitch because it takes roughly the amount of time you would spend riding an elevator with someone” (1).



Let’s brainstorm together and break it down a bit further into 2 main questions. Check out the end of this post for an example template.



1. Who are you?



You know who you are, but the real question is: what makes you unique? What makes you, you? Yeah, you may have been a business graduate from Boston University in 2020, but so are 3,000 other people. Not to say that you can’t add that in your elevator pitch if it's relevant (ie: Boston University is the CEO’s alma mater), but what is something that makes you stand out? Maybe mention something about that time you researched a given (and relevant) topic with your college professor or a project at work that led to a change at the company. Don’t be afraid to even add an anecdote of something you found interesting in that experience.

2. Why, how, and what are you trying to achieve?

Now let's cover "why", "how" and "what". We've already established that the person in the elevator is a CEO whom you have always admired. But why? Are you trying to land a job at the company? If so, why? What makes role X different at this company than role X at another firm? Let's say you aren't exactly trying to work at said company, but instead, you like the company’s model and are trying to replicate it in your own company. What skills do you possess to make this happen? These are the things you want to incorporate into your elevator speech. This is the "what". Now let's tackle the "how". If you are trying to do business with said company, how will you add value to their company? Once again, we are going to refer back to our previous question about how you are different from your competitors. How do your experience and skillset surpass those of someone else?

So we've covered "who", "what", "why", and "how" (we already know the "where" and "when"). Now you are equipped with the Krabby Patty Formula in creating the perfect elevator pitch.