Pitch, Please.

How to Sell Yourself Before the Doors Open

An elevator pitch is fundamental to have prepared for planned and especially unplanned interactions. You never know what life can throw at you or who you might run into by chance. A perfected elevator pitch can make a difference in opportunities you would have never experienced, which can open new doors for you and your business venture. Networking introductions are a crucial part of growth for entrepreneurs and professionals.

A recipe for a compelling elevator pitch combines several key elements, including highlighting the highest level of value you offer, avoiding excessive details, and piquing the listener’s interest to encourage further conversation. When communicating your value, it should be stated clearly and concisely. Additionally, this recipe should be delivered with a confident tone and a brief pitch. I enjoyed Kathy McAfee’s talk and her use of examples of “chunking up” (McAfee, 2009). After conducting research and delving deeper into elevator pitches, I discovered that Brandon Birkmeyer and Chris Do also provided insightful tips and examples.

Brandon’s perspective on elevator pitches was intriguing. He emphasizes speaking like a human when delivering your pitch. While I didn’t agree with everything he mentioned, he highlighted the significance of avoiding fluffy language and being brief and concise. He provides examples of topics to bring up to foster genuine conversation, such as relevant questions to ask or points to mention based on the location, which can help humanize yourself and initiate a discussion (Birkmeyer, 2025). My primary concern with Brandon’s advice is the potential waste of time spent mentioning these aspects when you could have simply presented your elevator pitch and been more efficient. I suppose it ultimately depends on the context of the situation, who you’re speaking with, and what your objectives are.

Chris Do from The Futur offered a great perspective on the elevator pitch. Like the others I mentioned, he stresses the importance of being short, concise, and memorable. However, his formula is different and resonates with me. It is as follows: Identify a problem you can solve. Start with “you know how (state the problem).” Then follow up with “I solve that.” Next, you present your solution. Finally, he suggests adding “Here’s the proof” and providing an example. His example for his business was: “You know how creatives undervalue themselves and have a hard time communicating their value to others? We solve that by teaching them to speak the language of business so that they become bilingual. To date, we have had thousands of successful students, some doubling or even tripling their income” (The Futur, 2020).

In short, having a plan for what to say in your business or as a professional is essential. I have gained invaluable insights into crafting a more concise elevator pitch that will help capture my audience's interest and spark further conversation. I plan to utilize Chris’s formula for my elevator pitch; its style resonates with me best and matches how I speak. Depending on my audience, I will tailor my problem statement to be concise and based on the insights I have about them, taking into account their level of fitness knowledge. Many might not know what ratio-based training is, so I would say, instead of “deciding what weight to use,” small shifts like this can help spark further conversation. Like Chris says in his video, practice at every opportunity, and the more you do it, the more natural it becomes (The Futur, 2020).

References

Birkmeyer, B. (2025, April 17). The elevator pitch you’ll actually use | Ep. 303 [Video]. YouTube. https://youtube.com/watch?v=Igi8CKtm6dk

McAfee, K. (2009, August 13). How to craft your 30-second elevator pitch or networking introduction [Video]. YouTube. https://youtube.com/watch?v=tgCssZhVUUE

The Futur. (2020, April 24). How to master the elevator pitch and make a great first impression [Video]. YouTube. https://youtube.com/watch?v=tnpiuqoA-pQ