What
I like the most when people approach me is – and this is something I actually
teach to others – is the elevator speech.
There
was a neat little event that used to be held here in Ottawa, Canada, called Ideas
on Tap. They even had their own website at the time.
They don’t exist any more due to the dotcom fallout of the late 90s.
Here’s
what happened …
Ottawa
was a ‘Mecca’ for high tech companies and venture capitalists.
We actually called it ‘Silicon Valley North.’ Here are located the
head offices of Corel, Nortel Networks, JDS Uniphase, and so on.
The Ideas on Tap event was held
at local restaurants once each month.
People
would stand up on a milk crate with a microphone and pitch their idea to a group
of venture capitalists in 60 seconds or less.
After
60 seconds, the microphone was mercilessly turned off.
At
the end of each event, a prize was given to the person who gave the best pitch.
The winner was determined by measuring the level of applause from the
audience members.
The
most important and direct benefit from all of this to the people pitching their
ideas was that, after they got off the milk crate, they would mingle with the
group of venture capitalists.
This
60-second pitch from atop the milk carton was called their elevator speech, or
elevator pitch. This is the same
approach I like to take when I write copy.
I want people to find out in the first 60 seconds of seeing my website, written copy, infomercial, or whatever – the most important benefit that I can distill which makes the person want to ...
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