Wednesday, November 9, 2011

3 Secrets to a Killer Elevator Pitch



Joshua Baer is an entrepreneur who is based out of Austin. He proposed a talk dealing with the three secrets to a killer elevator pitch. If you are unclear about what an elevator pitch is the simple way to explain it would be to get into an elevator, hit a floor, and imagine pitching a business plan or yourself in the amount of time it takes for you to reach that floor. I tweeted Joshua Baer and asked why he felt this is such an important topic. He replied, "nothing happens without an elevator pitch. No customer, no funding, no employees. It's step 1."

We have studied how all great innovations start from a basic, organic idea. Well this is the part that isn't showed in the documentaries about all those great companies. How did they get the money to starts their companies? All companies have had to do an elevator pitch. The elevator pitch is probably the most widely used but hardly recognized tool that everyone uses on a daily basis. You try and sell yourself to employers, to friends, and to potential boyfriends or girlfriends. It is widely known that you can lose someone's attention in the blink of an eye. Well with Joshua Baer's panel you will be able to walk away with the secrets to pitching anything. The interesting thing about Mr. Baer's panel is that it is interactive in a way besides questions and answers. Mr. Baer's will spend a few minutes speaking about his 3 secrets to a killer elevator pitch then he will open the forum to the audience to pitch their business and get feedback from Mr. Baer himself. He will give them criticism to and ways to improve while pitching their business ideas at the same time!

Mr. Baer's forum is an essential panel to attend if you are an entrepreneur or anyone for that matter. The elevator pitch is a tool that every person can use in their daily life especially graduate students such as ourselves.

Here is a video with Joshua Baer's Five Secrets to a great elevator pitch (he has since shortened it to three):


Here are more links for Joshua Baer:
Twitter
LinkedIn
Joshua Baer Website
SXSW Panel Site




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