Elevator Pitch

I keep being told that I need to work on my elevator pitch - something to say that will sell myself if I'm ever in an elevator with someone important. To keep me accountable, someone at work has challenged me to come up with one by next week.

When I try to think about it, I keep getting stuck with clichés. I'm a team playing, fast learning, outside of box thinking kind of person who pays attention to detail. They're the things that always seem to come up when people write feedback for me. They even write those specific words.

I've never been one for an elevator pitch. At a coaching session, I was told that this can be a good time to cultivate my network and find someone who is willing to vouch for me. I've seen the calendar of some of my managers, and it's just one meeting after another, with them having to constantly switch between different issues. MrFodder says that's one of the things that tires him out the most, having to constantly switch from one context to another. That's why for the most part, I'd rather just leave them alone. Those few minutes in the elevator here and there are all the respite they get all day.

I tried telling that to my group and I got berated, saying that it's such a "womanly" thing to do, putting other people's needs ahead of your own.

OK, so the elevator setting was probably just to keep the pitch concise. That's not too hard, I wrote a description of myself in 4 words: I'm a walking cliché. I actually ended up in an elevator last week, with the same person who said that I "bring the people together". He asked me if I had anything to say, and I said no. I could feel my entire coaching group facepalming.

I'll keep working on it...