Unlock the Secret to a Compelling Elevator Pitch in Under a Minute!

How to create an elevator pitch. So in the world of business, an elevator pitch is usually used for investors. You're trying to get them to sign up with your company, and the idea is you're getting on the top floor of a building with the investor, and by the time you're on the elevator, you get to the ground floor, you've convinced them that they want to learn more about your business. So that's what's called an elevator pitch, and usually you have about a minute to be able to talk about your company and get somebody excited. The biggest challenge here is being able to quickly convey to somebody the value of your business so that they want to learn more. And a lot of entrepreneurs have a hard time being able to be concise and use language that moves people to action and makes them quickly understand what your company is all about. I had a great question on YouTube from a reader, uh, irbornerranger89, who is working on elevator pitch. Tries to get it under 1 minute, and he says, "I'm worried that I'm speaking too quickly and that people won't understand him, and how much over a minute can I go?" So in most circles, the 1-minute limit is not a hard rule. The only difference would be if you're going to some kind of competition and they're timing you and you've got to do it in a minute. The challenge though is I'd still encourage you to try to get it under a minute, and not by speaking faster, because by speaking faster people aren't going to understand what you're doing. It's focusing in on not sharing every little detail about your business, but trying to get them to understand at a high level what you're all about, what the opportunity is, and why they should care and want to take the next step with you. From there, you'll get into more questions and due diligence and a whole lengthy process where you can answer their questions, but you have to tease them and give them just enough information that they want to do more business with you. I remember when I had my first company, it was a software business and I was trying to get investors. I was thinking about, you know, who I wanted to bring on board. And I felt like, I felt like I had a great product. I had a great team. I was really helping people. We had customers and we're getting traction. And I thought, if I could only get the investor to sit down with me for half an hour, I could explain everything and he could help me get to the next step. The problem is investors don't have that kind of time, right? You have to take what might take half an hour, an hour, and crunch it down into 1 minute, enough for them to get excited about what you're doing, to want to contact you and take it to the next step. And usually what will help make the difference— and after my first business, I went into the VC world, so I, I saw from the other side— is show that you first have something But then show that you have some momentum, because the biggest difference between people who are just pitching an idea and people who actually get funding is having some real momentum with your business. Okay, so you have somebody on your board of advisors, or you've actually made a sale, right? Just having a little bit of revenue, not, not a ton, a little bit, already separates you from 90% of the other companies or plus. Okay, you've been in the media, you have some kind of traction somewhere. Show that it's not just an idea, that people are genuinely interested and need this thing. Don't focus so much on the technology. All the VC cares about is that this thing can grow. So you're in a space that, that is growing and there's a potential to make money, but they don't care about what the technology does. Not in the first meeting. They want to see if there's an opportunity. They that you have momentum and that you know what you're talking about. That shouldn't take more than a minute to get through. Practice. In the VC world, we used to call it the grandmother test. Does your pitch pass the grandmother test? And that's where it's simple enough that your grandmother could understand it. Remember that investors are not experts in your industry. Okay? They are generalists. They understand the finances side really well, but in terms of industry-specific, they're a generalist. They know a little bit about a lot of industries. They don't know your business as well as you do. So you need to be able to create a pitch that is not full of jargon, that's not full of short, short terms or abbreviations, something that makes sense for an outsider like your grandmother to look at it and understand what you're doing. But I would highly encourage you to still try to keep it under a minute and not worry if it's 58 seconds or a minute and 5. Most of the time they won't actually time you, but it's more for your own, your own skill set and for you to be able to get a powerful result, to be able to practice getting everything down really tightly just to arouse curiosity. And this goes for everything. This isn't just your elevator pitch. This is any communication you're doing with people. It's your pitch to the media. It's your website homepage. It's your sales letter, it's all the marketing copy you use, everything you do, you have to be able to quickly get your point across and use as few words as possible to have an impact and lead people to action. Good luck with your project. If you have more questions, let me know. I'm excited for you, and I hope that you will believe. For those of you watching, you like the video, please give it a thumbs up. It makes me want to do more for you. And let me know what you have to think. Leave a question underneath, leave a comment below. I'll make a video response. Thank you so much, and I'll see you soon.