WAS THE SPEECH EFFECTIVE?
The test of whether your new speech had any impact will be the contacts you receive after the conference, such as e-mails, invitations to join colleagues on LinkedIn, invitations to collaborate, invitations to present workshops or consult, and invitations to parties and elevator rides. Sometimes these invitations may occur months later. Usually there’s a flurry of activity immediately after you get back to your institution. Then it just trickles for 20 years. You never know what relationship seeds you planted with your spiel and cards. Your ROI (Return On Investment) in relationships will usually exceed your effort expended in those one-minute bites.
BOTTOM LINE
I suspect some you may find the elevator speech blogs a total waste. If you don’t want to go to the trouble of preparing a speech, as described in the preceding 27 blogs, and you prefer to continue to just “wing it,” at least, at minimum, give some thought to what you’re going to say and how you’re going to say it. You just might be able to help a colleague at another institution and, maybe, you’ll benefit from that contribution or collaboration.
Building professional contacts at every opportunity can have lots of advantages. I see relationships as the most important experiences in my career journey. Eventually, you might even want to consult, speak, or collaborate. The elevator speech is just one way to initiate that process. Happy spieling!
Let me know your thoughts and reactions to any of these suggestions.
COPYRIGHT © 2010 Ronald A. Berk, LLC
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