Make sure you’re in Profile Edit mode. Now we are going to tackle a super-important element in your profile: Summary. It is the first glimpse at who you really are and what you do. If a colleague, consulting firm, or job-recruiter glances at your summary and is not impressed, he/she probably won’t read any further. It’s lights out on your profile.
Before drafting this section, you need to determine the purpose of your profile. Is it to network, to promote you, to promote your business, or a combination of the preceding? Who will see it? Your summary must be written to fit your profile purpose(s). This section will be tailored to the image you want presented.
Summary: Click Edit. This section consists of 2 parts:
(1) Professional Experience & Goals which is a highlight “film” of your background, experience, and what you can offer a client, and
(2) Specialties field to highlight your areas of expertise and what distinguishes you from the rest of the pack
Professional Experience & Goals (max. 2000 characters). This blank white area should be filled with your “elevator speech.” Remember my blogs on that topic? NO! That’s okay. Format-wise, use lists, if possible. They’re easier and faster to read than running text. Carefully craft a capsule description of
a. who you are (teacher, professor, researcher, writer, secret agent, GEICO gecko, etc.)
b. what you do (conduct psychological profiles on the men in the Capital One commercials) or produce (books on rodents and lizards used in GEICO commercials)
c. what you can do for your target audience (create hilarious commercials for rich insurance companies)
The last-named focus is for consulting and business purposes. Consulting firms and clients want to know specifically what benefits or outcomes you can provide for them.
Beyond these outcomes, identify your goals.
This section should be brief and pop off the page so a colleague, client, or recruiter will stop and take notice. Since LinkedIn only formats in PLAIN TEXT, not HTML, you’re limited in popping options. I recommend UPPER CASE for important words and heads or “apostrophes” around other words for emphasis. Don’t get carried away.
Specialties. Identify your categories of expertise. These can be more specific than b above. What can you do differently or better than others with a similar background? Why should a client or employer hire you as a consultant, speaker, or CEO?
Click Save Changes.
What’s Next? I’ll add information on experience and education, which you can copy from your CV. Your profile should be taking shape.
COPYRIGHT © 2010 Ronald A. Berk, LLC
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
EXAMPLE RECAP
To recap, here are the 2 examples from the previous blogs, plus a bonus:
EXAMPLE 1: Professor of TV Production
“Hi, I’m Clarissa, but you can call me Rissa. I think inside the box, because I teach TV production. I also work with IT staff on campuses to help them connect with their faculty on media techniques in the classroom. I’ll be doing a session here tomorrow on that topic at 1:30. Here’s my card. May I have your card? I’ll contact you about joining my network on LinkedIn so we can stay in touch. I hope to see you at my session tomorrow.” (84 words)
EXAMPLE 2: Researcher on Cheating
“Hi, I’m Bucko. I do research on cheating. I present a dozen techniques for faculty to use to detect and eliminate cheating in their classrooms. I’m doing a workshop on a few of them on Thurs. at 10AM. Here’s my card. Do you have a card? Let me know if I can help your faculty. Here’s an invitation to my university’s reception tonight. See you there.” (66 words)
BONUS EXAMPLE 3: Professor of Film and Media
“Hi, I’m Jim from Pandora University. I create Oscar-winning movies, just not this year. I’m working on the sequel to my 2009 release. It’s called Avatar 2. I’m casting for parts now, especially blue people. No, not smurfs. Would you be interested in auditioning? Here’s my card with audition information. I hope to see you there." (56)
Any questions? Is this helping at all? Each example provides buckets of critical information in only 56–84 words. Notice the shift in emphasis from the traditional intro of “what I do” to “what I can do for you with follow-up.”
WHAT ABOUT DELIVERY?
How do you say it? With style and pizzazz! Whatever you say in your version of the above spiels, say it with passion and enthusiasm. Convey energy, excitement, and professionalism about what you do. If you’re not excited about what you do, why should anyone else be? Are you forgettable or unforgettable with a positive image?
The final blog in this long, overdrawn, bloated series will suggest how you can determine whether your spiel was effective. There will also be some bottom-line advice. See you tomorrow.
COPYRIGHT © 2010 Ronald A. Berk, LLC
Here’s the final ingredient in your recipe for an effective elevator spiel:
3. FOLLOW-UP (How can you follow-up and maintain contact?): Most first-time encounters are superficial how-do-you-do events with no follow-up. You probably will see them again only in your dreams. Here we’re trying to build relationships. You need to go one step further to continue the initial contact. Make an effort to follow-up. At the end, don’t forget to
a. ask for a business card, e-mail address, or info on the session he or she is presenting so you can attend,
b. give an invitation to join your LinkedIn professional network, your session at the conference, a reception your institution is sponsoring, or to collaborate on something, and/or
c. schedule a follow-up meeting at the conference, preferably over a beverage or food.
Example 1: “I’ll be doing a session here tomorrow on that topic at 1:30. Here’s my card. May I have your card? I’ll contact you about joining my network on LinkedIn so we can stay in touch. I hope to see you at my session tomorrow.” (Note follow-ups with session invite, card, LinkedIn, and session reminder.)
Example 2: “I’m doing a workshop on a few of them on Thurs. at 10AM. Here’s my card. Do you have a card? Let me know if I can help your faculty. Here’s an invitation to my university’s reception tonight. See you there.” (Note card and invites to session, to help, and to reception.)
What do you think? Are the examples and focus of the spiel any different than what you’re already doing? Let me know your thoughts.
The next blog in this series will tie these examples together and address the delivery of the speech. There will also be a bonus example suggested. See you Mon. It’s time for a snack.
Have a blast this weekend! Also, don’t forget to set your watches and clocks to daylight savings time, if that applies; otherwise, you’ll be an hour late to my blog. Buhbye!
COPYRIGHT © 2010 Ronald A. Berk, LLC
Given that the concept of the elevator speech originated in the fields of business and marketing, my approach has been to extract “best practices” from those fields and spin their practices for academicians. The concept is transferable to different applications.
ACADEMIC ACTIVE INGREDIENTS
Obviously, anyone can read your formal name, title, and institution off your boldface printed plastic badge. That’s a starting point. But you haven’t said a word yet.
Here are 3 ingredients to consider:
1.HOOK (What are your first words?): Please do not repeat the obvious. What’s NOT on your badge? Think of something new that breaks the ice or smashes it? Maybe a nickname, word play, or humor. Try to avoid trite and boring.
Use a statement to grab the attention of your contact; one that will pique the his or her interest. (WARNING: No, it’s not a lame pick-up line. Don’t even think about it.) Choose your words carefully.
Example 1: "Hi, I'm Clarissa, but you can call me Rissa. I think inside the box, because I teach TV production." (Note formal first name to nickname intro and wordplay on popular expression with humor linked to job.)
Example 2: “Hi, I’m Bucko. I do research on cheating.” (Note nickname and simple attention-grabbing topic. Most sins and crimes work well.)
2. BENEFIT (What service or benefit do you provide?): What do you do that can help the contact or contribute to what he or she does? What problem can you solve—cheating, low test scores, poor attendance, high drop-out rate, PC/iPhone distractions in class, losing football team, or burglaries? What benefits could your contact derive from what you do?
Example 1: “I also work with IT staff on campuses to help them connect with their faculty on media techniques in the classroom.” (Note benefit for IT staff.)
Example 2: “I present a dozen techniques for faculty to use to detect and eliminate cheating in their classrooms.” (Note benefit for faculty.)
I will continue with the third ingredient tomorrow with examples. Can you guess what it is? It’s probably the one most often overlooked, but critical to relationships. See you then.
COPYRIGHT © 2010 Ronald A. Berk, LLC
My previous blog examined a few of the characteristics of the elevator speech. But you already knew that. Now the question is: (I can't find my question. I seem to have misp... oh here it is under my jar of peanuts. Sorry.) What is the role of the elevator?
TRANSPORTING YOUR SPIEL
You have a few transport options:
THE ELEVATOR: With regard to vertical transportation, most people on elevators seem to prefer to rivet their eyeballs on the changing floor numbers or framed inspection certificate dated 1953 rather than striking up an eye-contact conversation with any human on board. The elevator speech can best grab the attention of your target in an uncrowded elevator. At conferences, however, when the elevator is a sardine can full of excited professors away from home with a few who have elevated blood-alcohol levels, inhibitions are thrown out of the hotel window if you could open it. There’s probably no “funner” group under those conditions.
OTHER TRANSPORTATION OPTIONS: Although these baby spiels about you were originally intended to prepare you for those chance encounters in an elevator, they can also be used on other forms of transportation, including escalators, moving walkways (aka “travelators”), taxis, conveyer belts, runaway buses like in Speed, NASCAR speedways, and most models of Toyota. (Sidebar: You should know that studies have shown that airport travelators actually slow people down from reaching their gates, especially if they wear bifocals or are drunk. In some cases, these delays may be due to business people clogging the walkways like plaque in your arteries as they speed-speak their “elevator speeches” while trying to walk. End of Slightly Inebriated Bar.)
NONMOBILE OPPORTUNITIES: You can field test your spiel with strangers at the grocery store, bank, curb-side airport check-in, airport security, pharmacy, doctor’s office, vet, and Royal Gala events involving the Queen of England, or the pizza delivery guy to observe reactions and polish your words. Then you’ll be ready to take your sound-byte into the air on your flight and on the road. It can also be used at all of the conference situations listed in my March 8 blog (You did read that blog, right?) when you are sitting next to professors like John Nash or Russell Crowe.
Now you know where to use the speech, but you don’t know what’s in it yet. What constitutes an appropriate elevator speech? What are the key ingredients that will make a lasting first impression and showcase you as a professional? The recipe will be provided in tomorrow’s blog. In the meantime, let’s be careful out there on those travelators.
COPYRIGHT © 2010 Ronald A. Berk, LLC
Ivory tower-wise, what is an elevator speech? Let’s first examine its purposes in higher education and then its salient characteristics.
ACADEMIC PURPOSES
In higher education, professors are not selling a product. Instead, they are promoting, to some degree, themselves as teachers, researchers, or clinicians, their scholarship, and their institutions. They’re selling their professionalism.
As an academician, the primary purposes of the elevator speech are to build professional relationships in:
1. your teaching strategies or discipline
2. your research area
3. your clinical specialty
4. anything I forgot
Got it? Certainly, those of you who are in recruit mode may use that opportunity to entice faculty, administrators, or students to your institutional lair.
WHAT IS AN ELEVATOR SPEECH?
So what is this speech all about compared to what you’re already doing?
DEFINITION: It is a concise, carefully-crafted, and well-rehearsed description about “Who you are” and “What you can do for the contact” that your mother would understand, delivered in the time it would take to ride up or down to your hotel floor in an elevator. (Note: If your room is on a low level floor, you’ll have to talk really fast.)
It shifts the emphasis away from you and your credentials, which are already visible on your nametag, to what you can do for the person to whom you’re talking. Rather than promoting you and describing what you do, it’s about spinning what you do for the benefit of that person. And, certainly, who is in a better position to write and deliver that speech than you? Well, maybe your mommy.
CHARACTERISTICS: It’s just a short, mini-spiel, sound-bite of 30–60 seconds to succinctly and memorably introduce you to people or livestock you don’t know. Granted, for professors to speak less than a minute can be an excruciatingly painful, restrictive, and nearly impossible task, especially when they’re talking about their fave subject. It’s like a 100-word abstract (5–8 sentences) of YOU to spotlight your uniqueness and how you can help the contact. Is there any characteristic worth mentioning that distinguishes you from the rest of the pack?
What is the role of the elevator as well other modes of transportation? What constitutes an appropriate elevator speech? What are the key ingredients that will make a lasting first impression and showcase you as a professional? Stay tuned.
COPYRIGHT © 2010 Ronald A. Berk, LLC
CLOSE ENCOUNTERS OF THE NONBUDDY KIND
When you attend your professional conferences with your buddies, you will undoubtedly face encounters of the nonbuddy kind. You will run into peers from other institutions or planets whom you have not met and don’t know you from Stephen Hawking. These run-ins may occur in the following settings:
• Receptions
• Meals
• Bars and other evil hangouts
• Annual Banquet (traditional rubber-chicken dinner)
• Conference sessions
• Elevator/escalator
Typically, you may be standing or sitting next to someone you don’t know for an extended time period (30-sec. elevator ride to 2-hr. dinner). Wow, is that uncomfortable! So far, does any of this seem familiar? “NO!” Then what do you do at conferences? Stay locked in your room playing video games or tweeting your students? What’s that all about?
Any way, for those of you who can relate, what do you usually do in those situations? Do you ignore the person on either side or do you start up a conversation? If you're sitting at a round table, do you ignore the person on each side and strike up a conversation with a buddy across the table? If you initiate a conversation, keep reading. This blog’s for you. If you ignore everybody, buhbye!
THE INTRODUCTION
What do you say? How do you introduce yourself? I know you think you already know how to introduce yourself because you have a PhD or MD and you’re thinking: “Like how hard could that possibly be? I’m not a moron. Look at all of the ribbons with my titles dripping down below my nametag, you ninny.” Calm down. Don’t call me a ninny. You called yourself a moron. Don’t get upset. This is just a blog.
ORIGIN OF “ELEVATOR SPEECH”
Business-type people created an introduction to moi called the elevator speech (aka “lift speech” in UK), named after the familiar mode of transportation in most hotels,“Amtrak.” They have been using it for thousands of years to promote their businesses even before elevators were invented, when it used to be called a “stone stairs speech.” It was originally intended as a quick pitch about their business and what services or benefits it could offer a potential client.
That being said, what are the academic purposes of an elevator speech? How can you use it in professional conferences to network with other professors? Great questions. Unfortunately, I’m blogged out for today. Tomorrow I’ll answer those questions and, maybe, just maybe, define the characteristics of the speech. Stick around. This week is elevator week.
COPYRIGHT © 2010 Ronald A. Berk, LLC
