Elevator Pitch

Tonight, I attended a networking event. Quite often, such an event would serve as material for a blog post. In this case, I came home feeling as though it might actually provide material for three or four posts. You see, networking can bring out lots of things in a person. When done well, it can also lead to a discovery or two.
 
In preparing for tonight, I researched the people I might be meeting--after all, it's important to be prepared, right? As I was researching them, however, I found that I was also researching myself. 

Researching myself? Don't I know who I am?

The thing about an "elevator pitch" is that it is a description of you or your project, short enough to be conveyed during an elevator ride (or, in this case, during a six-minute appointment). What could I possibly convey that would make a twenty-something career that ranged from soap work to news make any sense, much less be of any interest, to people who were in neither of these worlds? I was stumped, and as my networking sessions drew near, I had no idea what I'd be saying. Worst case scenario, I thought, I'd make a fool of myself in front of people I would (because of making a fool of myself) never see again. And so, it began....
 
"Tell me about yourself."
 
It was time for my elevator pitch, and I suddenly heard myself start to say, "after twenty-something years working mostly  in soaps, I am now working in news, which, for twenty-something years, I never thought I'd do."  And my elevator pitch was born. From here, I could talk about how telling a story in news was a lot like telling any story. How my editing informed my directing. How much I had learned from doing news after so many years of doing dramatic. By the time I came home, I found that not only had I left people with an interesting picture of me, I had also begun to clarify for myself how the wildly assorted pieces of my career actually fit together, more than just as a sequence of events.
 
Sometimes, an elevator pitch is good for more than just networking.
 
And sometimes, a networking session is good for more than just one blog. Tune in tomorrow.....