Sell Yourself

Do you want to get me running screaming to the hills? The easy way to do that is to say something like "Hey David, tell me about yourself". Some people can just open their mouth and everything they say makes perfect sense and is impressive. I'm not one of them! Given enough notice I can often put together a decent presentation, and maybe even sound like I know what I'm talking about. So long as it isn't about me. But I should be able to though shouldn't I? After all, who knows me better than me?

This week the PPD2 module might as well have been titled "Hey David, tell me about yourself". It wasn't, it was "Elevator Pitch"
Now I have to be honest. When we were told I sat there and thought to myself "What the hell is that?". A couple of minutes later I was fighting the urge to get the map out for those hills.

So what is an "Elevator Pitch"? Here's the definition
"An elevator pitch, elevator speech or elevator statement is a short summary used to quickly and simply define a process, product, service, organization, or event and its value proposition. The name 'elevator pitch' reflects the idea that it should be possible to deliver the summary in the time span of an elevator ride, or approximately thirty seconds to two minutes"

Two minutes? Where do these people go to in elevators? I don't think I've ever been in a lift that long. And I'm English! We don't talk to people in lifts! Everyone stands looking straight ahead and the only words spoken are "Excuse me" when you want to get out.

Eventually, I managed to come up with something. It's not great, not by any stretch of the imagination, maybe only 15 seconds long, but it is only the first attempt. We'll all be revising these over the next couple of months so hopefully by then I'll have something I can say to all these potential clients I'm going to talk to for a few seconds.


So here it is

"Hi I'm David and I'm a photographer who specialises in theatrical imagery. If you need images to promote your next show, or a record of the performance, then I'm dedicated to getting the pictures you need. It's said that a picture is worth a thousand words, and do you really want a thousand words on your next poster?
Here's my card."