I've taught thousands of people to answer the question, what do you do? And yet, every single damn day, I hear ineffective messages that leave me wondering what someone does. Hey, it's Samantha.And I'm bringing you today's encore episode on how to craft a jaw dropping self introduction, one that will actually get people interested in knowing you. This was only my seventh episode over 200 shows ago, and in it I share some examples of how to answer, what do you do? But not mine. So here it is. I help women consultants who are struggling with a revenue roller coaster to multiply their revenues without exhaustion by working with perfect clients on what I call transformational engagements. As a result, they build profitable and joyful consultancies. Now, in case you're wondering when I only have three seconds, I say I'm a revenue multiplier for women consultants. Discover how to craft your version. Now. Welcome to Profitable Joyful Consulting, where you'll discover how to multiply your revenues without exhaustion working with perfect clients on transformational engagements. I'm your host, Samantha Hartley. If you're a woman consultant ready to. Increase your profits and enjoy your business. More, you're in the right place. Today we're going to be talking about elevator pitches and how to answer the question, what do you do? You know, over the last several years, there's been kind of a backlash against elevator pitches as being inauthentic and just uncomfortable in general, awkward and also reducing someone to their profession. Like, there's many facets to a person, not just their work. Let's not always be like, what do you do? Well, I think that's really interesting. I've been to parties where people would say, like, what are you passionate about? Or what's got you excited right now? I think those are great questions to ask, but we still need to be prepared for the fact that people need to understand if they ask you what you do. Each of us needs to be able to explain our work and our value through our work to others so that they can recognize if they need to work with us or not, or if they could refer us to someone else. Now, I've talked in past episodes a little bit about how I answer the question, what do you do? And a little bit about messaging. But I wanted to do a deep dive today so that you can hear more of the specifics and how you can put this message together for yourself. One of the ways some guys I used to work with would answer this is to answer the question, what do you do with? What do you mean? I think a smart Aleck answer like that is going to be a conversation ender. And that's not what we want to do here. We want to engender goodwill. We want to have a conversation happen. And we want to have that conversation happen with someone who has taken the courtesy of asking us the question in the first place by taking an interest in us. A harsh but realistic way to look at this question is someone asking, what do you do? Is really saying, do I need to know you? We're all busy. We only have so much brain space and we only have so much capacity for new colleagues and friends and people to come into our lives, new contacts. And so when someone says, what do you do? And they really mean, do I need to know you? Can you offer value to me or to someone I know, can I offer value to you? They're. They're kind of figuring out if they need to know you, like how you can fit in their lives. And I think when someone asks something like that, you need to say, yes, you do need to know me. But the proof of that is actually in the response to that question. It's what I call a jaw dropping self introduction. And I say jaw dropping because if you answer the question right, they, their jaws can fly open or their eyebrows can go up and they can say, oh, wow, interesting. They might say, tell me more. They might say, can you help me? Can I have your card? Like, there's all kinds of wonderful positive outcomes for that sentence. I think my most jaw dropping of the responses that I ever got to this was I was at a Christmas party one year and this big guy in my town said, what do you do? And I answered him and he said, oh, can you come see me on Monday? And then I had an appointment on Monday and that turned into a $44,100 project. So the right answer to what do you do? Can be very profitable. It needs to attract enough attention so that a conversation can happen to determine if they have interest in what you do. So I'm going to unpack for you basically a formula way that you can answer that question so that that attention, you can get that attention and then turn it into interest and then turn that into clients. So one of my favorite ways to do this, and I have described this in earlier episodes, is that we want to talk about the target audience, the problem they have, and the outcome that you can get for them. Not everyone uses the problem. You can also kind of keep that in or leave that out, depending. But it's a very powerful and effective ingredients. So I'M going to tell you when to use it and when you can leave it out if possible. So I'm going to just use an example today of having a target audience. Let's say I'm a sales consultant and my Target audience are LMS companies. That's eLearning software companies. And I use that example because I've recently been reviewing a lot of them together with a client who's going to do an elearning. So we've seen a lot of demos. So if I were a sales consultant working with those companies I might address the problem of inconsistent sales. Which I can tell you is because some of them don't do very good demos and others of them don't really follow up after their demos. So that's going to definitely result in some inconsistent sales. You'd think that really effective LMS companies would know this and yet this is why sales consultants still have jobs. So it's a thriving market for them. If the problem is that they have inconsistent sales, then an outcome that this sales consultant might be able to get for them is to increase their sales by x percent. So let's say for example today 10%, then the elevator pitch or jaw dropping self introduction as I like to call it would be I work with LMS software companies who are struggling with inconsistent sales and I help them to increase sales by 10%. That's a fine formula and if I were in that kind of a company I that might get my attention. Now there are ways that we can make that kind of a formula even more compelling. So how do you dial up the interestingness level of this so that you get truly something that's jaw dropping? One of the things that I like to do is to describe at an adjective before my target audience that describes them. So in this case, the LMS companies might be fast growing or they might be socially responsible. Adding something there which really hooks them and makes them feel like oh that was me, they're talking to me. So think about words that you might use there. Other things I love are motivated, open minded. I've heard my clients use before. Figure out what that one word is that you could say that would separate your people from everyone else. Have them self select that word can really go a long way towards grabbing someone's attention. The next opportunity in here is how you describe the problem. A vividly described problem or being really accurate about it can help as well as putting emotion into there. So in our first example I said they were struggling with inconsistent sales, but you can say an emotional word like, they're frustrated with inconsistent sales. And again, that can resonate more strongly with the person who hears you than other words. I really like to find exactly the term that describes them. Are they disheartened by. Are they fed up with, you know, what's the word that describes how they're feeling? And I would take that word from the people who've come to you before. Like, if you look at what your past five clients told you when you did your discovery call with them, what did you learn about them? Like, how were they really feeling? Using that and mirroring them back to people in your marketing message is super effective at getting other people who feel just the same way. And this last piece of increasing sales by, let's say, 10%. I'm always looking for my clients to make a big, bold promise with their brand. And you make it through something like this outcome. If you're working with a company and let's say it's a perfect client, Remember in the branding episode, we said your brand is you on your best day. On your best day. And working with a perfect client, how much could you increase their sales? If you've had examples where you've done 30% or even more specifically, 38%, like some of your clients have increased sales by 38%, that number is going to be even more compelling than just saying increased sales dramatically or increased by 10%. So I want you to think about what's the boldest promise that you can make that you on your best day can deliver on? And the reason I love to do that is because when your client hears that or potential client hears that, they feel excited, like, that's what we want. And when you make that promise, you're on the hook, right? You're committed, and it pulls up the best part of you that is like, yes, I can get that result for them. And that comes through in this message. All of those thoughts and ideas that you use to craft this message, all of those memories of, like, how people felt when they came to you and what, what felt like when you got those amazing results when you put that together. That vibe, for lack of a better term, is contained in your message. That's what makes it jaw dropping. So I would love for you to do a little brainstorm on what these aspects are for you. What, what are the aspects of your message? And then here's the important thing. You want to test this out. I love testing this out face to face or on video with people so that you can see their micro expressions, how their expressions change. As they hear element of it. So do their eyebrows go up when they hear the beginning of it? Or like down? Or do they look confused? You know, the thing that we're moving from is everybody has an elevator pitch that makes people's eyes glaze over. What you're looking for is one that makes their eyebrows go up and their jaw drop open. And for them to say something like, wow, I need that. They might also say, if they're your buddy and they're just giving you feedback, hey, that's pretty strong. Or you know what, I wasn't quite sure what you meant here. And that's the feedback that you want when you're testing out your message. But keep in mind, as just kind of a little secret weapon, being able to see the visuals rather than just having someone react to it in an email or over the phone, it's really very advantageous for you to be able to see them while they hear the message. And one of the ways that I love to deliver the message is in a breadcrumb style. So instead of an elevator pitch, which basically means, you know, told over the course of an elevator ride down a building or up a building, the idea of an elevator pitch would that it would be concise, short, like an elevator ride. But I've been in 40 story buildings before and I've heard elevator pitches that were like that. So a breadcrumb is not a speech. It's like someone says to you, what do you do? And you give them a little breadcrumb and invite them to follow you if they choose to or not. So I might say, oh, I work with LMS software companies who are frustrated by inconsistent sales. And then we stop talking and give them a chance to react to that. If they say, huh? Then we stop talking and we don't go on anymore. Because it hasn't hooked them, it hasn't interested them, and it's probably not going to. If they've heard the problem you solve and it hasn't hooked them, then we get to move on with our lives and go over to the buffet or talk about football or whatever. However, if they hear that and they say, oh, oh, interesting. Well, tell me more about that. Then you get to go on to the next breadcrumb and then you can say, oh, well, I help them to increase sales by 38% or more, then we stop Again, if that's not grabbed them, then it's not going to grab them. However, if we're lucky, they will say something like, oh, how do you do that? And then we Have a conversation, right? You're going to tell them how you do that, which I recommend you do in a case study and not in a process description. And then ideally you're going to leave that situation with a business card, a referral, an appointment for a call on Monday, something that points to the fact that you move them from attention to interest and you can take the next steps and possibly turn them into a client. So a couple more things that you can add to your jaw dropping self introduction to make it more jaw dropping are benefits. So sometimes when you've said what the outcome is, you can describe what ancillary benefits they get from that. Just solving the problem isn't the only piece. It's they also want those benefits. So for example, what I promise is my clients will have more joyful and profitable consulting businesses. Now most people won't hire me directly for that. They want to hire me to solve a problem, which is they're overworked, they're under earning, which means they're not joyful or profitable. So the promise I make to them is I can help them to double their revenues without exhaustion. That and as a result of that they will have more profitable and joyful consulting companies. So you heard as a result of sometimes you can also say so that they can, you can add what the benefit of the solving that problem will be and if it makes it too long, you can leave that out. If you only have a very short amount of time, you can deliver. I've help LMS software companies to increase sales by 38%. You don't have to include the problem in there if you only have a short amount of time. You also might consider just doing the target and the problem at times if you don't have a lot of time. For example, I have been in networking situations when my husband has said his answer to what do you do? Which is I help entrepreneurs who struggle with self sabotage. He hardly ever gets to go on to the rest of his elevator pitch because they grab him and want to tell him all the ways they self sabotage themselves. So figure out from trial testing this out in live situations which parts of your message have the strongest hook because you can always deliver the rest of them later and you always need to be prepared to deliver the whole thing. So this is a marketing message. It's a complete marketing message. And you'll be in situations like a BNI meeting, for example, one of those things when they go around the room and you have to stand up and say what you do so that everyone else in the room can understand it. And in that situation, you're going to want to be able to tell it in 30 seconds, crisply and clearly. And like you've said it many, many, many times before and not like you just made it up 19 seconds before you stood up, which is what most of the people in that room are doing. It's a highly stressful environment and you being prepared with a crisp and concise message will make you stand out from everyone else in that room. So this is one of the most essential aspects of your business is a message that is crisp, clear, compelling, consistently delivered. And speaking of consistently, once you have this down, you want to put this everywhere. You want to put it on your social media, on your, in your email signature, on your voicemail message that, that people hear when they call you and you're not there. There's a lot of places that you can put that message that it can serve you. And I'll tell you more about that in just one second. So be consistent with getting that message out there. One last thing that you can add to your message that I think is super helpful is the without. They want to have this, but they don't want to have that. It's a super fun way to make a message. I help these LMS software companies increase sales by 38% without sacrificing profitability. So you're telling them the thing that they want the most without the thing that they're afraid they have to do to get that. In my case, I help my clients double revenues without exhaustion because they think, sure, I could double them, but I'd kill myself in the process. And I'm like, no, it doesn't have to be that way. So that's a great construction for you to consider in your. When you're putting it together. Target audience, problem, outcome, without thing they don't want. So I've given you a lot of different formulas here. Again, the best thing for you to do is to try them on and walk around in them, see which one fits you best. Years ago I had a client who was a community bank and we, we concluded their message and they said, we love it. Now what? And I said, we'll put it everywhere. And they said, like where? And I told them the brand touch points and I've told you a couple of them on your social media, on your website, your email signature. I have a list of all of those which is you can download@36ways.com so the number 36 and then ways w a y s.com so there's a list of these brand touch points that you can get there and it'll help you to think you know abundantly about all of the places a message can go. It's amazing that it can be doing the heavy lifting out there to bring clients. These are 36 ways that you can be attracting clients to your business, whether you're doing the message delivering or not. Now that you know that you do this message for your core business, for what you do, I want you to also keep in mind that you can write a message like this for all of your sub brands, for your programs, products, workshops that you do, your speeches. There should be a little nutshell message for every single one of those and it can follow this formula. That's what's great about this, is it's portable and flexible and it can be applied to all those other sub brands. Not just can, it should be applied. So make sure if you have something that you're selling that you can describe it in 30 seconds just like this. I've had people struggle before with writing their workshop format and I'm like, did you do the jaw dropping self introduction? And they go, oh right, I forgot. I can use that formula. So use this formula for everything. If you can write the 32nd of it, you can write the full page. So today you've learned about jaw dropping self introductions for yourself for all the sub brands in your business, the various components that you can use to make it more jaw dropping, more compelling, more hooky. So be sure to try them out and then get back in touch with me. Leave me a comment anywhere where you're hearing this podcast. For profitable Joyful Consulting, I'm Samantha Hartley. Thanks for listening. As a thank you for being part. Of my community, I'm sharing free, exclusive. Resources to help expand your consulting business. Head to samanthahartley.com/super to access bonus content and tools from the show. For a complete transcript of this episode and all Profitable Joyful Consulting episodes, visit SamanthaHartley.