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Capitalizing on Your Political Savvy 145

That’s you. Every day, in business meetings, at client lunches, at
cocktail parties, or in the stands at pee-wee soccer games, we all get
asked what we do. How often do you sigh to yourself and think
where to begin? You might just offer up your title, which probably
doesn’t mean much to anyone outside your company, or you fumble
through a lengthy, jargon-filled explanation that serves as a conver-
sation stopper. You can do better.
Next time you’re stuck in traffic or a waiting room or while
you’re taking a long shower, make use of the time and work on your
personal TV commercial—otherwise known in business as your ele-
vator pitch. Come up with a pithy, plain-English way to describe
what you do in no more than two or three sentences. Try it out on a
few people—your partner, your kids, your assistant, or your best
friend—and see if they think it resonates. And when you’ve got it
down, stick to it and pull it out like a verbal business card every time
the question comes up.
Chic Thompson, a well-known speaker on creativity, a fellow at
the Darden Business School, and the author of What a Great Idea 2.0
(Sterling, 2007) knows that after lectures or speaking engagements
or even just a party, people will wind up asking him about himself
and his myriad of activities—speaking, teaching, writing, running a
company—that make up his career. So he’s a big believer in the ele-
vator speech to pull it all together.
“It’s all about letting people know how invaluable you really are,”
Chic says. “And you do that by letting people know your uniqueness.
I always rehearse my introduction,” Chic says. There was a time when
even he struggled with his elevator speech. Then he started asking
himself, what are the characteristics that make me unique. And before
heading into an event, he thinks about which of those things will be
most interesting to people in the context of that situation.
Sometimes he’ll play up his day-to-day work. “I am an ex-Disney
cartoonist and I help people to come up with creative solutions in