How To...Create Your Pitch

The “Elevator Pitch” has so many applications! Start practicing how you speak about yourself & what you do. Confidence is 🔑

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Transcript

HID EP 20
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[00:00:00] Catherine: Hello there. My name is Catherine and I'm 23 years old working as a full-time freelancer in the media and entertainment industry. And welcome to the how I diaries podcast. I'm here to debug all your fears and doubts surrounding the topics of freelancing and more importantly, get you on your way to.

[00:00:23] Living a happy and stress, free lifestyle, doing the creative passion that you love. So if you find yourself stuck at a job that you hate, you're wondering how to get your dreams started. You've heard of freelancing before, but you're skeptical about what it entails. I'm sharing everything I wish I knew earlier.

[00:00:39] And the tip. S I gain every day for my own freelance work. Today, we are learning about your personal elevator pitch and where you can use this. Your personal elevator pitch is the same concept as any other elevator pitch. The idea is that if you were put in an elevator with your dream collaborator, dream client, dream CEO, whatever it may be, how could you convince [00:01:00] them in the short amount of time between them getting in the elevator and.

[00:01:04] Leaving to collaborate with you. And, you know, as social anxiety and social skills get harder and harder to manage, I'm here to help make it seem less overwhelming as someone who wasn't always comfortable and confident. I finally feel like in the last five years, I've really blossomed into someone who is comfortable speaking and finds confidence in what I do like five years ago.

[00:01:23] If you would've told me, I would be starting a podcast on how to help other people free. I don't know if I would've believed you, but I mention this elevator pitch in my interview and resume episode. So head over there afterward to see how it applies to traditional job hunting and interviewing, but there is also job hunting and interviewing aspects in freelance.

[00:01:42] So go check that out if you haven't already, but as we will discuss further in this episode, there are other areas this pitch can help you too. Are you stuck wondering what the hell to write in your fiber or rev Lancer profile? I don't know if it's Revo Lancer or rev Lancer. Don't come for me. The emails that you send or.

[00:01:57] Simple day to day casual conversations we [00:02:00] have that people ask us, like, what do you do for work? What is your service provide? Or how did you get to the place you're at now? Have no fear. Here's what my pitch sounds like more or less on any given day. Hi, my name is Catherine. I have a degree in music, technology and film.

[00:02:14] I have about five years of relevant experience in my industry. And most recently became a full-time freelancer in media and entertainment doing post production and production work. Mainly in audio. I teach piano and produce, edit and host. Podcast in my free time, that's all about helping other people. My age get started freelancing.

[00:02:32] So let's break that down. There are some trigger phrases here that will stand out to people. And the good thing is they're all easy and help keep what you said in other people's minds and do what you want, which is leave a memorable impression. First one is one, my name, just my first name. That's all people need short and easier to remember than a full name.

[00:02:52] I know I am terrible with names sometimes, and I can't even remember people's first names half the time. So just keep it to your first name. You mentioned that you have a degree [00:03:00] and some sort of other credibility that will stand out to people if you don't have a degree. That's okay. That's what the next little part is for.

[00:03:06] You're going to want to mention a number specifically, a number in terms of years of experience that you have next you're gonna want to sum. Work. Yes, I do a lot of other things that I could be way more specific about, but an umbrella term is good to start off with, because again, you're just wanting to put little pins in people's minds of like, oh, that's what they do.

[00:03:27] You don't wanna ramble off this whole entire list and you want it to be short, but yeah. Notice how I have the umbrella terms, postproduction and production. But then I clarify that my skillset is mainly in audio. Then you can also mention what you do on the side. You are human after all, so showcase that it may leave.

[00:03:44] For a personal connection that will resonate in somebody's memory. This specific one is great for the, tell me about yourself. Question in any other face-to-face conversation or introductions. Now, let me show you how I translated that hitch to my website and my LinkedIn profile. So here is my [00:04:00] LinkedIn little blurb and the little blurb on my website.

[00:04:02] Hello, my name is Catherine Deza and I'm a podcast producer slash editor. My degree in music technology and film paired with eight years of experience, working with audio has given me the perfect advantage to being. Successful investment in your podcast endeavors. I currently produce edit and host two shows of my own and have been professionally freelancing in post production for film and TV for five years.

[00:04:24] On top of all that, I also have a passion for helping other creative individuals get started doing what they love, delivering quality work within your given time and budget is my highest priority. I'd be happy to chat further about collaborating together in a way that works for both of. In here. You'll see, we have a similar structure, have your name, a job title.

[00:04:43] And Mike, in this case, my services are producer editor, virtual assistant type things, my degree and number indicating experience. And then what's new on this is how to. Directly correlate and relate this to the person who's reading. It was most likely a [00:05:00] potential client podcast. Endeavors is a good way to use another umbrella term here.

[00:05:05] So you don't get too wordy. Then we have a further specification in the work I currently do along with the human aspect. Lastly, a closing statement that directly has to do with. The business purpose of my website that is focused on the return value for the client. Now I'm no website expert, but I did work mine with a friend of mine who designed it and got all of his approval.

[00:05:26] His name is Papa Dio. I will link his handles in the show notes. If you're looking to hire someone to design your website, hit him up. He's great. And the good thing about this. Too is that you can always adapt it. I would say for me, this is a good starting point. It helped me overcome the fear of just, I need to have something perfect.

[00:05:42] You know, just put something out there, see how it works and you can always change it. As for LinkedIn. I have the same thing there. The only difference is I added, I am a podcast editor and producer. Currently looking for new clientele, right? You, as you are, just because you haven't had paint clients yet doesn't mean your skills and work don't count [00:06:00] towards giving you the title of whatever it is.

[00:06:01] You are wanting to do, speak it into existence and practice, referring to yourself as such, since it is going to happen. Eventually a weird side note, I posted on Instagram a little while ago about moving and rental hunting in New York city. And would you believe that a handful of the brokers Googled me and found my LinkedIn and directly asked me.

[00:06:21] Casting, et cetera as my job. So even though I haven't gotten paid to do it just yet, it's still coming across officially that I have and confidently, which is good. The more you put this stuff into practice and workshop it, the more comfortable and confident you will get. It's a simple principle of repetition and have it forming.

[00:06:38] If you need to sit in the mirror every morning before you leave for work and just rehearse your pitch. You know, everybody is different. I also recently had to use my own. Tell me about yourself, pitch at a new gig. I started and afterwards at lunch, we were all talking about our age and it turned out that I was the youngest and a few of the people there thought I was a lot older.

[00:06:59] They thought [00:07:00] I was. 27 or 28 and even explicitly stated it was because of how confidently I spoke a friendly reminder. I am 23 so again, all of these are good things. I've just gotten to this point of being able to do that because I've practiced it and it's become a habit and, you know, just something that rolls off.

[00:07:18] My tongue and it's all things that you can also start easily implementing and practicing in your own day to day. So that is it. For this episode, feel free to send me your elevator pitch that you've hopped or have written out. I'd be happy to give some feedback. And if this reaches you and you have any other burning questions or stories, I'd be glad to use this as an outlet to connect and build a community.

[00:07:38] Do you also struggle with social anxiety? How do you feel about social skills, your own social skills and social skills in. Follow me on Instagram at pow I diaries and shoot me a DM in the meantime, go binge all my other episodes for various other topics relating to how to get started, doing what you love.

[00:07:53] And please, any episode recommendations I'd love to hear. Let me know what your particular struggles are. You're [00:08:00] probably not alone. Go ahead. Subscribe to this podcast. So you stay up to date on when I post the next batch, give it a rating and share with a friend who also needs to hear this. I post five new episodes at the end of each month.

[00:08:10] I stay tuned and as always, thank you for listening.