The pressure is on. Here you are standing at the podium amongst your peers, future colleagues, healthcare professionals and undeniably, very successful entrepreneurs. More importantly, you have a panel of business investors in front of you. Or you could imagine yourself in a one-on-one interview with a lender who’s willing to put half a million dollars on the line to invest into your company. Now is the time to give them your 30 second elevator pitch.
The idea came from entrepreneurs who were doing just exactly that-securing funds by pitching their business idea in the time that it takes to ride an elevator down a few floors. Your 30 seconds should be compelling, enticing, and attract the audience for more. How many times have you been asked, “What do you do as an eye doctor?” or how many of your family and friends are under the impression that all you do as an optometrist is provide glasses and contacts and repeat “1 or 2” all day? As you start preparing for your practice, how many times do you think you’ll be asked, “Why should we trust your capabilities as business owner?”
After doing some research and sitting in on numerous pitches from young professionals, these are the 3 things (in my opinion) that will help you create your pitch.
- Understand your target
Unless you know who your audience is, it’s meaningless if you start crafting your pitch. Knowing who you’re talking to will help guide the appropriate language and eliminate industry jargon if necessary. It might not even hurt to have two different ones- one for your peers and one for potential colleagues. So think about who you encounter on a day-to-day or month-to-month basis.
- Perfect it
Don’t be afraid to play around with this as you start brainstorming ideas on what you want it to sound like. Be creative and put some character into it. So you’ve figured out your audience and now you’re thinking about the content. It might not come to you at first but the more you think about it, the more ideas start flowing through your mind. As these ideas and thoughts come to you, jot them down on scratch paper, on your napkin at the dinner table, or wherever you may be. As someone once said, your audience is always tuned into WIFM-What’s In it For Me? How will you convey to the audience that your product/service is needed? How will you as a business owner plant the seed in the investors mind that they will have a return on investment?
- Say it out loud
Say it out to yourself, over and over again, day in and day out. Find a fine line between expressing your personality and staying professional. You don’t want to end up sounding like a robot because the listener will either check out your hair or mentally check out within seconds. As this becomes more comfortable to you, anytime someone asks you what you do as an optometrist, be brave enough to use it.
Not only does this leave a respectable impression on you but also on our profession. It allows us, as optometrists, to show our family, friends, and other healthcare professionals the range of our scope of practice and how we play a role in the patient’s well-being and not just meeting their visual needs. Having a pitch will highly benefit those going into independent practice but as optometry is becoming more medical, inter-professionalism becomes very important as well. So what will your 30 second elevator pitch sound like?
Linh T. Ngo | Western University of Health Sciences
