Elevator Pitch Help: Explaining What I DO For Work

[CreatingValue]

Hi everyone, I was hoping for some input on framing my elevator pitch regarding what I do for work.

 

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[Speed112]

Hi everyone, I was hoping for some input on framing my elevator pitch regarding what I do for work. For the last couple of years I've been publishing ebooks via Amazon. I focus mostly on a particular genre. I make good money (but obviously not polite to say in an intro) and have a team of X full-time writers, and a couple of freelancers (Editors, designers, etc).

When people ask me what I do for work, I tend to say, "Uh... I run a book publishing company" and then they ask "oh, which one". So I have to explain, it's a niche company etc. It's mostly online, ebook sales through Amazon.

Normally I wouldn't care about the pitch, but I'm meeting co-investors recently (different business) so need a good pitch that makes it sound like I'm an actual successful, competent professional. But I also don't want to sound too braggy.

I'm thinking something like, "I run a book publishing company, we focus on Genre X." Maybe stop here or continue, "Since I've started the company we've sold almost 2mn books worldwide" (But this seems a bit braggy) or say "I've been doing this for about X years now" or...

I also don't want to keep talking about my own work, so I'm thinking of ways to transition, eg "It's been an interesting journey for me. How do you like working as XYZ?" or maybe a better question to keep the conversation going and less focused on me...

Suggestions, please?

I'd say... don't be afraid to brag. You shouldn't be ashamed of success. If the people you're talking to don't appreciate it and see it as an opportunity to work with you and share in that success, you're not talking to the right people.

Envy is a tenet of scarcity. Those people are bad for business. Abundance-minded people view your success with admiration and interest, not envy and disdain.

What you can do to make things easier for yourself and the people you're talking to, though, is to direct your pitch at them. You publish books, ok... how does that help them and others?

Or, you can go personal and feeling-based, so that they can look at their own business efforts and relate.

"I run a business that helps writers publish their books on Amazon and other places online. It's really rewarding... I get to work with X great people and, together, we've helped over Y people get their words out there and sold almost 2mil books worldwide. How about you? What do you do that you find rewarding?"
*notice 2 I, 1 we, 3 you.

If they get embarrassed or envious by the relative gap in success, then that's a good thing! Let them disqualify themselves... you don't want a co-investor who doesn't appreciate the value you're creating.

Others might disagree, but I'd say the best policy is being truthful and honest. There's a difference between talking about your success and boasting about it.

 

[CreatingValue]

Or, you can go personal and feeling-based, so that they can look at their own business efforts and relate.

"It's really rewarding... I get to work with X great people and, together, we've helped over Y people get their words out there and sold almost 2mil books worldwide. How about you? What do you do that you find rewarding?"

Wow thank you, I love this! I do find my work extremely rewarding, I get to work with the absolute best employees. I can definitely transition this to asking how they find their work/etc to be.

I am in fact looking to transition from what I do now to a different (co-invested) business, so this is a great way to frame it - I can explain that my awesome employees can now run most the business themselves, while I take a slight step back to focus on other priorities (new co-invested business, family, health, etc)

Thanks