LEAD STORY
Pitch Your Value
Pitch competitions and elevator pitches have been a frequent topic of my blog, but a recent experience has compelled me to address the topic again. Last month, I had the opportunity to attend a virtual conference hosted by the incredible Leading Cities organization. Leading Cities is an international nonprofit that connects cities around the globe with the innovations that solve our most pressing challenges.
The event provided promising startups with the opportunity to pitch their companies to each other and potential investors. From developing low-cost and quickly-built housing to generating affordable green electricity, these entrepreneurs are developing true innovations—ones that might actually save us from ourselves!
Enthusiasm is contagious.
Take off that emotional mask and exhale!
The exercise was to explain what they do in five minutes. As you would imagine, different organizations took different approaches, some successful, some packed with far too many facts and figures for such a short amount of time.
To be fair, this exercise is not easy in the least. Whether it is a five-minute pitch competition, a 30-second elevator pitch, or just a simple introduction to explain what you do, here are five suggestions for making your pitch successful and not mind-numbingly dull.
Your Summer Message: Five Actions to Take
Who doesn’t love summer? The weather. The celebrations. The vacations. Anticipating the new season of The Great British Baking Show.
Still, the work you do is important and needs to continue. All the summer distractions, to say nothing of all the Out of Office replies, make that a challenge. Here are five tips to make the most of summer while still advancing your work with a clear, compelling, and differentiating message.
Work smarter, not harder. What previous work can you repurpose? The messages you sent this time last year might still have relevance. The operative word here is might. If it worked last year and still applies this one, consider repurposing it again now. You may remember it because you live and breathe your work, but your audience is likely not to.
Look at You!
We’re proud to have added a new section to our website: an online portfolio! Take a look some of the work we have done for you, our clients!
And if you’re not one of our clients yet, just look what we could do for you!
MISSION DRIVERS
The National Association of Asian American Professionals (NAAAP)
In this recurring feature of Focal Point, we profile people and organizations on a mission! (If you have someone to suggest, let us know! )
The National Association of Asian American Professionals (NAAAP) is the premier leadership organization for Asian and Asian American professionals in North America, with 30 chapters, several thousand active members, and a reach of more than 20,000 professionals. Founded in 1982, NAAAP is a volunteer-run non-profit that inspires, develops, and connects leaders across industries and communities through networking and educational events, training, community service programs, and celebrations of Asian American excellence.
From August 24-26, Boston will welcome NAAAP for their annual conference.
For more information, visit naaap.org.
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Well Said
“The great enemy of clear language is insincerity. When there is a gap between one's real, and one's declared aims, one turns as it were instinctively to long words and exhausted idioms, like a cuttlefish spurting out ink.”
— George Orwell, Politics and the English Language
Eric Arthur Blair (1903 – 1950), better known by his pen name George Orwell, was an English novelist, essayist, journalist, and critic. His work is characterized by lucid prose, social criticism, opposition to totalitarianism, and support of democratic socialism. Orwell produced literary criticism, poetry, fiction and polemical journalism. He is known for the allegorical novella Animal Farm (1945) and the dystopian novel Nineteen Eighty-Four (1949).
Point us in the right direction?
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