Know Who YOU Are
At a recent conference an audience member asked the speakers a question. Trying to be as helpful as possible the speaker asked “What do you do?” The person froze up and didn’t know how to answer.
Being a good soul, the speaker asked again, “I mean, what do you do? What sort of work are you in so we can help answer this question as targeted to you as possible.”
I don’t want to pick on this person because this is something I see way to often at an event. Much more then I care to believe. While I don’t want you to pitch me when I ask this question, if anyone is going to know the answer to the question it better be you!
Companies always strive for the perfect “elevator pitch” and I’ve seen more then one conversation about the hipster version now being to fit it within 140 characters so it can go on Twitter.
At the end of the day, you must know your own personal pitch as well. As corny as that sounds if you can’t at least introduce yourself and say what you do then a conference is not going to be as beneficial to you as it can be. Don’t think of it as a pitch, but rather as your personal story.
At a minimum you need to be able to tell me:
- Who you are (first name is fine)
- Where you live (general geography works)
- What you do for work (ok, to not share the company if you don’t want to)
- What drives you (not always the same as where you work)
All of these are basics that I can’t even believe people wouldn’t be prepared to answer. If you don’t want to talk about work, that is cool, but at least be able to talk about yourself.
Take five minutes before the next conference or social gathering to and think about how you’d answer the question, “And you are?”
If I was to ask you that today what would you say?
