Let's fix your elevator pitch. With science (obviously).

If you're still tweaking your elevator pitch or are struggling to communicate what you do, below you'll find one reason why that you probably haven't heard before and one thing you can do about it.

Still tweaking your elevator pitch?

(it's really not your fault).

Tell me if this sounds familiar:

You’re trying to translate your vision into something irresistible.

You think you’ve succeeded.

Then you test it out like any good nerd would.

You show up.

Blog posts, Linkedin, Reels, Podcasts, Nothing.

Then you go back to the drawing board.

Start the whole process all over again.

You might think:

Maybe “I'm just not a good writer”

Or “my branding is off”

I promise I know how exactly frustrating this can be.

Ask literally anyone who knows me personally: I’ve been tweaking my elevator pitch for years and testing it on anyone who will listen.

My poor brother knows waaay more about brand science than he ever wanted to as a finance guy 🤣

Now, before you head back to your easel (read: brand refinement hell), consider this:

☝🏿 You’re not underrecognized because you haven’t managed to string together the right magical words in the right sequence.

You have command of whatever language you speak. You can make yourself understood.

As far as language is concerned, that’s pretty much the bar.

🎯 You’re underrecognized because recognition is a behavior.

You’re trying to change a behavior.

Can an elevator pitch do that?

Oh, absolutely.

📣 In fact that’s the itch you’ve been trying to scratch this whole time.

You’ve been waiting for the moment you see your words change someone else’s behavior.

With an elevator pitch it’s often going from ‘not understanding what you do’ to ‘getting it, wanting it or telling you who will.’

So WHY is this so hard to do?

Why does it sometimes feel like your elevator pitch is turning to mush in your mouth?

"You’re not underrecognized because you haven’t managed to string together the right magical words in the right sequence."

Well, I’ve talked at length about visibility biases and Marketing’s original sin: niching.

Here’s one thing I haven’t shared yet:

1️⃣ The reason:

If you’re struggling with your elevator pitch or just communicating what you do in general, chances are pretty high you’re trying to communicate more than one motivation at the same time.

(and yes, this is somehow ALSO niching’s fault)

I could get into all the science about why this is the case (and if there’s interest I’ll definitely write up a full on blog post), instead, I want to give you 1 key takeaway and 1 thing to try.

2️⃣ The takeaway:

Each of your stakeholders has a set of very concrete, easy to understand goals. They want to be financially sustainable AND to make the world a better place, and, and. These goals are actually a part of a chain of motivations that often come one after another in a logical sequence. If you try to communicate more than one part of the sequence at the same time…well have you ever tried to describe two different points of time in the same sentence? You (understandably) get the wrinkled foreheads and the mush.

3️⃣ So, try this:

Try sitting down and actually listing out each of those stakeholder goals. Don’t try to combine them. Make them as discrete (that’s different from each other) as possible. No overlap. List them out for each of your various stakeholders. Once you have, try to put them into a logical sequence. Use your intuition. Which of these goals would likely happen before the others? Then, try talking about what you do with just one of these goals. See how it feels.

Some of you will be asking a really great question right about now:

How do I know which goal to pick and when?

Well, that’s where the Market Lens comes in ;)

If you want to see the lens in action, check out this messaging experiment!

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➡️ As a reminder, if you're struggling with being noticed by the right people (e.g. people don't get what you do or, in an even worse scenario, understand what you do and just don’t realize you do it) here’s a reminder that I open up a limited number of 1:1 spots every week to fix that very issue. We'll work through this stakeholder goal exercise together and leverage the Market Lens (my most potent Point of View or POV Filter) to translate it into a clear, concise and compelling elevator pitch

This week, I’ve got 3. Spots that is.