Championship Networking Tip – Hone Your Introduction

An important networking tip is to improve our introduction to others. The networking guru, Eric Shaw, calls it your elevator speech; your introduction, which includes your name, your business or profession, and a “hook,” something that might bring interest to the conversation or something the other person could relate to.

Let’s pretend that 45 seconds is the average rate of time a person travels in an elevator. If you introduce yourself and do all the talking the elevator doors will open, the strangers will walk out. You will never know who was in that elevator with you. Some powerful people, or contacts of powerful people, ride elevators everyday.

So, if you introduce yourself in 15 seconds, it leaves 30 seconds for them to ask you questions about what you do and for you to ask, “What do you do?” That’s your introduction or elevator speech.

And, remember, the way we do anything is the way we do everything!

Championship Networking is a column on Actors Reporter, a site on the Actors Podcast Network, a Pepper Jay Production.