Talking business at the bar – We all need a casual pitch

Published by Ryan Healy on October 11th, 2007 in Entrepreneurship, Work/Life | 11 Comments

Anyone interested in entrepreneurship has heard of the elevator pitch. It's the infamous 15 to 30 second pitch of a product or service to a potential investor of some sort. The "elevator" part comes from the fact that it should be delivered in the time span of an elevator ride.

Of course, I have practiced and written down many different elevator pitches for Brazen Careerist. Including pitches to potential investors, human resource professionals, recruiters, potential advertisers or sponsors and I'm sure there are others I'm forgetting.

I won't bore you with the details because this post is not about an elevator pitch. This post is about your casual pitch. The one that you tell people at the bar, the one that you tell your parents friends and the one that, in reality, creates "brand you."

When someone asks what you do, do you have the right answer? I suspect you don't.

Most people do not have a decent casual pitch. I know this, because, for one, I don't think I have a decent one. And secondly, when someone tells me what they do, I usually nod and say "that's cool." But in reality, I have no idea what they really do, their casual pitch doesn't stick.

No matter what profession you are in, everyone needs a casual pitch. In fact, everyone needs multiple casual pitches. There will inevitably be times when you need to explain to someone what you do for a living. And even in the most social or "non business" situations, you never know how the person you are speaking with can help in the future.

You're casual pitch must be short and succinct, while still explaining what you do in a way that peeks the interest of the person you are speaking to. Depending on the audience, the pitch should never be exactly the same.

I never gave much thought to my day-to-day pitches until starting a company, moving to a new city and having to explain my job to every person I meet. But now I discuss them with Ryan Paugh all the time. So here is a list of what I typically say to four different types of audiences:

1. My pitch to old friends
I'm taking Employee Evolution full time and offering new features so we can make some money. I definitely miss the East Coast, but nothing beats working in my living room!

2. My pitch to "adults" (anyone not in Gen-Y)
I'm creating a website that is similar to Monster.com for people in their twenties. We recently partnered with an extremely popular career advice blog and we plan to introduce new features and leverage our traffic to generate revenue.

3. My pitch to girls at the bar
I'm creating a website to help people our age figure out what they want to do with their careers, and hopefully I can help you get a good job!

4. My pitch to a young person in a "non social" setting
I'm starting my own business and creating a career website for Gen-Y. The site will consist of a network of bloggers our age and a bunch of other features to help you get control of your career.

Of course, whatever actually spews from my mouth in a given situation is some variation of one of these pitches. And truthfully, I'm not totally impressed with any of them. Luckily, if you're talking to someone worth your while, a casual pitch will turn into a casual conversation and you can then explain everything in detail.

The four pitches described above are for different social situations and different audiences where the only sale I'm really trying to make is the sale of "brand me" (and hopefully spark their interest to go to my website). The point is not to write down and memorize these casual pitches. The point is to recognize the difference between a casual pitch situation and an elevator pitch situation, to know the audience you are speaking with and to adjust your casual pitch accordingly.

If you're serious about your career, you'll always be aware of your surroundings, especially the casual ones, because life's a stage.

So, what do you do?