Clichés and labels...
Does it sound clichéd to have an elevator pitch? Probably. What about a neat way of summarising who you are? A helpful way for someone to understand what you do in an instance? Sure.
Getting to the point at a job interview? Saying a bit about who you are to a new client? Meeting people socially for the first time? Whatever situation, whatever you want to call it, coming up with a quick, no-nonsense way to explain a little about yourself is incredibly useful.
In my earlier years I found myself using a label to describe myself. Starting out I’d introduce myself as an Occupational Psychologist… Not the most straightforward of job titles I know – essentially I worked with individuals in the workplace. I was proud of my training, of my profession, so it seemed a logical way to start, right?
Inevitably what happened was that a number of follow up questions ensued which propelled me into a somewhat awkward description of what I actually did in the day-to-day. Things like development, recruitment, interviewing gradually enabled people to get the gist, but only after I dealt with all sorts of assumptions about working in a hospital or as some sort of therapist…
Extra efforts
When I founded WiseAmigo that brought up a further round of explanation. Not only was I required to explain what an Occupational Psychologist is or what it means to be a founder, I also now had to quickly explain WiseAmigo. This was getting complicated!
After running through my explanation to my friends, I quickly realised that my pitch, as it were, needed to be simple and more accessible. I had stupidly started by focusing on the basics, emphasising words like platform or app before meandering through the concept… I was just starting out and keen to explain the functionality, but after seeing puzzled faces I realised I needed to work harder.
As I started to engage with my wider network it quickly became apparent that I needed to move to a description of the value that I brought to the table as well as the utility WiseAmigo affords users, certainly more so than how it functions or what it looks like…
Working on this for a long time trying to get it right, I ended up with a long, drawn out explanation that I could start to work with. It captured everything I wanted to say. The next thing was to reduce it down to make it as short as possible. It helps me to get to the point quickly and start a conversation of with the right introduction.
I’m Paul.
I mix psychology and tech to help people make sense of working life and build towards their potential.
At WiseAmigo we provide a Developmental Friend in the Pocket. Download the iOS app now.
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