"elevatoR" SPEECHES

Most business and professional advisors tell their clients that one of their most important tools is the "elevator" speech. It is a couple of sentences, or at most a short paragraph that describes who you are and what you do. It enables others to make a quick assessment, perhaps to determine whether they should do business with you. It also enables the speaker to judge the other party's response to the speech to determine whether it should be amended. 

I never liked having to create an elevator speech. I prefer to have someone put me to the test, even at my expense, and see what I can produce. Elevator speeches tell you what you want to hear, whether or not it is true. They are finely honed and designed to convince you to do what the speaker wants you to do. On the contrary, testing reveals much more about a person. It reveals their work habits, character, integrity, flexibility, judgment, analytical and problem solving skills, and much more. When you have tested someone, you are much more likely to make a solid and profitable business or personal decision than if you relied on an elevator speech. 

Now that my practice involves at least ten different areas that span the spectrum from corporate consulting on litigation, mergers and acquisitions and other issues, to government consulting, to international consulting on eHealth and microchip implants, to individual health and wellness consults, crafting an elevator speech seems to be an impossibility. In this day of specialization and creating a narrow focus of interest, the term "general practitioner" has become a misnomer. But in the area of millennial eschatology, that is precisely what I am. Perhaps in a decade or two there will be sufficient numbers of people in this field to justify carving out unique areas of specialty. For now, I am a general practitioner with an openness to being tested.