Speaking My Goal Into Existence
Creating an elevator speech was difficult because I didn’t know how to sum up who I was in 30 seconds. I had never done this before, especially because I’ve never been exposed to an environment like DC where it is 100% necessary to have one and I have continuously had to use it since creating one. It has been extremely helpful especially for our recent hill visits with NMSHSA, meeting my team at the Center for Law & Social Policy and introductions during our Public Policy Forum. It allows some guidance for me and others that want to get me connected to people relevant to the work I would like to do. It also gives people an idea of who I am, my career goal, who I should connect with and what projects I could assist in. Networking is a valuable skill that we do naturally but networking in DC has been a little scary because it's full of very strong individuals. Every person you introduce yourself to is an opportunity to expand your connections. Ensuring that your first impressions look well, especially here which can be intimidating because of their successful professions.
Therefore your elevator speech is so important to perfect, to make sure you hit every point of interest and make any person you interact with find value in you and why you’re different. Being here I have learned those valuable skills that I will take with me during the rest of my career. I have already felt myself becoming more confident because an elevator speech has allowed me to see the value in my studies/experiences and gave me a clear vision of who I want to become. My elevator speech is a way of speaking my goal into existence.