Humility Doesn't Pay the Bills: How to Pitch Yourself in 30 Seconds
Can you pitch yourself in 30 seconds? I did this so effectively to an ABC News crew that I convinced them to interview me. Yes, I felt nervous, awkward and pushy… but I did it for my business! I was just at Mom2.0 Summit in Arizona and taught 100 amazing mom business owners how to pitch themselves in 30 seconds. Main problem: we hate bragging. But clients and journalists are cynical, so if you’re trying to get clients to sign on or press to feature you… or hey anything that requires buy in, you need to get an amazing elevator pitch!
In this quick bite-sized bonus solo episode you will learn:
How to Pitch Yourself in 30 seconds: Pitch to press, to clients, for social media, for public speaking or in an elevator pitch
Why you need to start bragging and how to start
My experiences at the Mom2.0 Summit (Shout out to the amazing women I met there!)
Here is my ABC method to making an amazing pitch.
A - Accolades
Start with your most impressive achievement - business accomplishment, degree, press feature
B - Business
What do you do, how do you help people or businesses transform and grow?
C - Creative
End with something that makes someone relate to you - a personal, funny or unusual factoid (but still on point!). Think of it like a conversational coat hook
Looking to win people over in meetings and convince journalists to cover your business? Make that TV reporter and business writer love you! Contact me to see how I can help you grow your business with strategic messaging, and incredible content!
What should you make for social media? Take the free quiz!
TRANSCRIPT
Kim Rittberg (00:00):
Can you pitch yourself in 30 seconds? See, the problem is you probably hate bragging because we all hate bragging. So do I, but I've gotten better at it. I flew to Arizona to speak at the Mom 2.0 summit and taught a hundred mom business owners how to pitch themselves in 30 seconds. And guess what? I pitched myself in 30 seconds so well that ABC News interviewed me on the spot. True story. I was so uncomfortable inside. I was like, "Oh my God, I can't believe I'm doing this." But I saw an ABC News TV crew on site and I was thinking, "I feel embarrassed. I'm not going to approach them." But guess what? For my business, there's no room for shyness. There's no room for awkwardness. I don't care. This is a business goal. So anyway, I pitched myself in 30 seconds so effectively that I landed on ABC News camera crew.
(00:55)
The journalist looked at me. She was looking at me with sort of a judgment. Who is this lady? Why is she talking to me? And then the reporter looks at me and goes, "That was a really good pitch. Let's put that microphone on you." So anyway, I'm going to give you some tips on how to pitch, but first I want to talk about Mom 2.0. I just got back from Mom 2.0, a summit that this year was in Arizona, and it was so amazing. I just wanted to tell you all about it. I went to the summit and I kind of didn't know what to expect. I'd never been before. The coolest thing happened. I've been meeting all of these amazing women either as guests on my podcast or I was a guest on their podcast or just someone introduced us and put us on a Zoom together.
(01:35)
And I met, no joke, like 10 women who I had communicated with or interviewed with or gotten to know in the past year from Mom's exit interview. And I met them in person. And it was so cool and great to meet them and fun. I was like, "Hey, you're taller than I thought." Sunny Abada from We Got a Talk, we ran into each other in the airport. We had Zoomed and done a podcast interview, but I'd never seen her. Emily Hay of Hay There Social Media, who trains people to be social media managers. Tara Clark, who runs Modern Mom Problems, an amazing Instagram handle and a great podcast as well. Nikki Unplugged, this hilarious woman who has like two million followers on TikTok and Instagram. And she got really vulnerable at a session talking about how she was having a hard time in her life right before COVID, she was getting divorced and how she took that and sort of put that into comedic content online.
(02:30)
And it was so beautiful and amazing. And I just was really blown away by A, meeting all these amazing women that I had never met in person, but I had been in some way connected to. And separate from that is the just positivity there. All these women were sitting down at a dinner and you tell somebody what you do or what you're working on. And their first question is, how can I help you? Amy Schoenthal, a writer for Forbes, who's coming out with a book that you all will hear about. I heard her talk to someone and her first question was, "Hey, how can I help you amplify what you're doing?" And I got chills just hearing her say that because I think a lot of times people meet each other and not always, but sometimes it's, oh, what do I get out of the situation?
(03:19)
Or what am I here for? And to be somewhere where that is the first inclination is just so beautiful. Some of the other amazing women I met, Leah I know, Weissman Fink, who's an amazing life and business coach. Neha Roush of Mother Untitled, who's been on the podcast. Leah's been on the podcast. I'm forgetting people. But anyway, it was really, really cool. And I also want to talk to you about how to pitch yourself in 30 seconds. You all know I coach people to be more confident on camera and in public speaking. And the thing is, I love you guys. I love women. I love moms. I love my sisters. But the truth is we don't brag.That is 100% true. So the main problem with pitching that people have a hard time pitching, number one, clients are cynical and journalists are cynical. So if you're pitching yourself to press, you're pitching yourself for clients, you're getting the hairy eyeball.
(04:15)
People are looking at you like, why are you trying to sell me? Number one, that's the first problem. And number two, we hate bragging. So my whole session was to teach people how to pitch effectively with that context. And I was a journalist for 10 years, so I know how cynical journalists are because I was one.
(04:35)
That was my water guys. I was a journalist and I was the person who decided if your pitch to me was getting deleted or was going to put you on TV. And so I've received thousands of pitches, both in email and also on the phone and in person. I used to do this at a conference. People would pitch me live and I would give them feedback. So I came to this conference to teach everyone that, and I held these round tables. So I taught about a hundred women and I taught them the tips on how to pitch. And then they live pitched me and I gave them feedback. And first I loved it. I mean, people came over and they were like, "Oh my God, this was transformative. I really feel like I can get more clients now. I can get sponsors now." They really are just going to use these pitches in all scenarios.
(05:16)
It's an elevator pitch, truly an elevator pitch. It's a pitch for a client in person. It could be a pitch to get on TV or to get in the magazine. It could be a pitch for social media. Really? Social media is our marketing platform for our businesses. Explaining who you are in a concise way is super important. So the first two things that make a great pitch is messaging, having really concise, strong messaging and confidence. So saying who you are, what you do and why you're awesome at it, but also like shoulders back, nice, strong voice and eye contact. So it was really fun for me because I love teaching, obviously. I love, love, love, love teaching. I love empowering people to go off and just like crush it. Go turn yourself from a professional to a thought leader. Go grow your business to five figures, six figures, seven figures.
(06:06)
But I also, as people are live pitching me, I'm like, these women are awesome. They all came around and they just were so cool when they were actually live pitching me. I got to learn about the businesses. There's an author, a woman who's trying to get people off of screen time and into the world. There was a content creator, Rosie. There's just all these amazing women. And I'm like, you're all doing really cool things, doctors and lawyers. And anyway, so pitching. How to pitch yourselves in 30 seconds. I'm probably going to do a whole other episode on this, but I'm here and so are you. I have a download. I can send down over to you. Message me on Instagram, Kim Rittberg, K-I-M-R-I-T-T-B-E-R-G. Or in the show notes for this episode, you can just click and message me there. I will give you the PDF download.
(07:00)
My tips for how to pitch yourself. A, B, C. A, B, C. A is for accomplishments. B is for business. C is for confidence. So those are the three components of it. Message me if you want to learn more about how to do this effectively, all that stuff. But accomplishments, you have to brag.
(07:25)
Humility does not pay the bills. You have to brag. So that's where you're at for that. Accomplishments can be your. You have a podcast that downloads on your podcast. Accomplishment can be all the clients you've helped, how much money you've helped them make, how much healthier you led them to be, whatever your area of expertise is. Stats, whenever you can back that up. Try to figure out a way to measure that. Business, be super clear. B is for business. Be super clear about who you are and how you can transform people. In a different pitch scenario, you will slightly alter that, but don't say, "I help people live a better life." Well, are you a nutritionist? Are you a coach? Are you a lawyer? Are you an accountant? Whatever that means. And then C, confidence. Listen to a Lizzo song and put your hair back, shoulders back.
(08:21)
Really, you have to believe what you're saying. If you don't believe it, nobody will. And yeah, that's it. That's what's going on. A, B, C, to pitch yourself. Shout out to all of the amazing women I met at Mom 2.0. I left so inspired and with so many new friends and contacts. So download How to Pitch Yourself and email me if you want help with your pitch, kim@kimritberg.com. And you can just message me on Instagram or LinkedIn, wherever. I hope you have a fantastic day. I'm going to leave you with humility doesn't pay the bills. I