*This Girl is Stuck On My Elevator: A Book Review

*The title’s paying homage to Flo Rida featuring Timbaland’s Stuck On My Elevator.

 

“You’re a busy entrepreneur. On top of doing what you love to do, which is making your product or providing a service to others, you’re in charge of marketing, accounting, and writing your own copy. But your business is off the hook. You can barely keep up with the demands let alone sit down and right that newsletter, press release, blog or product description. What are you going to do?

Why not hire a freelance writer? It will save you time and money. Instead of sitting in front of the computer racking your brain to think of something clever, why not hire someone to help you do it instead? Someone who has successfully helped other professionals increase traffic to their site through collaborative projects, creating innovative ideas and writing that matches the style and brand of your business. I’m a hit the ground writing kind of girl with experience writing on a variety of topics for a variety of businesses. That means less headache for you and more time spent on the things you really want to do.”

What’s that you say?

That’s my quick and dirty elevator speech compiled after reading Small Message, Big Impact–a book I received for *free to review.

Don’t shoot the sender. If you could have seen my before speech, you’d see how much this small book has helped improve my confidence and ability to write a 3 minute speech.

Rewind back to a few weeks ago when I ran into a friend at an acquaintance. When she asked what I did for a living, I fumbled over my words and barely got out the part about being a writer. I think what I said was that I worked at home and loved it. When she asked who I worked for, I said,”myself.” Yes, I made it sound like I was in love with my “job” of basically being a bum and watching TV at home. That’s what she probably thought and who could blame her?

My ability to turn an idea of what I do in my head into what a prospective client wants to hear is largely due to what was said in the book.

Here are the pros and cons as I see it:

Pros

1. The author Terri L. Sjodin won me over in the Preface. She’s had a lot of experience in delivering and writing successful speeches. And she was able to convince me that I could write a 3 minute speech too, one that could be used to market my business as a writer, but also be a better and more creative blogger and entrepreneur. I realized that any time you have an opportunity to communicate what you do (even to friends) it has the potential to help further your career.
2. This was a short, but comprehensive book with lots of worksheets available to help you get started.
3. The three minute approach made composing a speech less intimidating and overwhelming.
4. I felt like this was a good overall resource that could be used for a variety of purposes (getting a job, impressing your employer, increasing sales and networking connections at a conference, etc.).
5. Sjodin seems to value creativity, which is a big thing for me too. I think if you can capture an audience in a novel way, you’ll be successful. Although I am not a professional speaker, I have taken a speech course and did it for a living in my past life as a Loan Executive for United Way. I have seen a lot of speeches and presentations and witnessed what works and what doesn’t work. Sjodin is right about creativity being important.
6. Because rules about how we communicate apply to both written and oral forms, this book is handy for not just those who want to write a good elevator speech, but for those who want to be a better writer.
7. Chapter 7 Delivery: Speak in Your Own Authentic Voice is my favorite chapter because Sjodin talks about the heart of elevator speeches and all communication in general. Things like dealing with fear, finding your voice and how to deliver a great speech are all important topics that come after writing your speech and arguably the most important one.

Cons

1. This was an easy and quick read. But I was a bit disappointed in how it was written. Sjodin is supposed to be an engaging speaker, but I didn’t feel it was captured in print form. Maybe that was one thing missing in her book-her tone and personality that we’d probably see and hear if it was in person.
2. Sjodin frequently used analogies from movies, but I felt that the content would be more attention grabbing if it was based on her own true story, which she did use too, but maybe not enough. It’s ironic because on page 101 she says, “the more you speak from your heart and personal experiences, the deeper the connection will be that you form with the audience.” I wholeheartedly agree and wish she did the same in her book.

My Overall Rating?

4 out of 5 stars. Two thumbs up. And that’s for writing an informative book that helped me write my first elevator speech and because I think it would be a great addition to any writer/entrepreneur’s library.