Wanderlust: Expat Life & Style in Thailand June / July 2017: The Business Issue | Page 54

Business
ELEVATOR
PITCH
Discover entrepreneurial empowerment in 60 seconds or less
by Amelie Yan-Gouiffes
I
was all dressed up and ready to
go to my first networking event
as an entrepreneur. After years of
working in war zones and amongst
the aftermaths of natural disasters, I
thought it was going to be easy.
But something was holding me
back. A life spent in humanitari-
an work had left me best placed to
serve, not to sell, and I shook at the
thought of answering that most cli-
ched of question of all: What do you
do? I feared that my new journey —
one more focused on business than
philanthropy — would see value only
in money, not human kindness.
As the clock ticked by and my anx-
iety grew, I resigned myself to the
fact that I wasn’t going. Though I
knew this was no way to get my new
business off the ground, I just wasn’t
ready to step outside of my comfort
zone. Instead, I spent the next few
weeks learning to love my fears. I em-
braced my insecurities as an excit-
ing challenge, a learning curve, and
a long stretch that would eventual-
ly help me — and my business —
to grow.
The world of entrepreneurship
and corporate climbing was new for
me, and it was important to under-
stand the culture and unwritten rules
in this unfamiliar terrain. I was deter-
mined to make it out of the door for
the next event, though. My first step
was conquering the art of business
networking.
I spent hours researching how to
network and found a range of inter-
esting tips and strategies to make
the most of these opportunities. But
what spoke to me the most was the
idea of an “elevator pitch” — a brief
presentation of your work or proj-
ect that can be delivered in 30 to
60 seconds, about the time it t