When Your Elevator Pitch Is a Meeting Nobody Booked
Forty minutes in, "so what does this do?" became the worst question anyone ever asked.
Genius Josh meant well. He always means well. Someone at the conference table asked him the most innocent question in business, what does this thing actually do, and forty minutes later half the room had mentally drafted resignation letters while the other half tried to figure out how to leave without anyone noticing. Josh kept going because Josh always keeps going, gesturing at a flowchart that resembles a plate of spaghetti.
The hard part of watching it happen is recognizing yourself. Most of us have done some version of this, mistaking deep knowledge of our own work for the ability to talk about it clearly. Those are two different skills. One earns you the seat at the table. The other determines whether anyone wants you back at it.
A pitch should not be a meeting. It should be the answer that makes the next conversation possible. Sixty seconds of plain language to the right person in the right context, and you stop being the meeting nobody booked.