Setting
On the first Wednesday of every month State College Young Professional met for their monthly ”Sips,” an informal networking social which rotates between local bars and restaurants. I just wrapped my draft up, and I was excited to jump right in and give it a test.
A/B Testing
Since I was there to test out the speech I decided to speak to a handful of folks and alternately try my draft vs. whatever I could ab lib.
Conclusion
I’m very comfortable going off-the-cuff. I think when I used my elevator speech it felt like I had to hit my ’marks’ and overall it felt less smooth then whenever I let the conversations take me wherever it took me. Maybe less preparation works best for me? Maybe I did not prepare enough?
Or maybe my draft didn’t match the setting. Since ‘Sips’ is informal, I had my fiancé with me, and the event is more driven as a social gathering, I think my draft may not have perfectly synced up. I wrote my draft to be less formal because that matches my personality, but I refrained from sarcasm etc. As a result, I thought my draft would work for the audience and my goal, but maybe it was still too formal for when everyone is holding a beer or glass of wine. People were there to meet new folks, joke around, and talk about the careers. In that environment, sarcasm, current events, and the kitchen sink lead to more interesting conversations and a fun time. And really that’s what the audience was there for. My draft was not quite tailored for that environment, which I should have realized beforehand. Fortunately, I think it was so loud no one noticed any hiccups except for me.