The thirty-second "Elevator Speech"

Promoting and advancing our institution is the essence our work. Usually, we do this in a deliberate and planned way such as a brochure, letter or presentation.

However, sometimes we are in situations when we have thirty seconds (like on an elevator) to describe our school to a new acquaintance. Are you ready to give the answer to the "what do you do" or "where do you work" questions?

Before you say, "Of course, I can describe my school", I want you to stop and thank about how you do that.

Look at these two statements:

"I work for Harvest Christian School and I am in charge of marketing and fund raising. We have 200 students, loving teachers and make sure the Bible is our source of truth. Our students are prepared for college and go to some great area schools."

Harvest Christian School is an intuition that is training the next generation of leaders to engage their communities for Christ. This education is expensive, but we are committed to helping families bless their children with a biblical world view."

Both are accurate and brief. The second one, however, describes the consequences (results) of a Harvest education. It declares that quality education is costly, but it has value. It also invites the listener to ask a follow-up question, like "how do you raise all those funds?"

As fund-raisers we want to keep the conversation going and see if the Lord is leading this person to take the next step to learn more about the school. We also want to take the attention off of us and focus it on the students (our core) and our parents who (our partners) who sacrifice to provide this type of education for their children.

Lastly, the educational objective is not (only) a good college, but a Christ-centered education. this demonstrates that we want our graduates to have a purpose greater than their own success, but who will be equipped to be Kingdom advancers.

Remember, we don't get two tries to make a first impression.