The elevator riff
July 23, 2008 by Mary Wynne-Wynter
In Neil Young’s video conversation with Charlie Rose he talked about his song writing process and how sometimes he gets little melodies, or hooks, rolling around in his head, like “little reminders”. Curiously, I often use “getting hooked” as a metaphor for repeatedly getting caught up in unwanted experiences.
Conversely, the music hook is a sound, or phrase that grabs a listener and sticks with them as a positive experience. That’s a result all marketers desire. And we’re all marketers. 
So I see the hook as a creative metaphor for the traditional pitch, or “elevator pitch“, a term that’s always turned me off because most sound to me as artificial and uninspiring as a resume’ or powerpoint presentation. On the other hand, I understand the importance of getting a point across quickly, like in 30 seconds. I’ve just never figured out how to effectively do that for myself or for my clients to naturally influence the audience.
The next time I develop personal and business micro-stories (can’t bear to call them pitches) I’ll do so from the perspective of my inner songwriter.
DA DOO RON RON….
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