My Personal Elevator Pitch … 30 seconds … GO

Recently my strategic thoughtcloud around my entrepreneurial vocation has gotten fuzzy. I’ve heard it said that it’s difficult to imagine being what you don’t see, but until now that’s only a been theoretical reality. Now it’s an actual one.

Being graduated means unending job searches (oh the pain…) and in my last effort I was researching jobs at start-ups and nonprofits with a social impact I found interesting. But mostly I was looking at Development work at theatres. This was all good and well until my college mentor (let’s call her Pallas Athena because of her infinite wisdom and love of learning) reminded me that was the opposite of what I want to do. The donor dependent business model is what I want to overturn and becoming a grant writer won’t exactly help me do that. In fact it would perpetuate the problematic model.

Since then I’ve begun an entirely NEW job search which has been exponentially more painful (although much more spiritually and vocationally rewarding) because, as I said in the beginning, it’s difficult to imagine being what you don’t see. And since the job I want to do doesn’t exist yet, neither does a clear path to it. So in order to prevent my strategic thoughtcloud from becoming fuzzy again I’ve decided to write a personal 30 second elevator pitch to align my thinking and direct all of my vocational decisions here on out.

*Disclaimer: I have no idea how or what form my mission will take; the specifics are beyond me. This pitch will be vague and act as a guiding principle but not a strategic vision.

So let’s get started.

The Elements:

1. Mission: Empower the theatre-making industry to free itself from the patronage system
2. Value Proposition: Sustainable business model to give artists creative freedom and a fair wage

The Pitch:

Despite having a constant revenue stream, fifty percent of a typical theatre company’s budget comes from donated dollars. The patronage system is artistically limiting and socially destructive. But if I create a scalable and imitable business structure to revolutionize the industry, theatre-makers nationwide will be empowered to free themselves from this model, re-establish creative freedom, and provide artists with a fair wage. I’m looking for entrepreneurial opportunities that will teach me sustainable practices and make the foundation for my revolution.