I'm Glad You Have an Elevator Pitch. Now Let’s Talk About Something Else.

How to Keep Your Leadership Story from Sounding Like a Bad LinkedIn Bio.

The best stories don't start on a blank page. And they certainly don't start in ChatGPT. For me, they start in conversation — but it has to be the right kind of conversation: the kind with room to wander, dive into niches, and sometimes veer off what seems like the topic.

In other words, it has to be the kind of conversation where someone gets more interested in what they’re saying than worried about how it will land — not because you’re asking “gotcha” questions, but because you’ve helped them relax into what they actually know.

Years ago, I trained as an actor with Michael Shurtleff, Broadway casting director and the author of Audition. Michael was all about breaking scenes down into clear, urgent beats — choices that make the people behind the desk sit up and pay attention. His lessons helped me become a better actor, and unexpectedly, a much sharper writer.

One of the most striking lessons (among many) that I took from him was this: the desire to be right is often the death of being interesting.

Of course, everyone wants to be right — especially when the stakes are high and the public face of your business is on the line. That's when people reach for the safest possible version of themselves: polished, correct, unobjectionable. Also, boring and indistinguishable from a hundred other “about” pages.

So if you open an interview with a justifiably anxious leader by asking, “What excites you?” you’re likely to get a carefully worded “right” answer about community, or helping people, or mentoring the next generation, or whatever. And all of those answers might be true and valid. They might even be the real end goals. But what’s interesting as a narrative is the way someone gets to those goals. Anything else tends to read like platitudinous word salad.

Instead, open with the work. Ask them about what they actually do — the things they’ve made themselves experts in and wake up eager to dive into. That’s where the energy is. And get specific. Find out exactly what makes their X different from the usual Y, and how they came to chase down that particular rabbit hole. Do a little research beforehand so you can show real, informed interest and follow that thread with them.

And if you wind up talking about their life, or their childhood, or that job they had as a teenager — that's fine — because somewhere at the bottom of the hole, you’re going to find something amazing: a real, compelling story unlike any other.

Because when people stop talking about “the thing that excites them” and get lost talking about the things that excite them, magic happens.

About The Author

As Director of Story, Elizabeth crafts stories that get results for clients. After earning a degree in History from Harvard, Elizabeth honed her craft through her study of screenwriting, years of experience collaborating with other writers on various projects in Hollywood, and her job as a story analyst at a leading agency. With a penchant for research and uncovering the most compelling story angle, Elizabeth imbues each of her long-form pieces of content with the urgency, import, and strategy needed to not only achieve client goals, but grab and hold audiences’ attention.