Oxygen Masks

My five-year-old daughter’s questions about the JetBlue safety talk turn out to be surprisingly difficult to answer. How do you explain oxygen masks?

It’s a fine line.

To explain the safety equipment

Without making her unnecessarily fearful of which might go wrong.

“If the cabin pressure drops, we need oxygen…”

What’s cabin pressure?

What’s oxygen?

Then, as I pause for a split second to gather my thoughts…

It gets worse.

Much worse.

Because, like any good student, she pulls out the safety card and starts studying the pictures.

Why is that person wearing a floaty?

Why is that person standing on the wing?

Where do they keep that raft?

Why do they have a raft inside a plane?

And, believe it or not, it gets me thinking about your Elevator Pitch.

Because it’s daunting to explain your expertise.

We’ve all heard ourselves head down that rabbit hole.

Where to explain one thing you find yourself explaining everything.

You know their eyes are glazing over,

And you’re still powerless to stop yourself.

There is a solution.

“Oxygen masks are there to keep us safe. If we need them I’ll help you.”

Like with business networking, we’re not going to understand it all right now.

And we don’t need to.

We need to know we’re in the right place.

Talking to the right person.

The rest can wait till later…