Using an Elevator Speech to Explain Your Divorce

 Posted on March 19, 2018 in Divorce

Part of the social aspect of getting a divorce is telling other people about the news. For family and close friends, you will have a personalized conversation that considers their emotions and gives them chances to ask questions. For casual acquaintances, a standard speech is appropriate and often easier for you than having an open-ended conversation. To borrow a business networking term, you should develop a divorce elevator speech as an automatic reply to anyone who asks about your divorce.

Purpose of an Elevator Speech

You do not have the time or emotional energy to get into a long conversation about your divorce with everyone you know. Some casual acquaintances will ask you questions about your divorce because they are curious and inquisitive by nature. An elevator speech gets its name because it is short and succinct enough that you can say it to someone while riding in an elevator, which usually takes one-to-two minutes. With an elevator speech, you want to:

• Quickly sum up the information you are trying to impart; and
• Let the person you are talking to know what you need from him or her.

Creating Your Speech

A divorce elevator speech has different goals than a speech you would give to a prospective employer or business partner. With business networking, you are trying to promote yourself and encourage continued conversation. With your divorce, you hope the speech satisfies the listener enough that continued conversations will be unnecessary. In creating your divorce elevator speech, you should:

• Say in basic terms that you are getting a divorce;
• Give a generalized reason for the divorce, such as “we just grew apart”;
• Explain how the divorce may affect your future interactions with the person;
• Tell the person whether there is anything he or she can do to help you; and
• Make it clear whether you want to continue discussing the subject.

Giving the Speech

You want your divorce elevator speech to sound natural, which means practicing it and modifying it to reflect new developments or the person you are talking to. Your speech to your work supervisor should sound different from the one you give to your friends. There are some people whom you must seek out to give the speech to because your involvement in the divorce may affect them. For other people, you can choose whether to broach the topic yourself or wait for them to ask.

Talking About Divorce

It can be stressful to have to repeatedly explain your divorce to people you know. A Kane County divorce attorney at Goostree Law Group can advise you on how to deal with the stresses of divorce. To schedule a free consultation, call 630-584-4800.

Source:

https://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/splitopia/201612/how-tell-others-youre-getting-divorced