“Please introduce yourself!”

We see this on social media groups, hear it in Zoom meetings and networking events.

We all know this is a very common, vital and important request.

And still, we freeze, look at our shoes, and fiddle with the camera.

We’re going to fix that right now.

[embedyt] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uyuz5pXWTAo[/embedyt]

 

Part of the reason for all this anxiety is that the stakes are so high.

On one hand, this is your big chance to make a great first impression, make valuable connections that might lead to sales.

On the other hand, you don’t want to overdo it and say too much.

Should we give our entire life story? Or just what we had for breakfast? Or something in between?

One person in one of our Aviation Sales Foundation classes told me that it was worth the entire price of the class if he could just master this one skill.

He hated networking events and would avoid them for this reason. He wouldn’t even do an online event and totally relied on scheduled calls.

“Once we get past the introductions, I’m great with people and everything is much more comfortable -I have ZERO problems with my job in sales other than this one thing.”

And, now he’s so much more comfortable that he’s going to every networking event he can find and he’s one of those people that knows EVERYBODY.

So, here’s how you do it.

1. Start with why you’re here in the first place, and why you’re introducing yourself. If you’re at a networking event or on a Zoom call, thank the host and tell them why you’re excited (hopefully you’re excited) to be at that particular event meeting these particular people.
2. Use your name and title, and help people remember it. If you have a clever title or tagline, like Jetvalues Jeremy, use it.
3. Tell them what you can contribute. People don’t really care who you are, until they know more about what you can do for them.
4. End with something funny, unique, or relatable about yourself.

Last thing, is to practice. Practice on video if you can.

All of this can be done in a minute or two, depending on the context.

So, if you’re in our Marketing Lab, we’re adding Introductions in the “Say Hello” section of the group. Here’s how you get there. . . .

You can write your intro, or for bonus points, add a video!

Now, your brain is probably doing an interesting thing right now. You’re thinking about all of the reasons NOT to do this. You’re too busy, you’ll do it later, you don’t really NEED to, etc etc. etc.

Your brain is really pretty ingenious at getting out of doing something it doesn’t want to do!

But that’s another reason to DO THIS.
Acction kills fear. The more you do this, the more comfortable you will be.

I’m adding an intro video to my LinkedIn profile as well. I’ll let you know how that performs.