How to Introduce Yourself The Right Way

So I’ve showed you the wrong way of introducing yourself let me demonstrate not the perfect way.

There’s a lot of different ways you can do it.

But let me introduce to you how I introduce myself.

So person next to me has just sat down its mouth.

Now my turn.

Here’s how I would do it.

Imagine the New York Times calls you today and wants to interview you about your business.

And they talk to you for 20 minutes.

Are you absolutely confident that the one or two quotes you’re gonna get tomorrow are going to make you look good and are what you want.

Hi I’m T.J.

Walker and I teach people how to speak to the media to get the results that they want.

If you give me a business card at the end of the meeting I will give you a free copy of my book Media Training a doozy.

That’s it.

That is how I introduce myself.

If I’m at a typical business meeting Speakers Conference trade association or chamber of commerce and everyone is asked to go around in 20 or 30 seconds introduce themselves.

Now is that spellbinding oratory and everyone’s gonna go wow he’s the best speaker ever.

No but there are a number of things about that introduction that work that work for me and can work for you.

For starters I didn’t start with my name.

Me me me me.

I started by the way.

That whole introduction was less than 30 seconds you can go back in time it right now.

It wasn’t long.

But I didn’t start with the obvious by saying my name because everybody starts with their name.

Instead I focused on the audience.

I imagined you were called by the New York Times today.

People can visualize that you’re talking about your business I’m talking about the audience not me basic speakers tip of public speaking.

Anytime you talk about your audience rather than yourself you’re winning.

People care about themselves more than they care about you the speaker.

So that’s the first principle I talked about the audience and introduced a problem that actually created a little emotion.

It’s nerve racking to think wow the New York Times is calling me.

They’re talking to me.

What are those quotes going to be.

Oh my gosh I don’t want to look like a fool anyone who’s ever been interviewed has had that experience where you don’t really know what quotes you’re going to go in the story.

So I introduced a problem a problem that people could relate to and likely had some emotion surrounding because whether it’s happened to them it’s happened to a close friend family member a colleague at work where there was an interview they weren’t quite sure how it would turn out.

So I talked about them and introduce a problem it has a particular setting situation a conflict involved that they have feeling about.

But then I introduce the solution.

I teach people how to solve that problem to get the quotes they want in the story.

And then I have a very specific solution.

I will give you my both media training a tizzy at no charge.

So I’ve introduced the problem.

I’ve introduced the solution and I’ve introduced a solution that cost nothing.

I’m not asking them to whip out a checkbook or a credit card so I don’t seem self-serving.

And now I’ve given people an excuse to come up to me.

Hi T.J. Nice to meet you.

Here’s my card.

Love to take a look at that book.

So now we have a conversation.

They remember what I do again.

If you remember from our first lecture I said the biggest challenge when you’re introducing yourself is getting people to remember anything about what it is you do.

Now this works for me.

I’m not saying you have to say it exactly like I do but the basic formula of focus on a need.

People have and how you solve it rather in this specific format rather than saying something.

I’m a communications consultant and I hope people will all aspects of communication training.

That’s all I could have said it abstract boring.

But by giving a particular example of imagined you are called today by The New York Times.

They’re interviewing you about your business past not abstract.

People can visualize it.

They can taste it.

They can touch it.

So if you’re an employment lawyer to just stand up and say I’m with the firm of blank blank blank and we have people of all aspects of of employment law little boring and abstract stand to stand up and say what if you walked in tomorrow and your most troublesome employee was gone.

But there was a note saying I’ll see you in court.

How would you feel.

Well that gets people’s attention then mention your name and how you help people solve those employment issues that would get a lot more attached.

Now I don’t want to sound like it always has to be dramatic or cheesy or anything artificial but the basic focus is how do you help people in a specific manner.

That’s the first part that’s the hook.

The second part is giving people something of value.

And I realize not everyone is a writer but I do think if you try hard you should be able to come up with something that’s useful.

It could be top 10 tips for reducing your your taxes if you are a small business owner working from home.

If you’re at the local Chamber of Commerce event specifically for small businesses you can put together a one pager with quick tips.

If you are a CPA and that might be something that people would then come up to you and say yeah I would like that.

Can you send it to me.

It starts a conversation.

It starts connecting you with substance with this other person rather than here’s just another generic face getting it over the cheese plate and the bar.

What did this person do again.

So that’s my recommendation to figure out how you can talk about what you do through the eyes of someone in the audience.

The hook the second part.

What is an easy way and under threat non-threatening way for people to come up to you if it’s just if you have any questions about how you can keep from being sued for sexual harassment because you’re.

That might be too intimidating people to come up and ask you for questions.

The beauty of having some product video and by the way all these products are virtual.

I’m not lugging around a big stack of books with me.

I’m emailing people a PDA a digital version of the book.

So there’s no extra cost for me so that’s what I recommend you do come up with something.

A video an online course like this one could be a perfect give away but it could be as simple as a top 10 list to put on your refrigerator of how to reduce your recycling waste.

If you want to something simple and focused that is perceived to have some value where people don’t have to talk to you for a long time.

Just hate that thing you mentioned about giving away.

I’m interested.

Send it to me.

Now you’ve got there.

I’m not suggesting you spam them forever and be sending them e-mails all the time but it just it helps the connection.

You can ask more about what they do.

You can see if this is a good possible business connection cultural connection personal connection.

So that’s my challenge for you.

Now I want you to come up with an introduction for yourself where you’re talking about the audience asking them to imagine something in their life and how you solve it.

And then I want you to think about something you can give them.

So think about that right now.