Why Presentation Matters and How to Make it Work
October 26, 2009
This post by Justin Dixon Follow me on Twitter Photo Courtesy of Joshua Hoffman Photography
A little while ago a friend from twitter, @Bpraveenreddy, asked me what the one thing I wish I had learned earlier in my life was. The answer took me about a week to come up with, and it surprised even myself. I wish I had known that if a large group of people have a certain impression of you, than you are doing something to give those people that impression.
For a long time I didn’t think much of going through any effort to make people see me for who I am. After all it wouldn’t change who I really was. I used this as sort of a filter, anyone who would not come to like me was not worth my time. The problem came however in that I wasn’t demonstrating who I was. I thought that by not worrying about presentation things would be more honest, and in reality I just ended up confusing people. At the same time I was closing myself off from opportunities that could have made a difference in my life. I didn’t realize that there was not really a way to not present something. Even my attitude of not caring what other people thought was a kind of presentation.
So here are the times that how you present yourself really counts.
- It counts when you want people to see you for who you are.
- It counts when you want to be respected.
- It counts when you want to move forward in your career.
- It counts when you are looking to open new opportunities.
So how do you pull it off?
Figure out how you want to be seen. Do you want others to know you for being honest? What about caring? What about sincere? Make a list of things that you want to be known for, than take an inventory of what you are known for.
Know your audience. What kind of people do you want to respect you? Why them? What do they respect? What can you do that will make it easy for these people to relate to you?
Experiment. Try new things. Get comfortable with pushing your comfort zone. Get up and speak, when you have something valuable to say. Go out and dance. Try to learn a new game. The idea here is not to overpower everyone, but rather to have many aspects that many people can relate to.
Do it with style. Fashion is not as shallow as it gets a wrap for. Please note the following though. You should not have to spend an obscene amount of money. You also should not wear clothes that you genuinely do not like. Nor should you ignore your own style. What I do, however want is that you think of ways that you can tweak your style so that the impression you want others to have of you will be the one that comes through.
Carry yourself with confidence. If you don’t seen anything in yourself, its going to be very difficult to make others see something in yourself. There is no substitute for confidence. One thing you can do about this is keep a confident posture. Our body is connected to our minds. If you walk like someone who is confident than little by little, you will learn to be comfortable with this, and a little bit of confidence will find its way in. For more on dealing with self-doubts, and being more confident you can also check out Never Feel Like a Loser Again.
Be genuine. Nothing will make people think that you are honest more than genuinely demonstrating it. Don’t try to be someone else, and if you want to be known for something that you aren’t living yet, than start by working on the behaviors you need to be that. Virtue can not be faked for long. Honesty can not be faked. Liars are always found out.
Just be aware. This is the most powerful thing here. As you become aware of the impressions you give, and the actions that you are taking. You may find that many of the actions you identified as negative will start to lessen. After all most people will not continue doing wrong, once they realize they are doing it.
No matter what you do, you are always communicating something. So how are you going to present yourself from here? What will you do so that others will be more likely to see you for who you really are?
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1.
Ideas With A Kick | October 28, 2009 at 11:25 am
Wonderful post! I can relate to it a lot, as I’ve been working on my personal brand for a while now.
It’s hard for people to get to know you at a deep level, and only few of them actually get a chance to do it. By working on your appearance, you help them get access to who you really are. Then if they dig deeper and find out the inside is congruent with the outside, you’re in a very good position.
Like you said and I seem to feel the need to reinforce, be genuine :).
2.
Justin- AlittleBetter | October 28, 2009 at 6:57 pm
As I said its the one thing that I wish I had learned earlier in life.
3.
leapsecond | October 28, 2009 at 7:19 pm
How I like to think of it is this: I am a brand. My presentation is like the marketing division of my brand – whether I like it or not, people will judge me based on marketing alone, so I better put my best and most expressive out there.
This is realllllly similar to what Ideas said above.
4.
Justin- AlittleBetter.net | October 29, 2009 at 8:00 am
I do often think about it like that. I realize thought that a brand does not make us, its just something we end up communicating whether we want to or not, so it needs some attention.
5.
Belinda Munoz | October 30, 2009 at 1:02 am
As tough as it may be to admit, many of us still respond to superficial cues — dress, grammar, hygiene. If any of these things are flawed, many of us still make snap judgments instead of digging deeper into the person’s qualities.
6.
Justin- AlittleBetter | October 30, 2009 at 7:32 am
Dress indicates that you put thought into your presentation, hygeine is good for your health, grammar makes it so that can communicate more effectively. Its not just shallow, there is something to these things, and it can make it easier for others to see who we really are, when we apply these appropriately.
7.
Madeleine | October 30, 2009 at 7:42 pm
Justin, I liked the opening of this post:
“I wish I had known that if a large group of people have a certain impression of you, than you are doing something to give those people that impression.”
I agree that–try as you will to not impress people or present yourself one way or the other–you always make an impression of some kind. So you need to think about what sort of impression you want to make.This makes a lot of sense.
BTW; based on Belinda’s comment and your response, there might be another post here about making judgments and superficiality. Something to think about.
8.
LPC | November 16, 2009 at 5:43 pm
We can’t, as humans, help making assessments of others. It’s our desire for meaning. So, why not make sure the meaning others take from you is the meaning you intend?
9.
Justin- AlittleBetter | November 16, 2009 at 6:49 pm
Well said.
10.
Sanda | February 3, 2010 at 7:14 am
Came to your blog and to this entry rather late, via the blog of a friend of mine. Really like the gentle thoughtfulness of it – such a refreshing change from some of those self-promoting, ‘loud’ authors!
But about branding: just last week I was talking with a branding expert and she was telling me about the difference between identity (what we really are, believe in, stand for etc.) and image (how the others perceive us) and that the closer we can get the two together, the happier we will be and the richer and deeper our brand will be. But I also realised how easily we reduce other people to 2-3 words (defining their brand), while we find it incredibly hard to reduce our own complexity to just 2 -3 key images. But if you don’t take control of your brand, you will be judged regardless (as so many of the comments suggest).
As an additional comment, I would just say that consistency is just as important as being genuine. While it’s OK to change your mind occasionally, make sure you are not changing what you choose to emphasise all the time, or people will just get confused and not believe you (even if all the elements are genuine parts of you).
11.
Justin- AlittleBetter | February 10, 2010 at 1:27 pm
I absolutely agree with you and that is very well said. All the branding in the world is no good if its dis-genuine. Thank you for taking the time to right such a well though out comment.