Awkward encounters come in many forms, but the two that can cause the most discomfort are those when you are greeted by someone who treats you like an old friend when you have no idea who they are or how they know you and, conversely, when you clearly remember that you have been introduced to someone several times, and they look at you blankly when you greet them.
“I hate going to holiday parties,” my friend Miri complained.
“What don’t you like?” I asked.
“I’m not great at mingling, and I don’t like making small talk.”
“Anything else?”
“I get tired of telling people my life history and what I do for a living,” Miri replied.
Do you ever feel like this?
Do you ever feel so tired that you literally can’t move?
Do you ever wonder if you are experiencing a level of “burnout?”
Do you ever wish the weekend was just one more day and you still had just one more hour of sleep before you had to wake up?
A couple of months ago, I was so overwhelmed with fatigue that I decided to consult a physician.
Isn’t it fascinating that while so much goes right, our minds will still focus on the one thing that doesn’t? If you are anything like me, you chastise yourself endlessly when things don’t go perfectly.
That’s what happened to me recently, when a guest I had booked left the CNN set just just before his second interview. It turned out his phone was off, and he hadn’t seen my texts giving him his updated schedule.
I wanted to share the following blog with you that I wrote with Lori Milner about the importance of googling yourself, and understanding the digital brand you’re projecting.
Forget what people say about ‘vanity searching’ or ‘ego surfing’, to google yourself is neither about vanity nor ego. If you’re serious about your professional presence, about owning your space in the virtual world as much as you are about owning it in the physical world,
We hear so much about the importance of having a personal brand, but what does that really mean? Put simply, your brand is your reputation, which is the culmination of almost everything you have ever done and said. As Amazon’s Jeff Bezos says, “Your brand is what people say about you when you’re not in the room.”
The reality is, you already have a reputation and you are being “branded”
Talking about first impressions. Have you ever watched two young children meet each other for the first time? They are usually introduced, look each other warily up and down for a few seconds and then one says something like, “Do you want to go and play on the trampoline?” Sometimes, prompted or not, it is off they go. Give them exactly three minutes and they are chatting and playing away,
When giving a presentation, one of the most important factors of success is the ability to make your audience feel like you’re genuinely connecting with them and interested in their needs. If they don’t feel like the information you’re giving them has been personalized – if it feels like a memorized speech – you’re likely to lose their interest. Instead, try to make them feel like you genuinely want your presentation to connect with them.
