Leaving a Lasting Impression

Leaving the right impression on anyone you meet is always a good skill to have. How can you leave the right impression on those people?

Keep Yourself Organized

If someone comes to meet you in your office. Keep it organized, the mall subtle cues around your office and your space give an insight to you, your personality, your method of working and many other professional aspects. Keep yourself organized, and let the person know who you are, without telling them

Firm Handshake

I am a strong believer in the firm handshake. When you meet someone, always have a solid smile and an extended hand, palm up (it’s a sign of openness and acceptance). Shake hand firmly and talk cheerfully.  This tells the other person that you are here to do what you need to do, and be good doing it, all the while being a friendly person that people will like to deal with.

Be Sweet

You want to be the person that leaves the impression you will be the "go-to" guy. You don’t want to be the person everyone has do their busy work, but to instead be the person the people go to, to look for key Ideas, Plans, Organization etc.

Be Truthful & Follow Up

When asked questions answer truthfully, this will gain you respect by anyone who meets you. After answering follow up with more details or even ask simple questions to the person who asked you. But always, always, be truthful in anything. I promise it will get you further.  Don’t BS people. If you didn’t do something tell them why, don’t make things up.

Impressions really let people be impressed with you. In anything, meeting people at a club, business meetings. Be presentable, be admirable, and be truthful.

Presentations a How To

Photo by bonedad

• Being a college kid, and having a focus on International Business, presentations are a huge part of my college life and my business life. Many times the common presenter overlooks the benefits of simplicity in presentations. I have composed a few presentations for school that grabbed attention and held it throughout the whole time. The key to keeping focus during presentation is to keep the information coming and to make it easy for the audience to pay attention.

• A picture is worth 1000 words
  • Sometimes presenters get a little too picture happy with their presentations. Try your best to use only relevant graphics, whether the graphic is a graph, chart or photograph, make sure it is useful and can assist in describing the overall point of your presentation.
• Hard hitting facts and support
  • Use your facts often and make them support your overall purpose. When you present the fact on your slide, if you put a graphic along with the slide, make sure it is non intrusive. For example:
• Simplicity Sells (To take a TED Title)
  • Simplicity in the presentation will very well be your key to attention. Keep the amount of information on the slide to a minimum, and allow most of the explanation to come from your own words rather than letting people read from the slide. If they wanted to read the slides, you wouldn’t be there.
    Take a look at the TED talks, specifically Stefan Sagmeister, Hans Rosling and Guy Kawasaki’s 10/20/30 Rule for presentations which can be found Here.

Focus carefully on your presentations, Slide Share is basically a YouTube of Presentations and PowerPoints.

Keep in mind also, that with everything else, you’re trying to sell yourself, so think, What point am I trying to get across? How am I getting the audience’s attention? What is my goal with this presentation? How do I present it?

Design Carefully, keep the presentation easy on the eyes, and load it with facts.

You’re on your way to a proper Presentation!