7 steps to present yourself effectively

Tsvetelina Stefanova
24/10/2023

Every presentation, interview, or business meeting starts with a personal presentation. So it's important to be short, on point, and engaging for the audience. In the next lines, you will learn useful tips on how to catch the attention and win the trust of the audience when it comes to your turn to present yourself.And here are the 7 important steps:

1. Prepare yourself.

One of the well-known ways for a good presentation, no matter if it's about meeting with a complete stranger, having an interview or public event, it's key to prepare yourself well in advance. It's surprising how many people actually don't do it! In all cases, the preparation should include those topics: "Tell us about yourself" and "Share more about your previous work experience, education and hobbies". The questions may vary, but what the interviewer expects is to quickly judge whether you are the person he has been looking for or not.

2. Be positive.

Positive people are always preferable and make a good first impression! In the "moment of glory", when all the attention of the interviewer or the audience is focused on you, you need to shake off negative thoughts and bad moods. There should be no tension from daily tasks and worries about the meeting or the interview. You need to be aware that you are "there" to show the best of yourself and that you are the right person and that you deserve attention. Try to show a positive attitude, even when you find yourself in a difficult or unexpected situation. For this purpose, you need to develop skills to self-observe, self-analyze and have self-control.

3. Use structured sentences and speak consistently.

That’s the next important step to present yourself effectively. Try not to be wordy, but accurate and clear in the information you provide about yourself and do not forget to speak correctly, without complicating your speech with unnecessary words or interjections such as: "uh ...", "well ...", "Meanwhile", "means" and others.

4. Do not think about how you look in the eyes of the interviewer.

Why in most cases in a new acquaintance we have a white spot when the person says his name, and sometimes we do not remember other important information from our first meeting? This happens because we do not focus on the other person at this crucial moment and we think too much about our performance and how we look in the eyes of the other. Numerous studies prove this and also about the worry - what the person is thinking on the other side. Eventually, it affects the creation of a good first impression.

5. Believe in yourself.

Instead of worrying about missing a certain experience, better focus on your strengths. Additionally, don’t forget to be yourself and to show your glamour. Behave casually by connecting with people, because more important than the content is how you will share it. You might know that only 7% of the information that we remember comes from words that we use but everything else comes from the way we speak, interact and make the other people feel around us.

6. Demonstrate emotion.

Another easy way to shine with your performance is to make it interesting to listen to. This is achieved with the intonation of the voice, moderate gestures and especially the expression of emotion, which in turn happens most easily when you add stories to your own performance - specific work cases and situations, if it is your experience, short fun story about your hobby, etc. The stories literally fill our presentation with colors!

7. Close the conversation appropriately.

After meeting a person or group for the first time, you need to close the conversation appropriately. Be grateful that you had this opportunity and that you truly enjoy this acquaintance.