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 could do it. But let me introduce to you how I introduced myself. So person next to me has just sat down.

It's now now my turn. Here's how I would do it. Imagine the New York Times calls you today 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 going to get tomorrow are going to make you look good and are what you want? Hi, I'm TJ 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 to Z. 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 was asked to go around and 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 worked for me and can work for you For starters, I didn't start with my name, mee mee mee mee I, 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. So imagine you are called by the New York Times today.

People can visualize that to talk about your business. I'm talking about the audience, not me. Basic spec, tip of public speaking. Anytime you talk about your audience rather than yourself. If 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 he introduced a problem that actually created a little emotion. It's nerve wracking to think, Wow, The New York Times is calling me. You'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 they don't really know what quotes are 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 has a particular setting situation Conflict involved that they have feeling about. But then I introduce the solution. I teach people how to solve that pro how to get the quotes they want in the story. And then I have a very specific solution, I will give you my book media training A to Z, at no charge. So I've introduced the problem.

I've introduced the solution. And I've introduced a solution that costs nothing. 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, TJ, nice to meet you.

Here's my card. Let's 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 a specific format, rather than saying something. I'm a communications consultant, and I help people all aspects of communication training. So I could have said it, abstract, boring. But by giving a particular example of Imagine you are called today, by the New York Times, they're interviewing you about your business, that's 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 help people of all aspects of employment law, blah, blah, blah, boring, an abstract 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 mentioned your name and how you help people solve those employment issues, that would get a lot more attention. 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. 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're a small business owner working from home if you're a local Chamber of Commerce event specifically for small businesses. You could 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, second part, what is an easy way, and threatened non threatening way for people to come up to you if it's just if you have any questions about how you You can keep from being sued for sexual harassment because your that might be too intimidating for people to come up and ask you for questions.

The beauty of having some product of 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 PDF, 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 giveaway. 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 wanted 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 Hey, that thing you mentioned about giving away I'm interested send it to me Now you've got their card. I'm not suggesting you spam them forever, and be sending them emails 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.