Using Impact to Perfect Your Pitch

In our last post, we talked about the power of the smile. Learning how to use a smile to boost confidence and promote shamelessness is just a part of the overall picture on building awareness of your impact on others.

The people around you can instantly tell if you're confident or not. Your confidence comes across in the way that you carry yourself each day. Do you stand tall with your shoulders thrown back, or do you slouch and slump? Confidence can be read in the way that you smile. Is the smile genuine and sparkles in your eyes, or does it look forced while your eyes are dull with fear and uncertainty? Even a simple handshake makes a difference. Do you use a firm, but comfortable grip, or does your handshake feel like a dead fish?

Little gestures make a big difference in how you relate to others. In our Perfect Your Pitch workshop, we help people understand how delivery is just as important as content when giving a presentation. Any time you interact with others, you're technically giving a "presentation". Your every gesture and interaction is a pitch to others about who you are and whether they should interact with you. If your gestures match the content, they will know that you're confident. If what you are saying and/or they way you act do not match, you will inspire doubt.

Give this a try: next time you're in a coffee shop or a public place, throw your shoulders back, put on a smile, then walk up to a stranger and ask them if they know what time it is. Most likely, that person will smile back to you and either give you the time or will tell you why they cannot give you the time.

Next, walk up to someone else with a slouch and scowl and ask them if they know what time it is. Look for a difference in the way they respond.

You're just asking for the time, right? Not really. Your demeanor and gestures have a huge impact on how others respond to you. It is up to you to be conscious of that impact so that you can feel more confident and get more of what you want. Even getting someone to tell you what time it is can be a challenge if you're not making the right impact.

When working toward a Shameless You, work on perfecting your personal pitch so that your gestures match your words, and all are working together to portray confidence and integrity. With a little bit of consciousness, you can be more aware of how your gestures are perceived by the people you encounter every day. This consciousness will lift your own confidence once those around you start responding to you positively and with a smile.