4 Ways to Make A Great First Impression On Anyone

You only get one chance to make a great first impression.

No one will remember you, or pay you much attention if your first impression is so unmemorable. But there are many different ways to make sure you make a powerful, memorable first impression, and we’re going to look at four of the most effective methods.

1. Design your elevator pitch

An elevator pitch is how you describe what you do for a living in a short amount of time, usually about thirty seconds. It’s called an elevator pitch because 30 seconds is the amount of time you will normally have to wait for an elevator. During that time it’s important that you can sum up what you do and how you do it. This is also useful in social situations when meeting people for the first time.
If you network with other business people, then along with your business card this is the most important way of getting your message across.

When starting a new business your main marketing tool is….YOU!  By meeting people and speaking to them you are going to spread awareness of your business. When I first started working for myself, I had never heard of an elevator pitch or a 30 second story.

If someone asked me what I did I would undermine the importance of my business and be quite vague. This was because I was afraid of what other people would think and also because I hadn’t developed enough confidence in myself.

You don’t have to be starting or own your own business to benefit from having an elevator pitch. Write a thirty second script that you would say to someone when you meet them for the first time. Learning this off by heart can help you make a really good first impression. It’s very important that you deliver it with confidence as you won’t be saying it again to that particular person.

Since I developed my elevator pitch I have stopped sabotaging myself through introductions where I appeared nervous and lacking self-belief. Knowing my elevator speech well allows me to introduce myself with confidence and clarity and describe concisely what I do. You have to look as if you believe in yourself, and sound as if you believe in yourself, to enable others to believe in you too! You need to make it easy for them to connect with you.

2. Speak for Yourself

Sometimes you will be introduced to someone and the person who is making the introduction will do all the talking. If you are anxious or nervous then it is much easier to just stand there, smile and say Hi. In my own experience, I found that people don’t remember you if you don’t say anything and let the other person do all the talking. Speak for yourself.

After you have been introduced, make an effort to engage with that person with a question, for example, ‘do you come to these functions regularly?’ or give them some information about yourself. Try to ask open questions, beginning with ‘how do you….’ or ‘what do you feel about….’ When you really can’t think of anything to say, find something in common, or if you  know a little about them, then use it to your advantage, for example ’Jim tells me you were born in Hawaii, what was growing up there like?’

Remember, most people love to talk about themselves!

3. Treat Everyone Like The Gatekeeper To Your Destiny

Joel Osteen, the American preacher and speaker, says that you should treat everyone like the gatekeeper to your destiny. What he means by this is that everyone you meet has the potential to change your life immeasurably and help you get to where you want to be. This is why it is vitally important to treat everyone the same and introduce yourself to as many people as possible, as you never know who will change your life for the better.

I recently met an old family friend whom I had not seen in many years. He did not recognise me and in the past I would have let my anxiety get the better of me and not said hello. These days, I am a lot more confident than I used to be, so I introduced myself and then used my elevator pitch to tell him what I am doing now.

I would have been happy with just the process of introducing myself and using my elevator pitch but the outcome of that chance meeting has been amazing and has provided me with huge opportunities. That is what I’ve found from introducing yourself well and using your elevator pitch. People will think of ways in which they can help you.

Try it out for yourself, and you will see more and more people will want to help you. Enthusiasm is infectious and people want to be a part of your success. You will also realise that there may be ways in which you can help other people and you might even be the gatekeeper to their destiny!

4. Body Language and Attitude

These are common sense tips that you probably already know but are easy to forget about and not to put into practice. Body posture is very important when you meet someone. The human brain will pick up many signals subconsciously from a meeting in a split second to help it form an opinion of you. You want to make sure you are giving off as many positive signals as possible.

Standing up straight is the most basic but the most important. When you stand up straight with your shoulders back you are giving the signal that you are confident in yourself. You also need to speak clearly and purposefully.

Your introduction and elevator pitch will have no impact if you mumble and look at the person’s shoes or over their shoulder. Always look people in the eyes. If you find this difficult then look at people’s eyebrows as they will think you are looking into their eyes. Make sure you smile throughout your meeting. Happiness and enthusiasm are infectious and attractive.

If you are anxious or nervous then meeting people may be difficult for you. It will help you immensely to control your breathing. Take slow deep breaths, this will help you to remain calm and be confident. Say to yourself “I’m calm and relaxed; I want to share who I am and what I do with others”.

If you believe in yourself and seem confident, enthusiastic and genuinely interested in the other person, then you will make a great first impression. Some people may not like you for reasons that are beyond your control, perhaps you remind them of someone or they are just simply having a bad day. If you have negative responses, don’t let this affect you. You are only in control of your own actions and thoughts. The outcomes of your meetings are out of your control so focus on the process!
The majority of the first meetings will be great and you will begin to attract new people into your life who want to help you and be friends with you.

If you have business cards then it’s best to carry them around with you everywhere you go as you never know who you could meet. Having a case is important to keep them in good condition. I’m not suggesting you give them out like confetti to everyone, but it’s important to have some to hand to give to the people who are interested or you think could make a difference to your business.
If you find introducing yourself difficult or you want to improve your first impression then a great way to do it is to practice. Go to a place where you can introduce yourself to someone. A networking event is a great place to meet lots of new people.

If you haven’t got an event coming up soon, practice by introducing yourself to the person serving you in the supermarket, in the bookstore, your neighbour, etc. You will learn something from every interaction especially the ones that are less than perfect.

I hope these tips will enable you to be your authentic, positive, confident self when meeting people and make memorable impressions at every opportunity.

7 Ways To Write New Years Resolutions And Stick To Them

The coming of a new year is the perfect time to take stock of your life, and decide whether it’s going where you want it to go. Chances are, you have room for improvement. (We all do) But how do you make it happen?

You know that if you keep doing the same stuff you’ve always done, you’re only going to get the same results you’ve always gotten. Yet change is hard! Trying to force yourself to get up extra early and exercise… to leave off the desserts… to quit your job and become an English teacher in Taipei… or whatever it is you want to do with your life, is easier said than done.

Chances are, you tried that last year. If it worked, great! You know exactly what to do. If it didn’t, then that’s probably why you’re reading this. Never fear. There is hope. There is a 7-step formula to writing your New Years resolutions that won’t just make you stick to them, it will make sticking to them easy and convenient!




You’ll find yourself coming up with ways to stick to your resolutions almost without thinking about it. In fact, this formula has been used for over 40 years by people who — as long as they followed every step — found themselves getting everything they ever wanted.

How To Plan An Awesomely Successful 2014!

1. Write your new year resolutions down

Write each new year resolution down, on paper.
Not sure how to write an effective resolution? Here’s what you do.
Start by making a list of everything you need, like money to pay the rent. Then, make a list of everything you want: the abs, the car, the charisma, the not having to worry about money and being able to spend your afternoons reading a book.
Now, compose your resolutions, asking yourself these 9 following questions for each one.
1. Do I really want this? Or is this just to “sound good,” or because I think it’s easy to achieve?
2.  Does this contradict any other resolution? If so, adjust one.
3.  Would this conflict with others — like others around me? If so, work out the differences.
4. Is it positive, instead of negative? Your resolutions are about what you want, not what you want to get rid of. A washboard stomach, not losing fat.
5. Is it detailed? If you want something, include all the detail you can, even the model number!
6. Can this be achieved by a human being? Leaping tall buildings in a single bound — maybe not. Owning a helicopter, though…
7. Is it high enough? If you really want something, you’ll find a way to achieve it. But if you set the bar low, you’ll only limit yourself.
8. Am I including the personal changes I need to make? Chances are, you’ll need self-confidence and determination, among other personal qualities, if you’re going to achieve your goals.
9. Have I written each resolution as if it’s already accomplished? Don’t say “I want,” “I wish,” or “I need.” Say “I have,” “I am,” or “I own.”

2. Read your resolutions twice a day

Every day as soon as you wake up, read your resolutions. Then, just before you go to sleep that night, read them again!
Make sure to leave plenty of room on the paper or in your notebook for adding new ones throughout the course of the year. As you progress towards achieving your goals, you’ll come up with new ones.

3. Read your resolutions out loud!

You can do it in the mirror, or just to yourself, but read them out loud. Saying something out loud impresses it more deeply on your mind, which keeps you working towards them.

“I hope that in this year to come, you make mistakes. Because if you are making mistakes, then you are making new things, trying new things, learning, living, pushing yourself, changing yourself, changing your world. You’re doing things you’ve never done before, and more importantly, you’re doing something.” - Neil Gaiman

4. Visualize achieving your resolutions as you read

Every time you read your list, visualize yourself achieving each one. See yourself looking in the mirror, feel the soft leather seat and powerful acceleration of your new car, or hear the crashing ocean as you sit on the beach. The more detailed your visualizations, the better they work.

5. Make your resolutions positive

You learned about this a bit already. Your resolutions absolutely must be positive. Think about what you want to have. Resolutions to get rid of something don’t work.

When you make your resolutions, you probably have things you do want to get rid of, but don’t write them that way. Figure out what getting rid of those things will bring you… and write your resolutions about that.

6. Make them about you only

You can’t resolve to change other people. Sorry, but it mostly doesn’t work — and when it does, there’s always so much “blow back” you end up two steps back for every one step forward.

7. Make them detailed

Just like with visualizations, the more detailed your resolutions are, the better you’ll be able to achieve them.
In many respects, you’re writing a “purchase order” for your mind. You’re telling yourself what to go out and get… and when you’re in the thick of it during the year, all you’ll be referring to is this list. So tell yourself exactly what you want, and there will be no confusion.

Oh, and almost forgot. There is one more step. Start now! Procrastination and drifting along is the only thing that can really keep you from achieving your resolutions. So write them now!

6 Lessons of Success We Can All Learn from Dale Carnegie

6 Lessons of Success We Can All Learn from Dale Carnegie

Dale Carnegie was a successful and famous writer and lecturer on self-development who also developed popular courses to improve public speaking, interpersonal skills and salesmanship. He is the author of many well-received books including “How to Win Friends and Influence People”, “How to Stop Worrying and Start Living” and “Lincoln the Unknown”.

Dale Carnegie rose from a humble farm background in Missouri to become successful and renowned all over the world. He advised that you can change other people’s attitude and behavior towards you by reacting positively towards them. In this article, we look at six valuable lessons we can glean from Dale Carnegie’s life and body of work.

Dale Carnegie’s Keys To Success

1. Take a Chance

Do not settle for mediocrity or set your sights too low. You might be selling yourself short by opting to be too safe. To soar above the masses and an average life you should look and aim farther and back up your ambition with sincere hard work.

Treat life as a game and do not take it too seriously. Push the envelope to progress as much as possible with your God-given talents.

2. Be Enthusiastic

Dull people do not have the enthusiasm or energy to excel in their endeavors. You should have the enthusiasm to get up cheerfully in the morning and maintain the feel-good spirit all day long. To do this, you can adopt a “Do what you love, love what you do” attitude. This will help you give your best to all tasks and your daily job. If you are feeling low, just act enthusiastic and you will find the trait so infectious that you will actually become enthusiastic pretty soon.

3. Love Your Work

You should learn to love your work which is the basic prerequisite to do a good job every day and excel in your career. If you love your daily job, work will become play and you will love every minute of the day. Plus, you will not feel like taking a holiday as you are thoroughly enjoying yourself doing your daily tasks.

So take up a profession that you like and try to make a career in it. You will feel that getting paid at the end of the month is an additional bonus to the daily joy you get from doing your job.

4. Learn from Your Mistakes

We are mortals and hence bound to make mistakes. The trick is not to get disheartened by them but to learn useful lessons that can ensure you do not repeat them. Failure can be a stepping stone to success if we are open-minded about it and learn our lessons. Do not get stressed by mistakes and failure. Use them as an opportunity to analyze, learn and improve.

Nobody becomes a champion overnight and it is the brave man who can withstand the blows of fate and respond positively who emerges the winner in the long run.

5. Do Not Fear “Fear”

Many people are simply too scared to succeed in life. Don’t be one among them, but imagine the worst case scenario and then make plans to accept and improve it if it actually occurs that is.

Face your fears head on with the heart of a lion, soak in the pressure and continue to do a great job every day. You will begin to understand that fear is just a trick of the mind so learn to ignore it with time.

6. Learn to Prioritize

Effective time management is one of the keys to success. Try to complete the important and hard tasks first at the beginning of the day when you are fresh and raring to go. The easier and less important ones can be completed at leisure later on. Use your common sense and intelligence to differentiate between the profitable and mundane tasks and prepare an appropriate time-table to complete them all within the scheduled time.

Dale Carnegie teaches us that we should never compromise with excellence in all our endeavours. Make excellence a habit in every task you do. Focus on quality and give your best to your allotted job. And if things look bleak, do not become weary or discouraged, but soldier on bravely without giving up. Like the Nike slogan advises “Just do it” without ado and get the work done in time with quality effort.

We hope the above lessons of success learnt from Dale Carnegie motivates you to make the best of what you have and do the best you can every day to improve your career and quality of life.

Taylor Made Marketing's 2014 Expansion Planning Conference!

Taylor Made Marketing's 2014 Expansion Planning Conference!

Taylor Made Marketing attended a planning conference this past weekend in Columbus, Ohio.  The event's main focus was planning for expansion with the expectation to open 3 more locations by the end of 2014.  Other focus points of the event were Human Resource training as well as individualized coaching from top executives.  The weekend was also a great time for the management team to bond together and network with each other.  President Austin Taylor comments, "It's great for everyone to sit down and together strategically plan the direction of our company.  Great things came out of the weekend and we're excited for the growth coming in 2014!"

10 High Performance Habits That Lead To Success

10 High Performance Habits That Lead To Success

  You can’t expect to get the results high performers do, if you don’t adopt the habits high performers have. When you look at the successful people of the world, don’t neglect to consider the hours of work, the multiple failures, and the daily sacrifices they made to get there. If you are serious about taking your performance to the next level you’ve got to leave the ways of mediocrity behind to develop a new and improved you.

Here are 10 high performance habits that may require you to go against the grain but will aid you in reaching success like the pros:

1. Win the Morning

While the world sleeps, the high performer works. Could you imagine if you woke up on purpose, with purpose every day? How can you expect to achieve excellence when the first decision you make on a daily basis is to procrastinate the day by hitting the snooze button?

Win the morning by waking up earlier than you normally do to get a workout in, feed your mind with good books, and fuel your body with a good breakfast—all before the rest of the world is deciding whether to get up or not. Win the morning.

2. Do Hard Things

We are surrounded by people who want the fastest and easiest path to success, but not you—not anymore. Rather than run from the challenge that is keeping you from doing what you want, stare it in the face; learn about it; and embrace it.

“The road to greatness is easy”, said “no one ever”.

Doing hard things will teach you lessons you wouldn’t learn otherwise, and will make you stronger than you thought possible.

You can do hard things.

3. Embrace feedback

The average person hates to be told what they are doing wrong or what they can do better. Learning to accept feedback is not easy, but once you decide to seek it out and act on ways you can improve, you will dramatically improve your progress.

Embracing feedback doesn’t mean to do what everyone tells you; identify key mentors or coaches who are great at what they do and more importantly, who care about your future, then allow them to take you places you wouldn’t have gone otherwise.

4. Learn from Failure

No one likes to fail, lose, or mess up; but high performers use adversity to learn lessons, and refuse to allow them to disable them emotionally. When you fail, identify what you did well, what you can do better, and what you are going to do about it right now.

5. Choose your attitude

One of the most important decisions you make every day is the attitude you are going to have when you walk out your door. Don’t take your attitude for granted or it will get the best of you.

6. Do one more

As an athlete, you can do 10 reps in the weight room, or you can do 11.  As a sales rep you can choose to make 15 calls or choose to do 16. One of the best ways to build mental strength is to do something you might not want to do, but you know will help you.

Do one more—because the average person won’t.

7. Have a purpose

The clearer you can see your target, the more likely you are to hit it. High performers don’t do things “just because”, as mentioned earlier, they do things on purpose, with purpose. When you know why you do what you do, you’ll have more power to do it.

8. Recommit every single day

One reason the average person doesn’t achieve their goals is because life catches up to them and they allow the things that they have to do blind them from the things they want to do. Every day, recommit to the things that matter most.

You empower yourself when your priorities are in line.

9. Be patient

Success is made in a slow-cooker, not a microwave. High performers understand that overnight success comes after years of hard work. Be patient with yourself, keep your eyes on the prize and focus on the process, the results will take care of themselves.

10. Fear no one

Refuse to allow people to intimidate you. You don’t need anyone’s permission to do something great. Putting others on a pedestal because of their talent, experience, and or accolades makes you susceptible to beating up on yourself because you feel that you’re not as good as they are. Anyone can be beat, including you; so respect your competition but refuse to fear them—who knows, they may fear you.