In today’s blog, you will be learning about how to best introduce yourself and keep the conversation going on when you either meet somebody in person or online.

It could be on Instagram, LinkedIn, TikTok, YouTube, or among friends, parties, networking, or so on.

This is for you if you are in either of these two categories:

1) You go to friends’ parties or you go to some networking events and you’re not sure how to come across as an interesting person.

You don’t know how to confidently introduce yourself, have the conversation going on, or make yourself look like somebody someone wants to talk to.

And what you end up doing you either stand in the corner, start scrolling through your mobile phone pretending that you’re a busy man and that is why you are not networking, or you probably just stay with your friends and gossip around saying that this event is not for you. But deep inside you know that you are struggling. 

2) You are someone who saw somebody on TikTok, Instagram, YouTube, or LinkedIn and you want that person in your network and you worry about how you’ll approach him or her.

 

You’ll doubt about the lack of your number of followers, or whether you have anything interesting to show, or how you’ll message in such a way that they reply to you and come across as someone they accept messages from and probably want to talk further with.

 

So, let’s jump right in. There are only four rules to follow:

 

By the way, if you prefer watching over reading, then you can watch my YouTube video here on the same topic.

 

Rule No 1: Keep it Short

Short wins over long every single time.

This means that if you come up with a huge paragraph in somebody’s inbox or if you meet somebody at a networking event and they ask what do you do and you start coming up with a long story of your life, no one will be interested in talking to you.

So, rule number one says that at most have three sentences that you write to introduce yourself.

These three sentences can be very simple.  

 

Sentence 1 

Introduce yourself: “I am Waqas Hassan.”  

That’s it! That’s your sentence number one.

It could be “I am (your name) from XYZ” only if that XYZ has a reference to the person you are reaching out to.  

For example, if the person you’re reaching out to is from the same university as the one you graduated from, then you can say “I am from this university” because that will create familiarity.

Also, if the person you’re reaching out to is a friend of someone you know, then you can mention that common friend.

The rule here in the first sentence is “your name” + “a familiarity” only if it exists.

If it doesn’t exist, no need to add on. Just write your name and that’s it.  

 

Sentence 2 

The second sentence is what you do.

 

You could be a student or you could be working somewhere.

 

We will learn later in the article how your description should be articulated but for now, just know that the second sentence is what you do.

 

Sentence 3

Sentence 3 is asking a question. 

Again, we will learn later how you should ask a question well but for now, just know that sentence 3 is where you ask a question.

If you make use of these three sentences in the right way, it’ll be a piece of cake to introduce yourself.

 

Rule No 2: From Boring to Non-Boring

Rule number two says that craft an introduction line about yourself which is very interesting

How do you do that?

You take whatever you do — whether you’re studying or whether you are working in a certain profession — then you think about an interesting way to narrate that.  

All the people in the world with fancy titles are actually doing exactly the same thing.

You probably have heard of a title called Growth Hacker. It is the same role as marketing but just a fancier way of saying it. 

You might have a certain job title or a certain thing you’re studying which is just what everybody else has, but you can make it cooler.

 

How I Use(d) It 

I was working at a job where my title was foresight analyst.

When I used to meet somebody and introduced myself as a foresight analyst, it never rang a bell. No one found it interesting.

So I thought about it and I came up with the title futurist.

They pretty much mean the same thing, which is planning about the future, but foresight analyst just wasn’t fancy enough.

After the change, when I used to say “Hi, I am a futurist working at —”, suddenly the other person used to be “Oh, I have never met a futurist in my life, tell me about yourself!”

The exact same thing happened when I came into the business world as well.

I started business in 2017. I could have said that I am a businessman and the other person would have been like, “yeah yeah yeah, what is your business?”

It’s just too boring.

Again, I came up with a title that I am an internet entrepreneur.

Now the other person is intrigued because they are meeting an internet entrepreneur for the first time and they have a lot of questions.

My point in rule number two is to come up with just one description for yourself which is different from what the company has given you or what you are studying in university.

Come up with that one description for yourself in two to three words that would interest the other person when you introduce yourself.

 

Rule No 3: Excited Body Language

Let’s move to rule number three which is excited body language.

The thing is, people remember energies. They do not remember the words.

If I have met 10 people at a friend’s party or a networking event, I will not remember all those names, what they do, or more about them. But I would remember them like that woman was so enthusiastic, that guy was very charming.

People remember somebody who is living life excitedly because most people are not. Most people are barely thriving.

So somebody who comes up with a burst of loud laughter and claps their hands and has a big smile, you know they are just putting in all their energy into their every step and it feels like they’re living life.

That is what you should aim to become whenever you meet somebody in person and want to introduce yourself. Just be enthusiastic, have absolutely big smiles, and be energetic.

 

Being Excited Online 

When you’re messaging somebody in their inbox, how do you introduce yourself with excitement?

First, use phrases like, “I am thrilled to write to you!”, “How is your day? I hope you are having a splendid day!”, or “I have to tell you something amazing!”.

You use terms like thrilled, enthusiastic, amazing, splendid to come across as very excited.

You can also use emojis or emphasize the word for example “I am veryyyyy excited to write to you.” That very could have a few more ‘y’s or a few of those emojis like the emoji with a party hat and all that. 

99.9% of all the people who message other people in their inbox are very vanilla. They are very similar to each other.  

If you come across as so excited, you’re going to get a reply no matter how many followers the other person has.

All of us in the world get attracted to people with enthusiastic energy.

So that’s your rule number three: have excited body language while introducing yourself. 

 

Rule No 4: Lead on with Questions

Never ever come from a position of weakness, always from the position of strength. 

What does that mean?

Position of weakness is when you’re like, “I am writing to you because I want to ask you a favor or I want to ask you for help or I want to ask you for this and that.”

Never come across as someone who is looking for a favor.

Also, when you’re meeting somebody in person, never ask somebody if they can refer you to someone or give you some favor.

Everybody shuts down when you’re asking them for a favor unless that person is your closest friend.

Now, what is the position of strength?

This position is like that of a talk show host. Whoever the guest is, it’s usually the host who is in the position of power because he or she is asking questions.

Human minds are interesting objects in a way that when we are asked a question, we keep on thinking about it. 

Let’s say, I received an interesting question from somebody. I might not reply immediately and go on about my day, but some of the processing power of my mind will be trying to answer that question.

That’s how human minds are programmed. We always have this lingering effect that somebody has asked us something that we have to answer.

 

Ask an Interesting Question

Always close your message with an interesting question.

What is an interesting question?

 It doesn’t have to be a specific question about that person. It can be about a larger field that person is interested in.

For example, if that person is in the tech world, has some technology job, or technology business, ask him more about what he thinks about the Metaverse? How does he think that cryptocurrency is going to change web 2.0? Ask questions that may be very generic from their field.

Similarly, if the person is interested in policy, economics, and stuff, ask her about how the changing USA-China tensions are going to affect India?

Again, just a very generic question.

On the other hand, if you know about that person specifically then ask them some of the struggles they faced, or if they were starting now, which would be the first platform they choose to build content? Something more specific to them.

This rule makes sure that the way you introduce yourself sticks in the receiver’s mind.  

 

Finishing Thoughts

Let’s summarise how to best introduce yourself.

You start with rule number one: “I am this + from here” if that from has some reference to that person.

Rule number two: you come up with an interesting title about yourself. It doesn’t have to be the official title. It can be something that you do as a hobby but that becomes your main thing as an introduction.  

Then, rule number three: you come across as an excited person.

And finally, rule number four: you ask an interesting question.

Every single time — whether in-person or online — you’re going to get the attention of that person by following these rules.

That’s pretty much it.

You don’t have to be an extrovert to be a good networker.  

It doesn’t have to be that you need to be an interesting person with a lot of information and have a lot of things going on your YouTube or Instagram or LinkedIn to come across as somebody people want to talk to.

It is these few simple rules which I used when I was a student, when I was at a job, when I was starting my business, and now as a Digital Nomad.

I’ve been doing all of this all the time for the last decade and it has worked every single time.  

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In case you are thinking of giving the IELTS exam after you’ve improved, I also have a series of blogs about how to ace your exam. You can check out the Ultimate Guide to Hacking IELTS.

Also, in my full course, Ultimate Guide to Hacking IELTS, I go deep into the strategies, hacks, and techniques to help you learn all 4 sections of IELTS in a smart way to get 8+ Band.

You can access the course here:

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