4 Surefire Ways to Rock Your Confidence

Today, this article is all about making confident and charismatic impressions.

Why is this so important? Because if you make a positive impression when first meeting someone, the rest of your relationship will be influenced by it, thereby tipping the scales in your favor.

On the other hand, a lousy first impression can prove almost impossible to overcome, often deciding the outcome of a meeting, job interview, or first date even if the rest of the interaction went pretty well.

So how can we make a charismatic and confident first impression?

As we covered in the previous articles, we know that people will jump to conclusions about others with very little information to support their gut feelings, and that we tend to trust the nonverbal over the verbal. So, if your body language is anti-charismatic, it doesn’t matter how great your message is. 

Make sense? 

If you display high confidence through your body language, people will tend to assume that you have something to be confident about. People will simply accept what you project. And any increase in the amount of confidence your body language projects adds to your charisma factor.

Mark my words, confidence equates to certainty in the minds of others. And people pay for certainty.

So let’s dive in to how to broadcast confidence with your body language, and in a way that’s perfectly balanced with the warmth you learned in the previous emails.

• Take up more space. Confident, powerful people tend to take up more space. They drape their arms over the backs of chairs, they sit on their desks, they use open body language, and gesture more broadly. All of these behaviors are ways of claiming space. People around you see this behavior, and will naturally see you as being more confident.
• Watch this Ted Talk by Harvard Researcher, Amy Cuddy, on Power Posing. Cuddy’s research proves that when you assume a strong, confident physical posture, the posture will actually make you feel more confident! And as you feel more confident, your body language will adapt accordingly. People will see the confident body language and assume you’re confident. Again, the best part of doing a Power Pose is that you will FEEL more confident. Do your power posing before entering ANY important arena, this includes networking events, presenting to decision-makers, first dates, second dates, job interviews, and when having to influence without authority.
• Stay still. Like really. Stop fidgeting. Can you imagine James Bond fidgeting? Or Wonder Woman nodding her head up and down in agreement? Or Oprah Winfrey hemming and hawing before she speaks? Of course not. They’re the classic embodiment of calm, cool, and collected characters who epitomize confidence. This kind of confidence is characterized by how few movements are made. Poised individuals exhibit a level of stillness, that when witnessed, forms an impression upon the onlooker that they’ve got your sh*t together.
• Don’t broadcast too much confidence, because it can come across as either arrogant or intimidating. Do use the warmth-enhancing techniques you learned in the previous email, such as open palm hand gestures and warm eye contact to counter it. You can also bring your chin down a bit when you talk, as it avoids giving the impression that you’re looking down you nose at them, and it makes you appear more thoughtful and attentive.

Now you know what confidence can look like. Throughout these emails, you’ve been absorbing a host of new practices, mindset shifts, and new ways of being. Practice them and they’ll become a part of who you re rather than a set of skills you’re learning.

Your most important account isn’t your bank account, but your confidence account! Confidence opens doors, seals deals, and forges new relationships.

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"Polly is extremely present and super engaged, guaranteed to make you feel like a million bucks! YOU will take that ego boost along with her amazing training skills, put it together and voila' ingredients to move forward with 100% results! You will love her Executive Leadership Consulting! I highly recommend!!" ~ Gloria G, Sales

XO

Polly