By: Trina Johnson
I recently had the opportunity to speak to a classroom of high school juniors and seniors about preparing for and looking for a job. Most of these kids have never filled out an application or gone on an interview. One of the activities I shared with them was how to create a powerful Personal Introduction.
Much like an elevator pitch for a business, a personal introduction is a short statement that sums up what makes you unique as a person and piques interest so others want to get to know more about you.
To create your own powerful personal introduction, start by listing out your strongest attributes or characteristics. Then review your list and cross out any that are common or generic or don’t really impress you. Once you have a good list of your special characteristics, think of examples in your life when you have displayed those attributes. Look at those examples and see if there are some incidents in which you have displayed several.
Then practice telling your story in a succinct, powerful way. Use active verbs. The example I shared with the class was the situation where a recruiter asked the interviewee to “tell me about yourself” and the interviewee responded with: “Right now, I am a little sore because I ran my first marathon this weekend. My friend ran her first one last year and challenged me to join her in training about six months ago. We hired a coach and found a running club and, even though I wasn’t sure I could do it because I got sick last week, I did manage to finish. In fact, I had set my goal to finish in 4 hours, and I did it in 3 hours and 42 minutes.”
What did the recruiter hear in that introduction? She presented herself as goal-oriented, coachable, a team-player, and adventurous. She showed that she had perseverance and could overcome obstacles. Would it have had as much impact if she had just said “My name is Sue and I am goal-oriented, coachable, a team-player and adventurous. I can overcome obstacles,” without the story? Telling the story and not just listing your attributes makes all the difference.
So think about how to introduce yourself to others using stories. It’s a powerful connector.
Katryna Johnson, J.D., aka Trina, owns Mirelli Entrepreneur Training for Women. Her passion for helping women came from seeing her law clients broken and demoralized after divorce. She helps women build confidence, take responsibility, and launch businesses. She wholeheartedly believes women who help other women succeed will change the world. Find out more at www. MirelliETC.com