Let Me Introduce Myself; Steve Sims

I’m going to start by telling a story that will give you an idea of the concept of the conversation. So here it is. I walk into a bar and I walk up to you and I put my hand out. I’m all smiling and I’m all happy. And I’m like, “Hey, how you doing? My name is Steve Sims. And I’ve worked with Richard Branson, Elton John, the Vatican. I’ve sent people down to the Titanic. I’m a big deal. Pleased to meet ya.”

Now I’m guessing that you’re on the other side of this listing going, oh my God, this guy is so full of himself. That is repulsive. I would never introduce my… I hate that. And you’d be quite right. It repels you. It’s a wholly repellent introduction. But now let’s play option number two. I walk into the bar. I see you. You’re with your best mate. And I ignore you. And why shouldn’t I? I don’t know who you are and you don’t know who I am. And I go to the end of the bar and I order my old fashioned. And your best mate, nudges you in the ribs and says, “Hey, you see that guy over there? That’s Steve Sims. He’s worked with Sir Elton John, Elon Musk, Richard Branson, the Vatican. He sent people down to the Titanic. That guy’s a big deal.

Now watch your response. The point is quite simple. When it comes from a source of credibility, you pay more attention to it. I’m guaranteeing you that if you’re in a bar and someone nudges you in the ribs and says that you’re like, oh, I want to learn a bit more. Maybe you can make an introduction. Oh, that might be a cool conversation. But the first one’s repelled you, and you never want to hear me or see my face ever again. You see the bottom line is not the introduction. It’s the source of it.

I have often said that I try never to introduce myself. In fact, I would say, I will go further than that. I’m terrible at it. So I always get someone else to do it for me. If I’m at a party and I want to meet someone, I’ll speak to someone and say, “Do you know him? Can you introduce me?” I will always get someone to introduce me. My greatest business achievements have been when I’ve been able to get a peer to introduce me to them so that I come from a credible source straight away. And I’m not trying to sell myself within three nanoseconds, which is a horribly uncomfortable position to be in. But you see there’s other ways of doing it. You see, think of your website. Your website is an introduction. It’s also a puff piece. It’s your boast page. It’s the page where, CNN, ABC, did this, did that look at my Photo shopped picture. I look 10 years younger in it because am.

The bottom line of it is you very rarely update your website. But your social feeds, you’ve probably updated them 10 minutes ago or before you listened to this podcast. They’re current. So if you want to know something about someone, do you look up their website? Or do you look them up on LinkedIn, Facebook and all the other social profiles? Now I’m going to call you out on that because you know full well it’s usually the social. If you’ve got dinner tomorrow night with Mary and Mary phones up, and she says, “Hey, I’ve got a friend in town called Susie. Can I bring them along tomorrow? We’re age old friends.” Do you not go on Mary’s Facebook page and look up Susie so you get an idea of a little bit about her before you meet her? The bottom line of it is we have all of these platforms now where we can find out about people, okay?

You don’t have to be devilishly good at it now to be able to source someone or to stalk them. Those are your introductions. If you’re going to meet someone or someone’s going to stumble on them, you want the introduction to be powerful. You want the introduction to be credible. Think about your social feeds as a statement of who and what you are. What you like, what you want to get up to. And go to your social feeds, and I’ve talked about a social audit before and we’ll go over quickly again in a minute, but do you not want your social feeds to be the best introduction of who you really are? Don’t try to be who you are not. Okay? Don’t try to comb your hair, say big words that you can’t spell to try and be someone else. Don’t use any of the effort you have and the energy you have on being someone that you’re not. It takes, believe it or not, zero effort for me to be you. And that’s how much effort you should be in being you.

But you should, I’ll touch on the social audit, open up all your social pages, your LinkedIn, your Twitter, your Instagram, your Facebook, and any of the others out there and look at the picture and look at the bio. Now you want to be a little bit more professional on LinkedIn because someone along the line convinced you that that was the professional market? Knock yourself out. But don’t put a business picture on LinkedIn and one of you on Facebook of 20 years ago. Try to have continuity within your message. Try to be impossible to misunderstand. While you may want to play around with the photographs. Why would you play around with the bio? Your job’s the exact same that it is on LinkedIn that it is on Facebook that is on Instagram.

Your bio should never not for one word or punctuation be any different on any other social page. This is your introduction. Someone wants to buy a home. They’re going to check you out on Facebook. Someone wants a doctor. They’re going to check you out. No one cares about the real websites anymore. I hate to upset anyone, but it’s a fact. This is your puff piece. The website is your trophy stand. But your socials are your real life. Nine times out of 10, you find it funny, you post it. That will tell a lot about the kind of humor you find. The pictures you post. What are your interests? Can I relate to that person?

Have your social feeds be the best introduction for you. Take a day out of your week out of your life and correct them. Focus on them. Even send your mates a link of your top two or three favorite social pages, social links, and the platforms and send them to your mate and go, hey, when you look at all of these three, do you see me as the same person? Or what do you think these pages say about me? There was a time when there was an uproar if an employer looked on your social feed to get an idea of who you were. And there was this big, oh, you can’t do that. They’re my private social pages. If you want it private click private, but the second you click public on any of those social pages it’s the public that can see. It’s the public domain. You post it up on there someone can share it. You’ve lost the [inaudible 00:07:02] of pulling that picture back ever, ever again.

This is you. This is a marker and a benchmark of you today. Make sure that it amplifies your message not discourages it. Make sure there’s no confusion within the continuity of your pictures or your bio. And make sure that your social pages make the best possible introduction they could for you. It’s a valuable little thing that I work on a lot. I work on it with my coaching clients and anyone within my speakeasy group. But why would you put anything that confusing a client? Because a confused client doesn’t become a client. Anyway, this is Steve Sims. I wanted to try and give you that nugget. I wanted to try and see if I can help you. We’ve got time to do stuff on our hands now and we should be doing it. So enjoy life. Hug your family. Focus on these great times. You’re alive. It’s hopefully sunny where you are. If it’s not, it will be. Enjoy life and focus on how you can find the opportunity in today.

IMPORTANT LINKS:

Sims Speakeasy Nashville

Sims Distillery

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