Page 77 - How To Sell Yourself

76 How to Sell Yourself
As a general rule, no audience wants to be aware of how ex- pensively or ornately you’re dressed or bejeweled. It can be a huge turnoff. Take the following story, for example.
A group of people were attending a training session to pre- pare them to present an appeal to a foundation for funding. They were looking for a grant of several million dollars to help people restore homes in run-down neighborhoods. It would be a model program and was a truly worthwhile request.
The sponsoring organization felt that it would be most effec- tive to have the appeal made by “real people”—neighborhood resi- dents and business owners—rather than by bureaucrats. It was a brilliant concept. Who better to plead the case than the people whose lives would be improved by the grant? These were the people who were involved, interested, and filled with passion for the project.
As the training progressed, I noticed that one of the women was wearing a set of gold bracelets that went from her wrist to her elbow. I suggested that she remove them for the presentation. She shot me a withering look and said, “These bracelets never leave my arm.” I’m not sure that was one of the contributing reasons why the grant was denied, but the moral of the story is:
Blatant jewelry displays should be reserved for the people who make it part of their mystique, such as movie celebrities parading for the cameras on Oscar night.
Don’t make it hard for yourself
Again, communication means moving what’s in your mind easily and directly into the mind of the recipient. Anything that gets in the way of that movement, the intellectual and emotional move- ment, tends to destroy the communication. The person in the au- dience who isn’t aware of what you’re wearing, how you’re stand- ing or sitting, or what you’re doing is free to concentrate on what you’re saying.
All the signals you send should be communication signals, not personal ones. Allow your audience to get what you intend it to get—what’s on your mind.