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SUVW. German engineered for all. It's a Minimalist Monday edition of Optimal Living Daily, episode 311. How to embed your first impressions by Colin Wright of ExileLifestyle.com.
And I'm Justin Malek. Welcome to the OLD podcast. This is the podcast where I get permission from authors of some of the best blogs on the planet and read them to you all for free. Now I should do an update.
All last week I was talking about trying to get Tim Ferriss' attention to have his blog read right here on the podcast. And we did get his attention, but he kind of used me as an example for everyone else. He said, well, if everyone had their listeners message me at once saying that made me agree to do something, then it would encourage everyone else to try that method. Basically, bombard him with messages.
And I'd respectfully disagree. I've tried to reach him in multiple ways, you know, by providing value, commenting on blogs, all without being spammy, tweeting occasionally, also trying to add value at the same time while doing that, emailing, of course. And that was over the course of a whole year and nothing worked. So this was a good try.
And I think what we did over the weekend was show how passionate you are about hearing amazing content. And I was promoting him by mentioning him here on the podcast pretty much every day last week. And you might not have even heard of him before. So that was more publicity for him.
And I give away a copy of his book. So that was all good things. And it wasn't like it was email where it's super annoying and you have to get through every email. It was just tweeting.
So, yeah, a little bit of a risk on my part. And I think it's cool that I actually got his attention. And that's all thanks to you. So, again, thank you for being an active listener and seeing this all from a positive side instead of the negative side.
And I haven't necessarily given up either. I don't give up that easily. I'm not going to reach out to him again really soon, but I have ideas on how to do that in the future. And I picked this post today because it kind of deals with that.
Essentially, this was Tim Ferriss' first impression of me, and it wasn't the best it could be. So I thought this post was very fitting. And with that, let's hear it as we optimize our lives. How to Embed Your First Impressions by Colin Wright of ExileLifestyle.com.
First impressions can be a real bitch. It's not just that you don't always have time to prepare for them, and it's not the fact that the repercussions of a bad first impression can last a very long time. What really sucks is that if you don't make a good first impression, you miss out on the only opportunity you'll ever have to tell your new acquaintance, no words necessary, who you are and what you're all about. What a loss.
It came and went, just like that. Snap. Whoosh. The only thing you can do is prepare yourself to make positive first impressions so that you do so reflexively without needing any preparation.
What makes a good first impression? There are a few major things you want to convey when meeting new people. Number one, who are you? It can take a long time to get to know someone well, and that's good.
You want to have depth. Being able to explain who you are to someone, possibly from across the room or maybe with just a few words exchanged, is important, though, because you want to make others curious enough to find out more. Think of it like a movie trailer. You want to give a juicy enough overview without spilling the major plot points and storylines.
You can look at the trailer for The Watchmen real quick and you'll see what I mean. The trailer uses very little dialogue to tell a story. It's not the story of the movie, but instead a tale that relates what kind of movie it is. The brooding music builds suspense while the dramatic special effects say that this is a movie with a lot of bright lights and action.
The nature of the visuals and drama of the pauses and camera panning indicate that this is not your parents' superhero movie, despite all the costumed people running around. It's very clear to anyone who watches the trailer what The Watchmen is all about, even though we know nothing about the characters, their stories, what the conflict is, or anything else that makes the movie special. If you can make your first impression like a good trailer for who you are, you're on the right track. Number two, what do you do?
One of the first questions that most people ask at parties in Los Angeles is, what do you do? I've gotten so accustomed to this that I'm constantly bringing it up in places where what you do professionally isn't quite so important, or at least not the first thing on everyone's conversational agenda. I find myself backtracking quite a bit to avoid a social faux pas. Good to meet you.
What are you doing here? What are you doing here in Buenos Aires? If you play your cards right, you can eliminate the need for other people to ask this question by giving off a certain professional vibe. Again, the point is to make them want to know more, but to paint a clear enough outline that they know the broad picture.
This can involve more talking than just showing who you are, but your posture, your poise, how you dress, and your facial expressions can also play an extremely important role in an accurate first impression. You can look at the intro from the TV show Dexter for some inspiration. Here's a normal guy going about his regular morning routine, but every action is laced with menace. From Michael C.
Hall's facial expressions, he's the guy who plays Dexter in the show, to the close-cropped shots of his breakfast being cooked and devoured, you know that he's probably a serial killer, despite the fact that he does all the same things everyone else does. It's incredibly menacing without being literally threatening at all. There's some whimsy in there too, which is also a big part of the Dexter character in the show. It's the way he does these normal things that makes an impact, and the same goes for you.
When you go about your day, you'll be doing all the same things that everyone else does, but how you do these standard things is what makes you stand out. Number three, what do you stand for? It can be incredibly difficult to express your views, especially controversial ones, to people around you without either labeling yourself as an extremist of some sort, or earning the ire of the very people you're trying to make a good impression with. The best way to make sure your thoughts are heard, but to also not put up your new acquaintance's defenses, is to be subtle but pointed in your support.
You can look at an award-winning PSA for an idea of what I mean. How would you feel if you had to get other people's permission to marry the person you love? This is a clear message of support for the legalization of gay marriage, a super controversial issue, but it doesn't demonize anyone, play upon any stereotypes, or make any efforts to shock the audience into paying attention. Instead, it's well-produced and written, the actors play roles that mimic the intended audience, and the message is presented in a logical and clever way.
You should try to do the same with anything you feel strongly about. This will allow you to stay true to yourself without needlessly antagonizing everyone who doesn't believe the same as you, and maybe even some of the people who do. And if you fail? A good first impression is something to aim for, though they won't always go as planned.
When this is the case, all you can do is pick yourself up, dust yourself off, and prepare to make the best second, third, fourth, and fifth impressions possible. You just listened to the post titled, How to Embed Your First Impressions, by Colin Wright of ExileLifestyle.com. I'm constantly thinking about how to optimize my health, what supplements to take, hours of sleep, what my diet should focus on. Superpower finally takes the guessing out of it.
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I hope you have a great start to your week. Thank you again for being an amazing, active listener and participating over this weekend. It was awesome. I really appreciate it, and I'll see you tomorrow, where your optimal life awaits.