As a business owner, micro entrepreneur and professional in your field, it is important to look and sound good; to be able to speak clearly and intelligently about what you do and the ideas you have in an authentic way. Making a good first impression will help sustain and promote trust in you, your products, services and, of course, your brand.

“You never get a second chance to make a good first impression.”

When we start a business we will find ourselves in front of people.

We might be:

• Meeting
• Presenting
• Pitching
• Networking
• Teaching
• Negotiating

But because our brain’s have been hardwired to spot danger with split second processing of sight and sound before anything else, when we meet new people studies tell us that our first impression of them, and they of us, is based on:

55% of what we SEE 

38% of the SOUND we hear  

and only,

7% of the actual words SPOKEN

Think about a situation where you have seen someone unfamiliar to you. Perhaps they were shouting and being loud. Did it make you anxious? But when you heard what they were saying your first impression was wrong. For this reason we should always guard against prejudice and making assumptions about people we don’t know.

Now, let’s look at a situation where our breathing can make all the difference to our vocal and verbal delivery. Imagine the scene…

You are standing in front of an audience who are waiting for you to say something.

You are nervous and your body is tense.

Your tension makes your mouth dry and your voice sound shallow and weak, or perhaps, uncontrolled and too loud.

Your brain feels ‘foggy’ and you forget to talk about some key information.

You become frustrated because you know you are not getting your message across.

Your audience senses your difficulty and becomes restless.

Now everybody is uncomfortable and anxious.

But don’t despair! There are a number of easy to learn techniques to dispel stress, calm nerves and make sure that your audience, not only listens to what you have to say, but will stay with you to the end.

The key is in how we breathe.

Harnessing our breath

As well as our lungs, our breath feeds our brains with oxygen to help us concentrate and, via our blood, it feeds our muscles to keep us upright.

BUT

In order for our breath to help reduce our levels of stress it takes thought and practise to slow down the heart rate, calm the nerves and clear the brain. Before you are due to speak, take a moment to:

• Stand up straight – if sitting, sit up and centred
• Head looking forward with a relaxed jaw
• Relax your shoulders and let them drop away from your ears
• Plant your feet firmly on the ground
• Do not lock your knees

Now breathe slowly and deeply IN through you nose and OUT through your mouth.

As you breath in imagine the air flowing IN via your belly button filling the lower part of your lungs first.

Once your lungs are full breath OUT slowly through the mouth, emptying the lungs over a slow count of 10.

Repeat this process trying to increase the out breath count gradually to 12, then 15 or even 20.

The more often you practise this technique the sooner you’ll have a natural and effective way of calming your nerves. As a result when you need to speak your voice will sound strong, your body will have less tension, your mind will be clear and you’ll look and sound confident.

Opportunities for small business owners and micro entrepreneurs can come from unexpected places so it always to be prepared with some thoughts to share. And, just like in our second guide Be Valued: how to set the right price and sell, don’t think about a ‘sale’. Think about building a relationship and when talking to anyone keep in mind:

• Who you can help
• How you can help
• Who you know can help

And, of course, smile and breath!

“The first impression you send out is usually how people will remember you by. So make sure it’s worth looking back on.” Christine E. Szymanski

Guide written by Jacky Fitt. Discover the work of our translators.