How to make a good first impression

I’m Judy James and I’m a body language expert. I’m going to be showing you how to make a really good first impression.

Always make a great entrance. Take a few moments before you walk into a room to realign your posture.

You’ve got about three seconds to impress people when you first walk in.

Bring your shoulders back and down. Put a smile on your face, too many of us walk into a room scowling or looking negative.

When you first walk in, scan the room. Look around, that will make you look a lot more positive and it will create a really good first impression.

If you get that wrong, people don’t usually hang around to find out what you’re really like.

A good handshake is vital. You give up so much information about yourself from that first introductory touch. Make sure that you give a good, cool, firm handshake. Look the person in the eye and remember to smile at them. It’s a very first basic form of greeting.

If you’re going to something like a job interview where you’re going to be nervous, practice sitting down in front of a mirror first to see what will work and what won’t. Put on the outfit that you’re going to be wearing, get a chair and sit back in the chair. Sit way back, that’ll make you look more confident, if you can rest your elbows on the arms of the chair and then cross your legs.

Always work on that first and see what it does with your outfit and keep practising it because then you learn what is called muscle memory. When you get to the interview, you’ll just sit well automatically.

Work on your hand gestures as well. Make sure that you don’t use what are called barriers. That you don’t sit with your arms folded which will make you look too closed. Use nice open gestures and good emphatic gestures when you speak. Make sure that you keep them below shoulder height as well, the more nervous you get the higher your hands might rise and by the time you get up here you’re creating a really bad impression of yourself.

Use the technique called mirroring to create what is called fast track rapport. If you’re at an interview, slightly copy the interviewer’s body language. If they’re rather formal, you sit in a more formal way. If they’re more relaxed, you relax a little bit more. That way you’ll seem to bond and you’ll look much more approachable.