Introducing yourself is a skill that is worth mastering. According to statistics, a successful networker or a business person in New York meets 3 new people each day. This is about 90 opportunities to introduce yourself and make a good first impression per month!

I attended a personal branding conference in Vegas and wanted to share with you the most impactful exercise they had us do. They were teaching us to introduce ourselves with more clarity and confidence using only 6 key words. The exercise was called the 6 word intro. They way they did it was very cool too. They asked us to introduce ourselves on camera before and after the exercise. It reminds of the before and after picture on The Big Loser.

The framework is very simple:

The first word is I or We if you represent a company.

The second word is HELP or some version of help

The third part is WHO Do You Help aka Customer

The next part is ACHIEVE. That will be the same for everyone.

And the last part is RESULT, ultimately what do you help them achieve.

I + HELP + (insert word for Customer) + ACHIEVE + (insert word for Result)

The reason this formula is so powerful is because it allows you to pass the ball back to the asker much faster than you normally would. It get’s them intrigued and interested.

When I say: “I help adults and teens achieve academic greatness” the other person gets to choose which portion of my intro to focus on. It also surprises them how concise I was and opens up a dialog.

“Wow! How do you do that?”

“Are you a tutor of some sort?”

” What kind of greatness are you talking about?”

And most importantly you are letting the other person direct the conversation. For example: “I help amazing business professionals to connect and grow their business.”

“Wow! What kind of professionals?”

“How exactly do you do that?”

The asker if fully engaged now, which increases the likelihood of making the real connection.

Feel free to tweak the formula to suit your needs. I always change the customer according to the room I am in, whether I am talking to the creatives in Dumbo, executive at PWC or parents at a PTA meeting.

Give it a try and practice saying in front of the mirror. Most of the communication is nonverbal and a lot lies in the way you say it not what you say.