There is one thing that I hear over and over again from young professional women who are just starting out in the professional world. How do I build up my confidence at work??? Today I want to share with you a presentation that I did to a group of high school girls at Oceanside High School’s Girl’s Empowerment Conference. I tried to make most of the tips useful to women at any age so I think you will enjoy the video and also get a lot out of it! Be confident today!!!
In case you are reading this at work and can’t watch the video, you can read all of the great advice below instead!
Hey everyone! Thanks so much for being here today I’m really excited to speak with you today about how to get confident. My name is Anna Runyan and I’m a consultant for the government by day and a blogger and career coach at Classycareergirl.com by night and weekend. I blog about career advice and how to find jobs and I also interview successful businesswomen so that I can learn and I can help my readers learn how to become successful businesswoman themselves. I have learned a lot from these women I’ve interviewed and also through my career that I’m really looking forward to sharing with you today. And I also wanted to let you know I went to college at Point Loma Nazarene University and I got a business degree and I also got a masters at University of California, San Diego.
This session is about confidence in college and am gonna be covering more about confidence today since it’s so important in everything that you do and in your future but I also give you some few tips at the end about college and I also be going over any of your questions at the end. So feel free to think about your questions that you might have about college because I’d love to answer them. You can also feel free to email me anytime at [email protected] and you can find me on Twitter and Facebook as well. I’d love to connect with you anytime.
Agenda:
Here’s the agenda of information I’m gonna cover today. Where gonna do two truths and a lie fun little game and also another quiz to see how much you already know about confidence. Then where are gonna talk about why confidence is important and how you can show confidence. And there’s gonna be an interview with a successful businesswoman. We’re also gonna go over how to have confidence at college.
Quiz:
Two of these are true and one of this is false, which one do you think is false? And these are three different things about me – can I do a double salchow? Do I love searching or have I live in Madrid Spain? The two true things here are that I can do a double salchow and I lived in Madrid Spain. But nope, I do not like surfing. I have no idea how even though I live in San Diego California but it’s on my list of to-do to learn how to surf.
Before we dive in, I wanna know how much you already know.
How many seconds do you think first impression are formed within?
- The answer is between 7 and 17 seconds.
What percent of person’s first impression is determined by your tone of voice?
- The answer is 38%.
Having a positive mental attitude and high self-esteem can ______ the chances of career success?
- If you said double, then you are right!
First I wanna tell you a little bit more about myself. I’m an introvert that means I get the energy by being alone and being around a big group can drain me and make me tired. So am not an actual speaker in middle school in high school I was so shy and I never spoke up in school or anything I hate it when teacher’s calling me. I was not very confident in myself and my abilities. If you feel like that is you today and then you kind of afraid to put yourself out there, look at me and look what I’ve come and look at me speaking to you today in front of a huge group of people, a huge audience, and know you can also increase your self-confidence and give great presentations and be fabulous and have a great future as well.
Have you ever wonder why some people grab all the attention at the moment they entered the room? And do you feel nervous sometimes when someone speak to you? Have you had a hard time being yourself because you feel like you don’t fit in? These are all things that self-confidence can help you with because if you’re confident in you then no one can stop you. Learning how to be more confident is the only way that I am where I am today. Self-confident people have qualities that everyone admires. Self-confidence is extremely important in almost every aspect of our lives yet so many people struggle to find it. Self-confident people inspire confidence in another – their audience, their peer, their bosses, their customers, their friends. In gaining the confidence of others is one of the key ways in which self-confident person finds success. Have you ever talked to someone who is so confident that you believe them – that is what confidence can do. And the good news is that self-confidence really can be learn and built on.
Why is confident important?
Where are some places that you think having confidence is important? If you said any of these, you are right and there’s plenty plenty more that I don’t even have listed here. On job interviews, if you want to get your dream job you need to be confident. Negotiation, if you want to get that salary that you know you deserve you have to be confident when you going in and talk to your boss. At networking events, when you’re meeting someone brand new add an introduction. When you want to do sports, when you’re giving a presentation, you most likely will be giving presentation at school and at work definitely in your future. And then, getting into college is a definite thing you need to have confidence for. So pretty much every day of the week you have an opportunity to be confident whether teacher calls on you to answer question or a friend ask you want you want to see a movie that you don’t like you have to be confident to say “no, I don’t like that movie”. That’s why I love this topic because its so relevant to all now and in your future.
How can you show confidence?
You can show confidence in what you wear, what you say and how you act. It’s really important that you discover your own personal style so you don’t have to look like someone else. You can be you. Dress how you want to dress but dress appropriately. Think about what others might be thinking of you because you only have those 7 to 17 seconds to make a great first impression so you have to make it count. Whether you’re meeting someone for the first time or giving a presentation those few seconds is all you have to get their attention. Also I always feel more confident if I like the clothes that I’m wearing. And I actually do better job at work when I’m feeling more confident. And that is why I don’t keep tons of clothes in my closet that don’t fit me because I always want to wear something I feel confident and I know that certain pieces of clothing I do. And then language and voice, how we talk and present ourselves? How do you present your language and your voice? Are you quite or loud and strong? You must speak to deliver it slowly like you’re in control and have something great to say and other people need to pay attention to you. You want to demand for their attention. And then body language. Posture is really important. But the most important thing to do to convey confidence is good posture. Also you want to make sure you’re not fidgeting, you’re not biting your nails, and you want to stand up straight, have your shoulders back and get chin forward. It’s important not to make distracting gestures, a lot of women touch their hair when they’re talking to someone, just be careful about that.
I wanna share a quick clip that I did during my interview with Chachanna Simpson who is a motivational speaker in small business and life coach for women on entrepreneurs. And she has some great tips about self-confidence that I want to share with you right now.
I love that advice from Chachanna I especially love when she talks about celebrating your accomplishments. I’m not asking you to go around writing about tiny things you do but if you’ve done something worthwhile celebrate it whether it’s getting a good grade, finding a course you enjoy and do well at or learning some new app on your computer this will help you feel confident about yourself. I suggest you take a step forward maybe put a note on the fridge or somewhere you can see it even if you’re the only one who can read it, it’s totally worth it. The bottom line of self-improvement is having faith for yourself. Remember, if you cannot love yourself you cannot love anyone else or anything else. So do yourself justice, have faith on yourself, be happy and feel good it’s the best route to self-confidence.
Another great idea is to make a list of 50 things that you do well. I know it sounds crazy and it sounds daunting at first but accomplishing it is while within your grasp everyone does many things that a high level of confidence. However, over time people tend to take it for granted all the things they’ve learned throughout their life. If it takes a couple of days to complete, that’s fine, go as far as time that you needed. The goal is not to find the largest win but just to stir your mind of gaining awareness of your ability to achieve. I would also love for you to spend some time also to talk to people you know , talk to your friends and family, ask and tell them how much you rock in something, what accomplishment are you proud of, what are you awesome at, what are you really good at, what are you rockstar at because like Chachanna said, there’s nothing wrong with bragging how great you are of course you have to do it at the right time but there’s nothing wrong with it and you have to get used to telling people how great you are at things. Why? Because pretty soon you gonna have to be doing that. For instance, on those college applications you are about to submit you need to sell you and how great you are and why that college needs to pick you. That is why it’s so important to practice talking about how great you are and your accomplishments. And also practice positive self talk like “I can do this”. Tell yourself that you are good at things.
Avoid Negative people
In order for you to stay positive and be confident, you have to avoid negative people. And I love these quotes and I’d definitely give you something to think about. From Jim Rohn, “You are the average of the five people you spend the most time with”. Thinks about the five people you spend the most time with. Do they bring you up or bringing you down? Are they positive or negative? The next quote that I love, “Confidence is contagious. So is lack of confidence.” This is from former NFL coach Vince Lombardi. Are you hanging out with people who are confident or you hanging out with people who are not confident? Loss of confidence can be self-distractive and often manifest itself as negativity. Self-confident people are genuinely more positive they believe in their selves and their abilities and they also believe in living life to the fullest. A self-confident person has faith on him/her self and him/her abilities while at the same time having a realistic expectation. And a self-confident person can set for your side and take a chance while someone who lacks self-confidence may stay on the side binds out with a fear feeling. But if your simple behavior changes in your daily life, may help you regain that self-confidence and gave yourself an immediate boost.
Here are few more tips on how to get confidence today:
- Don’t try to be perfect we all make mistakes. If you make a mistake, learn from it and move on.
- Don’t be afraid to take risk, you always want to try new things.
- Speak your mind and stand up for yourself.
- Always do what you believe to be right and know what other people want you to do.
- Being willing to take risk, go the extra mile to achieve better things and achieve better for yourself.
- Help someone else. Focusing on the needs of someone else can give you self-confidence and immediate shot.
- Exercise. Taking time out to take care of your body sends a message that you are worth taking care of. Every time I work out and eating healthy, I always feel more confident and I actually do better at my job because am feeling more confident.
- Be honest. Being truthful can enhance your self-confidence and telling lies can add the feeling of low self support. And give yourself a tap on the back whenever you make an effort regardless of the outcome.
Here are some tips on how you get confidence at college:
- Start small- take baby steps. Many students doubt their ability to write a fifteen page research paper or prepare for a final. But if you could just break it down into little pieces like 3-5 pieces just do really small things that feeling of accomplishment generated when one part of the project completed will help you to finish the rest of the work.
- Get feedback early. Confidence can soar if you consult your professor early in the semester whether it’s a point on the lecture that you don’t understand or your initial ideas for a paper. You’ll feel much better after your instructor stirs you in the right direction or assures you that you’re already going on the right direction. Many students lack of confidence are too scared to talk to their professors but this only makes their problem worst.
- Take career assessment. This will help you determine how your personality will fit with the career path and what would you be great at. And I do this assessment and I can give you one if you‘re interested.
- Don’t be afraid to be who you are and not what someone else wants you to be. This is one of the top tips I got on the interviews I do with successful businesswoman. I always ask them, what is one thing you wish you would have known as a young professional woman just starting in her career. And they always say, don’t be afraid to do what you wanted to do and to be who you are. Don’t do someone else wants you to do.
- Don’t pick a subject just because you are good at it. You have to also have an interest on the subject to be able to do it for the rest of your life.
- Get to know your professors. Your professors are great because they can recommend you and you can keep in touch with them and use them as references. And you can always ask them questions in the future as well but definitely get to know them. They might also have special projects that you can learn from and use on your resume which is awesome.
- Network, network, network. My favorite quote to say on my blog is that its not what you know but who you know that makes the difference. My networking challenge in 2011 was a 4×4 Networking Challenge where I met four people I didn’t know and four people I did know every month. And this year I’m interviewing 50 successful businesswomen on my blog and sharing the videos as part of my 2012 networking challenge. And networking open up so many opportunities for me it totally changed my life and am a huge proponent of networking. It’s a really great way to find opportunities that you like. And I also really really love and recommend informational interviews where you can ask someone for about 15 minutes of their time and you can ask them a bunch of questions about their job. This is a great way to learn about what they do and if you would want their jobs someday.
- Get involved in projects and internships. Someday you’ll find a job and employers won’t care how you did in school most likely. What they care about is your personal skills and how you work with other people and how you can work with a team and your leadership skills. You can show them these with projects and internships that you’ve done while in college. Its hypocrite I get so many my friends that they wish they would have done more internship during college.
