Introductions are not hard— …we’re just not prepared.

Whenever I’m on a podcast, I dread one inevitable question: “I know who you are, but tell everyone listening who you are!”

This is a moment when I feel painfully insecure, first-day-of-sixth-grade only-kid-with-braces level.

The things I like about myself don’t matter in this scenario; my task is to answer, essentially, “What is interesting, valuable, or remarkable about me to strangers?”

~ Mari Andrew, from It doesn’t have to make sense

This is doubly related to people around here. Mari goes on to talk about David Nebinski and it’s worth a read.

But also, just yesterday I was in a little session presented by Andrea Wojnicki where she gave (among much more) a tidy little framework for introducing yourself. She pointed out that her framework is a place to begin. Once you get comfy introducing yourself you can expand and modify and do what you like.

So, what’s your current self-introduction?

…then read Andrea’s ideas, and then what’s your new, better self-introduction?

ɕ

PS: Technically, it’s triply related since that’s a photo of some of Steve Heatherington‘s alpacas ;)