These 5 Social Skills Will Change Your Life as an Entrepreneur

Most of us can relate to having jitters and sweaty palms before a presentation. Yet, in today’s world, pitching yourself is everything. So how do you overcome this anxiety? Especially when you’re an entrepreneur trying to find collaborators or investors to believe in you—it’s essential that you leave a good lasting impression.

Let’s take a look at some actionable tips:

Turn Your Anxiety into Excitement

You can effectively change your anxiety to excitement by merely reframing your thoughts about the emotion you’re feeling. It would help strip you of your stage fright and give you a better public presence.

Active Listening Is The Key

imtmphoto/Shutterstock: Active Listening

Most of the time, you think that you are listening, but being too caught up on making a good impression, you tend to pseudo-listen.

This means you are not giving undivided attention to the person talking to you since you’re busy worrying about your next response or a self-character flaw. Eventually, the conversation can become disengaged, and you’re left wondering what happened. So, help yourself by refocusing and paying attention!

Be Real

Sharomka/Shutterstock: Speak your mind

Make your inner thoughts clear and vocal. Be direct, and don’t let any kind of feedback boil under the surface, be it positive or negative. Speak your mind but with the intention of communicating, not provoking. If you don’t mean what you say, chances are your face will reveal it anyway.

How You Say It Matters Too

Sometimes, even more than the content of your speech, your tone, vocabulary, and gestures speak louder.

A firm and erect posture, oozing confidence along with appropriate hand gestures, can make all the difference too. Believe in yourself and present a confident self!

Go Slow and Don’t Be Afraid of Silence

Roman Samborskyi/Shutterstock: Be confident & speak slow

Speaking super-fast will only make you look nervous, and possibly make it harder for your listeners to understand you. So speak slow.

Stepping into silence with confidence can actually help your conversation grow. Use the silence to prepare yourself better, gather your thoughts, and put them in order. You can also clarify a doubt or simply use that time to listen.

What’s important to know is that, however anxious you feel, it’s normal. You’re sharing important news or an innovative idea, and what the other party takes from it, matters to you. So once you reframe those nerves as genuine excitement, listen attentively, speak your mind and show confidence, it would be hard to go wrong after this!