this is why nobody takes you seriously

Before I start, please feel free to write back to me if you have any views, opinions, thoughts, I would love to hear from you!

In this one I want to share a very interesting idea I had last week…

I was thinking about how we make people decisions without knowing those people fully.

Decisions like:

• Hiring an employee after a brief interaction

• giving someone our business after knowing about them for 30 minutes

• deciding to go on a second date with someone, etc.

And I arrived to a very interesting hypothesis. 

When we know only a little bit about someone, here’s what generally happens. Let’s say you meet someone and you know 5% of everything there is to know about them. 

Do you think there’s just 5% in your head? Nope.

In your head, there’s 100%. 5% of what you know, and 95% of what you assumed.

This is a very interesting phenomenon where we create an image of the person in our head, based on what we see and feel. Everyone does this. It’s a natural human instinct. 

We take visual and non verbal cues to create that image, and then use that image to make decisions. 

To hire them or not, to buy from them or not, to go on that second date with them or not, etc. 

The reason I bring this up is because it highlights one very important aspect of our lives which we tend to oversee. 

The importance of perception. 

Humans are visual creatures. We are very perceptive. We make most of our decisions based off of perception. 

And yet you will hear this every Tom, Dick and Harry say “Looks don’t matter”.

I’m writing this to tell you otherwise. 

1. How you dress

Here’s a really interesting story to illustrate my point. 

When I first went out to try and get business, I noticed something peculiar. 

My first acquisition channel was cold door knocking. Which means I visited businesses near me and pitched  to them. 

My first day, I did not get access to a single person. Everywhere, the gatekeeper (person at the reception or whoever was manning the store) denied me access to the owner. 

I came back dejected, and thought about what went wrong. I had said the right things, I was respectful, I was professional.

But then I noticed my attire (which wasn’t professional by any stretch). 

Could this be the reason why people weren’t taking me seriously? 

The next day I dressed up differently, taking on a very professional look (even added one of those fancy laptop bags to add to it). 

I went out again and started pitching. Over the ensuing 48 hours, I got 3 meetings and closed a deal. 

I was shocked. All my life I had believed that how I dressed didn’t matter too much but here I had seen a completely different story play out in front of my eyes. 

From that moment on, I have made it a point to dress my best, especially where it matters the most. 

And it’s also not just about dressing. 

2. How you speak

In my first 3 months of starting my agency, I signed on several clients without having any body of work. 

I had no experience or qualifications.

But I still got complete strangers to give me their money in exchange for services. 

All because they perceived me as someone who could get them results. 

The perception was a result of a combination of factors. But the one that I think played a large part was how I communicated. 

I had the ability to voice my thoughts effectively. I appeared confident and in control. And that gave my clients confidence that I could deliver results. 

I’m not trying to make a big deal out of myself, or tell you how great I am. 

I’m trying to highlight the fact that if you can focus on getting these things right, your job is half done.

Most people struggle at communication. They have a lot of learnings, experience and ideas in their head but if you can’t communicate them properly, then they are worth nothing. 

I have seen people who are half as smart, half as capable secure big business just because they are smooth talkers. 

Hence it is crucial that you learn how to speak well. 

Whether you’re trying to get a job, or land a client. 

Learn to communicate your ideas and thoughts with clarity and confidence. This will allow people to perceive you as someone who can do what they say. 

And finally,

3. How you appear:

The last important pillar of improving how you’re perceived is perhaps one that might be the most controversial. 

Get in better shape. Workout, become stronger, become leaner, reduce fat, build muscle, eat clean, drink water.

A lot of you won’t like this but it’s the harsh truth. I don’t write these to make you feel better. I write these so that you can be better and do the things you want to do.

When I see someone in good shape, I know they have the ability to commit to something, stay disciplined, stay focused, etc. 

And it’s not that you can’t have those qualities if you’re not in shape. But it becomes much easier for someone to perceive you in a positive light when you’re in good shape. 

This is often where the most pressing question of all tends to come up…

Which is why should we even bother to make people perceive us a certain way? Isn’t that inauthentic or ingenuine ?

No it’s not.

There’s a difference between polishing a diamond, and trying to pass a lump of coal saying it’s a diamond.

Building a positive perception makes you more likely to achieve the outcomes that you are striving for.

That’s because it gives you an entry point. 

Whether it’s a job you want, a business you want to build, or a relationship that you’re trying to establish. 

If I never got the chance to speak to those business owners, I would never be able to show them what I could do for their business. 

So even though I had the ideas and the potential to help them, I would not be able to. Simply because I did not focus on building perception.

Improving how those people perceived me allowed me to get a foot in the door, and show them my real substance. 

That’s what you need as well. 

If you work on:

• dressing better

• Speaking better

• Appearing better

People will start to perceive you in a completely different light. It will open up new opportunities for you, which will allow you to then showcase all the skills, talents, ideas you have. 

So regardless of where you are and what you want to do. Build these things up, work on them, have people perceive you as the capable individual you are and you will watch your life change in front of your eyes. 

Hope this helps. 

- Khyatt