Simone Roche is a director at the Association of Women Travel Executives, founder of Northern Power Women, managing director at event curation company Events 1st, licensee for TEDxWhitehallWomen, and she is dedicated to developing a specialist network of members and a portfolio of events, including the Women 1st Conference and the Shine Awards. She joined the Royal Navy at 17 as a radio operator, scaling the ranks up to Lieutenant, before roles including looking after sponsors for London 2012 as a client services manager, events and sales management roles at Blackpool Pleasure Beach and Aintree Racecourse, eventually becoming deputy general manager of operations for the build of the new Echo Arena in Liverpool. Simone is passionate about gender diversity and championing female talent.
In today’s hustle and bustle we are all living longer and therefore working longer, so it’s more important than ever to make sure that when you engage with people you are leaving a positive impression in your everyday interactions.
Making yourself memorable: Be nice or go home
It’s mainly about treating others how you want to be treated yourself and leaving your ego aside. Focus on other people and you are more likely to stick in their minds. It’s a lot about the what, why, when, where, how.
Here’s my top ten tips to get you remembered for all the right reasons:
1. Preparation
If you’ve arranged to meet someone (so it’s not someone you’re meeting by chance at a networking event for example), why is it you want to meet them? What is it you want to know about them? It shows respect to the other person if you’ve done your homework. It’s also about establishing what the relationship is.
2. Two ears, one mouth
When you’re talking to people, or when you meet people, it’s being engaged and listening to them. As my husband says to our twin nephews, “You’ve got two ears and one mouth.” Hear what the other person is saying because then that will help you engage better with them.
3. Acknowledge people
Last week a lady sent me a card saying, “I want you to know how much you inspire me because unknowingly you’re inspiring people every day.” What a lovely note to receive. It’s powerful to acknowledge people and the qualities you admire in them.
4. Attention to detail
We can’t all have an amazing memory, but if you haven’t got an amazing memory, then make notes! People will always be flabbergasted and impressed if you remember something from minutes, weeks, months, years earlier. People like to be heard and to be listened to.
5. Follow up
You’re making an investment in a relationship from the first meeting, but it’s also about the follow up. Try following them on Twitter or sending something relevant to them within a few days. If somebody said something to you it’s about remembering that so when something happens days and weeks later, you can send them an article, or a photo of something you snap on your travels, or something you see. That’s making you memorable because it reinforces that fact that you’ve listened to them and understood.
6. Do what you say you’ll do
In life you meet lots of ‘talkers’ but they’re not necessarily always ‘doers’. This goes back to following up, so simply doing what you said can set you apart. If you really want to get noticed you can go above and beyond this, so you’re forever memorable.
7. Do things without expectation
This is about doing things without a motive. This comes from having compassion. If you really care about something and you’re compassionate in your role, then you will do things that people really value. This is part of being authentic and being yourself.
8. Make a statement
I sent my mentor, Lara Morgan, a tin of treacle with a post-it note saying, “Getting hold of you is like wading through this stuff” and she called me immediately because it made her chuckle. So for me it’s about finding your own version of that.
9. Stop apologising
I was trying to catch up with a chief executive and I sent an email saying, “You don’t call, you don’t write, you don’t ring. I could get a complex!” And she came back with, “That’s hysterical. We should grab a coffee!” It’s a very different email to, “Hi, sorry to waste your time…” Too often we go in with ‘sorry’ for whatever reason.
10. Be bold and innovative
I don’t always see this as being brave. It can also be about being cheeky. I tweeted Jacqueline Gold as she was on the way to a GMTV interview saying I’d love to talk to her about our conference and low and behold, she agreed. So she spoke at last year’s conference, just because I was a bit cheeky. Be bold, be creative be innovative.
http://www.northernpowerwomen.com
https://twitter.com/simoneroche
