Verbatim draft of "How to Write a Highlighted Self-Introduction" by Shi Beichen

Foreword: Two outstanding cases of self-introduction

This is how I introduced myself once when I was sharing online. I said, hello everyone, my name is Shi Beichen and I work at LinkedIn. This company is so prestigious that you have to go to business school to join. For example, my colleague graduated from Wharton Business School, and I graduated from Tianjin Business School. Later, when a friend of mine met me, he specifically mentioned this detail. He said he remembered the detail vividly.

In "How to Write a Meeting Speech with a Clear Purpose and No Nonsense", I once mentioned an example of an astrologer born in the 1990s introducing herself. She said: Hello everyone, my name is Jiang Panda, and I have had three ex-boyfriends. I haven't contacted them since the breakup, but I know everything about them.

Cognitive dissonance and the importance of self-introduction

From job interviews to meeting new colleagues, to business negotiations, to financing recruitment, we are constantly telling Who am I to others. If someone likes you, he or she will be willing to continue having sex with you. A sentence of advertising copy and the makeup on a woman's face, the first impression you make on others, largely define your image in other people's minds. And self-introduction determines the first impression you leave on others.

Sometimes when an interviewer or client finds fault with you, it is not entirely because of your ability problems, sometimes it is because he does not like you. Because he doesn't like you emotionally, and rationally he will find a lot of evidence to support his judgment. But we often mistakenly believe that because we have problems objectively and rationally, the other person does not like me. In fact, his causes and effects are reversed.

There is a strong basis for this conclusion: Scholars who studied elections in 1976 found that compared to voters before voting, voters after voting were more likely to believe that the candidate they voted for would win. The reason behind this is very interesting. This kind of cognitive dissonance is academically called cognitive dissonance after decision-making.

Politicians will consciously take advantage of voters' cognitive dissonance during elections. They will first make promises to voters, and then voters will support them with actual actions. When voters use practical actions to support someone, they will tell themselves that this person can best represent my interests and I hope he will be elected. At this time, voters' enthusiasm will be even higher. After you leave a good impression on others at first glance, they will start to look for various evidences to recognize you.

Horse brain, crocodile brain and neocortex, the working mechanism of the human brain

The latest research by neuroscientists found that the human brain evolved in three different independent stages: The latest to evolve is the neocortex. The neocortex, which occupies the most space, is responsible for planning, design, logic, concepts and abstract thinking. The biggest difference between humans and animals is the thinking ability of the neocortex.

Next is the midbrain, also known as the equine brain, which is the brain of mammals. Its function is to allow animals to have emotional and social relationships. Horses are mammals, and most mammals live in groups to hunt, raise offspring, and escape natural enemies. In order to survive, they form partnerships with animals and cooperate to help each other. Some emotions, such as maternal love and friendship, arise naturally. Natural selection has given animals a desire to live in a group, and they will feel uneasy once they are separated from the group.

Next up is the crocodile brain. The crocodile brain is the oldest brain because the crocodile brain basically only contains the brainstem. So they can only respond to the simplest sensory stimulation, either attacking, running away, or staying still. The crocodile, all his actions are basic, he has no thoughts and no emotions.

Sver encountered a problem when financing his clients. He found that no matter how hard he tried to sell his financing options, customers were unwilling to invest money in him. Then he began to study how the human brain works.

He studied with a neuroscientist friend for ten years. After repeated observation and thinking, they found that one of the main reasons why his proposal failed to impress customers was that his proposal used the neocortex to think.

His proposal is full of abstract concepts, terminology, logic, arguments and reasoning. But when most people listen to other people's proposals, they don't use their neocortex to listen, but use their crocodile brain to listen. In other words, if you use the neocortex way of thinking to communicate with the crocodile brain way of thinking, it is like installing a Windows program on a computer with Mike os system. Of course, it will not be able to run it.

Other characteristics of the crocodile brain are:

First, the crocodile brain has only very limited processing power, just like if you use a computer in the 32k memory era to try to open a 1MB The same as the document, it freezes before opening.

Secondly, the scope of his thinking is very limited, and he has a strong sense of self-protection.

Third, he will see anything new as a danger. What happens when a crocodile encounters a threat? Escape. Although the human body will not run away when listening, the brain has run away, and it refuses to listen to you continue to talk about too many new things.

Fourth, if it is not new or exciting, he will ignore it.

Fifth, if it is not a dangerous thing, he will ignore it.

Sixth, when he finds something particularly complicated, he will quickly make a summary and abandon it. If you go to a meeting with a lot of abstract expressions, complex presentations, a lot of text, no pictures, and no video multimedia, you will soon feel very bored.

Now that you understand the various functions of the brain, you have the basis for how to introduce yourself or how to market your products. You have to use the way of thinking of the crocodile brain to communicate with the other party, rather than the way of thinking of the neocortex.

You can think about how blockbuster movies open. Take this year's hit "Wolf Warrior II" as an example. At the beginning, a group of pirates drove a speedboat with AK47s to the side of a cargo ship. They shot and hijacked the cargo. The ship sounded a red alert and the crew hid inside. At this time, Wu Jing quickly ran to the deck, jumped into the water, swam to the side of the speedboat, and tied up six pirates underwater with his bare hands.

During these more than six minutes, your attention was completely attracted by Wu Jing's skills. He doesn't give you any new concepts, he doesn't tell you any new truths, and he doesn't even have any lines. You may have seen similar openings in countless blockbusters, but you will still believe it every time.

The working mechanism of the brain is first to survive, then to social relationships, and finally to solve problems. Only when the sense of existential crisis is first triggered will it gradually rise to the part of social relations and problem solving. And what kind of information can impress the crocodile? Simple, clear, non-dangerous, and most importantly, fun and novel. You have to impress people in this way, otherwise you will never be able to attract the audience's attention.

Key points in writing a self-introduction

Let’s continue to talk about "How to write a self-introduction with outstanding highlights". Here are some key points to writing a good self-introduction:

1. Research the other person’s background. If you go for an interview, research the company culture and the background of the interviewer first. It would be better to study the company's more outstanding employees, or the company's leaders' promotion and outstanding content, and find the connection points from them.

I have previously shared "How to Use LinkedIn" with media and partners. You can find background information on many companies and interviewers through LinkedIn or Maimai. Similar experiences and backgrounds, the same interests, and the same friends can all be entry points.

Second, you can use the universal speech method to tell a story of your own.

In previous courses, I introduced Mr. Zhang Shangfeng, the author of the book "Discovering Mental Models". He proposed the concept of a universal speech method. He said that no matter what topic he encountered, he could speak brilliantly, or at least not particularly poorly.

At that time, he asked me a question. He said, please use Buddha as the topic, give you one minute to think about it, and then start speaking. I thought quickly and said: Speaking of Buddha, it reminds me of gratitude. When talking about gratitude, I feel that there were a few noble people in my past life who I feel are particularly worthy of gratitude. One person is Zhao Jiamin, who founded Yiyan.com, which was the website that had the deepest impact on me when I was in college. Because the article is translated through translation. Let me know what the criteria for a good article are. I am grateful that my first job after graduation set me such a high standard, and it continues to benefit me to this day. Although this story is not that exciting, considering that it is an extremely difficult proposition, it is already very good to be able to complete it.

The universal research method here is to connect any topic with your personal experience. Your personal experience is more likely to trigger screams from others. For my courses at Socket Academy, I had several research assistants who helped me prepare materials, and Lin Lin was a very prominent one among them. I invited her to join the writing elite group and asked her to introduce herself.

In her long self-introduction, she wrote this paragraph. : She said that she was invited into the group by the teacher today and she was lucky enough to get to know many outstanding people. I remember reading a sentence a while ago, which really touched me. If you want to run far, everyone runs together. When I was in school, whether it was winter long-distance running in junior high school, hiking or 50-kilometer training in high school, everyone did it together. Even complex mechanical drawings in college were discussed by a girl in our dormitory in the corridor from 10pm to after 7am. In a class of about 200 people, only a few of us girls turned in our homework. The sense of accomplishment is beyond words. At the same time, it also taught me that some things must be done together. Only by encouraging everyone to move forward can we go further.

Some students in the group reacted immediately after hearing this, saying that I noticed the 50-kilometer training. I think Lin Lin’s self-introduction is better than my previous paragraph because she wrote a good story. This story tells everyone a simple truth - if you want to run far, everyone runs together. She may not have written the Universal Speech Method, but she used the Universal Speech Method in her self-introduction very comfortably.

Third, use contrast and conflict to tell stories. In the fourth season of the Weird Conference, there was a contestant named Liu Nan, who is the founder of Miya. When talking about investment, he said that he carefully wrote this text message: Hello, Mr. Xu, I am a graduate of Peking University and now I am opening a Taobao store. My sales have reached 30 million, but I am very unhappy. I heard that you are the spiritual guide of young people. I am a confused young man. Do you have time to enlighten me?

This text message is very interesting to everyone. Let me explain it sentence by sentence. "I am a graduate of Peking University", which means that he is a highly educated elite; but now he is opening a Taobao store. After graduating from Peking University, why do you want to open a Taobao store? Is it because you can't make it? It is easy to think of stories like those who graduated from Peking University and went to sell pork. With this big contrast, Teacher Xu Xiaoping's attention can be aroused.

"My sales have reached 30 million yuan." At this time, there was another reversal. Although I opened Taobao, I made a lot of money. "But I was very unhappy." I can sell for 30 million, and I make a lot of money, but I am not happy. "I heard that you are the spiritual mentor of young people. I am a confused young man. Do you have time to enlighten me?" Everyone can note that Teacher Xu Xiaoping has been a mentor to young people for many years. He has always been willing to help outstanding young people answer their questions. Therefore, what he said - you are the spiritual mentor of young people, and I am a young man who is confused, can also impress Teacher Xu Xiaoping very well. Therefore, two minutes after receiving the text message, Xu Xiaoping immediately called Liu Nan back. After that, he became Liu Nan’s angel investor.

Fourth, turn shortcomings into advantages. Stalin had a strong Georgian accent, and his voice was very low when he spoke in public. Without a microphone, people around him can't even hear what he's saying. Compared with Lenin, Hitler and others, Stalin had no advantage at all. So Stalin told others that he was a man of action; he emphasized that he did not brag or show off. Because he was clumsy and tongue-tied, he always did his job in a down-to-earth manner.

Stalin’s approach can give us a lot of inspiration. Many people say that you should try your best to cover up your shortcomings and highlight your strengths. In fact, you can talk about your shortcomings. After every time you talk about your shortcomings, you have to add a "but." For example, you can say that you are impatient, but you must add that you have strong execution ability and cannot tolerate things being delayed. For example, you can say that your shipments are slow, but because you are more careful and pay attention to details, it appears to be slower.

The advantage of introducing yourself and talking about your shortcomings is that when others see your shortcomings, they will be more accepting because you have already told them. Therefore, in her opinion, it is natural.

Fifth, convey more positive information. Many people believe that they should be honest about their strengths and weaknesses. Between close friends and partners, I think it is applicable. But when it comes to new acquaintances, try to send out as positive a message as possible. For example, I recently started exercising and lost five pounds in a month. I could only run three kilometers before, but now I can run five kilometers. Another example is that I held an open course online, and without much publicity, 10,000 people signed up to listen. Sending positive messages can make others think favorably of you.

Sixth, tell me about a successful thing you have done, even a small thing.

First, you can find a success story. I have a student who made an appointment with me through the industry two years ago. In the past two years, he has tried to write various types of articles. There is a hot news recently: McDonald's changed its name to the Golden Arches. With the help of this hot information, he spent 9,800 yuan to buy the domain name of Golden Arches. An hour later, she sold it for 25,000 yuan, making a net profit of 15,000 yuan. At the same time, I immediately wrote an article "Because McDonald's changed its name, I made 15,000 yuan in one hour." This article had 150,000 views in three days. When he originally had only 4,000 fans, this article brought him an increase of 6,000 fans. In many groups, when he introduces himself, he only needs to post this article and everyone will know.

Second, you can find it through your own interests. Like the CEO of Starbucks, he is a level 70 priest and game guild leader in World of Warcraft. He plays the game six hours a week because he believes he learns the core of leadership and management from gaming. Yao Ming and Jay Chou are also well-known World of Warcraft players. You can tell others about your interests and let others know about you.

Third, you can even start with the ability to find movie resources. If you can find niche movie resources, it means you have done a good job of searching and researching. If you are asked to find information for a course, you can find it. If you want to write an article well, you also need to have very strong search capabilities.

Fourth, it is necessary to do something big. There are some people who don’t need to introduce themselves, such as Steve Jobs, Ma Huateng and Lei Jun. They don’t need to introduce themselves to do anything. Some people need to introduce themselves to a certain extent. For example, Li Xiaolai and Luo Zhenyu are known to some people among some people; among some people, others do not know them. Of course, there are some people who need to introduce themselves on a larger scale.

Therefore, everyone should focus as much as possible on doing one thing well and becoming an expert in this field. This way, you don’t have to worry about introducing yourself. I also wrote this sentence to myself.