Everything You Do Is Only Half The Battle
I love judging books by their covers.
One of my favorite activities, when I’m out shopping around Dallas, is to walk around Barnes and Noble and just look at book covers. I’ll occasionally have a title in mind that I want to scan through, but I find it far more fun to discover new titles along a random aisle, then find a window seat and enjoy the free read for a while.
It’s funny, however, because the average adult book is comprised of ninety to one hundred thousand words.
That’s a lot of words. I’ve written about 30,000 words of content in the last six weeks or so. Ouch.
Many of those books are representative of years of hard work; dreaming of an idea, poring over drafts, revisions, endless editing, rejections from publishers, and actually getting on the shelf.
It’s not easy.
And here I am, wandering down the aisle, rejecting or accepting someone’s life work based on whether I like the cover. It’s simple, easy, and even fun. As a designer, I love to be drawn to excellent pieces of visual communication. As a reader, I love a picture, or even well-used typography, that pulls me in and gets me excited about what I might find in those pages.
But, of course, I’d only do that with a book, or maybe a product on the shelf. Neither you nor I would treat a person so whimsically.
But I do. And so do you. And so does everyone else. Without a second thought, we accept people into our lives or reject them entirely based on what we can see in the first moments of our interaction. With no concern for their credentials, background, or experience, we make snap decisions.
And it’s not discrimination. It’s actually perfectly ok.
In his book, Blink, Malcolm Gladwell explains that we use previously constructed definitions of the world around us to make snap decisions about the things we encounter on a daily basis. If we didn’t, we’d be entirely overwhelmed by constant stimulation. Remember how spider man had to make blinders for himself because his new heightened senses overwhelmed him?
We make blinders for ourselves that help us navigate this crazy world. And we apply them to almost every decision we make, including the people we surround ourselves with or hire.
I write for Designed Academy to help students and aspiring professional graphic designers to transition into a full-time career in Design. In my blogs, and in my Course, Design Your Career, I have focused at times on how quickly the people you hope to work with will make an impression on you. As you head into an interview, for example, it’s important that you keep your shoulders back, your head up, and you make eye contact and smile when you greet people.
No, don’t puff yourself up like a fish. Just carry yourself confidently. 🙂
This is so critical because, just like me at Barnes and Noble, the professionals you meet for the first time will make subconscious, snap decisions about you as you walk through their door. That might sound terrifying to you, but it’s actually the best news I can give you about meeting new people!
If you have seven seconds to make the impression that will form someone’s opinion about you, then you only have to worry about those seven seconds. Walk in the door confidently, smile, make eye contact, introduce yourself and express that you’re pleased to meet them and bam, you’re done. You’ve won half the battle. If you stumble over your words here and there during a presentation or an interview, fail to answer a question that you’ll have to return to later, or otherwise make a misstep, you’re already past the opinion-forming phase of your relationship.
They liked the cover, so they’ll keep reading, even if the first few pages are a bit slow.
Now, of course, it’s at this point in your relationship that it’s up to you keep their attention. If you’re interviewing for a job, for example, your ability to answer questions, wow your new employer with your portfolio, and describe your strengths and weaknesses are the other half of that battle.
Once you’ve made a solid first impression; gotten your new friend, professional contact, or client to open the cover, then those hundred-thousand words, your life work, become important. But the first half of the battle is SO necessary. For example:
I’m a huge fan of the movie La La Land. I reference it perhaps a bit too often, but it just gets me, you know?
Mia Dolan (Emma Stone) was obviously a phenomenal choice for every role she so hopelessly auditioned for during her early years in L.A.
Well, duh. She’s Emma Stone.
But, she was not confident. Sure, the passion, the skill, and the years of work were all there, ready to be tapped and turned into amazing characters. But when she walked into a studio for a role, or even served coffee on the Warner Bro’s lot, she was reserved and confident not that she had potential, but that the other girls around her had more.
I wear my heart on my sleeve, and so do you. What you believe about yourself, others see. And we use those finely tuned frameworks for our snap decisions to observe, judge, and remember that impression.
If you haven’t watched La La Land, there are spoilers ahead. Rather than keep reading, subscribe to the Designed Academy email list below, then watch La La Land here. Now.
Great, either you’re back from watching the movie, or you’ve already seen it!
Did you love it? Applaud if you loved it 😉
We know that Ryan Gosling’s character encourages Mia to step out, view herself as capable, and do something challenging. Despite the seeming failure of her one-woman show, Mia is forever changed by the self-confidence that Seb helps her find.
Now, I’m 100% straight and happily engaged to a gorgeous girl, but who wouldn’t feel like they could jump over the moon if Ryan Gosling believed in them? I digress…
So what happens? You know what happens. A talent agent happened to be sitting in the theatre. We don’t know the character well, but she was probably just prospecting. It’s a [I forgot the day of the week] night, and she’s recruiting. Might as well go watch a one-woman show at the theatre. You never know where you’ll find the next one.
What she sees next is not the content of the play, the writing, stage design, anything. She sees Mia’s confidence. Her posture has changed internally, and as a result, she appears different outwardly, even if the same girl physically as 6 months before.
Everything you do is only half the battle.
If you’re a designer with a great resume and the most beautiful portfolio in town, how do you carry yourself in client meetings? Or in interviews, when it’s time for a new job or a promotion?
If you get the cover right, those first few moments, you’re free to be you from that moment on, and you’ve already won half the battle. Get it wrong, however, and you’re fighting uphill.
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