The Most Powerful Tools In Your Toolbox

The most powerful tools that you have at your disposal (aside from your smartphone) are a handshake and a smile.

Being face to face, being able to see the whites of somebody's eyes, the expressions on their face, and the energy that somebody puts off.

When I do this workshop in person, I always show people like, "I can prove to you how a handshake and a smile is the most powerful thing that you have at your disposal." 

And I have everybody stand up in the room and pair off. And all I do is say, "I want you to shake hands with the person next to you, make eye contact, and don't stop until I tell you to." 

And I usually make them shake hands for about 10 seconds and invariably what happens is when people are standing there, and they're shaking hands for even just more than two seconds, they start experiencing emotions. Usually it's laughter and smiling. 

The point is to just demonstrate that you can elicit a lot more emotion with your person than you can with your resume. And so the point here is whatever you can do in your job search is the best thing you can do is create interpersonal connections. 

And normally that would be go out and meet people face to face. But depending on the time and place and the circumstances you can elicit a lot more emotion and create a deeper, more meaningful connection with other people when you are able to smile and shake hands and connect personally. 

And so really what I want you to remember is the more often that you can see somebody's face and you can see their eyes and make eye contact and smile and all that whether that's through video conferencing or in person meetings, the better off you're going to be because ultimately people do business with people they like, and the way that you create rapport and affinity with another person and get them to like you and you get to like them is face to face. Real connections. 

So be sure to utilize your powerful tools here.