To what extent do your personal contacts refer to you the way you would like?

The other day I visited my father and helped him prepare the new beauty centre for my mother. When introduced to his friend, a business man in the area, I was presented as my fathers ”youngest son”. Nothing wrong in that, but frankly I am not very keen on being referred to as the ”youngest”. It kind of sounds like that I am inexperienced and new to whatever I am doing. It just does not sound trustworthy.

So after we where done at the centre, I asked him how he would have presented me at a business meeting if I would be an employee at his company, responsible for the business development processes. Guess what, he would not have presented me in the same way.

Do you want you family to refer to you as ”my baby girl” or ”my daughter who is an expert in public relations” when meeting with their friends and colleagues. Most people has a limited network and does not work to expand it very actively, so when they hear that their friends daughter is known as an expert in public relations, guess who they will call when they need to market their new product line.

By the way, this does not only concern your family. It is even more important that your friends do not present you as a ”couch potato” or ”party animal” to people they meet. You probably want them to describe you as a fun, driven person with social skills as well as expert knowledge.

Maybe you want to separate your personal and private life. If you are presented as a public relations expert or a social skilled person and the other person wants to discuss that topic after the introduction, spend a few minutes discussing the topic, trade business cards and kindly point out that you would love to meet to discuss the subject further over lunch some day. The other person is most likely not to keep talking about your profession.