People Skills! Got it!

All right. So, it goes without saying the absolute necessary items you need to begin your people skills are?

1) Hello! / Good morning! / Good afternoon! / Good evening! / Good night! Have a great day! / Goodbye! / See ya!

2) Please? / That would be awesome, yes!

3) Thank you! / Wow that made my day, you are amazing!

These are your basic people skill tropes, if you will.

Everyone says it. Everyone has a different voice, a different tone, a different inflection, etc.

The way you say it? No one else does.

Please, please, please make sure you have “hello” and “goodbye” and “please” and “thank you” down pat.

You can practice with anyone! Literally!

Without these things, we are no one. Who cares unless we care, right?

So let me tell you. Even if you don’t “feel” like it, you can still go through a day if you say these things anyway. Even if you swear, “Sarah, that person doesn’t like me. They hate me,” I will still say, “say hello anyway. Just say hello!”

You have to remember, no one begins with people skills. We all learn it.

Other people may be just as bad as you, as we all start at Level 0.

If you are super shy, and you can barely lift your head to look someone in the eye, practice 3 things:

1) Lift your head, look the person in the eye, and smile.

2) Wave.

3) Try to say, “hey.”

That’s it. Wherever you are, you need to be able to do said things, okay? I love you. Now.

The other thing you should probably be good at is handshakes.

If you already have a firm grip, you know what to do. Say, “How are you? Glad to see you, come on in.”

If you have a very weak or limp handshake, work on tightening your grip a little more. What you assume is polite, sometimes feels lifeless to the other guy who is offering you the handshake. Ladies, you need to strengthen your grip.

If the person offering you the handshake holds out their hand, and you don’t look down, you can miss the shake! Please look down for a millisecond to see where their hand is so your hand can meet their hand in proper greeting! Then you look up and smile or laugh and say, “Hi, good to see you. Thanks for having me.”

If people prefer fist bumps or high fives instead, please review what a fist bump is with your hand prior to trying to high five the fist or fisting the high five. Love, your casual friends who think you’re cool.

If you are not used to carrying conversation, don’t try to jump into being the most social team member. Just work on your basics. These are literally the foundations to having good people skills.

People say, “Listen actively” or “Listen deeply,” and it’s true, but frankly, if you have trouble talking, then you already do. This is not something you need to improve on. You gotta work on saying “hello.”

If you are at an event, and you want to do commissions or you want people to visit your table, you can wave to people from a distance and wave. All lost and meandering people will come to you.

What would that conversation prompt look like?

*Wave and smile* Hey! Come check out my table! Wanna see my art?

*When your person is at your table* Could you please look at what I have and see if you want anything?

*When they leave with or without your product* Thanks for coming! It was great to have you here. I appreciate it!

If you have the semblance of the above, you will be a people-person in no time. You can help your friends, you can make friends if you don’t have friends, and people will go at your speed in person. It’s not like online chat or even texting by phone. Also, it should be a lot nicer, because most of us do not feel comfortable with making other people feel uncomfortable. In-person is the way to go!

Anyway. That is the basic for people skills for now, okay? If you’re like, “I already do this, Sarah!” then this is not for you, and you have mastered the people skills basic course — for free! For everyone else, the cost of this class is… now you have to go do it. That’s enough to pay. Most certainly.