Drill step 1
Stand up. Walk out of the room and back in, running the entrance sequence. Five times, exaggerating the pause each time.
Glossary
Entrance sequence
The Day 1 routine for walking into a room: pause in the doorway for one breath, scan the room, then land on one person and smile. Keep your body open, greet them before you talk about yourself, and say your first sentence slowly.
From the lesson
Step 1
Before you go in, read the entrance sequence once: Tools › Cheat sheets › Day 1.
The mission
Find one real event: a dinner or a party, a networking night, an industry function, the team drinks. Run everything. Entrance sequence. ARE and two follow-ups. Three-second eyes. Still hands. Two sighs before anything that matters. One story. One specific compliment. One clean exit.
Where it is taught
- Day 1 · The 100-Millisecond Verdict: How to make a good first impression at work
Where it comes up
- Day 6 · The Deliberate Room: Practise first impressions and small talk at a real event
- Day 27 · The Full Run: Practise everything at one real event
Related terms
- Scan, then landLook across the room first, then let your eyes stop on one person and smile at them. It reads as calm and sure.
- Clean exitLeaving a conversation without an excuse or apology: say what you enjoyed, then what you’re doing next.
- ThresholdThe doorway. Pausing at the threshold means stopping for one breath just before you walk in, so you arrive settled instead of rushed.
- AREAnchor, Reveal, Encourage: comment on something you both share right now, add something about you, then ask them a question.
- Follow-up questionA question about what the person just told you. It proves you listened and keeps them talking.