To be memorable, you need to have a great first impression and you need to come off as really interesting. So let's get to it.
Making a Great First Impression

A great first impression will tell the other person that you're positive, uplifting, fun, confident, stylish, have a good understanding of the world around you and that you know how to get what you want. Here are a few tips on making a good first impression:

1. Smile

When first meeting someone, you want to be smiling. This shows that you are happy, in a good mood, enjoying life and happy to meet them. Smiling also triggers the other person's mirror neurons which produce the feeling that their own smile would provide - a happy feeling! Imagine how Bill Clinton or Will Smith would look if you were meeting them. I can only imagine them smiling while meeting new people.

2. Have Confident Body Language

Stand up straight and tall and don't slouch. To practice, go stand with your back up to a wall, with your heels, butt and head touching too. That's how it should feel. And you don't need to stick your chest out like your want to fight the hole room.

Look the other person in the eyes while you are listening AND speaking. You don't have to hold it forever, but you do want to maintain good eye contact most of the time. It is fine to look up and over while gathering a thought, just make sure to get back to eye contact.

When you aren't engaging with another person look out in front of you, not downward. You are engaging with the world, not hiding from it. And if you happen to make eye contact with another person, don't immediately turn away. Just hold it for an extra second then move on.

Own the space around you. Don't scrunch on a bench so other people can have more room than you. Take what's yours without being a jerk. Don't feel bad for having your legs spread out (men). If someone's arm touches yours, don't pull away because you think you are in their way. Hold your arm there and let them realize that they are touching you and they will eventually pull back (or you can get into an epic war of wills which I will let you decide on how to proceed).

Have a nice handshake. Firm, but no need to hurt the other person.

Dress well and stay groomed. Be the person you want to portray and buy clothes that fit you nicely.

3. Truly Believe Your Life Is Awesome

You need to believe this into the depths of your soul. If you don't believe it, it is going to be even more difficult trying to convince others. Yes, this is much easier said than done, but it is important to consider and work hard at believing.

One tip is to appreciate the positive in everything you can while trying not to put much energy into thinking about the negative. For example, "Oh I love that it's cold because now I get to bundle up and really enjoy a warm cup of coffee," rather than complaining that it's cold.

Being Interesting

To leave a lasting impression, you need to come off as very interesting. And you need to do this without bragging about yourself or making it seem like you are trying to make them think it. They need to just see you as interesting in your normal course of interaction. You are just being you, regardless of what anyone thinks.

There are many different ways to be interesting. You can invent your own. But before I get into it I will give you some common and effective ways right here:

1. Having the Utmost Confidence in Yourself and Your Beliefs

Above I explained how to give off confidence with your first impression, but I want to take it one step further by showing you a great examples of this. I was in a meeting to discuss the construction status of a major pipeline project. Often times the meeting leader will wait a few minutes past the meeting start time to let the late people trickle in and to let everyone finish up their personal small talking. But at this meeting run by Bob, a sharp, impressive project manager in his mid-to-late thirties, the meeting started at 10:00 on the dot. He wasn't rude, but right at that time, in a loud, crisp, commanding voice, he said, "Hello everyone. I am Bob and welcome to the construction status meeting. The purpose of this meeting is to..."

It was just impressive. His voice and confidence just commanded the respect of the room. And later during the meeting, when some people started to get off track and talk about other things that weren't pertinent to the meeting, he would interject and say, "Gentlemen, let's stay on topic. We need to respect everyone's time here and we only have one hour for this meeting. Let's make sure we get through everything first."

Because of his confidence in his assertions, everyone accepted his frame of view for how things should play out. I will never forget Bob and learned so much about human behavior from that one meeting.

2. Having an Eager Thirst for Knowledge

Some people would say, "don't you mean just being smart?" Kind of, but part of the equation is that you are curious and always to learn more. But yes, you do want your knowledge to bleed out of you.

Now, you don't want to brag or bring things up just to show it off. But if you can (in the course of regular conversation) let them see that you are full of useful and interesting knowledge. Maybe relate an FDR quote to something they said. Or how that issue they were having with their phone was similar to the one you had while building your own website.

But it goes beyond just being smart. Let them see your desire to continually further your lifelong education. Here's an example where I really impressed my friend Nick and I didn't even realize it at the time.

We were in an Uber going to the Laugh Factory and I asked the driver where he was from. He said he was from Georgia (the country) and we went in this long conversation about the Georgia - about the geography, climate, people's view on America, etc. And I didn't know much about Georgia other than where it is on the map (which also impressed my friend that I knew it was right by Armenia and Azerbaijan).

The next day, he was telling me how he was so impressed with how worldly I was and that he didn't even know it before. The funny thing was, I didn't even know that much. I was just curious and asking the driver a bunch of questions to help me learn.

3. Being Worldly

Similar to having an eager thirst for knowledge, being well travelled and having good knowledge and understanding of the world is impressive to people. It shows that you know about many different cultures, which many people only know of their own. If you can tell a story that happens to take place in a foreign country (remember, you don't want the point of the story to be that you travelled, otherwise you are just showing off), you will come across as more interesting.

Be open to discussing what you liked and disliked about the places you've been. And also make sure to talk about places they've been that you haven't. Ask questions about their trips and show interest in learning more about other places.

4. Being Open and Yourself

When you talk to people like they are your best friend, you get a way better connection with them. Don't be afraid to crack jokes and tell them how you feel or felt about things. Your ability to give them an honest and open viewpoint will give them more insight into who you are - and if they like who you are, they will find you more interesting.

Some people are memorable right off the bat simply because they are so open and brutally honest that people are just drawn to it. I have a friend who will say some of the most obscene things to people he just meets, and when it seems like you want to cringe because of how poorly you expect people to react, they end up loving him. His openness and ability to say how he really feels when most people are thinking it but just don't want to say it really impress other people.

5. Doing Interesting Things

When people notice that you do more interesting things than the average person, you will be more memorable. Do you work with famous people? Travel (yes, shown above)? Make the things you do in life sound interesting and bring up the most interesting of them. If you aren't doing many interesting things, maybe try to change that and start taking those adventures.

I hope this helps answer your question! Go to my blog to find more information like this regarding social skills at The Social Winner.

Good luck and have fun with it!