People decide a lot in the three seconds it takes you to walk through a door. Walk like you meant to come.

First impressions get formed fast on very little, which is not fair but is how attention behaves when no other information is available. Posture and pace do most of the talking before you have spoken. None of this is about being impressive; it is about not arriving with an apology already attached.

Walk in at a normal pace with your head up, as though you meant to be there, because you did. Take the breath before the door rather than after it. The entrance is the part you control, and it changes how the rest of the conversation opens.