Like Simone_De_Beauvoir, I’ve often been told that I’m intimidating. I don’t knowingly do anything at all to have that effect. It’s completely unconscious and unintentional. A few times I have actually asked someone what it is that I’m doing and how I can change it, and each time the other person has said “You can’t do anything about it. It’s their problem.” (These were people who obviously didn’t feel intimidated.) Sometimes I am told it is because I have an intense gaze. That must be because I am paying attention, no other reason. Some folks must be awfully easily frightened and put off.
Maybe you are feeling intimidated by someone like me who has no intention of intimidating you and may not even know they’re doing it. Most people will respond warmly to a friendly approach. I like to take on the grouches and the scary ones and the eccentrics and turn them into friends. It isn’t hard to do. If someone intimidates you, smile and greet them in a friendly way and see what happens next.