Two First Days Knocked Out

Well as of 10:15 this morning, I've completed the first days for both of my recitations. This quarter I've changed my first day philosophy from being a hardass on the first day to just being myself. When I first started out as a GTA, many of the other seasoned grad students advised me to be really tough on the first day as a signal to the students that you weren't going to let them get away with anything for the rest of the quarter. For two quarters, I went through four first days acting like a jerk and desperately hoping that this behavior would make my students respect me.
At the beginning of spring quarter last year, I was a grader and did not have to worry about the first day impression I needed to give off; however, I received a thick envelope of evaluations from the previous quarter that needed to be read. I got some of the usual complaints such as I graded too tough because I took off points for grammar. (I'll have a rant about how I hate this complaint another day.) Surprisingly, I did have several students who were critical of my first day demeanor. One wrote that I seemed unnecessarily mean for that one day which did not fit in with my amiable nature during the subsequent weeks. They basically then called me out by saying that I did not have to be mean on day one for students to respect me; they would respect me because they recognized that I was the instructor.
I filed away the complaints in the back of my mind to consider for when I would teach again. Suddenly, the first day for this quarter was nearly upon me and as I wrote my lesson plan, I made the decision not to put on a "tough" persona for day one. My students from the winter were right, I was basically BSing them with this act. The simple truth is, there are a number reasons that would contribute to a lack of respect in the classroom including my attempt to be someone that I'm not. Don't get me wrong, I don't let my students get away with lame excuses or low quality work, but in my experience students who probably were not going to respect you anyway are the usual culprits in these schemes and are easily called out.
So, with two first days under my belt for the quarter, I am left to ponder whether this new approach will be more beneficial than the old one. I am slightly nervous that it may backfire, and they think that I am too nice, so I guess I am still learning how to strike the perfect equilibrium between being approachable and understanding yet firm and respected as an educator. Luckily, with 4-5 more years of school left, I still have many first days ahead of me.