Khloé in Wonder Land - Signals You’re Sending (Without Knowing It) ft. Behavioral Researcher & Bestselling Author Vanessa Van Edwards
Episode Date: May 29, 2025Every little look, tone, and gesture says something — whether you mean it to or not. Khloé and Vanessa Van Edwards break down how body language shapes connection, confidence, and trust. Th...ey explore how to pick up on the cues people are constantly giving off, and how to make sure you’re sending the signals you actually want to be sending.Episode Sponsors:Stop putting off those doctors appointments and go to https://zocdoc.com/KHLOE to find and instantly book a top-rated doctor today.Opill is birth control in your control, and you can use code KHLOE for 25% off your first month of Opill at https://Opill.com. Check out Opill to see if it is right for you!Start your initial free online visit today at https://forhers.com/KHLOE. That’s https://forhers.com/KHLOE for your personalized hair loss treatment options. Individual results may vary. Compounded products are not FDA-approved or verified for safety.Shop a huge selection of outdoor furniture online. This summer, get outside with Wayfair. Head to https://wayfair.com right now. Wayfair. Every style. Every home.If you’re into glamour and romance, things are heating up on Hulu. Catch new seasons of Project Runway and Bachelor in Paradise this summer. And coming soon, catch the all-new reality series Love Thy Nader, starring the Nader sisters. Plus, don’t miss an all-new season of Love Island UK streaming only on Hulu. There’s so much great reality on Hulu it’s almost...too real. Next time you need your reality TV, go to Hulu. Hulu gets real.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
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I have a sister named Courtney and a brother named Robert. Oh my gosh. We have the same
life except totally different. I mean you're way smarter than me but it's okay. You have
a few more followers than me. It's fine. You can trade if you want. I think your cues tell
others how to treat you. We are sending hundreds if not thousands of signals every day with
our facial expressions,
our voice tone, our gestures, our posture.
But most people don't know what they're sending.
Contempt is the only micro-expression or emotion
that doesn't go away.
Don't accidentally show contempt in your profile pictures
because it's actually showing a little bit of scorn
or disdain.
Do we have to go check your profile pictures?
I haven't looked recently.
I think I'm smiling.
We have to change mine.
Just kidding.
No, no, I'm just kidding.
I should have checked.
How does one fall for the cult?
Like I'm so intrigued.
And it's usually, by the way, like smart women.
That's what I'm saying.
They're all very, very smart.
It's a problem.
Why do you think I'm doing this?
And if there was a hot cult leader,
I might be in that cult.
No, I will not let you.
Cancel cancel cancel. I'm moving on.
Take your chance.
Discover chance au Splendid.
The new fragrance Chanel. She called me girl, I will play around the stars a little more
Today again I'm taking my eyes a little more
As long as I want it so, I'll be more comfortable
Cause I'll take a chance
She called me girl, I will play around the stars a little more
A little more Vanessa, I'm so happy to have you on Chloe and Wonderland.
I'm so happy to be here.
I feel like I could chat with you forever.
We've already been chit chatting.
I'm so excited to have you here because I meet so many people and I will say that I meet more socially awkward people
than I do less.
I feel like everything that you research
and everything that you're teaching,
it's like, so I love doing podcasts
that people can have takeaways.
And this one with you in my opinion
is genuinely something that I feel
is maybe the most important because anyone, any gender,
any age should know about these cues and how,
I don't wanna say how to act, but either how to.
I think your cues tell others how to treat you.
And so if you are not sending the right cues,
people treat you wrong.
And so I think everyone, I wish we were taught this in school, you are not sending the right cues, people treat you wrong. And so I think everyone,
I wish we were taught this in school, we are not.
We're taught, there's a lot of focus on book smarts
and getting test scores and IQ and P,
but I actually think that interpersonal intelligence,
knowing how to show up as likable,
knowing how to show up as credible,
knowing how to be assertive and still be liked,
and being able to tell people,
this is exactly how I want to be treated.
But knowing what to do with your body, your voice, your face, we are sending
hundreds, if not thousands of signals every day with our facial expressions,
our voice tone, our gestures, our posture.
But most people don't know what they're sending.
And I find that so fascinating.
I feel like with me, I was definitely one of those people.
I have not a relatable story, but because I've been on TV for so long, I was definitely one of those people. I have not a relatable story,
but because I've been on TV for so long,
I was able to see myself.
And it was very much as if I was holding a mirror
up to me all day long, I would be like, ew.
Who is this person?
Or I didn't know I sounded like that,
or why was I talking to my mom in that tone?
But in a way, I really appreciated it
because I didn't like that version of me.
There's some people that see that version of themselves
and they are okay with it or love it.
I was not so thrilled with myself in some of those instances.
You just said that a disgust micro-expression.
So I don't know.
So when we crinkle our nose up,
it's like this kind of like,
I'm grossed out, disgusted.
I'm just happy my face still moves.
OK.
We can't do eyebrow raises.
Those are too hard.
No, can't do an eyebrow raise.
But disgust we can still do.
Unless we botox our nose.
No, I haven't done that yet.
OK, not yet.
So disgust is a really interesting one.
It was interesting as you were talking about seeing yourself,
you showed disgust.
You didn't like what you saw.
And what's important about that is I think actually everyone feels that way or most people feel that way.
And that's why we're so shocked when we see
ourselves on video or so shocked when we hear
ourselves, you know, a recording of ourselves.
So I have one actually takeaway that I think
everyone should do.
Everyone should know their nervous tells.
Everyone should know what they look like when
they're feeling uncomfortable or nervous so
that you know how you're coming across.
So this is a very simple exercise I have everyone do.
You can do it privately, you don't have to show anyone.
So pull up your phone and I want you to record yourself
as if you're talking to me, so pretend you're talking to me
and tell me first what you had for breakfast yesterday.
You don't have to actually do this if you don't want to.
What you're looking at is what you look like
when you're recalling something truthful.
That's the very first thing.
And that's a baseline for lie detection,
which we can talk about.
The next thing I want you to do
is I want you to tell me your most embarrassing story.
Tell it to me and relive it.
What does your body do?
What does your voice do?
What does your face do?
This is how you look when someone says something to you
in a meeting on a date that makes you uncomfortable.
And you should know your giveaways.
And the last one is, if you want to, your lying tells.
I think everyone should know what they do when they lie
or when they're feeling guilty.
So then I want you to make up an embarrassing story
that did not happen to you and tell it to me like the camera,
like you're trying to convince me of it.
You'll see you're gonna do things that you don't normally do
that are your lying tells, your giveaways.
Do we want people to master the art of lying?
Do you know what I mean?
Like if I'm trading myself,
okay, I gulp before I say something if it's a lie.
I want you to know,
sometimes we don't always know
when we're lying to ourselves.
In our lab, we do a bunch of lie detection research
and we have people come in,
we have them do two truths and a lie, fun game.
And we then code the lies to look for the differences.
So one of the biggest giveaways for a lie
is people use the question inflection.
So they go up at the end of their sentence.
Right.
Like they're asking.
Yes.
So they'll say, you know, here's mine.
I live in Austin, Texas.
I love dogs.
I love cilantro.
I don't like cilantro, right?
I asked it, okay.
Who does?
Right?
I have the gene.
I do not like cilantro. Yeah, no, me too. So I don't like cilantro. So that's, I asked it, okay. Who does? So, right? I don't have the gene. I do not like cilantro.
Yeah, no, me too.
So I don't like cilantro, so I ask it.
Okay, let's say that you're on a date
and someone's like, you know,
I would love to go out with you again.
And you go, yeah.
Yeah.
You don't wanna go.
No.
You don't wanna go.
And I think that sometimes, especially as women,
we don't wanna tell ourselves the truth. And that ambivalence, being ambivalent about a friend
or a person, hearing yourself be like, whoa, I just did it.
Maybe like there's a question here.
I think that is such good honesty for yourself.
Yes, I agree.
Do you think that because you were doing this
before the social media craze,
that there's a difference in the way that people
now sort of micromanage themselves
in terms of their cadence
or what they're trying to portray to people.
Like, it's not as sincere.
I think you hit on it, sincerity is the word I would give,
because now all of a sudden,
we are almost on our own TV shows.
So I think that maybe for the first 10 years of your career we couldn't relate.
But now like I think people are watching themselves on video quite a lot.
Right.
And it's very curated because they can curate with filters or how they look.
And so I think what's happening is people want that effect in real life as well.
And if they can't get it, they won't do it.
And so what I'm hearing more and more is people have this like feeling of loneliness
or lack of depth with their friendships or their relationships, or they have trouble going from date to soulmate or acquaintance to best friend, because that leap requires authenticity.
Right.
It requires sincerity.
And real connection.
And real connection and not muting our cues.
So this is the other thing that is a big misconception is sometimes I think people think,
so there are 97 different cues that we send.
And so I think we think,
well, I don't know what cues to send,
so I'm gonna completely mute.
I'm not gonna send any cues at all.
When we don't send enough cues,
it makes other people nervous.
Right.
If we can't read your face or read your body,
we're like, uh-oh,
and we automatically think it's about us.
Like, especially me, I'm a recovering awkward person.
Mm-hmm. Right, like I think everyone hates me all the time. I
always think people are angry at me. And that's why I got into this work actually, is I would
leave a party and I'd be like, oh, everyone hates me. And my husband would be like, what?
Right. Why do you think that?
And I was, there's a certain portion of the population, we are high neurotic and we misinterpret
neutral expressions as negative.
So I think a lot of misinterpretations are happening because of social media
because we see someone portrayed a certain way, then we get in person or even on video
and we realize, oh my gosh, there's, I can't read them.
Or they're trying to mute or under signal and it's causing all these disruptions in our relationships.
I know exactly what to do now and I can trust my radar, if you
would call it, my cue reading ability that I won't misinterpret. So I felt so much better once I
learned how to read faces. I wasn't misinterpreting them anymore. I knew that disgust, so disgust is
an interesting one because it comes up when people are either lying or they're trying to
hide the truth. So I might ask someone, so what do you think of the new girl? Oh yeah, she's great, right?
And I'm like, it's okay, you can tell me the truth.
Like you can see it.
Right, yeah, you're right, exactly.
So now that I know that, I'm not worried
that I'm gonna miss the cue, and so I'm much less awkward
because I know that I can see it, I'm not confused by it.
And so I feel like every cue that you learn,
you become more confident and less awkward
for other recovering, awkward people.
You're not recovering awkward person.
No, I don't think so.
But I'm someone who I consider myself like an ambivert.
Me too.
Ambivert.
Ambivert.
So if that's how you feel, then you would know.
People think I'm so extroverted,
but I just know when to give it.
When I need to give it, I sort of mentally psych myself up. And then, but I'm definitely not an introvert, right?
Like I, I'm vulnerable, I share myself,
I feel like I'm like full transparency,
but I know I definitely need time to recharge afterwards.
I'm not someone that can just jump
from group to group of people.
And like, ambiverts are, most people are ambiverts.
We actually studied this.
So there's very few true extroverts and true introverts.
By the way, if you are curious where you are,
here's the question you can do for yourself or anyone else.
Do you wanna go to Vegas?
So an extrovert is like, yeah, let's go pack my bags.
An introvert is like, I'll watch a show about Vegas
on my couch with you.
And an ambivert is like, well, what are we gonna do? Yes.
How are we gonna get there?
Yes.
Like, can I have a little bit of time to pack my bags?
Right, like that's in between, that's their limit test.
That's how you know if you're-
No, that's the best test.
That really is.
Speaking about the 97 Qs, I'm not trying to say
that one is more important than the other,
but what would you say would be the five strongest
that someone should-
Most helpful. Most helpful. Yes, yes. Thank you. It's hard five strongest that someone should- Most helpful.
Most helpful.
Yes, yes.
It's hard, it's like picking a favorite child.
I know.
So hard.
Okay, so the first one that I like love to talk about
is in anything that is incongruent,
I'll give you a specific one, which is,
in Western cultures, when we say yes, we nod like this.
And we say no, we nod like this.
You always wanna look for leaks
where something does not match.
So in lie detection, we notice that when people don't feel a certain way, they'll actually
their nod will give them away.
So like if I say to my daughter, did you take the cookie?
And she's like, um, yeah.
Right.
And she shakes her head no, I know that was a leak.
And that's because we often practice our words, but not our nonverbal.
So like right now you're nodding and it makes me feel so good because a slow triple nod is,
tell me more, tell me more.
But if I were to sit like this while you were talking.
Right, I would stop talking.
Why is she telling me no?
The nod is really important for you as a speaker
because it helps you bold or emphasize your words.
If you're pitching, presenting in an interview
and negotiation and you wanna highlight what you're saying,
a nod actually is like a nonverbal highlight.
You can say, you know, I really, really believe this,
and the other person's like, wow, she really believes it.
And you also wanna watch for incongruency.
So if someone says, you know, I really,
yeah, I think it's great.
They don't.
They don't.
And so I'm all for radical honesty in relationships.
And you can say, you know, I watched Chloe and Vanessa
and you just did a nod that was not right.
You can just tell me the truth.
Right. Like I'm here for it.
Yeah.
And so watching for that, that's a really powerful one.
The second one I would say is a facial expression.
And luckily a Botox doesn't affect it.
Yay, we can still see it.
Which is contempt.
So a micro expression is a universal facial expression.
They're across genders and cultures and races,
and they're made when we feel like in a very intense emotion.
They've discovered seven.
They're a little bit hotly debated in the research community,
but the one that I think the most helpful is contempt,
which is a one-sided mouth raise.
So kind of a smirk.
So if you try it,
it'll actually make you feel kind of better than.
Can I do it?
You did it, you're doing it. than. Can I do it? You did it.
You're doing it.
Yeah.
Like, does it move that way?
Okay.
You got it.
It's a kind of scorn, disdain, better than.
Why it's so powerful is what Dr. John Gottman is a marriage and family counselor.
He wanted to know how to predict divorce.
So he did a massive study where he brought thousands of couples into his lab and he studied
everything he could think of.
He interviewed them, he looked at their history, their health, he videotaped them in interviews
and in bed and breakfast settings looking for patterns.
Oh wow.
Then he followed these couples for 30 years.
What?
One of the biggest marriage experiments ever done.
He found there was one single predictor of divorce.
What is it?
That is so powerful that he can watch a silent video
of a couple and tell you with 93.6% accuracy
if that couple will get divorced.
Stop, what is that?
If one member of the couple shows contempt
towards the other.
What he found was there was couples,
many, many couples stayed together
and they did not show contempt
in that initial intake interview.
But 93.6% of couples, if one member showed that contempt
just in the initial interview.
Got it.
Okay, in the intake interview.
Yes, so when I'm always asked by friends,
come meet my guy, which I love to do.
I mean, I love, makes me feel needed, right?
And what I'm looking for is that.
And that is because contempt is the only micro-expression
or emotion that doesn't go away.
Happiness comes in a burst and then it settles.
Anger comes, then you calm down.
Fear comes and you get less nervous.
But not contempt.
If you feel better than someone else,
that disrespect, if it's not addressed,
it festers and it grows into, I hate you.
That's why at an end of a marriage, a bad marriage,
people won't even look at each other.
And so contempt is so powerful.
One is you need to make sure that you are not
accidentally seeing it on your partner,
your teammate, your friend's face.
When you see it, I want you to immediately say,
hey, are we good?
What's happening here?
Because you don't know what it's for.
Like that contempt can be towards you,
it could be towards something
like their own internal monologue,
it could be something outside.
Immediately addressing the contempt diffuses it.
The moment you can spot that smirk and say,
hey, we're on the same page here,
I wanna be against that contempt, you fix it.
That is so fascinating.
And check your profile pictures.
Check your profile pictures. Oh yes.
Don't accidentally show contempt in your profile pictures
because it's actually showing
a little bit of scorn or disdain.
Do we have to go check your profile pictures?
No, I think I'm smiling.
Okay, good.
I would rather, by the way, neutral or smile,
but nothing in between.
So no asymmetry on the face, and also not a fake smile.
So like a fake smile, the only-
Oh, you can tell when I'm fake smiling.
Okay, good.
So, because it's only, the only definition of a real smile
is when a smile reaches all the way up into these crow's feet.
Yes.
And so when someone's like,
Yes. And so happy someone's like, yes,
and so happy to be here,
like not good, not good.
No, not good.
Cause you're so blank in the eyes,
you don't really mean it.
Yes, and so go check your profile pictures
for contempt, asymmetry,
and then there's one other thing
if you're checking profile pictures,
my least favorite pose in the history of all of humanity
is this one on LinkedIn.
I'm gonna show you, let me go like this.
That is very commercial.
It's horrible.
No.
It's horrible, it's all the wrong body language.
Yes.
Right, like you're angled away,
so we like when the body is angled right towards someone.
Right, and like there's like a-
It's like very head shoddy for like, I don't know.
No, no more, no more.
No more.
And so no contempt, no over the shoulder.
I love a hand in the photo.
You have to change mine, just kidding. No, no, no, I'm just kidding.
I should have checked.
I should have checked.
Would you die if I was like,
well, mine are all the above, but it's not, don't worry.
I would tell you.
Yeah, no, and I mean that.
I've gotten in trouble.
I recently, I can tell you, this is crazy.
I got in trouble for not sharing.
So one of my friends had a guy and my whole crew met him
and they all loved him.
Oh, the group tasks was ablaze with hearts and fires and gifts
and I was away for the meeting.
So I was like, dang it.
So I met him later and I was expecting something great.
And I met him.
Girl, I saw so many red flags.
No.
And I didn't know what to do because all my friends loved him.
Right.
And my friend was falling in love with him.
Oh, no.
So I didn't say anything.
Turns out a couple months later,
he was completely scamming her.
Fake background, fake job, fake everything.
And thank goodness she figured it out.
But never again will I not say anything.
So if you had a bad profile picture, I would tell you.
And I was just thinking, then when I get a boyfriend,
I'm bringing him to you.
Yeah, just take me picture.
I'll be like behind a bush.
So is all you need is a photo or you need to meet someone?
Well, I can tell a lot from a video
because remember silent videos tell you a lot.
Because I think I'm really gonna do this.
Text me, yes, we need to make sure.
Yes.
Also, like my friend is so smart,
like she's so cool, so smart.
She has good intuition.
So I was like really surprised that she didn't pick up on it.
I realized it was the language of cues,
which goes back to what you said at the beginning.
If we are armed with these cues, we know what to look for.
We can get right to the truth, which is the goal.
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Do you feel like you have good intuition on people?
I feel like I do, but I've also been wrong about people.
You know, but I feel like I do more so
when it's not romantic
because I'm not blinded by other things.
Yeah.
And that's, I think what was happening.
And like, I think wishful thinking is like very powerful
and beautiful and like, that's good,
but we also have to know what is the body language
telling us, what is even the vocal power telling us?
So wait, I promised five, right?
So we did nodding, we did contempt.
My next favorite one, I want to do lip pursing.
So lip pursing is a universal gesture
that when we are withholding something,
we kind of press our lips together into that firm line.
Like for example, if you ask a woman,
how much do you weigh?
She'll be like, right.
We just like, we don't like to say.
So it's a universal gesture.
I like looking for it when I always wanna know
when someone's holding back with me, you know,
friend or teammate or my hubby doesn't hold back anymore.
He knows better.
He knows better than me.
We could detect it all.
Oh my gosh.
And he's the most honest person I ever met
and that's why I married him.
So he doesn't withhold.
Well what a gift you have.
I'm like, this is amazing.
He has no choice.
No, he has no choice.
So, and by the way, watch this with your partner, right?
Like do this with your partner, trade cues
with your partner, please.
So a lit purse, that's, I think a symbol of, I need to go deeper.
I need to give this person permission that I'm a safe place for them. And like, that's
what we're doing as humans is we're trying to be like, you belong here. You are safe
here. So if I'm talking to someone and they're like, and they press their lips together,
I know what their thinking is, should I say this? Should I say this?
And I always want them to say it.
Right.
It's like, it's a perfect moment to be like,
you can tell me, just tell me everything.
And then just tell people you read body language
and then they'll really tell you everything.
That's a good way to get them to tell you that
because you're not waiting for them to.
Just be like, I watched Chloe Manessa's podcast
and I know all the cues.
I know you're hiding something from me.
That's a good one.
What's number four, would you say?
I would say toe behavior,
and this is kind of a weird one.
Oh, no way.
So we actually found that when we were observing people,
we noticed that people tended to point their toes
towards the most important person in the room
or their crush.
Oh, wow.
And I love to go to an office Christmas party
and try to predict who has a crush on who.
And see where their feet are.
This makes sense.
Fascinating.
Right, from a subconscious perspective,
your brain is sort of on
either the most important person in the room or your crush.
And so your body sort of orients towards them,
even if we're talking,
like your feet might be towards them.
So one, you can look at this,
it's very interesting to look at.
But two, it's also a good cue for you.
If someone's done talking to you,
they will often point their toes towards the door.
Like if they want out,
and by the way, if you ever want out,
you also could point your toes towards the door.
Subconsciously, sometimes people will pick up on it.
I am gonna pay attention to this so deeply now.
This is gonna be a sick game.
It's also a great way to like look at people's shoes
and see all kinds of things.
Totally, no, I love this. That is, I've never thought about the foot game. It's also a great way to look in people's shoes and see all kinds of things. No, I love this.
I've never thought about the foot one.
That's crazy.
And we don't think about feet,
and so often it gives it away.
You know what I mean?
Wow. Yes.
And now everyone's gonna know about this one.
Well, I mean, now everyone's gonna be like,
I'm just straight ahead.
Yes.
And is it for men and women?
Wow. Yeah.
Okay, last one.
It's again, it's so hard to pick my favorites,
but my last one I'm gonna do is- So far these are great.
Building on the nod is- I'm a big nodder. I know. I love it.
I don't know if it's bad or good. And it's all subconscious. I'm not in like sitting here like,
I better nod right now. I sometimes hate that I do it so much, but I'm so invested in what people
are saying. I love it because it's a warmth cue.
So when we talk about body language,
we want to split them up into warmth cues and competence cues.
When humans first meet, especially in first impressions,
we are very quickly trying to gauge someone's warmth
and competence.
This makes up 82% of our impressions of people.
So when someone first meets you, the very first question
they're asking is, can I trust you?
The second question is, can I rely on you?
Very highly charismatic people, that's who I study.
Highly charismatic people are quickly signaling,
you can trust me and you can rely on me.
And then we're like, oh, we like this person.
That's why we like or we're drawn to certain people.
So when we, warmth cues are the first thing I want to do.
Nodding is a warmth cue, which is why we love it so much.
There's something I want wanna note about it though.
So a slow triple nod,
makes the other person speak 67% longer.
Okay.
So as an interviewer, it's great,
cause you're like, keep going, tell me more.
Right. Okay.
But there's a difference between a slow nod and a fast nod.
A slow nod is engagement and warmth. A fast nod is impatience. So look at the difference between a slow nod and a fast nod. A slow nod is engagement and warmth.
A fast nod is impatience.
So look at the difference.
This is mm-hmm, mm-hmm, mm-hmm versus uh-huh, mm-hmm, mm-hmm.
Right.
It is so fascinating.
If you want someone to just wrap it up,
like they're like mm-hmm, mm-hmm, mm-hmm, mm-hmm.
And they get it.
They're like, oh, okay, I gotta hurry it up and wrap it up.
It's like so interesting, like that subtle,
that subtle little difference.
It is so crazy.
I also tend to, I think like squint.
You do a lower lid flex.
Right, what does that mean?
Yes, okay, so some of your amazing cues.
So you nod, and by the way, you mentioned too much.
There is such a thing as bobble heading.
I don't think you do it. I don't think you do it.
I don't think you do it. You know what I mean?
I love that.
When you,
Prolific term.
When you just feel yourself,
just like you're like, no, no.
So I'm a recovering bobbleheader.
Okay.
I'm just gonna come out.
Yes, you're safe here.
I'm a recovering bobbleheader.
And it was my New Year's resolution two years ago
to stop bobbleheading.
No way.
Yes, because too much warmth
takes away from your competence.
So we talk about the balance of these cues.
If we send too much warmth, our credibility goes down.
So highly warm folks are seen as likable and friendly,
but people interrupt them.
People don't take them seriously.
People push back on them.
They can't raise their rates or get a raise.
Too warm.
When we have a lot of
warmth, it decreases our competence. And the other hand is there are some folks who are very high in
competence, signaling high competence. If you're high in competence, people take you seriously,
think you're in charge, think you're capable, but they don't like you. They think you're a bad
collaborator. They don't open up to you. And so those are both, you know, challenges. Right.
And so if you are bobble heading,
you are too high in warmth
and it means that people will not take you as seriously.
So you wanna nod purposely.
Like you're nodding when you agree with me, I hope.
You're not nodding by default.
I was doing it all the time,
which took away from my credibility.
So if this is you, if you're a bobble header,
I have a trick for you.
Which is, you just need to replace it with the head tilt.
Because it's impossible to do both at the same time.
Do you know what I mean?
I look crazy.
Right, it's not a good look.
That's what I would do.
Right, that's weird.
I'm on video a lot, right?
It's like, I have to be careful.
So that's what I would do.
I'd be like.
Right, and it's still warm, but it's okay. Like it still works. This is my awkwardness,
but I had to just replace it. So that's you if you're an over-knotter. So competence,
on the other hand, I just want to talk about competence for a second. Competence comes from
stillness, comes from eye contact, and it comes from hand gestures. So-
A big hand talker.
I'm a big hand talker too. That's why I always have to have my nails done.
It's right. I try to hold my hands sometimes to stop using them so much. Yes. Just to calm down a
little bit. Yes, because it's a spectrum, right? Like same with nodding. So you, I, that shows me
that you have a lot of warmth, but you need to like, you know, yeah, calm down, high competence.
We would say high competence. Okay. That's what we say in the research. Yeah, because, so gestures,
I mentioned earlier in your profile picture,
I love a hand gesture in a pose,
and that is because I think our hands
are like the windows to the soul.
We tend to look at hands for trust,
and that's because if we can't see someone's hands,
we wonder what's their intention.
We also look to hands for comprehension.
So if I were to say to you,
today I have a really big idea.
For those who are listening,
I'm holding up a very little thing.
You'd be like, but Vanessa, it's so small.
And that is because your brain gives 12.5 times more weight
to my gestures.
Oh, wow.
Which is crazy because liars don't practice their gestures.
So the reason we like a gesture
is because we know it's very hard to lie with our gesture.
So if someone says like, I'll, we'll do an experiment.
Want to do an experiment?
So I want you to, I want you to say five, but hold up three.
Okay.
Ready?
Five.
Horrible hard.
Because you have to think about both separately.
It's really hard to lie with our hands.
So the reason why this is important is because we are looking to gesture for truth.
So if I say I have a really big idea and I hold it like it's beach ball big, you're like,
well, it does look big.
That is a big one.
Right?
But if I'm like, I have three ideas, you're like, well, there's three.
And by the way, if you don't be able to interrupt you, say I have three things I want to talk
about today.
Number one, number two, number three, right?
Because we're trusting, oh, she has three, she better get through all three.
So we look for very highly competent people, the best speakers, the best head talkers,
they use purposeful gestures. They show visible hands, so they always like start with a palm
showing, and then they underline their concepts with their words. And so if you're presenting,
or you're speaking, or sharing an important idea, the more you can emphasize with your gesture, not
crazy movement, but emphasize,
the more people are like, wow, she really knows her stuff.
It's so fascinating.
And do you think, I mean, this is all just naturally done,
or do you think people are paying attention
if you're doing a TED Talk and they're getting these stats
and they're like, okay, well, I'm gonna come out waving,
showing the palm of my hand. Yeah.
There's a certain portion of the population that are naturally very highly charismatic.
They come out the womb with great gestures. Like they are always gesturing. But most of
us have learned or they notice, wow, like, oh, a really good Ted speaker. They tend to
like sound and look a certain way. Like for example, every Ted Talk sort of sounds like
this. Today, I want wanna talk about a big idea.
Yes.
I'm gonna break it down into three areas
that will change your life.
Oh my gosh, yes.
Like that's a Ted Talk voice.
It is.
And I just cued you like, well, she sounds smart.
Even though I was singing.
And let's have the three ideas.
We better hear those three ideas
that are gonna change my life, what are they?
And so that vocal tone told you that I had high competence. And so, yes, there's a portion of it that's natural,
but I actually think that what's holding most of us back
is we are warm and we are competent,
but we don't know how to signal it.
So the curse of very smart people,
and most of my students are high achieving,
super talented, whip it smart,
but they don't know how to showcase their idea.
They don't know how to present in front of a room.
They don't know how to pick a guy. They don't know how to present in front of a room.
They don't know how to pick a guy.
They don't know how to turn a casual friend into a best friend
because they don't know how to signal,
I really want this warmth, but also take me seriously.
I like ability and credibility.
So I wish a lot of it was natural,
but I actually think that we can learn it.
People skills body language.
It's a skill like math or science.
I think that the longer we can keep our kids off their devices
so that they
have to figure out, oh, it's awkward if I don't make eye contact. Oh, that moment of do we handshake
or hug or high five is really awkward. Here's how I'm going to do it. I'm going to signal clearly.
I teach my kids three body language things. So if you have any kids in your life, teach them these
three things. First is try to notice someone's eye color. If you tell a kid to make eye contact,
at least like I have, you know,
seven-year-olds and two and a half-year-old,
they're like, what?
Right.
But if you're like, what was their eye color?
It gives them a reason to make eye contact.
And then you explain to them,
when you make eye contact, you notice their eye color.
It shows that you want to know them.
Okay, so notice their eye color
and try to show them that you like them.
Second, hands first.
So always approach with your hand out. Yes. So you're clearly signaling the greeting that you like them. Second, hands first. So always approach with your hand out.
So you're clearly signaling the greeting that you want.
Especially for little kids who,
maybe they don't want a hand shake.
Maybe they want a high five.
Maybe they want a fist bump.
Maybe they just want to wave.
I want them to know that they can be in control
of how they want to be greeted
and that hand gestures are very important.
So like visible hands.
And the last one, this is so important for littles,
is weird, but I tell them, imagine like you're wearing a cape.
A superhero, when they wear a cape, they roll their shoulders back,
they have their chin held up high.
I want to maximize the distance between your ear and your shoulder.
And kids are always like, really? Why?
When kids get nervous, they tend to take up as little space as possible.
Even like I see adults will say hi on Zoom like this, hi.
Right.
And that destroys your credibility.
Right.
Right. So I say to my daughter, I have two daughters. So I say, you know, maximize this
with your ear on your shoulder. Stand like you're wearing a cape. When you take up space,
people pay attention to you. When you take up space, people take you seriously and they
believe you.
And that's a really important gift
we can give them early on and us too, right?
Like I also, when I'm in video, on photos, in person,
I'm trying to maximize this weird distance.
Right, no, those are, I love all these takeaways
because like I said, I don't care your age, your gender,
what you do, I think all of this is so helpful for work,
for friendship circles, any of that.
Do you notice male versus female?
Do some struggle more than others?
So I don't think one struggles more than,
they don't struggle with body language more than others,
but I have noticed that there are different cues.
So for example, the research actually finds this
is that women typically default to hire in warmth.
This makes sense.
We are often taught from a cultural perspective
to be caring and nurturing and to be liked.
And so we'll do anything to be liked,
even if it means throwing our competence under the bus.
And so women, I think will often,
in the desire to be liked,
they sacrifice their need to be respected.
And I want both. So that is a struggle that more women have than men, in the desire to be liked, they sacrifice their need to be respected.
And I want both.
So that is a struggle that more women have than men,
not always, but often.
Men often struggle with the opposite,
where they're told they're seen as intimidating
or hard to talk to or cold,
and they struggle with the warmth piece.
And they struggle with the emotional piece
or showing the emotion piece.
And so it's really important that we help men.
Again, it's not always that you can show warmth and emotion
and that doesn't mean that you're not a man.
It means that you're showing warmth.
And warmth is a good thing.
So I see that difference.
I also see funny nonverbal cue differences.
So I've noticed men,
men maybe commenting can correct me,
but men I've noticed they do a male nod.
So when men see other men, they go, uh, like that.
And I have a theory that men, when they see other men,
they know, they go, hey, and it's cause they're willing
to show their jugular.
But if they see other men, they don't know, they go,
and they go down.
And so there's like this kind of theory that maybe
if you go like this, you're like, I see you,
but you're protecting your jugular.
But if it's a guy you know, you're like, look at this.
I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm.
Look at, look at my jugular.
I'm looking at my jugular.
You know what I mean?
No offense, men, but it sounds like a very man thing to do.
So I have noticed that, that weird difference.
I also noticed that men like to have deep,
intimate conversations side by side, like at a bar,
like at the bar or like in the car.
So right.
And like, even like men will like kind of like turn away
and like want to like sidle up to you to talk to you
and you're like, no, just no.
Right.
Because women want this.
Face to face, yes.
Yeah, women want this.
Yes.
And so I think that's just like a preference difference,
like maybe it's like a territorial thing.
So there's like little gestures like that.
Also like, you know, the way men and women flirt
is very different.
Very different.
So, you know, women subconsciously wanna call attention
to their health of their skin
and they often will self-touch,
so like they'll self-touch their hair,
they'll self-touch their lips.
That's a thing that men often don't do,
whereas men will try to claim space more
and they wanna look bigger and broader,
then that's just a different way.
It's so fascinating, everything that you,
like I would be afraid to be your friend.
I mean, it's hard.
No, I mean, everyone's laughing, but I just mean,
because you would know every-
I only have three, so it's okay.
You're two kids and your husband.
My two kids and my husband.
Oh my gosh.
No, just because you would know if I was,
like could anyone throw you a surprise party?
I mean, it was learning this, so I wasn't like this, growing up, I was very awkward, could anyone throw you a surprise party? I mean, it was learning this.
So I wasn't like this growing up,
I was very awkward.
I was misreading all these cues.
And I would say my twenties were really hard.
That was when I was coming up
with like my code of nonverbal.
Like I was starting to do the research,
I was starting to code these cues and breakdown,
even conversation, like how,
what is our blueprint for how we have good conversation?
And I had friends that were not truthful
or they didn't want me to be truthful with them.
And that was hard and I lost a lot of friendships.
And my best friend from college, she was there,
but it was really hard.
And now like my circle is small, it's really tight.
I have also like a public image also,
which you understand.
And it's, I want it real small and real tight. And it's like a public image also, which you understand and it's, I want
it real small and real tight and it's great. It's amazing.
Right. I am all about quality over quantity. I think you do that when you're a teenager
in your twenties, you just acquire a lot of people, but they're not always good for you.
I also think like ambivalence, you know, like there's those people, I don't know if you
still have these people. I somehow have some them, where like there are people, you see their name on your calendar and you're like,
huh, yeah.
That is very emotionally draining.
Right.
And ambivalent friendships are worse
than toxic friendships, in my opinion.
They studied police officers and they found
that police officers who have toxic relationships
are happier in their workplace than police officers
who have ambivalent relationships
at work.
Oh, no way.
And that is because if you don't like someone,
like if you know, oh, like that friend of a friend,
like not my person, you're not gonna go talk to them,
you're not gonna go have lunch with them,
there's no brain space they take up.
They're not your person.
But if you're like, it's my friend's best friend.
Right.
Like, oh, that cousin of a cousin of a cousin,
you know what I mean?
Like you're ambivalent about them and then you're agonizing about it. And actually emotionally that takes a much bigger toll.
So I would say like the clearer you can get on those people, the tighter your circle can be where
they're like, heck yes about these people, the more emotionally healthy you are with those relationships.
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You said you're a recovering awkward person,
but do you feel that anyone that thinks
that they're awkward can get over this awkward stage?
Oh yes, yes.
And how does one go about that?
Yes, okay.
First is, I'm so excited you're watching
because you're my people, right?
Like recovering awkward people everywhere,
like we think that we're stuck there,
we are not stuck there.
There is so much we can do because,
one, awkwardness dresses up in certain ways.
Here's what I mean by this.
Awkwardness can dress up as introversion
or like shutting down.
I know people who are awkward
and they completely shut down
and they can't think straight
and they go almost like numb.
Awkwardness can dress up as the opposite,
as showing off, as name dropping, as being over the top.
You're right.
Yeah.
Awkwardness can show up as meanness, right?
Or bullying.
Awkwardness can show up as judgment.
So there's a lot of ways that awkwardness can show up.
And so first thing is identifying
that you don't have to do that anymore, right?
Like you might default to shutting down
or judgment or being mean and no judgment,
that is just, that was a fear mechanism for you.
That's the first thing.
The second thing is everyone has their own flavor
of charisma.
You do not have to fake it till you make it.
You do not have to pretend to be a bubbly extrovert
to be liked.
That was the mistake I made for so long
is I thought the only way I'm gonna make friends and to be liked is to pretend to be this bubbly extrovert to be liked. That was the mistake I made for so long, is I thought the only way I'm gonna make friends
to be liked is to pretend to be this bubbly extrovert,
but I'm just not.
I can be, I'm ambivalent.
Okay, so then it is, what is your flavor of charisma?
First, who, then where, then what, who?
It is really hard to not be awkward around ambivalent people.
The reason why I want you to do this 30 day,
we'll call it a cleanse, a social cleanse,
is that it's setting you up for failure.
If you're with people who make you feel
a little uncomfortable or a little bit of dread,
it's so hard to be your best self with them.
So who makes you your best self?
Who makes you feel like they just bring out the funny in you,
the likable in you, they appreciate you for who you are?
Even if that's a very short list, that's your list.
Those are your people.
And so that's the first thing is,
only practices with those people,
they're gonna make you charismatic.
They're gonna tell you where you're not so charismatic.
Second is where, and this is one people forget.
So I want you to think, where do you feel your best self?
Like for example, for me, I love one-on-one conversations.
I love coffees. I love going to get tacos. I love cooking with friends. I love having
people over to my house and hosting a very small, like six to eight people at
the most. I have a lot of siblings also, so I'm used to big family get-togethers.
Like that's my spot. So I just know that about me. So where? Where is it for you?
Find your place. And last thing is the what, and this is the hardest thing,
which is I think what's social media is having trouble with
is I see all of my friends' life highlights in their reels.
So no longer do I get the joy of, oh, I got a puppy.
I know.
The mystery of life is gone.
Right, so like my friend comes over and she's like,
I got a puppy and I'm like, oh, I know.
And she's like, let me see a picture.
I'm like, oh no, I've seen them.
And then she's like, I named it.
I'm like, I know, Tulip.
What a buzzkill.
Totally.
And I also so much think that desensitizes us
for even the excitement of things that should be that
exciting and joyful and things that I would normally share.
I'm like, no, because they're gonna see it.
And instead of me telling my friends something on my own,
I'm like, oh, they'll,
and not like I'm like, they'll hear about it.
I just feel like, oh, there's enough information
going around.
And I really hate that.
And my sisters and I, we talk about that.
We used to, like, we don't even tell each other things
sometimes because we get so desensitized,
but I'm like, oh my gosh, court, I heard this happen to you.
It just takes away not only the mystery,
but I think we aren't as excited
to share things anymore.
The joy, yeah, or like I'll drop,
I'll tell my siblings something good,
and they're like, heart.
And I'm like, yay. Yes.
As opposed to like a hug or high five or this.
And I think we've taken the joy out of that sharing.
And so I think everyone should know the three levels
of connection and conversation.
And in all of your relationships,
you should be thinking about these three levels
of connection.
This is why sometimes you like don't click
with certain people.
It's because you can't actually,
you're having trouble getting from level to level.
Level one is called general traits.
Occupation, family status, hometown.
This is why we ask everyone, where are you from?
Oh, that part of the city?
Oh, what do you do?
It's because we have to kind of know those general traits
to be able to go deeper.
You can't start a conversation with like,
so tell me your greatest fear.
Right.
I would love to do that, but we can't.
It's awkward, yeah.
I learned that the hard way.
My awkwardness also comes with asking way too personal questions too quickly. we can't. It's like awkward, yeah. I learned that the hard way. Like my awkwardness also comes with asking
way too personal questions too quickly.
Oh my gosh, I sort of love that from people.
Good, I've already done it today.
Okay, good.
So like we check off those traits.
If you were an awkward small talk,
you're probably stuck in that level.
Where you're always like, you see that like random cousin
and you're like, how's the kid?
Same old, yes.
You're stuck there.
If you want to level up with them.
I was just gonna ask you, how do you level up with them?
Yes, you have to know what you're going towards.
The next level is called personal concerns.
This is research out of Northwestern University
that basically personal concerns is values,
motivations, goals, worries.
You know if you're on level two with someone,
if you could tell me what their biggest goal is right now,
what worries them at night, what gets them up in the morning.
Like what excites them. If you know that,
you probably are on level two with them.
If you don't know that, those are the questions you wanna ask.
So the question is like, working on anything exciting these days?
Like instead of, I would love to go on a what do you do diet.
Yes. I think what do you do diet. Yes.
I think what do you do is basically asking someone,
what are you worth?
I agree.
But I also think people just do it out of habit.
It's habit. Right.
And also we're trying to check that box of level one.
Right.
So here's a challenge.
I have a challenge.
May we all just pause asking what do you do?
And instead, like don't let yourself ask it.
I know it's a habit, but instead ask,
working on anything exciting these days?
If someone loves what they do, they will tell you.
Right.
If someone is not defined about what they do
or they're ashamed of what they do,
they will tell you something they actually love
and excites them.
And then you're getting into like the values.
And then you can say, I have a little thing that I use,
which is like on Mondays and Tuesdays, I always ask,
do you do anything fun and exciting this past weekend?
Because then like, A, you're known for that.
Like all my teammates, my teammates are all over the world.
They know I'm gonna ask them that on Monday or Tuesday.
And so they're like, I do more fun and exciting things
because I know you're gonna ask me.
Oh my gosh, I love that.
Which is like, great, like be known for it.
So on Monday and Tuesday, I always ask,
do you do anything exciting this past weekend?
On Thursday and Friday, I always ask,
do you have any fun and exciting plans this weekend?
And on Wednesdays, I don't talk to anyone.
I have a word.
I love that, yeah.
It's great, it's like a rest day.
So you can be known for these questions
or like I have a friend who always asks me,
what are you learning?
And you can bet when I see lunch on the calendar with him,
I always learn something for that lunch.
Like he makes me better with that question.
Also, what's your goal?
What's your goal this year?
How can I help?
That's getting into level two.
Level three is for your closest people.
And I only have two people on this level,
and some people only have one or no people.
It's called self-narrative.
Your self-narrative is the story
you tell yourself about yourself. It's how you-narrative. Your self-narrative is the story you tell yourself about yourself.
It's how you make sense of your journey
and purpose in the world.
So it is critical to know someone's self-narrative
because then you know how they think
and how they're making decisions.
So for example, I've noticed there's a couple,
I'm researching this for my next book,
which is hero, healer, and victim.
I noticed those are three common ones.
Hero's self-narrative always sound the same.
I've had challenges and struggles,
but with hard work and grit and resilience,
I always overcome.
And everything in their life is that.
Whether it's work or romance or personal,
they're always in that narrative.
That's their self-narrative.
Versus the healer, there's another one I found pattern.
Healers are always of service. In fact, usually their careers are even of service. narrative versus the healer is another one I found a pattern.
Healers are always of service.
In fact, usually their careers are even of service. They're nurses and doctors and teachers and coaches and trainers.
And their narrative is I am here to help others.
I'm here to serve the world.
The issue with healers is they often say yes to too much.
Right.
They burn out.
They're always putting others first.
Yes.
And so they're, but they're constantly doing, no matter what, they're always over giving.
And so it's wonderful to be in a relationship with them,
but they're also always over committed.
The last one, which is really important,
if this is you, this used to be my narrative
until I worked to change it.
And anyone can change their narrative,
is a victim narrative.
Starts the same as a healer.
I had challenges, I had mistakes,
but with grit and hard work and
resilience, I wasn't able to overcome.
The number one question you can ask yourself is, do you feel lucky?
People who feel lucky typically have more of a hero self-narrative.
People who feel unlucky or life has been against them have a victim self-narrative.
And typically that repeats.
Self-narratives are self-creating. If you have a victim self-narrative. And typically that repeats. Self-narratives are self-creating.
If you have a victim self-narrative,
you literally see the world differently.
You miss more opportunities.
And how were you able to get yourself
out of having the victim mentality?
So I, in that awkwardness,
I felt like I was doing something,
I was causing my own problems,
I was getting my own way.
That's a lot of victims will say like, I'm getting my own way, I was getting my own way. That's a lot of victims will say like,
I'm getting my own way or I'm unlucky.
And I realized that the only person
who could change my life was me.
If I wasn't fighting for me,
no one else was gonna be fighting for me.
And so I had to learn how to stand up for myself.
I had to learn the skills of reading body language,
of knowing how to communicate.
I had this dream of helping people communicate,
and I was like, how do we do it?
I started on YouTube in 2007.
No one was on YouTube in 2007.
But I was like, I have to try it.
And slowly I had little micro wins.
And I think this is the way you change it,
if you want to change your narrative, micro wins,
little tiny successes.
Those little successes are evidence to yourself,
like, oh, maybe I can do it. And sometimes that's all we can do, it's like a little micro successes. Those little successes are evidence to yourself,
like, oh, maybe I can do it.
And sometimes that's all we can do,
it's like a little micro win.
And I love micro wins,
and I don't think that people applaud themselves enough
or cheer themselves on enough.
I love giving myself tiny little goals
that I'm trying to reach,
and when I get there, I'm like, yay.
Are you a to-do list writer?
I love a to-do list.
Don't you love checking off something on a to-do list?
But I am old school, I need a real piece of paper.
I have to scratch it off.
Absolutely, and I need a Q-pen too.
Yes.
I also will put things on my to-do list
I've already done just for the pleasure of-
Of scratching it off.
It's like adrenaline.
Yes, no, I love that.
I'm like, okay, and then I see, I'm like,
I have one left and I get so excited.
Yes, but by the way, when to-do list,
this is like such a silly productivity tip,
but like this is research-based,
is like doing a to-do list is great for organization,
but it's actually better for winning.
Like the art of making a to-do list the night before
if you wanna be old school or that morning
is literally just setting yourself up for a bunch of wins.
Especially if you break them down into very small things,
every single time you do it, your body produces dopamine.
Dopamine is the chemical of excitement.
It's a chemical of motivation.
When you check off a win, you're more likely to win more.
And what's crazy is there's this really interesting research study.
They brought people into their labs.
They sold them off into two different groups.
One group, they had them take a basic like intelligence test.
The second, they had them do the same test, but they changed the directions
very slightly where they sprinkled in achievement oriented words. Those are words like success,
achieve, master. They wanted to know if you prime someone or cue them with win words,
do you think more like a winner? That is exactly what happened.
Yes.
Even three or four win words made them perform better on the task, made them spend double the amount of time working
on the task and help them enjoy the task more.
So when you're doing that to do list,
you're checking it off and you get this flood of dopamine,
which makes you feel like a winner,
which makes you think like a winner,
which makes you do even better on the next task.
I also very strongly believe in a not to do list.
Do you have a not to do list?
No, like don't do certain things.
Don't do those things. No. Yes, so a not to do list. Do you have a not to do list? No. So a not- Like don't do certain things? Don't do those things.
No.
Yes.
So a not to do list is all the things you know
don't serve you.
They're the things like,
you know that you should not be doing it
because they usually cause you cortisol
or adrenaline in a bad way.
So like I might have on my list,
do not check social media.
Okay.
Like that would be on my not to do list
or I will not be in my inbox during my golden hour. You know, like a golden hour is like your most creative time. So like you can actually also have my not to do list or I will not be in my inbox during my golden hour.
You know, like a golden hour is like your most creative time.
So like you can actually also have a not to do list.
And you get to check it off if you didn't do it.
Yeah, it's like all the lists.
Is this an excuse for me to have more lists?
Maybe.
And I'm a color coded type of list.
Like I love a good color coded system.
By the way, you just did a lower lid flex and I forgot to explain it.
Oh my.
You asked to squinting. You asked and I, you just did it and I forgot to explain it. Okay. Oh gosh. So a lower lid,
no it's so good. It's competence. This is the guy, see I tangented and we're all the way back,
all the way back around. Okay. So a lower lid flex. When I'm trying to see something far away,
I flex my lower lid because actually what it does from an anatomical perspective is I'm blocking out
light. And when we block out light, it means I can see more details.
So we know this is a universal cue
as if someone hardens their lower lid,
you just know that I went from listening to scrutinizing.
Right, like, so if I'm like this,
I don't do it very often, you do it a lot.
It's like, if I'm going, ah,
I just look a little bit more skeptical
or like I'm really trying to deeply listen
or deeply understand.
Because I don't think I am questioning or scrutinizing you.
You're deeply listening.
Right, so it's not a positive nor a negative cue.
That's why this is a very interesting one
is it's high competence.
It shows deep listening.
And here's what the crazy thing is.
I think I was looking at people's sexiest men alive,
like for research.
And I noticed that like almost every man is doing it.
Like he's like this.
Oh wow.
Well that's the Zoolander.
Zoolander, it's blue steel.
Why is because we love a man who is deeply listening to us.
Don't we?
So the reason why all the hot men,
I think they've learned it,
is they know that it's sexy to see a man who's lower lid flexing
because we're like, oh, he's deeply listening to me.
Yes, he's in our soul.
So it's a very high common cue.
It's good as an interviewer because it balances out your nods, right?
It's a great natural balance.
And you can do it when you're speaking
to show that you're deeply listening to someone.
You also can watch for it to see,
oh, this is a point that they're really trying
to understand.
I was giving a presentation to like a C-suite group
of people and I noticed that the CEO kind of lower lid flexed
when I was talking about oxytocin.
Oxytocin is the chemical connection, very simplified
that like when we hug or touch, we produce oxytocin
and that makes us feel the warm and fuzzies.
We also get it with eye contact.
We also get it with mutual laughter and it makes us feel the warm and fuzzies. We also get it with eye contact. We also get it with mutual laughter.
And it makes us feel, this person gets me.
We love it.
So I was talking about it at the presentation and I could see him and I said,
does that make sense?
And he goes, but doesn't it put you in labor?
Because he remembered that his wife had gotten pitocin,
a form of oxytocin to go into labor.
And I was like, yes.
Afterwards, he said to me,
I immediately felt heard, like I felt like
that didn't catch me up because you addressed it,
and I got so much work with that company after that
because he just felt like I got them.
So you can notice it of like, are we good here?
But also I became a better teacher
because I realized that it was confusing
if I didn't say it does a lot of things in our body.
It's complicated. I just wanna make sure, because I don't know confusing if I didn't say it does a lot of things in our body, it's complicated.
I just wanna make sure,
because I don't know I'm doing it,
like I noticed it from watching the podcast
and I'm like, why am I doing that?
I am not-
You're deeply listening.
Right, so but does that scare someone?
No, I know that you are paying attention.
I know that you are deeply paying attention.
Now, context is important here.
Like if I were to be like your girlfriend and we're sitting together and I'm like,
I'm gonna teach my kid how to go skydiving.
And you'd be like, um.
Right.
Then I would know that you're feeling like a little skeptical.
So you can actually use it as a nice way to be like, really?
Right.
I want to know this because I'm nosy.
So you studied DaVci's last supper painting.
I know this is so random, but this is so fascinating to me.
And I wanna hear what you discovered and broke down.
Okay, we should break it down.
Sorry, I'm so excited.
Yes, yes, like hopefully they can show it.
So I saw this painting when I was young, of course.
And I was like, oh, it's so beautiful.
We love it.
We're captivated by this painting.
Like I'm always obsessed with historical pop culture, things that we're all captivated by., we're captivated by this painting. Like I'm always obsessed with historical pop culture,
things that we're all captivated by.
Why are we captivated by this painting?
It is the perfect balance of warmth and competence.
And in the painting, the central figure, Christ,
is showing the perfect balance of warmth and competence.
Let's break it down.
What is he doing?
So he actually is going like this.
He has one hand up and one hand down.
One palm showing.
A palm up is a warmth cue.
We talked about this earlier.
When you can see my palm, you know I'm not hiding anything.
A palm down cue, we know famous people who have done that.
I'm not gonna do it.
But can you imagine historical figures
who maybe have done that?
Yeah, that's a authoritative cue.
So for example, if I were to say, sit down,
that does not feel good. We don't like it.
Or when you're giving a command and you say,
like everyone pay attention.
It's very commanding.
So this is a perfect balance, literally in his gestures
of warmth and competence.
Then what is he doing?
He has a head tilt.
Head tilt is a universal warmth gesture.
Why?
When I say, do you hear that?
We expose our ear.
So it literally makes him look more empathetic,
like he's listening. But also if you measure every single body in the picture, When I say, do you hear that? We expose our ear. So it literally makes him look more empathetic,
like he's listening.
But also if you measure every single body in the picture,
he is taking up the most space in a picture.
Wow.
So the head tilt is balanced with a competence gesture.
The more space we take up,
it looks like he could be wearing a cape.
His shoulders are down, he has the most space.
Like every other photo, every other image,
every other person is like with their their head. No, you're so right.
Their distance is the smallest.
So here Da Vinci was subtly queuing us to,
yes, he's powerful, but look, he's listening.
Look, he has palms visible,
but also he's very commanding and authoritative.
You also will notice that Judas takes up
the least amount of space
and also has the most negative facial expression.
And then notice the fists. The people who are the apostles that are making fists are also the ones
that were known for withholding. So even that's amazing in the painting, we see these subtle cues,
which is why I think one we were captivated by the painting. But second, why Da Vinci was so
created so many amazing works as he somehow subtly knew these things.
I'm trying to look at their feet.
Their feet, yes, yes.
Christ's feet are pointed towards us,
which what do we like the most?
We feel like the most important person in the room.
I'm a geek when it comes to historical things,
I really am.
So whenever I'm hearing,
like I'm watching a documentary about,
I don't know, the pyramids or Egyptian etchings,
or it's so fascinating, like this Da Vinci painting. I'm watching a documentary about, I don't know, the pyramids or Egyptian etchings.
It's so fascinating, like this Da Vinci painting.
How on earth is he so aware of all of these things
that you have studied for decades?
And with the help of many researchers.
Right.
Thousands and thousands of researchers.
And all of our technology and information,
and it's wild.
Oh girl, you text me when you see one in history
because there are so many interesting ones.
Like I love dissecting like old speeches
and like hidden cues in speeches,
hidden cues in paintings.
There are so many, but I think this is true
because there's a universality to it.
That painting is old,
but somehow we were captivated by it.
I even think like Mona Lisa, right?
Like why are we so captivated by Mona Lisa?
Is because she's showing a little smirk which makes her look better than us. And we're like, why does she feel better than
us? That is mysterious to us. It's crazy. And so I think there's like a hidden language happening
behind all of our interactions. And if we know how to read it, we all become more purposeful
and that benefits all of us. Before we wrap up, is there anything else you wanna leave us with? I felt like you've left us with so many gems and jewels.
I would say let's go on a 30 day adventure together.
You can change a lot in 30 days.
So 30 days, we are going to stick with the heck yes people.
We're gonna purge those ambivalent relationships.
We're gonna stop asking what do you do.
And we're gonna start asking the good questions
to get to level two.
What can anything exciting?
What are your goals? What are you learning? And the last gonna start asking the good questions to get to level two. What can anything exciting? What are your goals?
What are you learning?
And the last one is find your flavor of charisma.
What's your who, what and where?
Like let's spend 30 days like all I'm ready.
I love that.
The 30 day challenge.
Let's do it.
With Coco and Vanessa.
Thank you.
Bye bye bye.