Think Fast Talk Smart: Communication Techniques - 318. Quick Thinks: Network Smarter and Make Better Connections

Episode Date: August 27, 2026

“We are now competing in conversation with someone’s feed.”Connecting with others requires more than knowing what to say. The signals we send through our body language, the questions we ask, and even where we position ourselves can shape how others experience a conversation. In this Quick Thinks episode of Think Fast, Talk Smart, behavioral researcher and author of Cues and Captivate, Vanessa Van Edwards joins Matt Abrahams to explore the subtle cues that make communication more engaging. She shares strategies for navigating networking events, sparking more meaningful conversations, and signaling the warmth and competence that shape charisma and connection.Takeaways:Connection starts before you speak. Visible palms, eye contact, positioning, and other nonverbal cues can signal warmth and openness, shaping how others experience an interaction from the start.Better conversations spark curiosity. Moving beyond routine small talk with engaging questions, surprising stories, and genuine enthusiasm can make interactions more memorable and meaningful.Activity:Create a conversational feed. Start a note on your phone and collect three things from your week—a surprising moment, an interesting observation, or a small win. Bring one into your next networking event or meeting as “conversational confetti” instead of defaulting to routine small talk.Printable Expanded Takeaways & ActivitiesEpisode Reference Links:Vanessa Van EdwardsVanessa’s Books: Cues / CaptivateEp.301 Trust at First Sight: Create More Meaningful Connections Connect:Premium Signup >>>> Think Fast Talk Smart PremiumEmail Questions & Feedback >>> [e-mail] Transcripts >>> Think Fast Talk Smart WebsiteNewsletter Signup + English Language Learning >>> FasterSmarter.ioThink Fast Talk Smart >>> LinkedIn, Instagram, YouTubeMatt Abrahams >>> LinkedIn Chapters:(00:00) - Introduction (00:37) - Why Your Hands Matter (02:20) - Networking With Confidence (05:34) - Make Small Talk More Engaging (09:03) - The Science of Charisma (13:11) - Conclusion ********Thank you to our sponsors.  These partnerships support the ongoing production of the podcast, allowing us to bring it to you at no cost.Strawberry.me. Get 50% off your first coaching session today at Strawberry.me/smartJoin our Think Fast Talk Smart Learning Community and become the communicator you want to be. 

Hi, Matt here. I wanted to remind you that for each episode, we provide English language learning support, where we share useful information to help you develop your English skills. Check out these English language learning and other resources, along with our newsletter and deep dive videos at FasterSmarter.io under Resources. Now a word from our sponsors. Their support covers the cost of production, allowing us to bring you this episode free of charge. Strawberry.me makes coaching accessible, affordable, and global, connecting you with a coach who's the right fit for you. I've had the privilege of working with some truly great coaches, and I've also spent many years coaching others, and I can tell you firsthand, coaching makes a real difference. The challenge is that coaching has often felt out of reach for a lot of people. It can be expensive, difficult to access,

or something people assume is only for senior executives. That's why I really appreciate what Strawberry is doing. Growth shouldn't depend on whether you happen to have access to the right mentor or organization. Everyone deserves support and becoming more effective, more thoughtful, and more confident in how they show up. Visit strawberry.comme slash smart and take 50% off your first session. Make sure you let them know Matt sent you that's strawberry.combe slash smart. And now back to our conversation. Your body can strengthen your message. just as much as your words can. My name's Matt Abrams, and I teach strategic communication at Stanford Graduate School of

Business. Welcome to this quick-thinks episode of Think Fast, Talk Smart, the podcast. My conversation with Vanessa Van Edwards was packed with practical advice for becoming a more confident and engaging communicator. She shared so many useful tips that we couldn't fit them all into one episode. So here come more practical, tactical techniques to help you and your body language reinforce your message. We remember things better when we see congruent gestures with what's said, and that can be really

helpful. You have some advice and guidance that's very specific about positioning of hands, palm open, palm down. Can you share a little bit now? Some of our folks are listening, so we're going to have to describe this. Let's go back to our biology. Why do body language cues translate? How does it work across cultures?

How does it work across gender? If we think about we're about to meet a stranger caveman, like back in our caveman days, right? And we're about to meet the stranger caveman, and they're approaching us. And our brain is very quickly trying to decide, friend or foe. I ask people, where do you look in a first impression? People always say eye contact or smile. Well, actually, the first place we want to look is someone's hands because you want to see

what is their intention. Are they waving hello with a nice open palm? Do they have nothing to hide? There's a reason why we like that open palm is because it literally signals to our brain. this person is safe. They are not hiding anything from us. And their intention is positive. So one of my favorite gestures, ways to hold your hand is open palm, having your palms visible as possible, especially in a first impression, the moment you hop on a call, the moment you walk into a room, whenever I'm working with speakers, the moment you hop on stage, the best gift you can

give to your audience is a hello, happy to be here morning, or even nonverbaly having a handwave before you even take the mic or take the stage, that is signaling to someone, I am literally open to you. My intention is to build rapport with you, is to literally reach out. And whether you're not, you're in a handshaking culture or not, we like to feel like we could be palm to palm, right? We like to feel like that. So open palm is one of my favorite gestures positioning. I'd like to talk about networking. In your book Captivate, you dissect the anatomy of a networking event. Can you talk us through a few best practices to maximize our effectiveness in networking? And I'd love advice on how to show up, what to say, where to stand, just all the specifics.

So as a recovering awkward person, networking events caused me great terror. So as a researcher, what I did was I'm just going to study networking events until I've mastered them. And luckily, we were able to discover some very interesting patterns. So the biggest question I had was, in a networking event, what do I do? Like, where do I go? And I noticed anecdotally myself that when I was having different conversations, they had a different feeling based on where I was in the room. So we did a big speed networking experiment. It was actually across three different events in three different rooms, studying foot patterns where people went and then also the quality of conversation they were having. And I sort of like a football coach identified that there are three different zones in a networking event.

And this also goes for a party, a conference, a trade show, all similar have these. The first biggest, worst place to stand is the start zone. And this is the mistake that very anxious people like me make, which is we walked in and we are alone. And our anxiety is the highest. So we're like, anyone, anyone, anyone. And we will make conversation with the first person we see. The problem is in the start zone, people have things they need to do.

They got to go say how to the host. They want to go to the bathroom. They want to take their shoes off. They want to go get food. And so every conversation in that zone is going to be like this. What brings you here? Yeah, yeah, the host, yeah, she's great. Yep, we should go say hi.

Yeah, great. Talk to you later. You've just diagnosed many of my initial conversations. Yeah, and so it sets up needless friction, right? Like needless difficulty. So get out of that start zone as quickly as you possibly can. So no one engages you and you don't engage anyone else, right? Like you're going to get out of that start zone, anywhere in the start zone.

And that's where people drop coats or drop shoes or check in, not there. you don't want to stand near the food. I know it's so great to be near a buffet. I know near the food and near the bathroom, you're getting people whose brain is half on the food and the bathroom. So the best place to stand is right as people exit the bar or exit wherever they're getting their drink. This thing happens, and you can literally see it on people's faces.

I highly recommend if you're an observer like me, go to these events. When someone has their drink, their fresh drink in hand, water, coffee, tea, wine, whatever. And they turn and face the room. Their face is like, I'm ready. I'm ready. And you're a social savior. If you're standing you right there and you go, oh, that wine looks great. What is it, a cabernade tonight? Or, oh my gosh, so nice to see you. I'm Vanessa. What brings you here? It's like you are a social savior. So stand right there. And the second tip I love to get for networking is don't overthink your opener, but don't go sterile. one, asking about a drink or food, that's easy.

Do you like it? You know, how is that doing? But two, working on anything exciting these days, have any big wins this week? What's the highlight of your week? Isn't this venue so great? Those are more sparking questions. And when we do wait with the Sierra questions, it really helps people engage. I like this idea of thinking about where you stand and being a social savior,

helping others make it easy for them to have a communication. and then asking open questions that spark conversation that aren't trite and banal can be really helpful. I'm going to the next social event I'm at. I'm going to really pay attention to where people stand. I'm a greeter. I'm in the start zone. That's where I will typically stand because I learned a long time ago. The food in the bathroom get me in trouble because people are definitely heading in a direction and not wanting to talk. You highlighted a little bit about this, but many of us struggle with small talk in large part because we don't know how to start these conversations. What are some of those sparking lines or observations we can make to really help us?

Okay, so I've just started thinking about this concept, and I'm going to share it with you for the first time, which is we are now competing in conversation with someone's feed. Right. Like at any moment we're in conversation, someone is going to whip out their phone and start scrolling on their preferred social network. So really, your conversation is competing with that. What if we begin to think about conversation as a better feed? So what does a feed give?

A feed gives us dopamine, which gives us a little bit of excitement, a little bit of motivation. So that's anything exciting. Any highlights, any exciting happening? Oh, you're never going to believe what just happened to me, right? So you're sharing or asking. It's not just asking always. Sometimes it's actually sharing. Second, surprise and delight.

So surprise is a big one. A feed doesn't have a first impression. you open up your feed and it starts. I think a mistake that we have in our brain is that we have to have this slow opener before we get into it. I think we do away with that. You can literally meet someone

and they say, how are you? They're in such an autopilot. Oh my gosh, you know, it's been such a great week. The most surprising thing happened to me today, you're not going to believe. Just going right into it and using what I call conversational confetti, like phrases that are a little bit like the bead, right?

Like the most surprising thing happened to me. The weirdest thing happened to me yesterday. I saw the craziest thing. You're never going to believe. And starting to collect these stories and these moments also makes you more interesting because you're looking for things that you could share in that event or that party or that started the meeting. A lot of these, I think, happened the first five minutes of a meeting.

Most of our students are leading meetings. They're working rooms. And those first five minutes are the hardest. Just dive right into something you've been saving for them. And then spend all week curating and saving those little highlight things that you would put in your conversational feed. That's how we have to think about it. We'll be right back to finish our conversation.

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think fast, exclusively for our listeners. That's L-E-E-E-S-A.com. promo code, think fast for 25% off select mattresses plus an extra $50 off, and when you use our code, you're supporting our show. I have a colleague who's internationally known for her work on conflict and negotiation. Her name's Michelle Gelfin, and she likes to talk about mind your metaphors. The way you approach something, the metaphors and analogies we use shape how we interact. And I love this idea of small talk is like being part of somebody's feed.

And when you see it that way, it changes the way you approach. Anybody who knows me knows I love alliteration. Conversational confetti, love it. you can stockpile some of these ideas, think about it, go in, and it jumps right in. It initiates and catalyzes that communication. So I do like that idea a lot, and I will be stockpiling some things to help me in my small talk. And when we see small talk as a spark is something that can really excite people, it totally changes that metaphor from, oh, this is something I dread, this is hard, this is a battle I have to fight. I'm hoping you can help me, Vanessa. I'm

I am often asked about charisma, and it's one of these things where you know it when you see it, but dissecting it can be really hard. From your perspective, what is charisma and how does one manifest and display it? Charisma is one of those very interesting traits that we can immediately think of the most charismatic person we know, but when we have to try to define it, it's really challenging. When we think about charisma, I like to reference Dr. Susan Fiske's research, which looks at warmth and competence. Now, she wasn't coming at it from a charisma perspective. The name of research is a stereotype content model. She was thinking, how do humans make impressions of others?

But what she found is that most of our impressions are first warmth. Can I trust you? Can I be open to you? Do I like you? And then second, almost immediately, is competence. Highly charismatic people, and I've spent the last 20 years studying those people, what they are doing is very quickly signaling warmth and competence. In fact, the faster you can signal warmth and competence, the more charismatic you are. When you think about this, it also takes the pressure off of you. You don't have to be funny or impressive or extroverted. Actually, those things have very little to do with charisma. What's more important is very clearly signaling you can trust me and very clearly signaling you can rely on me. Warmth and competence are the very first topics that we cover in my

strategic communication class at Stanford's Business School. It's so important. And the research suggests both are critical and leading with warmth can often be the most helpful. Can you share with us some cues and clues that we can communicate that demonstrate warmth and competence? Now, this is a little more art than science, right? So when I read this research, I was immediately hooked and fascinated. I was like, yes, warmth and competence. But how? I love it. But what does warmth look like? What does warmth sound like? What does competence look like to sound like? Although competence is a little bit easier because we know if we know our stuff that can come across competence. But you're right. Warm is I think the trickier one. So I went into research of,

okay, what signals openness, likeability, friendliness, what makes someone feel trust? So here are my opinions of very highly warm cues based on highly charismatic people and the research. First, visible palm, eye contact, and positive, affirmative, nonverbal and verbal. So for example, if I were to come on this podcast and say, yeah, I'm so happy to be here. Right. So having positive tone, having positive words and aligning those two, having that visible palm, having eye contact, a smile if it feels authentic, I'm very careful to not prescribe smiling because if it's inauthentic, it actually is the opposite. It really takes away from your worth. So if you are actually happy to see someone harness the happiness.

What do we do when we like someone? We go closer towards them. We have closer proxemics. We go in towards them. We open up our palms. Oh my gosh, it's so good to see you. We either reach out for a handcheck or a hug or a cheek kiss. We immediately raise our eyebrows up to take in more of them.

We smile if we're happy. We might even lean in or nod more. All of those things that we do when we are happy are the things that we need to harness to bring forth that warmth. And a good internal check is if you're working with someone where you don't feel that warmth, it is very hard to fake it. So you have to find something that you feel genuinely warm about. Maybe it's a shared goal. Maybe it's a shared personal thing that you share outside of work. Find the way to build the rapport and then bring forth that instinctive warmth that we already do naturally.

In the academic world, we call this immediacy. And I like that term because immediacy implies I'm immediately present. I'm there for you. And it can also imply urgency. And having that can help a little bit. But the notion that we have to think about and explore things that we do have some warmth and connection with the person can really help us focus in those moments. And we can all be thinking about our warmth and competence that we demonstrate. Thank you for joining us for another episode of Think Fast, Talk Smart, the podcast. It was great learning from Vanessa. The one idea that really stood out to me is that reducing friction and communication isn't just about choosing the right words. It's also about intentionally using your nonverbal communication. To learn more from Vanessa,

listen to episode 301. You can also check out our back catalog, which is full of helpful communication tips and tools to help you be a better communicator. This episode was produced by Catherine Reed, Ryan Campos, and me, Matt Abrams. Our music is from Floyd Wonder with special thanks to Podium Podcast Company. Please find us on YouTube and wherever you get your podcasts. Be sure to check out FasterSmarter.io for deep dive videos, English language learning content, and our newsletter. Before we wrap up, I just want to say thank you for listening.

It really means a lot to hear how people all over the world are using these ideas in their own lives. It inspires me and the whole team that brings you this show. If you want more episodes and resources, feel free to follow, subscribe, and explore past conversations. We're grateful for your support of Think Fast Talk Smart.