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The Body Language Advantage - Why is body language important to notice at a conscious level? How can you use body language?

An excerpt from a recent media interview:

Patti Wood, author of Success Signals and consultant in the field, points out that much body language operates from the limbic brain at a subconscious level. “The advantage of recognizing body language at the conscious level is that we become more aware of our own signals and have a deeper understanding of others,” she said.

However you hold your body, you begin to feel that way chemically in less than a 40th of a second, she said. The classic example is a smile. “If you go to a sales meeting and want to show you are truly excited about the product, bring your body language up, bring lift to your posture, chest, gestures, facial muscles up and into a smile. The message of your body language sends signals to your brain so you begin to feel that way.” “We know our body reflects how we feel, but the inverse is also true.” One of her favorite tips: “Do it and you will begin to feel it.”

She explains that the mirror neurons in our brains subconsciously reflect back to us that action we see in someone else. “We mirror what they are doing and this actually creates empathy through ‘emotional contagion’,” she said. “So that we feel, create the same chemical they do and feel what they are feeling”


Patti Wood, MA, Certified Speaking Professional - The Body Language Expert. For more body language insights go to her website at http://PattiWood.net. Also check out the body language quiz on her YouTube Channel at http://youtube.com/user/bodylanguageexpert.

The Handshake Rules and Etiquette in North America and Other Countries and Cultures.

In North America and Europe, extend a hand upon meeting and parting, and make your handshake firm to show your strength and recognize and respect others.
When doing business in all countries respect the culture and religious difference of the individual when you greet them. For example, American Orthodox Jews are not supposed to shake hands, some men will if they are pressured too, but it is not polite to force them.
In the Middle East and Asia and India, use a gentle grip to show respect a firm handshake implies you don’t trust the other person and need to check for weapons.
While in the North America men can now offer their hand to a women, men in many cultures will wait for a woman to extend her hand first, which is permissible for any man to do.
If you are in an Islamic country, if you are a woman don’t offer your hand to a man and whether you are a male or female don’t offer your hand to a woman.
Some Muslim women doing business in the US will offer their hands for you to shake.


Patti Wood, MA, Certified Speaking Professional - The Body Language Expert. For more body language insights go to her website at http://PattiWood.net. Also check out the body language quiz on her YouTube Channel at http://youtube.com/user/bodylanguageexpert.

Patti Analyzes Susan Wright's Body Language for InSession - Part 3

Patti looks beneath the surface of Susan's pauses (12 in just one hour) for InSession and also shares her insights about Susan's testimony about New Year's Eve and the butcher knife in the drawer. Check the link below!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vvIzwyftsVY&feature=related

Patti Wood, MA, Certified Speaking Professional - The Body Language Expert. For more body language insights go to her website at http://PattiWood.net. Also check out the body language quiz on her YouTube Channel at http://youtube.com/user/bodylanguageexpert.

Patti Analyzing Susan Wright's Body Language on InSession - Part 2

In another segment on InSession Patti shares her insights on Susan Wright's flirting body language in the courtroom and also when she is retelling the time how Jeff beat her when she told him what her favorite wild flower was. Also see how Susan has changed from "little girl" back in 2004 into a different Susan today....a bolder woman. Check the link below!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LWHntyygiac&feature=related

Patti Wood, MA, Certified Speaking Professional - The Body Language Expert. For more body language insights go to her website at http://PattiWood.net. Also check out the body language quiz on her YouTube Channel at http://youtube.com/user/bodylanguageexpert.

Patti on InSession Analyzing the Body Language of Susan Wright- Part 1

Patti analyzes the body language of Susan Wright for In Session when asked, "What would set Jeff off." Also when she was asked to recall one time when Jeff beat her. Patti also shares her insights on Susan's body language when she was talking about Jeff hitting her with a wooden flute until it broke. For Patti's insights, click the link below.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XA0BWHsZ04Y&list=UUNDJOcYly1uLU5dxr9JFkpQ&index=3&feature=plcp

Patti Wood, MA, Certified Speaking Professional - The Body Language Expert. For more body language insights go to her website at http://PattiWood.net. Also check out the body language quiz on her YouTube Channel at http://youtube.com/user/bodylanguageexpert.

Seems like his first impression should have been a clue...a story of “Danger at First Sight.”

I imagine many of us have been attracted to someone who was not good for us. A phenomenon I have researched and labeled danger at first sight.
Working on my book on first impressions today I came across the story at the link below.
A guy went out on a date and stole his date's car. Not good. Then I looked at an undated photo of the car thief that came with the story he looked, scary very scary.
A red streak down the middle of his hair, piercings all over, and a sneer on his face that could make a tiger turn around and run.
If this was how he looked on their first date, a date she apparently went to
pick him up for, there is a reason she should buy my book when it comes out.
Look at his photo and tell me his first impression should have been a clue.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/45695569/ns/us_news-crime_and_courts/

Patti Wood, MA, Certified Speaking Professional - The Body Language Expert. For more body language insights go to her website at http://PattiWood.net. Also check out the body language quiz on her YouTube Channel at http://youtube.com/user/bodylanguageexpert.

So called “Redneck TV,” Is it Shortchanging the South?

My discussion group sent the link below that we discussed tonight.

What do you all think of these kinds of TV shows?

My mom and sister love to watch American pickers, pawn stars, and several other shows about collecting and selling cool old stuff.

At Thanksgiving my niece and nephew got us excited about a fun but weird show called Punkin’chunkin. It is an annual contest where people compete to chunk pumpkins the farthest via catapult or rocket. I think the programs do show a part of the country that some viewers never see. I hate that viewers are presented with any stereo types that may cause them to judge and condemn an entire region of the country.

I love garage sales and estate sales and have found over hundreds of Saturdays in the last 20 years that the south (where I live) is filled with people that are open friendly and warm.

I think especially with some shows like Hoarders, viewers feel superior, less crazy, smarter, more hip, less prejudice and much better off than the people on TV. Watching Hoarders just makes me want to get up off the couch and organize my closets.I don’t do it, but it makes me WANT to.

I use to watch Andy Griffin as a kid and dream of living in a small town and sitting on a front porch with my family. Perhaps there is a hint of that in some of these shows where families work together in a small business. Dads and sons side by side, nature as something to honor and tame. It’s not all a ya’ll put down.

What do you think?
Here is the link to the article on Stereotypes of Southerners on TV.
Disappointing Redneck TV Shortchanges the American South
http://www.npr.org/blogs/monkeysee/2011/12/07/142861568/disappointing-redneck-tv-shortchanges-the-american-south?sc=emaf

Patti Wood, MA, Certified Speaking Professional - The Body Language Expert. For more body language insights go to her website at http://PattiWood.net. Also check out the body language quiz on her YouTube Channel at http://youtube.com/user/bodylanguageexpert.

Why I do Free Media Interviews

People, including my friends and family ask me that question all the time.
So let me explain to you and to all of them why it’s worth it.

I got many paid engagements this year from prospects that saw me on TV shows like Nancy Grace. I continue to be very blessed in my career and this year is my best year ever.

I ask all my clients how they found me and what created the decision to book me and many have commented that they found me in a Google search and decided on me when watching my video of my interview on Regis and Kelly. Also ALL my spokesperson jobs came directly from my media exposure as did my book deal.

So that is an enormous amount of work and income earned in the last ten years that is a result of my hundreds of hours of free media interviews. Plus there is this very odd Media effect. My audiences are impressed with me before I speak.

Patti Wood, MA, Certified Speaking Professional - The Body Language Expert. For more body language insights go to her website at http://PattiWood.net. Also check out the body language quiz on her YouTube Channel at http://youtube.com/user/bodylanguageexpert.

Can Mitt Find the Wit to Boot Newt?

Body Language in the Republican Debates Presidential candidates Debates Newt Gingrich and Mitt Romney. Click the link below for Patti Wood's body language comments for ABC News.

http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/politics/2011/12/can-mitt-find-the-wit-to-boot-newt/

Patti Wood, MA, Certified Speaking Professional - The Body Language Expert. For more body language insights go to her website at http://PattiWood.net. Also check out the body language quiz on her YouTube Channel at http://youtube.com/user/bodylanguageexpert.

Government Promises and the Public's Hope

Tonight my meeting of the minds group is discussing government promises, the public’s hope, and public protest.
We all got this great quote. Read it and notice the date is was written.

"Government is the great fiction through which everybody endeavors to live at the expense of everybody else...

Thus, the public has two hopes, and Government makes two promises - many benefits and no taxes. Hopes and promises, which, being contradictory, can never be realized.

Now, is this not the cause of all our revolutions? For, between the Government, which lavishes promises which it is impossible to perform, and the public, which has conceived hopes which can never be realized, two classes of men interpose - the ambitious and the Utopians...

And the people believe, and the people hope, and the people make a revolution!

These two promises are for ever clashing with each other; it cannot be otherwise. To live upon credit, which is the same as exhausting the future, is certainly a present means of reconciling them: an attempt is made to do a little good now, at the expense of a great deal of harm in the future. But such proceedings call forth the spectre of bankruptcy, which puts an end to credit.

What is to be done then?"

-- Frederic Bastiat, "Government", 1848



Patti Wood, MA, Certified Speaking Professional - The Body Language Expert. For more body language insights go to her website at http://PattiWood.net. Also check out the body language quiz on her YouTube Channel at http://youtube.com/user/bodylanguageexpert.

Body Language expert Patti Wood's insights of Jerry Sandusky's New York Times videotaped interview.What does Jerry Sandusky's body language indicate?

Coach Sandusky’s interview with the New York Times Journalist

Check Patti's link below to her YouTube Channel to watch Patti as she reads the body language of Jerry Sandusky on HLN Special Report with Vinnie Politan. Below are Patti's notes on the 9 minute interview by the New York Times Journalist.

How would an innocent person respond if he had been accused of and arrested for sexually abusing young boys? Do you think he would be upset?

Sandusky certainly isn’t. He starts the interview with oddly detached emotions. He doesn’t face the interviewer. He often looks out with a blank expression. He is relaxed sitting back on the couch. He oddly opens with a response to the allegations “I kid you.” Then says in a rather soft neutral voice “These allegations are false” – Then he immediately turns his head away and gazes off in the distance. I believe an innocent person would look at the interviewer and make sure that they heard and understood your statement.

Throughout the interview he says, “I didn’t know or I don’t know” which seems odd as a fully innocent person wouldn’t be confused or feel the need to find the words or hesitate to say, “I didn’t do these terrible things.”

As he denies the allegation He struggles to find the “right” thing to say. There is a long silent pause. His eyes close in a window shade. He is saying “I didn’t” but his hands go up and his palms open, instead of the gesture that would normally go with a denial or no response, downward and or closed.

He struggles for what to say always reframing the question or accusation. “It is my feeling that I didn’t do anything wrong.” It reminds me of Clinton reframing the statement. “I did not have sexual relations with that woman Monica Lewinsky.”

Again Sandusky gestures should sweep down in dismissal rather than up.

He laughs as he answers some of the questions. If you have been in my Deception Detection program you know that anger and laughter are “cover emotions.” In interrogation videos I have analyzed the accused laugh as a cover to make their allegation seem “lighter” not serious not as bad. At one point Sandusky actually has what I call --- soft eyes and a charming smile as he is asked about sexually abusing young boys.

He often gives a partial shrug “I don’t know” like a child helpless. A shrug as if a physical threat is present then he smiles so inappropriately yet again!
He is asked about the feelings. He says there were so many “mutual feelings” extended family. Then he misspeaks calling himself an “extended father.” He subconsciously makes up a name for the typical relationship he had with the boys.

He uses a soft voice, looks for affirmation and approval from the journalist for having these mutual feelings even saying “Yeah” at the end of his response, as if he is saying, hey it was mutual. The boys agreed with me. This is so disturbing.

At time marker 210 concerning the Coach Joe Paterno

He says, “I don’t know that he didn’t know – I know that he didn’t, never said anything to me.” and then at time marker 2:56 he gives a smirk, his face asymmetrical, he seems gleeful that he was able to pull one over on the interviewer and in essence throws the coach under the bus.

When asked about Curley talking to him about “horsing around in the showers” listen to the paralanguage, the vocal stress cues Sandusky says, “Yeah you know, he was concerned ( he has a sound of pain “uggugg“ he was concerned about it yeah.” Sandusky’s voice is soft almost no emotion in an effort I believe to deemphasize the seriousness of the “concern.” Then we hear Sandusky give a deep inhalation and exhalation of breath. He is realizing that conversation where he was confronted.

When asked “How did he couch it when he spoke about it to you?” Sandusky completely turned away frowns. This is the closest that he gets to showing he is angry. At time marker 347-Sandusky gulps down his bad feelings then presses his lips tight down to close off his feeling, see him tear up. Then he gives a tongue thrust as the reporter goes on about the Curley conversation.

At time marker 424-426 we see him freeze (that deer in headlights stress response). He should be remembering an event and be able to face the interview and recall instead he freezes and struggles to think of what to say and shakes his head no.

As Sandusky says, “I told him yeah,” bends down to get out of confrontation, protects the whole front of his body.

Then Sandusky says, “In my mind it was not inappropriate behavior. “ He again doesn’t face the interviewer and say “I didn’t do it.” Glazed view off in the distance.

446 “He could speak with the young person (not child) that was involved” shrugs off his guilt and his eyes get teary.

He told me I couldn’t work with them anymore. He actually shows his disappointment his head going down and a look of disappointment on his face.

As he asked about the kids he suddenly comes alive. His head and body language go up as he says, with passion …”I grew up in a recreation center, there was constant activity. I worked on a playground I LOVVVEEE active kids.

Truth teller takes ownership uses the word I, states relationship and gives names and speaks in specifics. He doesn’t say the “Second chance kids. He calls them “They throughout the interview.” Liars distance themselves from the people and the events.

He says, “In the interactions that you had with them.” Instead of in the interaction I had with them. “Then he says all those times were precious.”

Again he doesn’t say the kids or children he says they he goes back between

He hops from past tense and future tense a sign of someone who is making up a story rather than recalling actual events.

He continues to use generalities. He also doesn’t complete his sentences and often he just plain does not make sense.

For example
“I guess IT just happened that way,” “I don’t know”
“They weren’t going to have you and you weren’t going to have them.”
“So it was significant times it was significant times it was important times.”

In the previous phone interview Bob Costas, asked “Are you
sexually attracted to young boys?” a simple question that would be easy to answer if you’re totally innocent with “No.” We listened for Sandusky to be adamant and certain and deny. Instead, repeats the questions in a softer voice vocally emphasizing the word SEXUALLY attracted. “You know not

“I am attracted to young people, boys, girls” and he gets more excited and smiles and gets visibly and auditorily excited. His lawyer jumps in and Sandusky smiles inappropriately as he says, “yeah that’s what I meant.” As he speaks his gestures are off. He speaks first and then he gestures.

Again look at his visible excitement and joy. “I enjoy the young” then he freezes, pulls his head back withholding his real feeling, “Because they...” (He pauses) “… they don’t worry about what they say.” “Both groups” (He does a seat re-adjustment - what he said didn’t sit right with him. “

“That’s why I love those groups.”

http://www.youtube.com/user/bodylanguageexpert?feature=mhee

Patti Wood, MA, Certified Speaking Professional - The Body Language Expert. For more body language insights go to her website at http://PattiWood.net. Also check out the body language quiz on her YouTube Channel at http://youtube.com/user/bodylanguageexpert.

Patti on HLN Prime News - Gary Giordano's Body Language



Patti shared her insights on HLN Prime News with Vinnie Politan regarding the body language of Gary Giordano being interviewed on Good Morning America. Check the link below for her insights!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UwAARPcJ6ZI

Patti Wood, MA, Certified Speaking Professional - The Body Language Expert. For more body language insights go to her website at http://PattiWood.net. Also check out the body language quiz on her YouTube Channel at http://youtube.com/user/bodylanguageexpert.

How to Mind Your Ps & Qs in Professional Interactions

Patti weighed in on Minding Your Ps & Qs in Professional Interactions for Investor's Business Daily. Check the link below for her insights!

http://news.investors.com/Article/patti-wood/593524/201112021320/communicate-message-properly-and-master-details.htm

Patti Wood, MA, Certified Speaking Professional - The Body Language Expert. For more body language insights go to her website at http://PattiWood.net. Also check out the body language quiz on her YouTube Channel at http://youtube.com/user/bodylanguageexpert.