Vanessa Van Edwards wrote a book about charisma. She narrowed it down to five phrases. Highly charismatic people say these phrases and become more likable. The research method appears to be noticing things.
The phrases are not listed in the headline. They are being held hostage behind a click. This is the business model. Van Edwards studied public speaking and determined that specific words in specific orders produce specific outcomes. Groundbreaking stuff. Next she'll discover that smiling makes people think you're happy and that wearing pants to a job interview increases your odds of employment by up to 60%.
The phrases probably include "Tell me more" and "That's interesting" and "I hadn't thought of it that way." Maybe "How can I help?" if she's feeling adventurous. These are the linguistic equivalent of buying index funds. Low risk. Low reward. Guaranteed not to offend anyone at a networking event.
Charismatic people use magnetic phrases. Non-charismatic people use repellent phrases. The difference is apparently five sentences. If you memorize them you become likable. If you forget them you become whatever you were before, which was presumably unlikable enough that you needed a public speaking expert to tell you how words work.
The target audience is corporate middle managers who think charisma can be installed like a software update. They will read this article on their phones during a meeting. They will try one phrase on a coworker. The coworker will sense something is wrong. The manager will return to saying nothing and forwarding emails.
Van Edwards has monetized the observation that pleasant people say pleasant things. She is more charismatic than every single person who will pay money to learn her five phrases.
Photo by Herlambang Tinasih Gusti on Unsplash
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