On the Muscle Medicine Podcast, we usually talk about how to rehab, train, and feed the muscle. You may have noticed a connection between these topics and how we hold ourselves when we are interacting with others. Body Language is really just another aspect of muscle memory and training, the implications of which have profound effects on how we communicate with others.

Blake Eastman is the owner and founder at The Nonverbal Group, a behavioral research group in New York City. He is an expert at reading body language, a skill that helps him immensely when sitting at the poker table but also makes him an indispensable resource for understanding how we physically impact the way we communicate with other people.

Understanding how you present yourself to others, often unconsciously, through body language goes a far way in building and maintaining important interpersonal and professional relationships. Throughout this interview, Blake shares some ways that others may see you based on small things that you may not even realize you’re doing. Blake also provides some great tips to get your communication game back on track.

Have you noticed a connection between your body language and how you communicate? Tell us about it in the comments on the episode page!

 

In this episode:

• How understanding body language and patterns of behavior affect how others see you
• How someone’s physical posturing affects how they interact with a team
• Actionable tips you can start taking if you don’t think that you’re a good communicator
• The limitations of personality inventories and why labels are misleading
• What makes a smile genuine
• How body language differs among elite athletes and other high performers
• Harnessing your body language to create a good and effective style of leadership

 

Quotes:

“When you talk to someone, you’re viewing that person’s behavior through your own lens, through your own filters, through society. When I look at people, I try to take an evaluative approach where I’m looking at them how like ten people would approach it.” [5:40]

“We don’t understand the why behind why people are behaving the way they are. We see someone walking down the street and they look weird, we just process it as weird, dangerous or not dangerous. But the reality is, if sometimes you give the people the ‘why’ of why they’re behaving a certain way, it makes much more sense.” [7:06]

“We go to the gym to work out. We work on our health, we work on all these aspects of our life. But people don’t really work on their communication. It’s not something you diligently look at and a lot of problems in life and a lot of issues are stemming from that.” [18:07]

“Like anything else, it takes work to look why you are the way that you are and then to re-engineer it in the way that makes the most sense for what you need to do. But the cool thing is you have 100% control of this.” [21:05]

“There’s different styles of leadership that demand certain styles of communication. Some work, some don’t work. Some work but everybody hates you, but your company’s doing really well. Some everybody loves you, but his company’s not doing so well. Some you’re not taken seriously, some you are. It’s a spectrum of how you’re actually interacting with people and it’s all about what you choose.” [40:07]

 

Links:

The Nonverbal Group

Follow Blake Eastman on Linkedin | Instagram | Twitter

Landmark Forums

Tony Robbins

 

Check out the full show notes for this episode here

Urban Wellness Clinic

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