How to Read People

Dr. Lisa Marie Bobby: This is Dr. Lisa Marie Bobby, and you’re listening to the Love, Happiness, and Success podcast. That’s Alla-Las with the song, “Nothing to Hide”. I thought this was a perfect setup for our topic today because on today’s show, we’re talking about how to read people, so that you can understand with accuracy how others are really feeling, sometimes even before they know it themselves. This is a huge component of emotional intelligence. 

Emotional Intelligence is something that we have talked about numerous times on the show and the importance of it, the ability to be able to understand yourself, understand others, and then manage relationships with others and yourself accordingly, based on this awareness. I think many of our other episodes on the subject of emotional intelligence have really talked about your ability to understand and manage yourself.

Today’s show is really all about how specifically, do we understand other people by using, what they’re showing us about how they feel on their faces, in order to be able to decode their emotional experience accurately. Knowing how to do this gives you a huge advantage in any situation involving other humans, be it your personal relationships, your interactions with your partner, and even on the job. So I’m so excited that we’re exploring this topic together today. My guest on today’s show is a true expert on this subject.

On this episode of the podcast, I’m so thrilled to be speaking to Dr. Dan Hill, who is the author of nine books, including “Emotionomics”, and most recently, a book called “Blah, Blah, Blah: A Snarky Guide to Office Lingo”. He is an expert on – wait for it ​​– ​​understanding people’s emotions by looking at their faces, among other things. He’s done an enormous amount of research around the emotional impact of faces, the way we respond to art and photography. I’m so interested to get his insight into particularly his research into emotional intelligence and how you can use his ideas and what he’s learned to help you be more confident and effective in all of your interpersonal relationships. I’m so pleased to be speaking with you today, Dan. Thank you for joining us.

Dr. Dan Hill: Oh, absolutely. Lisa, I’m so looking forward to it. I think it’ll be a great conversation.

Reading People: A Guide

Dr. Lisa: Wonderful. Well, Dan, we have much to discuss. I mean, you do so many different things. You’re an author. You’re a researcher. You’re a speaker. But why don’t you if it’s okay, let’s just spend a couple of minutes and talk about, you know, how am I so interested to know like how you got interested in this field of study? And just tell us a little bit about your research?

Dan Hill: Sure. Well, I often joke that as a cosmic joke itself, that I would be an emotions expert, because I’m Scandinavian. And Scandinavians are not necessarily famous for being outgoing or emotional

Dr. Lisa: You do have a reputation.

Dan Hill: Yes, Gary Keillor, with his Prairie Home Companion show once said the joke about the Norwegian American man who loved his wife so dearly that he very nearly told her so. And I happen to be half Norwegian. The other cosmic joke here is that I have a PhD in English. Yet my specialty is not in that field. It’s arguably in psychology, and it certainly in nonverbals, so we will converse in verbals. But yes, I rely a lot on what I learned about people from their facial expressions.

The way I got into this was someone I was working for a consulting firm, looking at the customer experience, trying to write a book for the company president. And he had me in contact with someone at IBM, who one day changed my life, sent over an article from a Cornell University publication called American demographics, talking about the breakthroughs in brain science, and how much we are intuitive, sensory emotional decision-makers with a killer statistic that the conservative estimation is that 95% of our mental activity is not fully conscious. which is actually probably about 98-99%.

That’s what the science is kind of at these days.

Dr. Lisa: That’s so interesting.

A Scientific Approach to Emotions

Dan Hill: So I read the article, and yes, I had the same reaction. So interesting. My hands started trembling. I mean, literally started trembling, I went, “This is so cool”. I have no idea whether I can make a living at this. But it would be shameful if I didn’t pursue it, because it’s so striking. And so revolutionary, and the business world’s not awake to the importance of emotions, and they’re denying it. And I just have to go here, I decided to leave my job within five minutes of reading the article. That is an absolutely true story. 

Dr. Lisa: Wow. That’s like psychologically being struck by lightning kind of experience? That is remarkable.

Dan Hill: That exactly what it was. I mean, I was transfixed with excitement. I mean, it just, I couldn’t believe it. I mean, it just happened.

Dr. Lisa: That is so cool. I mean, I think, so many people long for that kind of experience where this is why I’m here – that passion, that purpose, and how amazing that you had that. And we’re open to it.

Dan Hill: Well, and then the journey had to start. So then I had to stay open, because then the question was, okay, so emotions are really valid. I mean, of course they are. But then the question was, well, how am I going to research this or capture metrics, because my father was in charge of 3M post-it notes production, sales and marketing.

I grew up in a household where the word innovation, being a tagline for 3M was bandied about just a little bit, shall we say, but knowing that would be my higher target market audience, someone I would have to sell into is like, Oh, my God, I’m gonna have to have science, I’m going to have a methodology, I’m going to have to have metrics. I can’t show up and say emotions matter. They’re going to call that “woowoo” and soft. And so what, and everything else under the sun.

That started the hunt. And the great thing is, I had a second bolt of lightning, a second Eureka. Because first, a friend blew me up, and was actually a favor. I spent half a year almost developing a methodology, sent it to my friend, Joe Rich — great name for a business person, by the way- and Joe said, “This is great stuff”. And I said, “well, Joe, there’s a ‘but’ in your voice, I can detect it. We’re friends, I know”. He said, “Well, actually there is.” “So what’s the problem?” He said, “The problem is if you follow these traditional methods, you’re going to ask people to think their feelings. And guess what? They feel them.” I had to start over. That’s how I came to facial coding, because I said, “Oh, my God, what is it going to be, a very lost month? I don’t have much money. I gotta start earning some if at all possible here.”

At the University of California, San Diego, UCSD, they had a lot of PhDs and social sciences in town and psychology, all of that, and a great section on neurobiology. And I started checking out books. One day, I came across the fact that Charles Darwin, the Charles Darwin, came to realize that in your face, you best reflect and communicate your emotions. I read that about 10:45 in the morning, I can picture to this day, just like a picture where I read that fax from the IBM guy.

I can picture the very seat in the coffee house in San Diego where I was sitting when I came across that statement in one of the books I checked out from the library. I went, “Oh, I was an art history minor in college, I lived in Italy, as a boy, I had to read nonverbals my mom was an interior designer, I can do this, this fits, and this is exciting. I’m going to be doing this for the rest of my life.” And I knew that just as instantaneously, as when I read the article where I decided to quit. So two of them within half a year. I mean, it’s a blessing.

Dr. Lisa: Getting these sort of messages and just like the right information at the right time. And so the first message was most of our brainpower is not fully conscious. And then the second message was people understand and process so much from other people’s faces. Those were the kind of the two messages and then taking those together.

Dan Hill: So the first one blew up the paradigm. Because the real paradigm we’ve lived with basically is really outmoded. It’s Rene Descartes saying “I think therefore I am”. Yeah, I mean that that’s obsolete as can be, but we still live by it very often. And so it’s The Big Lie we tell ourselves. And then the second revelation to your point was, here’s a tool.

Dr. Lisa: Yeah. Oh, that’s so fast. And I’m so glad you’re talking about this. Because I know I personally do this too. I think we all fall into that belief that we’re fully in command of what’s going on in our heads and we’re making sort of like thoughtful decisions that is not even remotely true. It’s so humbling to be like, “No, actually, that is not what is driving your bus most of the time.”

Dan Hill: It is humbling. But I also think it’s really liberating, as though we don’t have to pretend to be something we aren’t. Because we’re not Mr. Spock, from Star Trek, we are Homer Simpson. And you know, and Maggie and everybody else in the family, it’s just, we are who we are, and accept it, try to learn from it. Don’t just give in to it, necessarily. But yes, there are tremendous blind spots, and it’s going to help you with other people. Because if you think they’re rational players, you’re off base and the vagaries of their behavior, and how you’re going to connect with them most effectively. We’ll certainly have a better shot if you’re grounded correctly, which is to say, I’m around a lot of other people’s blind spots and biases, too.

Dan Hill’s Discoveries

Dr. Lisa: Yeah. Good reminder. And, and your research and where you started to go is this idea that our faces and other people’s faces are kind of a window into what is really going on, if I’m understanding correctly, and I’d love to hear more about how that path unfolded. And if you could take our listeners into just, you know how, I mean, I am a card carrying nerd. And so I’m always interested in how you did the research, because I think it’s super cool. But, of course, and again, you’ve written nine books on the topic. So there’s so much to share. But it’s, you know, some overviews, I guess, of some of the main themes that your research uncovered.

23 Facial Expressions and 7 Basic Emotions

Dan Hill: Sure, there’s a lot to unpack there, but I’ll try my pieces. And if I miss something, you can, you can redirect me back to what I missed. I guess the first thing I would go to is, obviously, Charles Darwin, not available for a conversation after I came across this revelation. But you know, I’m a researcher with a PhD. So I like to verify through multiple sources, and then I like to get to the most credible sources, or resources to draw on as possible.

First of all, Darwin’s work, essentially arguing that the face is the only place in the body where the muscles attach right to the skin. We have more facial muscles than any other species on the planet. There’s 44 sets of muscles, so there’s a real richness of data there. It can also be argued that it’s universal, that the display rules vary. Certainly, what could be the triggers, you know, can vary by cultural context. But there is a universality and I believe that because my company has done research for more than half the world’s top 100 brands. We’ve done research in I think about 35 countries, I’ve spoken in more than 25, I have traveled to more than 80, myself. So you know, I have seen it across the world.

Now. There is someone, Lisa Barrett, who are used against that, but it’s because Dr. Paul Ekman was kind of the expert in the field made — it was an early kind of rookie mistakes, I guess I would call it. So he went out to verify this. And he showed some photographs to people in the highlands of New Guinea, and tried to identify if they could pick out what the expression is. And she picks on that and says, Well, yeah, we tried to replicate this, in India and Africa. And it didn’t work. 

My point is, of course, it didn’t work and Paul Ekman never should’ve done it. In the first case, because we have 23 expressions that reveal our emotions. Let’s just take anger, for instance, there are nine different ways you can show anger in the face. Some of those expressions just show anger. But some of the other expressions potentially based on Dr. Ekman’s research itself, indicates that it might go to more than one emotion, maybe two, maybe three, you can’t possibly hold up a photograph that’s going to be — is this anger, because you’re not going to probably show all nine emotions or expressions for it. Plus, some of those expressions will also reveal another emotion.

It’s simple, but it’s not that simple. Because to be that simple, would be ridiculous. You know, when we’d all had to the Botox Center and the plastic surgeon, you know, to try to hide what we’re revealing on our faces, potentially, if we did have something to hide. But the real point of that research is that there are these 23 expressions, and they cover seven emotions. 

The seven emotions are happiness, and surprise, and anger and fear, sadness, disgust, and contempt. Six of those most psychologists I think, would agree that there will be called basically core emotions or, the real fundamental building blocks. And that really sets up the proposition because emotional intelligence really has three steps to it.

In essence, I perceive what’s going on for myself and others. Unless you got a mirror- its not going to be so good for that. But it could be, we will have seen your expressions, you can go back and look at your own photographs and video. But it gets you started by perception, then the question is, Do I understand these emotions? Or what do they actually mean? What’s their significance? What may trigger them? What does it lead to in terms of behavior? And the third one is putting it all together and managing the emotions. 

You can’t do the last one, of course, without the first two. And the game really starts with the perception. And that’s why I love facial coding, because it gives you the chance to capture data and get a sense of what’s going on for other people. Because one of the problems we have otherwise is we caught up in our own silo. And we do need to get outside of that to be effective.

Dr. Lisa: Yes, your silo meaning like so caught up in our own inner experience. Sometimes we don’t fully recognize what’s going on. 

Dan Hill: Or to quote my favorite New Yorker cartoon is I have more than once from the stage and so on. Two women are talking to each other one says to the other, “But enough about me, what do you think about me?” Yeah, that’s the silo.

The Feel Gap

Dr. Lisa: Yeah. Okay, that’s so interesting. And so that there are the 23 different facial expressions that are tied into variations of those, those basic emotions. And then it ties into emotional intelligence, because you’re saying that when you can kind of clue into people’s faces and understand what they are really potentially thinking, or feeling that you can have more insight psychologically and kind of know what’s happening. And that, I’m guessing, it also might sometimes be different than what people are saying out loud, or perhaps, if we’re going to get really deep, perhaps even different than what they are consciously aware of?

Dan Hill: Oh, absolutely. So, I mean, I’d make one small correction, what you said, which was, you said, what they’re thinking and feeling. I can get a reasonable surmise, and nothing’s infallible, and I’m not fallible as a facial coder, but you’re looking for a leg up, you know, an opportunity to be better. So I can know, I think reasonably well, what they’re feeling, whether they’re aware of it or not, whether they’re going to admit to it or not. How they’re thinking, or why they’re feeling that feeling- I can only get through probably through asking questions, trying to look for behavioral patterns that link up to this. So the detective work is not over yet. But yes, it gives you that chance to get to more end.

You mentioned the idea that might be a distance between what they say, and how they feel. And indeed, in my research, I get very quickly settled on the term, the say “feel gap”. They say one thing, but they feel another. What we’ve found in our work, and I think could be true in your personal relationships as well, we actually found four categories. One is- what they said and how they felt matched up. That’s the least common of the categories. 

Dr. Lisa: That’s so interesting. 

Dan Hill:  There’s also, the lineup was some connection, but you know, some distance. Another one is that they say something, they don’t feel it at all, you know, there’s no muscle activity. They’re just saying it, it’s lip service. And the last one is the say-feel gap, where indeed, there is essentially a complete breakdown between what they say, and what I believe they’re actually feeling on their face. Because yeah, we try to get along with other people that mean, it’s understandable. We don’t want to fight all day long have conflicts. And so essentially, our motivations in life are to feel good about ourselves, and to attract allies, whether it’s romantically, in terms of our career, and so forth.

Neither one of those has to line up necessarily with being honest. And that being honest, might get us into trouble. The National Geographic had a cover story just a few years ago, about you know, called I think it was, “Why We Lie?” And of course, we went into all the reasons why we would lie, but what I remember is the statistic — 40% of us apparently, tell, on average, five lies a day and we’re not talking about little white lies, but lies of some substance, some consequence. 40% of us five or more a day, and I went, “Okay, that’s a lot.” But if it’s good research, it could make some sense.

Yeah, we don’t know what’s going on. We do lie to ourselves, perhaps most of all. And it’s probably why you know, life is a little messy. But I guess my approach is to be intrigued by it. Most days, there are days I despair about it. But mostly I try to be intrigued by and say how can I do better? How can I understand this? How can I accept my fundamental humanity and accept that of the people I’m talking to.

Dr. Lisa: Yeah. Well, that is sobering. And I’m, I’m sure we have people listening to this right now who, you know, might have trust issues and relationships. I mean, that’s a thing. And that’s very scary to consider that, humans routinely are saying things that are not fully true.

I like your point that sometimes that is a conscious deception that is motivated by you know, a desire for self-esteem or to manage relationships. But the other times, it is not fully conscious that even though people are saying something that isn’t true in a moment, they may not be aware of that, they’re lying to themselves. 

Dan Hill:  Yeah. And maybe the lie is altruistic. In some sense, you know, benign.

Dr. Lisa: “Your baby is so pretty.

Dan Hill:  Yeah, I think what really disturbed me in a relationship is when it’s for malicious intent. And it’s a pattern, pronounced pattern with real consequences. I mean, that’s kind of a trifecta of poison, that one would be well advised to escape if possible.

The Art of Reading People

Dr. Lisa: Yeah. Definitely. And so I guess what I’m curious to hear more about, so much of our brainpower is, you know, focused on people’s faces. And there’s such a wealth of this, I mean, kind of reading through the lines here, it seems like, if you become very skilled at kind of decoding people’s emotions from their faces, you have a huge advantage and understanding what’s really going on.

I’m curious to know that if somebody wanted to develop their skills in this area, to be able to read people more effectively, you know, not just to maybe see problems potentially coming down the line, but I think also just to develop their own emotional intelligence skills, like how do I become better able to reading people and understanding how they’re feeling? And I’m curious to know what you would see as being like the sort of arc of that growth process for lack of a better term, like if somebody wanted to develop their skills in that area? What do you think works? 

Dan Hill: Well, I decided at this point in my life, I just published it just a couple, three years ago, I released a book called, “Famous Faces Decoded: A Guide to Reading Others”. And the reason I did that is because, I lived a couple times here in passing to Dr. Paul Ekman, so he’s considered the modern expert on facial coding. Although in addition to Darwin, I could even go back as far as Leonardo Da Vinci.

If you look at his notebooks, they include drawings of faces because he was interested in their, you know, the muscularity and how the muscles moves and which emotions they showed. And I really think it’s a big reason why Mona Lisa is such an intriguing painting, because it was informed by his interest in science, just like Michelangelo was contemporary was actually doing likewise, but more focused on the body. So one gave us Mona Lisa, one gave us the statue, David, because they had different areas of interest, so to speak, even they were parallel interests.

Dr. Ekman, simply picked up the baton and ran with it and figured out with a colleague of the School of Medicine in San Francisco, you know, these expressions. His manual was like 500 pages. So when I got it, I read through. I was a good student. And I think based on my art history, interests, and even frankly, the fact that I fell in love with Rembrandt at age seven, because my mom took me to the Rights Museum in Amsterdam, and Rembrandt is greater portraiture work.

I think I had some real built-in advantages. And that time in Italy, where we moved for my dad’s career, and I didn’t know the language at first and went to Italian first grade, and the fishing village, waited all day for the math unit. But Italians have a lot of body language. And you know, that kind of gave me away. And so I had some advantages.

What I’m doing is, is making it simpler for people. So my book is much more accessible than the 500-page manual, definitely shorter, but gives you the secret sauce. So I think the book is really kind of operating on three levels.

One is I said, for some people, you know, maybe learning isn’t so easy or attractive. I’ll make it real fun, because I’ll give them celebrities. I’ll give them celebrity examples where they can follow along, but learn something new about these celebrities, in terms of their life stories, little tidbits. And that’s kind of the setup piece. And they’re celebrities who are Americans and for the last, you know, a couple of generations, and the celebrities were actually did something with their career. They’re not just famous for being famous. You know, by and large, they actually did something.

That’s kind of the first layer of the cake. And then the next layer was really to try to explain the emotions because that’s step number two of EQ. Emotional Intelligence is understanding what the emotions are. And so most emotions really have and there’s not necessarily a negative emotion or positive emotions, they both have, all have upsides and downsides. But just understand what are the possible triggers and ramifications for behavior because emotions have a storyline and let me ground this for people by one example, disgust.

With disgust, some really obvious things that might happen to do is your nose wrinkles, or your upper lip curls, it’s almost as if nature is very literally saying, it stinks, my nose curl or wrinkles, it tastes bad, my nose, my mouth kind of lifts up and away from the offending taste. Think about the evolutionary advantage of this. You pick a fruit off the tree, you are at the watering hole, you know, we’re talking 1000s of years ago, and, of course of evolution and civilization. Well, Disgust can give you or reinforces for this feeling, “Oh my God, that’s a bad idea.” This fruit is rotten, that water is toxic, it’s polluted, I shouldn’t drink it, I shouldn’t eat this. And you back off, because that’s the storyline of disgust essentially, is something’s toxic, poisonous, bad for you. And I’m out of here.

So that that’s the, kind of the understanding. So the second tier of the book or of the cake, as it were, is, you know, what do these emotions mean. And then I have diagrams and photographs to explain how you reveal those emotions. So I actually deliver all three of those things. And I think I’ve tried to make the book as successful as I can without, you know, making it too dummy down that it’s not actually accurate, or useful to somebody. And, you know, did all that in a couple 100 pages with fun examples, as opposed to a 500 page manual. And I think that’s, I’m not just saying this, because I wrote it. I really think that’s probably the most helpful thing out there in this specialty.

Dr. Lisa: I mean, yes. And so again, this is “Famous Faces Decoded”, I will be ordering this immediately after our conversation ends sir, by the way, because it sounds so fascinating. But I could totally see how you would really have to, like, see examples that you present in your book to be able to kind of put it together and know what to look for.

Dan Hill: Yeah, we’re visual creatures. And yeah, there’s no way you’re gonna learn facial coding, without visuals. So I have plenty in there.

Confronting Others About Their Feelings

Dr. Lisa: Got it. Okay. But now, I have another question for you. So. So say, it sounds like such a huge, useful thing to do is to really put time and energy into getting more clear around facial expressions and what they mean so that you’re better able to read people.

I’m just sort of putting myself in the mind of like a client that I meet by be talking to as a therapist or a coach who does that, and is in tune and is picking up on some of these subtle facial cues, you know, maybe from a work colleague or a boss, or maybe even their partner, asks what do I do with that, like, I know that somebody is maybe having this feeling.

As you said, just so insightfully if human was before, is that, that humans have a tendency to conceal. Their faces say one thing, but that if you ask them or try respond to that, they may or may not be willing to engage with you on that level and say, “Yes, I am actually feeling XYZ.” Like, it’s easy for people to blow things off. And I think that that feels frustrating sometimes for people who know, on some level, but can’t like engage with it directly. Do you know what I mean?

Dan Hill: Oh, absolutely. It comes up all the time. I mean, my advice when asked a question or came in as part of a discussion is to say, you’re right, I mean, it’s, you bring it up directly to them and say, there’s a contradiction here. They’re gonna feel embarrassed, they may not even be aware of it, they’re gonna deny and shut you down. It’s very unlikely that that’s a good approach, how helpful approach to moving things forward.

I said to cite the poet Emily Dickinson who said, tell the truth, but tell it slant lest everyone go blind. To take things on, you know, head on probably just doesn’t work. It’s got to be done on a slant. And so you know, if I see something I might say, well, that’s interesting. And we just play that out a little bit. So I’m training separation from the comment that I think is obviously not quite on the up and up, and just try to let them talk it through and maybe they realize themselves, you know, that’s not all of what the answer is here, that’s a little more complicated, or may even though work themselves out and say, you know, what I said a moment ago isn’t quite accurate. 

If they can get there themselves, and you don’t have to push them, you might pull them a little bit or invite them to get there. That’s a whole lot better. Or just say, I’m a little bit confused. You know, I, I kind of thought it was this, see, I’m trying to get these softening words in, no, I’m confused, you’re taking agency on yourself. You’re not making a declarative statement. Just ways that soften the path and see if you can keep them in the conversation, then maybe the revelation will come, the connecting of the dots, and it’ll be a far nicer landing. That’s what happens, as opposed to “you bloody liar.” That’s not likely to go down well.

Dr. Lisa: No, I get it. That’s just so helpful that, you know, it’s a full frontal like very direct, I think maybe “you’re feeling a little bit differently” will shut people down, they will feel attacked or defensive. And so what you’re saying is that the advantage here is that if you, you have information, and then you can sort of move into a interpersonal stance, where you’re helping them talk, cultivating emotional safety, and giving them you know, opportunities to sort of talk through with you because the other thing here, just based on what you were saying previously, is that they literally may not be consciously aware, in a moment of what their faces are telling you as the observer.

Dan Hill: Yeah. And I’m speaking from experience, I can tell you more than once I said to someone, you know, back in the day, you said something the other day, and you know, it kind of hurt my feelings. And I can’t tell you how many times they deny they said it. And I have a pretty good memory. And you know, you do remember things, particularly when it’s emotionally laden for you. But that’s really how memory works in a lot of ways that it’s something significant, and emotional, and you hold on to it. 

Maybe it wasn’t significant for them, because there was just this little jibe they made. But it was for the person who received it and felt hurt very significant. So I have a hard time imagining that I was really wrong about them saying those things. But boy, they didn’t own up. And if they didn’t own up that we couldn’t have the conversation. Because if I was crazy for having imagined that they could have possibly said such a thing, even when I’m quite certain they did. So that’s how it gets to be so difficult.

Een when I tried to circle back indirectly, sometimes and say, “Have we ever discussed this topic before”, and then see if it came back, even, that’s not always been helpful, because the mind in a lot of ways, like a paper shredder, we just, we just dump stuff as fast as we can. I mean, you would know these statistics, the brain is 3% of our body mass, and consumes 20% of our calories.

It’s all about metabolic costs, as the psychologist would say, we’re trying to preserve mental energy, and not use up more than we have to because, you know, if the brain suddenly took 100% of our calories, well, then we can’t even walk or breathe, or do anything else. So we’re awfully determined to try to keep it to 20.

Dr. Lisa: Yeah, so kind of shredding things that the brain doesn’t perceive as being significant, even if it was highly significant to another person. And I think, you know, going back to one of the first things that you said is that we’re all kind of stuck in our silos of, you know, being very aware of how we, well sometimes, you know, we’re, we’re caught up in our own inner experience and that if when you said to your friend, “Hey, that hurt my feelings.”

Now, like, “What are you talking about?” Like, they just experienced it so differently, it’s very difficult to have that empathy for the validity of somebody else’s experience when it is so different from how you experienced the same situation.

Dan Hill: It’s one thing with friends it’s another thing I mean, I can think of at least one instance where it was a boss. And now you got power dynamics in there because you know, one needs the job, and they’re in charge of your career. And you really can’t push very far there at all. And yet, you know, just like in a romantic situation or with one’s parents or children you know, these are real stakes. These are serious stakes and yet you’re kind of on this uneven and very flawed playing field you know, and the balls not rolling evenly.

Self- Awareness and Understanding Others

Dr. Lisa: Yeah. Well and that’s a such a good reminder right there because I know that I’m so like in my practice we really have two specialties. We do Like couples counseling, relational coaching kinds of things, and then it’s and it seems like it would be different, but it’s really not the other sort of post of our practice is around career development and professional growth.

I think that the link there is really in emotional intelligence and being able to understand yourself and manage relationships in both of those domains. But because of that, I know that we have a lot of people who may be listening to this podcast, who are in leadership positions, and who are very interested to develop their skills as a leader. 

I’m just so glad that we’re talking about this for their benefit, because what you’re suggesting is that someone who is in a leadership position needs to become extremely careful to make sure that they are accurately reading the people that work for them or that they work with, because due to that power dynamic, the person in those sort of, you know, perhaps the employee position, may not feel able or even be able to bring up their feelings. 

Dan Hill: And that’s in a particular relationship, even in general, I mean, most statistics would suggest that no more than 10 to 20% of employees in a company feel like they can speak truth to power, or be very candid or transparent. And to go back to your example.

I mentioned my father was an executive, but I was a Director- Executive Communications for a Fortune 200 company, which meant that I was helping him prepare for his speeches, whether it was to shareholders, to employees, to the press, potentially, to nonprofit groups. I’ve done executive coaching, using facial coding and EQ for those same purposes. So yeah, that’s another situation where the stakes are high. Because you know, these can be large audiences. There’s moneyed interests involved here. Do you predict the stock price and you handle the press conference well, when there’s a crisis or a scandal, some people do that well, I’d say a lot, don’t do it terribly well. Because, you know, executives are used to being in charge and power. 

One of the things that they can default to is anger, because now you’re challenging my control, because I’m on the hot seat. And you’re asking me to make an apology. I mean, the analogy I often make is, at least if you’re like me, it’s so much harder to back the car up than it is to go forward. I’m always afraid when I’m backing up that I’m going to hear that terrible crunch, where I hit the back bumper or worse of another car going forward. I don’t, you know, it’s the other driver’s mess. I don’t really expect I’m going to cause a fender bender. You know, I can see more clearly that way.

Then, the combination of the rearview mirror and trying to turn around and look over my shoulder, which always leaves me feeling like, God, there must be a blind spot there somewhere. Some sliver of my vision field that I’m missing and haven’t helped me if you know, it goes wrong.

Dr. Lisa: Yeah, yeah. So you’re saying to use this self-awareness and understanding of others to try to prevent problems as opposed to going back and then trying to fix them?

Dan Hill: Well, I’ll give you an example. So we were talking about disgust and the poisoned waterhole earlier. It has a sister emotion or a male brother emotion whatever you want to say here. It would be contempt. Because, you know, it’s also an aversive kind of backing off emotion in some ways. But contempt is really complicated because it’s a smirk at the corner of the mouth. When we say Mona Lisa smile, she actually also smirks, although there’s even more there than just the smirk. But there’s a vast difference between a smirk and a smile.

In business, I sometimes say its profitability is the definition of that gap. Because contempt, a smirk means I don’t trust you. I don’t respect you. And it applies to both aspects of your practice, by the way, because, as you would know, with Dr. Gottman, John Gottman at the Love Lab of the University of Washington, Seattle, with 30 minutes of facial coding and 90% accuracy rate, if the couple will stay married.

Contempt is the most reliable indicator it will fail. But I also call it the, not just the emotion of divorce, but also of bankruptcy. Because now you have caused the target market not to trust you. And if trust is the emotion of business, I’m now in the wrong place. Because you know, I’m backing off from you, and I don’t trust you, and I don’t respect you. And therefore anything you say to me might seem like it’s a lie. And you’ve created, you know, real problems.

I was once doing some executive coaching for a CEO and in the annual employee meetings, he was pretty given to contempt. But I’d said, you know, if you’re trying to solicit their input, and feel like you’re together with them, and that’s what you’re trying to convey, then contempt makes it feel like you’re above them and removed from them. And it’s kind of contrary to your goals. And that led to a really good conversation, it turns out, because he was a good person, and actually a psychology major as an undergraduate.

He appreciated the power of psychology and said, “No, it’s not that at all. In fact, I do respect them. It’s that I’m uncomfortable sometimes in the trappings of being a CEO. Sometimes I feel like I have to say things, feel things, to the shareholders, to the press.” He said, “I know the story’s more complicated. We’re not always without our blemishes.

Obviously, we’re fallible like anyone else. And yet, I’m kind of told this line that I’m supposed to walk, and the things I’m supposed to say.” So he said, “to be really honest with you, Dan, I feel at times a little bit of contempt for myself, because I feel like I’m playing a role. And I’m not authentic.” And I said, “you know, if you told your employees that they would, they would understand you better, relate to you better.

It really be that kind of shining moment of truth that could really make them root for you as a leader.” And as you know, we met at a couple other occasions afterwards, down the road where he had got into some public speaking, and he did shift. And I’m not saying this, because I’m trying to Frankenstein people into someone they aren’t or weren’t or don’t want to be. But I think it really actually reflected who he genuinely was. But he felt that trapped in a role.

Dr. Lisa: Well, how wonderful though, that you were able to kind of like see that in him and get him to talk about it in an authentic way with you and to be able to provide coaching. I’m thinking of the work of Brene Brown right now, like the power of vulnerability. 

Dan Hill: Oh, absolutely.

Dr. Lisa: Yeah, to be able to say, I’m not comfortable with this, because I think so often, you know, we feel like we need to, like a project this image that we have it all together. But you’re saying and what your research, it sounds like that it sort of seeps through anyway, even if you’re trying to, like maintain this facade. And that, and that the real way of creating those connections is to just be honest, well, I also heard you say that sometimes being direct is not always the best course of action

Dan Hill: Well, in this case, I try to reach my audience and the way I really framed it initially, because I didn’t know what reception I would get was to say, you know, I think these are your goals, because I said, I’ve been a Director of Executive Communications. And I know, this is what you’d be trying to achieve, is to motivate, galvanize, engage your employees, so they, you have more productivity, that’s the business goal. I said, so the business goal is being harmed by the communications goal. And even not the words, but the nonverbals. So really, I just laid out that contradiction first.

I kind of sat back in the woods and waited to see, you know, how the bear responded when they found the meat, you know, and the campsite. And, you know, all respect to him. He took it on. He said, yeah, that is a problem, that he admitted what he admitted to me, which is, you know, allowing for vulnerability, wanting authenticity, revealing what his value system was, he didn’t have to do that for me. I, you know, I’m just a consultant, and not his wife. I’m not on the board of directors, he didn’t have to do those things.

But he did do them. And it allowed him to grow, in my opinion, and the results we saw, and it’s a real nice success story, without ever, you know, exactly putting him under the gun. I mean, I know the person who was his chief of staff was like, all nervous, you know, what are you going to tell him? You know, what did you see?

They were on pins and needles and I said, “I’m a good diplomat, you know, I’m a constructive person here. I’m not out to flame anybody diss anybody, destroy anybody’s ego or career. That’s not what this is about. So if you’ll allow me the latitude, I need to do my work. I think I can ensure that you know, I will take it forward to the extent that, you know, the CEO is willing to take it forward. But I won’t impinge.”

Dr. Lisa: Wow, yeah, that masterfully so I’m thinking of like the Montessori kind of philosophy right now like you creating a prepared environment and then it allows the student or the participant to engage and clearly this person was motivated toward growth and took the opportunity that you provided, but how lovely it must have felt good for you.

Dan Hill: It certainly did. I mean, I’m still here to talk about it today. So it was years ago, but it stuck with me. And I was really happy for the occasion. And you know, and then you just have to accept that. Sometimes it may not work that way. I mean, you know, I’m not the biggest baseball fan in the world, and I know the World Series is starting.

The truth of the matter is, you know, a great hitter, maybe gets the 300, and very few do, that means they’re not getting to first base or beyond most times. So you just don’t, you don’t make a hit every time. And you do have to live with that. That’s part of emotional intelligence actually, is not beating yourself or the other party up. Or the fact that not every time is, is that kind of success story, it just, sometimes it is what it is for now. It doesn’t mean it couldn’t change later, they may even sleep on it, and come back. But you can’t assume that everything’s going to suddenly make the doors swing open, and the world looks different. It just doesn’t tend to work that way necessarily.

The Power of Projection

Dr. Lisa: Well, good, good reminders, such interesting stories. And I know, I know, we probably don’t have a ton of time left, but I have two other questions for you, if I may. And so one of them — and I hope that this is okay to ask.

As we’ve been sitting here talking, one of the things that I have been thinking about in that, you know, the facial decoding and reading other people is also the power of projection, and, how you are what you’ve observed about that, even potentially, in our research, and so I’m sure that you understand this well, but for the benefit of our listeners, so that the idea of of projection is that, particularly when it comes to how we interpret other humans is largely based on many of our early life experiences, attachment styles, and back in the day.

Like Sigmund Freud, and those guys would practice actually a form of therapy called psychoanalysis where the therapist was a blank canvas, they did not offer thoughts or, you know, they would just be that person sitting behind you scribbling notes in the chair and and that the person in therapy would sort of free associate for an hour, five days a week, and in doing so, would start to project all of these ideas and interpretations and personalities and thoughts and feelings on their therapist like so they would imagine that the therapist was angry with them, or hostile to them or in love with them. I mean, like could be all kinds of things. 

But the idea of projection is also very real, that we tend to see in other people many times what we do experience in ourselves. And I’m curious what your research has uncovered about the interplay there, or how to even like, manage some of that. Does that make sense? 

Dan Hill: Sure. Well, I think the way I approach that, at least, is kind of two levels. One is I’m in the moment, and am I projecting assumptions about why they’re behaving this way? Why they thought this, why they feel that and I try to be really gingerly about that, because you don’t know.

It is a wonderful comment from Bekenstein, no, it’s Kierkegaard. Kierkegaard said, “Out of the twisted timber of humanity, no straight thing was ever made.”

Dr. Lisa: No what was ever made?

Dan Hill: No straight thing was ever made. There’s warps in the wood. There are knots. You just, you know, and I use that quote, sometimes to just remind myself do not project, do not assume. You know, because you can’t know I have some glimmerings of what’s their feeling. I can restate the question, go back with a topic. They may feel more than one emotion.

What’s the interplay of those emotions? What’s the sequence of the emotions even? Do they go from sadness to anger? Do they feel this is a really common one, someone could be afraid, then they get angry because they are uncomfortable being afraid. Or they’re a guy and they want to mask the fear with anger? Because they think you know, men don’t feel afraid, which of course is absurd. Naturally they do. So yeah, the blend that sequence of emotions, whether it comes back in another situation, so I see a recurring pattern. There’s so many things there that I think you are alert to or need to recognize you can’t jump in and make the assumptions.

On the other hand, for me, at least, I admit, it’s a little tempting, not in the short term, but over time to say, Ah, is that kind of a signature expression of theirs? Because George Orwell, the writer said by the age of 50, a man has the face he deserves. We do have muscle memory. We do have patterns as human beings. We’re very habitual creatures after all. And so it can be tempting to think I’ve got to make it really simple. I’ve got a hothead, they’re rarely given to anger, I have a sad sack and they struggle with sadness.

Whatever the case may be, I’ve got a nervous Nellie, they’re always afraid. But those are stereotypes, of course. And it’s very unlikely that they fit the one budge bucket. And then the question is, if that is true, you know, what cost? You know, is it me? Is it a boss? Is that a primary relationship, including from earlier in their life? Yeah, you’d hope that it creates empathy, and the curiosity to understand the person as opposed to a judgment and potentially put down or a verdict.

I think I do well, in terms of trying to stay away from the put down. But it is tempting for me as an analyst, to just try to see if I think I can get there and unlock the clue on somebody. And so yeah, I don’t want to say it’s a parlor game or something. But when I watch people on TV being interviewed, having been on national TV myself, do I get tempted to try to kind of figure out this person, it’s like, a 60 minutes episode, I got 20 minutes with them. Yeah, that’s enough time, they’re like, Oh, let’s see if I can, you know, come away with a real sense of who this person is. So you know, that’s fun. But you still have to be aware of the stakes and the risk availability.

Self-Awareness and Emotional Intelligence

Dr. Lisa: Yeah, well, and you’re so clearly like approaching this with a, like scientists mind, like, of I have a hypothesis, but I don’t want to assume and I think I’m also reading through the lines here that your own self-awareness of those habitual patterns, because I’m just thinking to myself, like, over the years, one of the things that I have learned about myself, is it because it can be very tempting to like do mind-reading, and particularly in relationships, you know, people can run into trouble when they’re like, I know how you feel.

What we’re talking about is, you know, taking a more scientific approach, and really like looking at people’s faces and trying to read their emotions to get that accurate information. But like, one of the things that I’ve learned is that, you know, it’s easy for me to assume that people are upset with me, somebody is mad at me, or doesn’t think well of me. Not to blame parents, but me, I had a kind of a critical dad. And so that was often true in childhood.

So now I sort of even have to like talk through that, like, you don’t know that, you know, and just kind of like back away from that idea. But, I think, I think that self-awareness, just even just knowing that you have a tendency to make, like kind of key assumptions, could be helpful in staying in that reality-based place that you’re talking about is like the taking more scientific approach of uncoding people’s faces and understanding them.

Dan Hill: Yeah. Well, I think I can relate to what you just said. I think my father is a very smart and honorable person. 

Dr. Lisa: Yes. I love my dad. 

Dan Hill: Yeah. But in, in my case, I would say my dad was, could be given to a little bit of condescension, since he was smart and industrious. And so I’m particularly adept at picking up smirks and you’re sensitive to them. And who’s to say, you know, I don’t know myself, but who’s to say that the nine books that I’ve fathered, and all this work that I’ve done is in some way to try to gain the respect I don’t get in childhood easily. It could be, you know, yeah, I couldn’t prove it in a court of law. But, you know, if I was on trial, I would have to confess that there was a distinct possibility that that’s at least a part of the explanation

Dr. Lisa:  Was your dad, the Norwegian one? 

Dan Hill: Yes. 

Dr. Lisa:  Okay. My dad, Belgian. I’m a first-generation Belgian American, and I think there is something to that, Dan, I really do. Yeah, I really do. Well, then, so the other question that I had for you. So there’s one side of this, I’m imagining, which is really learning how to understand what other people are showing through their faces.

I’m so curious to know about the other side, because I would imagine that people might want to use this knowledge to manage their own facial expressions in such a way that they are being careful about what they’re kind of communicating to others. I’m curious to know if and maybe we could talk about your clients but I’m also curious about you. Have you noticed yourself kind of consciously shifting what you are doing with your face when you’re talking to people?

Dan Hill: The answer is absolutely no, because I decided almost immediately once I got into this that I was not going to go back and look at my videotape, my TV appearances from my speech. at conferences, I didn’t want to put myself in a fishbowl.

I wanted to highlight authenticity. The reason I became a facial coder is because I liked it is that an objective tool, or at least I can say quasi-objective, since there’s probably nothing that’s truly, utterly objective in the world. But to try to faithfully use the tool with the researcher, Dr. Ekman to try to get a lens on what’s happening, it could be to make companies more efficient. But honestly, my interest in business had almost entirely to do now with, you know, bottom-line profitability. I do, like I do like to have, you know, efforts that are fruitful, as opposed to stupid and wasteful.

I was interested in restoring humanity to business, and getting recognized that whether it’s your customers or your employees, your colleagues, that why don’t you treat them better. I mean, I’ve been to enough office politics, you know, it’s probably why I wrote the “Blah, Blah, Blah” book, like, I’m thinking of office, politics, and bullies, and all those head games that go on. But I know I never wanted to look at myself, but I do know, because I just, I can’t avoid it sometimes.

I gave a speech once where it was the chairman of Nokia, Nokia kind of imploded. It was the chairman of Nokia and the CFO of Nokia, and then me, three of us on the stage back to back to back 15,000 People in the hall in Barcelona. The screens behind me were like I was born out with a YouTube concert. I mean, they were, I think, I’d guess roughly 52 screens, each of them 50 feet high, and 100 feet wide, behind me. So could I avoid seeing myself? Not so much.

I do know at least one thing, but I don’t harbor it or belabor it, I can be given to showing a lot of surprise. And I guess, therefore some fear on my face, because those two emotions are quite similar. And I think there’s an explanation for it in part, which is, I wasn’t always that aware of human nature growing up.

I was pretty isolated as a boy, in Italy, you know, the boys I did play with were older than me. And so when you got a big age gap, at that point, it’s a little difficult. They didn’t definitely want to hang with a younger boy. The one boy who was my age was, you know, not very athletic, and maybe not as lively, even intellectually, so he wasn’t a companion, I was seeking out. Especially I spent a lot of time going on long walks along the Italian Riviera, up in the hills in the olive orchards on my own.

I read copiously and read a lot of books as a kid. So I think to this very day, there are times where human nature just shocks me, baffles me, leaves me bewildered because I expect higher standard, I expect more thoughtfulness, more sensitivity, more owning up to something that actually happens. And so I seem to be potentially always in a state of being “Oh, really?”

But at least I guess the upside of that is that also indicates that I’m willing to be very curious, and continue to learn, which is true. So just like every emotion has an upside and a downside. That can be the two coins, or sides of the coin in this case. So I know that much about myself. I do think that in the progress of understanding emotions, I probably made by and large and adjustment to being more calm.

When you run a company as I have, it’s a lot of stress. And you either buckle under it, or you learn to cope with it better. And I think I got, yeah, I’m not perfect, but I think my ability to cope with snafus and stress and things that come up is vastly improved. And I think one of the motivations I have to be a tennis player, and I’m almost exactly at this very close within half a year of being the same age as John McEnroe.

We’re both lefties. Now am I as good as John, not even close. But I did watch John’s career and at some point, I started feeling embarrassed for John because he was a great champion. But he was out of control. He got tossed from tournaments, he got fined, he undercut himself. He’s a great commentator now for the US Open. I mean, he just, you know, really cuts through and has some insightful things. And he really knows the game and you never know he’s going to quite say. So it’s really exciting to listen to him.

But there was a point in his career. I was like, No, John, you know, you’re maybe when you’re 23 and you haven’t matured. I can cut you some slack. But now you’re a 32-year-old player. And you’re still getting into these kinds of shenanigans. Yeah, it’s wrong. It’s embarrassing.

Dr. Lisa:  Just for the benefit of some of our some of our younger listeners. So John McEnroe was a very famous tennis player back in the day who was legendary for like freaking out on the tennis court like, straight up tantrums, like throwing his racket, like stomping off, like all kinds of things.

Dan Hill: Once in the tournament in Sweden in a year where he went like, I think at three and four, he lost four matches in the entire year. In a match that I think he went on to lose, maybe didn’t, but anyway went berserk yelling at the ref and everybody else, he whacked a tennis ball at one point into the stands and barely avoided hitting, I think it was the king of Sweden, in the face, with the tennis ball. So he’s the number one player in the world for several years, you know, a legend in the sport. Did he reach his full potential? I don’t think he did.

Dr. Lisa:  Yeah. Well, and so there’s certainly a benefit to being able to control your own emotions. But I also just, I want to recognize what you said. Because when I asked you, you know, if you’ve used this information to kind of, I mean, I can’t, this is a terrible word, but it’s the right word to almost like, manipulate how other people see you, I heard you say that you made deliberately a conscious choice to use these superpowers, so to speak, for the purpose of good and just like sitting with you and talking with you, Dan, you seem just like a very genuine, ethical, like, just good.

I don’t know that you and we don’t know each other that well. But that’s the energy that you give. And I’m just, I’m so glad that you are sort of the steward of this information, these things that you’ve learned about it? Because I would imagine as you’re teaching them to others, it’s for the purpose of helping them be more effective and more empathetic in relationships, as opposed to using the information.

Dan Hill: Yeah, be that’s yeah, that’s all true. And if I just close my eyes for a moment, there’s we’re talking, which is a sign of sadness, because, there are, of course, people who use it for other reasons. Just to pick up on one, the Chinese government, there’s a very large company. All the companies in Silicon Valley are basically at work automating facial coding, they’re not very accurate so far, but they’re at work doing this.

But so true for a Chinese company, worth billions tied into the Chinese government and using this to monitor the Uighurs. Rather, it’s how you say it, the Uighurs in northwest China, who are Muslim. So it’s being used as a tool of oppression in that case, because it’s monitoring their emotions and behavior and trying to indoctrinate them. So this can have very large stakes. But yes, I am trying to be benign, beneficent, positive, ethical, and my use of the tool, whether involves myself or others. That’s, you know, that’s my purpose. But I’m aware that it could be used for other reasons.

EQ: Emotional Quotient

Dr. Lisa: Yeah, well, but that I mean, my takeaway is just how much good it can do to to be more aware of the needs and rights and feelings of the people around you, so that you can have closer and more connected relationships with them. And really, like more emotional intimacy is like my big takeaway is that when you become good at understanding how other people are feeling, by that you can open the door for those really emotionally intimate moments like the ones that you discussed, you know, with, with your coaching clients and other situations.

Dan Hill: Yeah, I mean, it’s all about EQ. And I wrote the book, you know, “Famous Faces Decoded.” I was lucky that I talked to him about an endorsement from John Mayer, who’s one of the three founders of EQ movement. The other two are both at Yale University, and he’s up in New Hampshire. And he pointed out gives you probably there’s a lot of inflated claims as to what EQ could do for you, he said, but it’s a very solid like 6% advantage.

I went well, because I know being a tennis player, and having been on Tennis Channel twice with Mary Carillo, interviewing me that the greatest players in the world are Roger Federer, or Serena Williams, on average, even when they’re number one in the world, they were in 53% of their points, on average. That’s it. So the margin to winning you lose, even when you’re the very best in the world is not very large. So 6% advantage, you might go. That’s not much. That’s a lot. That’s an awful lot. And it’s the separation between EQ and IQ. IQ is relatively fixed. That’s my understanding of it. EQ isn’t fixed. It can grow, it can embellish. And they should work together as opposed to just EQ being silent now give you maybe one last instance here as we’re wrapping up.

So I’m at Rutgers. I’m getting my PhD, and I’m going to be teaching courses now in my case. I’d already taught both at Brown University Of course, and for two years full time at a state university before I came back for the PhD so I was versed as a teacher but my fellow classmates were not. The truth of matters, the students at, you know, even at Rutgers, they pay a good amount of money for the tuition. The chorus is the time and the money, and yet, you’re gonna put me in a classroom. And maybe I know the content, and maybe I got the IQ part down.

But do I know how to teach? Do I know how to interact with the students? There wasn’t one second that I can think of that we spent on EQ skills, even though that particular course was supposed to be a training course, to prepare us to be, you know, in the classroom, as teachers. It’s kind of absurd. And if you look at where the economy is headed, skill sets will evaporate.

Technology is such that, you know, things get overturned immediately. So I know your podcast, one of the words in the title, and we didn’t talk nearly enough about love, and relationships. But if you want to just end it for a moment on success, success is going to depend a lot on soft skills going forward. Yeah, I think your ethics, your flexibility, agility, you know, all those things that get poo pooed sometimes, because those are permanent, and they can be built on and your so-called hard skills, those are actually the soft ones.

They may be the erased skills, the invisible skills, the obsolete skills. So what was wrong about how we got prepared for the classroom at Rutgers is a problem that all sorts of classrooms are making, and all sorts of companies are making universities, colleges, businesses, organizations in general, should never underestimate the importance of EQ.

Dr. Lisa: Yeah, what a powerful message that culturally, we’ve been kind of over-prioritizing intellectual informational IQ type of knowledge. And what I’m hearing you say, is that the robots are coming for us all and all of the informational things, that’s the part that we like, can’t come things change so fast. But the soft skills, the compassion, emotional intelligence, flexibility, those are the things that are going to endure. And so that to your point, that it’s really worth if you’re going to invest in anything to be successful in, professionally and relationally, it’s to really develop your skills in that area, because that’s what matters.

Dan Hill: Yeah, I mean, if he just follows the progression, I mean, yeah, machinery, you know, started to step in and take over and do as well, what our backs could do, and our arms and our legs, lifting and making things work. And now we work in conjunction with them, but they do the bulk of it. The same thing is going to happen with the IQ side, we can supplement the robots, we can fill in, collaborate, but the robots are going to be better at some point, maybe even now, at times in that area.

Probably the one thing we can hold on to best actually is our hearts and our creativity and ingenuity, and ability to collaborate. And that’s why this is also important. And facial coding can help you because it’s right in the moment. It’s what’s happening. And you can pivot it and respond and utilize it. And that’s the opportunity. I think it’s a real sweet spot where people could be and believe me the same they can help in your personal relationships, too. So anyway, we’ll leave it at that.

Dr. Lisa:  Oh, what a beautiful idea for us to glide to a halt. And, and a beautiful segue for me to remind everybody where they can find your books, if they like me are going to be. I, as soon as we hang up, I’m going to be getting all of these books that you mentioned from Amazon, because I really want to learn about this. But the one is “Famous Faces Decoded” to learn how to understand facial expressions, and another, what the most recent book is “Blah, Blah, Blah: A Snarky Guide to Office Lingo.” 

If you want to get a handle on how to manage some office politics, and I mean, again, you’ve written nine books and so there’s all kinds of information and guidance that you offer. But you can find all of it on Dan’s website, which is sensorylogic.com Access to his books and you have a podcast as well.

Dan Hill: I do. It’s called Dan Hill’s EQ Spotlight. It’s on the New Books Network. It’s the largest book review site in the world gets about 1,000,007 downloads a month, not just me, but for everybody who’s on it, and set up by a former Harvard Russian studies professor who is best I understand it had tenure, but walked away because he didn’t think it was interesting enough anymore.

He was going through the motions too much and wanted a different way to bring knowledge to people in the world. So you can check that out of the new books network, Dan Hill’s EQ spotlight, and you’re right there are the books the ones you’ve already mentioned, other business books, and even a book called Art, a book on democracy and political leaders getting all the US presidents that I’ve facially coded. So I can’t say I’ve covered everything under the waterfront but I hit a number of topics over time.

Dr. Lisa: Definitely an authority. But thank you so much for just coming and, and sharing your wisdom with us today. This has been a fascinating conversation. I really enjoyed speaking with you. So thank you for doing this with me. 

Dan Hill: Absolutely, thanks for the good conversation.