In this solo talk, Guy Kawasaki explains that likability is the foundational pillar of enchantment and outlines three concrete behaviors that boost it. First, he distinguishes a genuine “Duchenne” smile—using the orbicularis oculi muscle to create crow’s‑feet—from the fake “Pan‑Am” smile that only moves the jaw, arguing that authentic eye‑involved smiles make people more likable. He illustrates the point with an anecdote about social‑media expert Marie Smith, whose pronounced crow’s‑feet earned her a spot in his slides. Second, Kawasaki advises “dress for a tie,” meaning presenters should match the formality of their audience rather than under‑ or overdress, which can appear disrespectful or pretentious. Third, he presents a “mathematical” handshake formula derived from a University of Manchester study, specifying optimal distance, firmness, dry hand, and brief eye contact. Throughout, he emphasizes that first impressions matter and that these simple, evidence‑based tweaks can dramatically increase one’s likability and, consequently, the power of any message.
Chapters
The basics, the 3 pillars of enchanting and enchantment is first likability. If you think about it, have you ever been enchanted by someone you didn't like? The answer is probably not. You need to be likable. I don't care how great your product is, you need to be likable. So I'm going to give you the key points of starting down the path of likability. First key point is You have to improve your smile. This is what's called a Pan Am smile. Unfortunately, in this audience, you probably never heard of Pan Am, right? Pan Am was this airline a long time ago. And the Pan Am stewardess, and really most flight attendants, they have what's called the Pan Am smile, where you only use your jaw muscles. You kind of fake a smile. No flight attendant is truly happy to see you. Okay? Let's just come to grips with that, all right? So that's the— Pan Am smile where you use the zygomatic major muscle. If you want to have a great smile, you need to use the orbicularis oculi muscle, which is, in other words, the eyes. What I'm trying to tell you here is crow's feet is good. Crow's feet is in. Forget the plastic surgery, forget the Botox, you want crow's feet. Because when you have crow's feet and you have your jaw working, you have a truly great smile. This is a woman named Marie Smith. Marie Smith— I have to take the cursor off her eye there, it just disturbs me. Marie Smith is an expert in social media. You may have heard of her. And the great story about this particular slide is I went up to Marie and I said, you know, I have good news for you and bad news for you. The good news is you will be in every one of my speeches from now on. The bad news is you're in the speech because you have really pronounced crow's feet. Luckily, she took that in a good way. That's why she's in every slide. So that's the second thing. The next thing is how to dress. No pun intended, but you should dress for a tie. There are several theories about how to dress. You could dress underneath your audience. Where you know your audience is a business audience, they're in a coat and tie, but you're going to freaking walk in there with t-shirt and jeans and, you know, running shoes. You don't care, right? Because you are more powerful than them, they cannot do anything to you. You're going to wear a t-shirt, you don't care. You're disrespecting the audience. You can also overdress. This is where you're trying to communicate that I have more money than you, I have better taste than you, I can puts you to shame. That also makes you not likable. So what you really want to do— oops— what you really want to do is dress equal to the audience. Not high, not low, equal. Dress for a tie. The third component of likability is to have a great handshake. Of all audiences in the world, you should appreciate that this is a mathematical formula for the perfect handshake. The citizens of the United Kingdom, We funded this study for you from the University of Manchester. And it tells you that you need to be a certain distance, certain firmness, your hand needs to be smooth and dry, you need to maintain eye contact for a second or two. This is the perfect handshake. The point here is that, you know, first impressions are important.
