Dotty Scott explains how gestures like hand movements and head nods shape what people believe about you. When your gestures contradict your words, like nodding while saying no, you lose trust. Entrepreneurs need to watch their body language when selling or networking.
A second type of nonverbal communication is your gestures. One way we gesture is with our hands, but we can also gesture with our head, a nod. And this is a really interesting thing for those of us who are entrepreneurs. When you're talking about selling or you're talking about share— when you're sharing about the benefits of working with you, for example, if If you'd like to be the best speaker you can be and you nod, you are giving a nonverbal yes. It feels like a yes. It— and people want to agree with that, right? You know, they nod back and they'll nod back. Exactly, exactly. So being aware of when you do this versus this was a really interesting turning point for me because I didn't know years ago, I didn't realize that I often shook my head no, especially when I was talking about something that I was surprised about. Can you believe that Dotty is doing this podcast? You know, it makes it— it's this incongruent message.
I see that a lot. Yeah. Where somebody will be talking about something that they're promoting and they're shaking their head no, and right, they're not even aware of it. But it's a very common thing, and every time I see it, I think, does this person really believe what they're saying? Because it seems like they're arguing with themselves.
I love that. That is so cool that you're aware of that, Dotty, that you're noticing that. And that's one of the reasons to become aware of these 6 types of nonverbal communication, which is that your message is congruent. When we're selling, we want to come across as trustworthy. And I say selling because entrepreneurs, why do we get together to share what we do and sell our services or products? So that's what we're doing on a regular basis. No matter what you're doing, even if you're just having a conversation like this, we're letting people know about what we do. And to become aware of your nonverbal communications. It's beyond speaking. Of course, as I was saying earlier, I was watching speakers not be as expressive as they can be, and it hurts my heart. But beyond that, all of us as entrepreneurs in our one-on-one conversations, when we're at a networking event and we're given a minute to talk about what we do, we are communicating nonverbally
