Face Reading – An Ancient Skill for Success in Modern Business (feat. Eric Standop)

Susan.

I'm Susan Drumm and welcome to the Enlightened Executive where your personal evolution sparks your leadership evolution. Each episode we spotlight groundbreaking techniques and strategies to help executives and entrepreneurs get the edge for personal and leadership effectiveness. Today we are focusing on face reading for success in your career, relationships, health, and its application to business. With me today, I'm delighted to introduce Eric Standop. He is a face reader, an author, a speaker and advisor and conducts lectures for relaxation methods at a German university. He advises individuals and companies all over the world, including in Europe, Asia, Middle east and United States. He's the author of 15 books in nine languages. He's given a TED talk. He's speaker at the World Government Summit in Dubai.

He's.

He's founder of the Face Reading Academy and he's also the host of a TV show in Germany. So incredible. Welcome, Eric. I'm so glad you're joining me from Germany today.

Susan, thank you for having me.

So I'm sure people want to know what is face reading? What is this? Tell me more.

Well, funny enough, it's what everybody does. Everyone is a face reader. We look into phases. And why do we do that? Well, we want to get to know more information than words can tell us. And so this is my work. That's my profession. I read faces to get more information than a paper or words can give us. And I use that as a tool for advising and counseling people.

Wow. And where did this all start? I mean, how did you develop the skill to read faces? And what's involved in that? So, so many good questions.

Looking back in human history, 300,000 years ago, the Homo sapiens was on the planet. He couldn't speak, he couldn't talk. There was no language. But for 200,000 years, there was no development in it. What people did already those days was looking into each other's face, eyes and mouth also to find out what's going on here. What kind of personality do I have? 100,000 years ago, languages started, and then the whole thing started to be a little bit different. Throughout the history, there have been high cultures who used face reading as a tool to find out about the other side. Their health, their love, their personality, their talents, anything that is of interest in someone else. So you find face reading in almost every high culture. And everybody thinks it's a Chinese thing, but you can find it in Egypt in the pyramids. You find it in Greek, in the Roman culture, even in the high cultures of South America. So it's a very, very universal thing on the planet.

I mean, I'm just going to jump right into how do you use it in business? Why should executives or entrepreneurs care about face reading?

It can be a big help. Why? Well, you have someone who is neutral, who is observing a situation and gives you then a profound observation of what you as a face reader have been able to see. For example, if you have an interview and you want to hire someone, and, well, you listen to this person and this person might be pretty good by first look, but then you're not sure because this person can tell you a lot. And maybe with the help of the face reader, you get a confirmation for what you feel. You might have a feeling like, yeah, this person is a good one. Or. Or you have a feeling like, I'm not so sure. But to be a little bit more precise, maybe I'll give you a small example. So, a small example from Singapore. So I've been hired by a Singaporean CEO in finance. And this guy built up a new department. He hired around 12 people for that. And after half a year, he was not really happy about the outcome. He said, something's wrong with this department. I don't know why, because I hired all the 12, and I'm really happy for each of them, but when they work together, something's wrong. So he hired me for two days. And the first day I was there, everybody knew that I'm a face reader, but most of them have been Chinese roots. So they, for them, that was not a problem. They were even more interested in who I am and what I do. So I had a reading with all of them to find out what's their personality, and maybe it's the interaction between them, who and what doesn't work. On the second day, I watched the workflow. And then on the evening of the second day, the CEO and me, we had a meeting, we had a dinner. And while we had dinner, the CEO asked me, so, Eric, so what's going on? What's the problem with the team? And I said, well, first of all, congratulations, because all the 12 are really good. They have lots of talents, and you hired well. And he said, well, thank you for the flowers, but it's not working out. We have no outcome. It's not really what I expected. And I said, well, the problem is not the team. The problem is the CEO. And he said, what? I'm the problem? You just told me that I hired all those guys and I did well, but why am I the problem? And I said, well, you hired guys who need a general, they need a leader, and they need a leader who is always there all the time. You are a CEO who is more like an entrepreneur. You are more a CIO inspirational officer. You don't want to lead those guys all day long. You have no talent for leading. That's what I told him because I couldn't see that in his face. But you have a lot of talent for people. You have people skills and you have a lot of talent to create things. You are very creative and imaginative. But for those guys, you need a strong leader. So I recommend you to to hire someone just to lead those guys. Don't take one of them because I couldn't see that skill in one of them. But want to lead them and you have more time for yourself. This is, for example, how it can work out.

Wow. And I've heard you say something before about micro expressions. Tell me more exactly how you so.

When you read a face. When you read a face, you have to look on three basic things. First are features. Features like eyes and mouth. Eyes and mouth are the most important features in a human face. We fall in love with eyes and mouth. And that's what we look at when we look at someone's face first, eyes. So features are important because they can tell a story. Then you look on micro expressions. So this is the movement of the muscle in the face. Movement of the muscle in the face is very expressive because they're connected by the facial nerve with the brain. So anything that's happening in your brain can be shown on your face outside. Even if you try to control it, you can't do that for a long time. You might do that for a minute or two. But if I have a conversation with you for more than 20 minutes in a reading, for example, I get to know how you think and what you think. Not exactly to the last point, but I'll find out what the personality behind all of that. You can also find out about lies and expectations and emotions, of course. But that's not what I usually look for, except I work for investigators. The third thing is gestures. Gestures, especially those when the hand meets the face. Other gestures like body language can be easily faked. So I even teach politicians in the right body language when they have when they're on stage or when they meet another politician or when they have an interview. So I already know what they have to do. I even teach poker players in that. But the guest just to the face. This is something that a lot of people cannot control. It's stimulated by your nervous system. And wherever you do that in your face it means something different. So if you know those three things and you can put them together, you have a good idea of the situation. And when you have a good idea of the situation, you know the personality and that gives you a lot of benefit and you, well, definitely you have an advantage. Sorry to add that, but what a lot of American companies do not know. When you deal with someone from Asia, especially China, Chinese companies, and you have more than two or three people sitting in front of you, you have to understand that minimum one is teached and trained in face reading.

Wow.

While the Westerners read cvs. And then we get the usually thing like, yeah, studied here and is married, two kids. They want to know totally different things. Are you reliable? Are you loyal? Do you have weaknesses? Do you have a talent for what you do here? And so on and so on. And they find out by studying your face while they interact with you.

So we're not using this gift in the US enough.

Yes and no. There's one good thing in the US that beats, for example, Europeans. It's curiosity. A lot of Americans, especially the one in the new economy, the they are extremely curious. And when you're curious, you are curious also in the guy sitting right in front of you. And this curiosity already stimulates the hypothalamus in your brain and then you stimulate your face reading muscles that you already have. So it gives you a little bit of a second look at it helps you out a little bit. But of course you deal when you deal with Chinese companies, for example, with professionals in that. So it's more than curiosity. But yep, at the moment we, we have a disadvantage when it comes to things like this. And that's why companies hire me. Also when it comes to contract talks, especially Asian companies hire me because sometimes I don't even understand the language. So for them I'm a secret keeper sitting in the same room and have absolutely no idea what they're talking about. But that's not what they want to know from me. They want to know, hey, the second the Gu. The second left guide next to the CEO, what's his issue? What's the problem with him? And what can I is this CEO reliable? This is what they want to know.

Yes. You've worked at some of the highest levels in various corporations doing this work. What are the corporate types of services that you can provide?

Talking about a smaller company, a very small one in Hong Kong, a dentist. And I say company because this dentist has around 8, 9 other dentists working for him. He is extremely successful. His wife and his kids, beautiful. And he loves them and they love him. So there's a lot of reason why he should be very happy. But he wasn't. So he had a lot of issues, mental issues. He went to therapies for years and ended up at my place and said, eric, I don't get it. There's a lot of reason why I should be happy. It's not working out. So what's my issue? What's my problem? While talking to him, I tried to study him. I also asked him, do you really love your wife and your kids? So he could tell me anything, but I would check if he's lying to me. So he said, no, they're great. And I said, yep, that's true. And then I also asked him, do you like your job? And he said, well, I mean, yes, it's okay. I mean, I earn a lot of money. So that was more like, yes, I like it, but not so much. So it was more like this. That was honest as well. That brought me to the idea to read what is he here for? So what is his real life purpose, if you want to call it this way. And I found out by reading his face that he has no talent for healing. We could also say he's not a therapist, he's not a doctor, but he is a dentist. And he has no talent for the hands, which is being practical, but a dentist should be practical and a dentist should be a healer. And then I said, well, I think the reason why you're not happy is you don't live your talents. You live something that you learn somewhere. And he said, what do you mean I'm successful as a dentist? And I said, yeah, by will and because you're clever in any other way, but not because you're the best dentist on the planet, because you have no talent for that. Whatever you achieved. And that is a wisdom for any CEO. Whatever you achieved without talent but with will, well, you get respect for that, but it's not making you happy. It's very important that we use our talents because the talents are given by birth. And the reason why given by birth is they should help us to lead a happy life. So he said, so what do you think I should do? And I said, it's. It's a little bit confusing to me because I can see the talent of numbers in your face. This is a typical talent that CFOs have or hedge fund managers. And I can also see you have the talent of entertaining. And so you're a good entertainer, but you became A dentist. Now I know why you're successful as a dentist. Because you know how to deal with numbers and you're entertaining your clients here and that's why they come, they love to come to your place. Because it doesn't feel like, you know, like any dentist place. It's like having a party almost here. And he said, huh? And then he came with the idea and said, I think I know the, how it works, this face reading thing. And I said, why? And he said, because once a month I really feel happy. It's only once a month. And I said, when is that? When I take the ferry to Macau and I gamble, I feel really good. And so he found out whenever he deals with numbers by gambling, and then he has this whole entertaining business around him, he feels really good. It's his nature. And then he said, you want me to be a professional poker player? And I said, no, because you love it too much. But I have something different to advise you. Why do you work six days a week here? Why you are. You're already successful. Make it a five. And then don't work on every patient. You're a boss here. Come in, lead the people in and out and do that with them.

And have the other dentists do the work, do what you're good at, which is managing the business.

Exactly. And then I said, hey, and once a week, be a host, Invite people to your place. You love to entertain, you love to get the awareness and the magnetism. And everyone's looking at you and you have joke and you even sing. That's what he did. His wife is a little bit upset about me now because she's having a party every week, all day.

He's happier.

He's a lot happier. And he also found a circle of people who invest money in different kind of ways. It's almost a little bit for him, like a more reasonable gambling. Not as bad as it was before in Macau. But he. Well, he's happy with that. Right. And by the way, everyone working for him too, because he's a happy CEO and everyone has more work to do because he said, you do that, it's brilliant. It's great. So this is another little example of how it can be.

Yeah, I know some people had some questions around contract negotiations. Is there like maybe just in a general form, how do you help in that capacity?

Well, something that happened in the United States, maybe I'm not going. It wasn't on the East Coast. So I was sitting next to a CEO who wanted to buy a different company and they had an interaction. So the CEO just called me advisor. This is Eric, my advisor. He's just here for a few days. So I did nothing, just sitting there. And they were talking to each other. And after the 30 minutes they said goodbye. And the CEO asked me, so Eric, what's your observation? I said, well, it was pretty cool, I think both of you understand very well. And he said, yeah, but I want to know, did he lie? And I said, well, he lied once. And he said, he lied once. And I said, yeah, when was that? And I said, when? He talked about his high school days. And he said what? And he said, well, he tried to play the rebel, but he wasn't a rebel in high school days. And he wanted to be a rebel to impress you because he found out you're a rebel yourself. And he said, okay, well I give it to him, that's not a big problem. And he said, anything else you observed? And I said, well, that's another thing that I observed. So he asked you 17 times a question, which is maybe a lot in 30 minutes, but 17 times. But whenever he asked you a question, he never looked into your eyes. And he said, well, that can be because he's shy. And I said, good point. A face reader would agree. But you know what, a 50 year old CEO with around 1,000, 2,000 people working for him is shy when asking someone else questions that are not really, I don't think so. So he said, okay, so what does that mean? Well, that speaks for his personality. So when you have a lawsuit, when there is any confrontation, any argument and so on, he will never act directly. He will always have someone in the back doing this for him. So this is part of his personality. So you have to know how you deal with this. Do you want to buy a company from this guy or not? Can you work with this personality or not? But be assured you can never have a straight word with him. It's never eye to eye. It's never, I have a problem. What do you think about it? It will always be from the back. So this is the observation. And then the CEOs have to decide what they do with the observation. So it's only delivering information than you might know. And yeah, so maybe a small one. Someone hired a marketing director. No, it was a cmo. And they failed three times in a row. And they said the fourth time, we really want to be sure we choose the right one. And so I was sitting in the interviews for five, five interviews. And then they had one in favor and then they said, I think we take this one. And I said oh, interesting. And then they said why? And I said, because, well, he's a climber. He will not stay for a long time in this company. This is for sure. Are you looking for someone who for longer? It's obviously that he will climb as fast as he can. The second one might be good. I said, yeah, but he has heart issues. It's obvious that he has problems with the blood circulation with the heart. So be sure you get a test from the doctor or whatever you can do. But this is his issue. So I can give information. Sometimes it helps. Sometimes CEOs after think even more about the situation and well, the second consultation.

Right, right, right. So what do you say to skeptics? What concerns maybe do other leaders have when they hire you?

Well, the biggest concern of most people is that I read all the time. So Eric, don't look at me that long. It's like my mom, my mom is always upset when I look at her. Yeah, but I'm not reading usually because it's energy. It's a collection of information. It costs really a lot of energy. So usually I switch off. For me it's really work. You have to learn that. Then second, then you have skeptics. But skeptics usually don't hire you except they're really curious than they do. But when you meet a skeptic, well, 10, 15 years ago I would have tried to encourage this person and how it works and so on. Nowadays I'm not really doing this anymore because I have to be. You know, if you watch news and you go into the Internet and you type in just latest about the face and you get all those face recognition software and you find out what the universities of Stanford, Berkeley, but also Wisconsin, Vancouver, there's so many studies and tests about face and what a face can tell you right now that it's the only thing I would say, well, you're not up to date. That's all I can say at the moment. Check the Internet and you'll find out and you'll see. This technique is an old one. Yes, but it's getting more and more scientific now.

Yeah. I wonder in time if we're going to be able to use AI to do what you do.

Yeah. In Hong Kong, I was already working with a robot called Sophie to look what is her micro expression like? Is it human?

Oh, a robot. Oh wow.

And it's really. I'm still not sure. Is it scary or is it fascinating that those robots more and more are able to show more and more human expressions in the face. When it comes to emotions, of course, we can show more than 20,000 emotions in our face and. No, that's wrong. We can Show More than 20,000 micro expressions in our face. Not all of them are related to emotions, but we can. This is at the moment, not what a robot can do, but maybe one day, who knows?

Yes. Oh my gosh. How did you become a face reader, Eric?

I worked in the entertainment business, always behind the scenes, marketing, pr and I worked for cinema, theaters and theme parks in my early days. I studied, as you mentioned, studied also teaching and media and became a reporter and news anchorman and radio journalist, all that stuff. So my career was really bright. I was a CMO of a computer gaming company.

I had what you said.

Yeah, yeah. And I had a burnout, by the way. In fact, it was my second burnout. My first one was not really a hard one. I recovered in between months. The second one was really hard. I couldn't walk. I had skin issues everywhere. I had diagnosed 15 different diseases, but nobody told me it's a burnout. But that was my fault because I went to specialists and the specialists found out about this issue that I had. And the funny thing was a urologist, in the end was the first face reader that I've met because the urologist told me, listen, I couldn't find anything. But there's one thing I can tell you. You look like that, if you go on like this, you will die in the next two or three years. And I was very upset about this guy because this guy was. I wanted to know about, well, he's a specialist, he's a urologist. I don't want to listen to this guy and telling me you look like dead. But that was more or less my first kind of encounter with face reading, if you wish. And the second burnout made me quit the job. And I just wanted to run away from everything that is career related. And I took my backpack and went to South Africa. And this is where I had a first face reading experience. In a bar. In a wooden bar at the beach in Blouberg Strand, near Cape Town. And I didn't believe in that, but I was. Well, I had nothing to do. I was bored. And this face reading experience made me think, hey, I want to learn that. And then I go back in my old business and then I know everything about my CEO and my employees. So this was the first idea 15 years ago. What I didn't know is once you learn that, it also changes you a Bit because of course you see yourself in the mirror every day and it's hard to lie to yourself then. So to go to a job that you don't like is hard because you look into the mirror and you see yourself. So by learning this, then in Europe, first of all in Europe, later in Colombia and in China, I found out a lot about, more about myself. And out of the blue, it was not really a decision made out of the blue. I said, hey, I don't want to go to my business. I'm going to be a face reader. It was a little bit naive because 15 years ago there have not been a lot of people in Europe interested in what I did.

And how did you, how did you learn this was in China?

Well, I learned first in Europe with a German Danish master traveling with him in Europe. And then I opened an office one and a half year later in Europe, in Germany. Didn't work out. I quit. And then by traveling South America later than China, this is where my career started. It started in Hong Kong, by the way. I, I worked for the Mandarin Oriental in the spa as a visiting practitioner. Accidentally I got this job, but out of the blue, I was the talk of the town. Hey, here's a white guy, a guilo, a white ghost. He's, he's doing something that the old Chinese man can do. And so I was more like, hey, let's try to find out. I usually tell people, it would be like, maybe someone from China is coming to Southern California and opening a surf shop. So I think people would be interested then too. Or in the Midwest, a Chinese is coming and opening a brewery. And then everybody would say, what is this guy doing here? It was a little bit like this, but then people found out, hey, helps me a lot. So I worked a lot at this place and one day I received a phone call. That was almost a year later I received a phone call. And the first sentence that I heard is, what are you doing in our city? And I could hear, it's an old Chinese man. What are you doing in our city? And I said, hello, I'm Eric the face reader. No, you're not. And I'm like, what? And this guy turned out to be my face reading master, then in China. So I learned from him six years. And that was a real good add on to what I already learned in Europe, I imagine.

Well, I imagine this has just been so fascinating. We probably have two camps of people, some who would be interested in hiring you or someone like you. So can you share how, what resource? How can they do that? And then there might also be other people like you who say, hey, I want to learn this for me. Any suggestions on what you have there?

Thank you. I really want to teach people in these techniques, not just in one, and to try to combine them and then live the old ethic of a face reader is a counselor, is an advisor who is always trying to have the point of view of the center, of the middle. We are not going to extremes. This is what I teach my students. You are an advisor. You're an observer. Don't go for extremes. This is the main important thing. Yes, I want to teach that. And then the second thing, if someone wants to hire me for both, just go on my website, readtheface.com or on ericsstandup.com and get in contact with me and we'll find a way, even under the circumstances at the moment.

And that'll be in the show notes as well for those who are listening. And you're starting an academy for those who want to learn more, is that right?

I already started the academy in Hong Kong, but I left Hong Kong a few years ago. Then I teach students in Europe and. Yeah. Well, for the closer future, I hope I can start the whole thing in the United States and teach as many as possible. But definitely looking for real talented people to learn the profession and. Yeah. And help people with it.

Fantastic. Well, thank you so much for joining today on the Enlightened Executive. It has been enlightening, that is for sure. So thank you so much.

Thank you. And as face readers say, I see you. Thank you. Bye bye.

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