Vanessa Van Edwards says charisma is a personal operating system that defaults to high warmth and high competence, like a thermostat set between 68-75°F. Stay in that baseline even when answering spontaneous questions, rather than shifting into formal presentation mode that kills warmth.
Always be charismatic in that your default operating system is high warmth, high competence with your blend. You have a certain spot that you are, maybe you lean a little higher towards warmth. Great. It's like a thermostat between 68 and 75 degrees. You're picking your favorite warmth and competence cues. That's your default. So if someone asks you, hey, you know, what were your thoughts on that thing last? And you're like, I'm ready to go. So I don't want you to change anything for an impromptu. I want your default to be that high warmth and high charisma. And that's your operating system. That's like your presence. And you're going to pick those cues that are comfortable. So there really is no difference between you just casually having a conversation with your boss or a colleague, you are always presenting and it should always be conversational. We shouldn't switch into like, I am now going to be in presentation mode, dial up competence, be more formal. It feels fake. It literally creates distance. So you're presenting is actually the same as a conversation and it's always that default of high warmth, high competence.
