October 31, 2023
Episode 179 – Richard Newman – Lift Your Impact
“If you can think about communication as your ability to lift others, then suddenly that could be your key to unlock all sorts of situations like conflict resolution, doing a job interview, doing a sales pitch and so on. Where you think ok, my aim is by the end of this communication that I can move this person from a negative or a neutral state to a positive or more positive state.” – Richard Newman
- Richard is the Founder of Body Talk. In the past 23 years he and his team have trained over 120,000 business leaders around the world, to improve their communication and impact. One client gained over $1 Billion in new business in just one year, using Richard’s techniques, winning 100% of their new business pitches.
- Yet, these skills did not come naturally. Richard was a shy child, an introvert and is autistic. He realised there was something different about him at the age of 4 and has been on a quest ever since to discover the core principles of successful communication.
- Aged 18, he went to live in the foothills of the Himalayas with Tibetan monks, who spoke no English. They had to communicate non-verbally to understand each other. He then worked as a professional actor, before becoming a communication coach and keynote speaker. Richard has won the coveted Cicero Grand Prize Award for Best Speechwriter of the Year.
- Richard’s research on non-verbal communication was published in the peer-reviewed scientific journal Psychology. His study proved that you can increase your leadership ratings by 44% and win 59% more votes in an election by changing a few elements in your communication style.
- Richard’s new book ‘Lift Your Impact’ explores how you can ‘Transform your mindset, influence and future, to elevate your work, team and life’.
- This episode will provide you a glimpse into the principles of his books and his work through conversation and storytelling. Richard shares where he is at today, why it’s important to him and how he got here. Body language became a passion and focus from the age of 16 and is the foundation of the work he does and the books he has written. Richard and Patrick discuss living a values-based life, integrity, how Richard and his team work with clients, being a more effective speaker, body language and the journey of who we need to become to bring us to the next level we desire. All of that PLUS a couple of great exercises in values-discovery, and helpful tips for reading comprehension and retention!
- [00:42] Patrick introduces his next TEDM guest, Richard Newman.
- [02:34] Richard and Patrick get their conversation underway. Richard shares where he is at today, why it’s important to him and how he got here. Body language became a fascination and focus from the age of 16 and is the foundation of the work he does today.
- [08:04] Reflecting on his own challenge with communication as a young person, Richard identifies what the breakdown was for him, and describes how he dissected other people’s conversations to better understand why he was having a different experience. Intentionality was the key and he found it boiled down to one word. Lift.
- [11:39] In the assessment stage, Richard explains his methodology as a communication coach to uncover his client’s pain point and what their desired outcome is. From that point Richard can piece together how they’ll work together to get there. Mindset is step one. Richard gives us an activity to help find our true north and “reboot” our mindset particularly before going into a stressful situation.
- [19:05] Discovering our values. Richards provides a great way for us to elicit our values, starting with writing down what we want. This was an exercise he uncovered while running a workshop that helped the participants understand what was underlying their “want” in order to get to the value it fulfilled.
- [26:24] Patrick shares one of the tools he learned from Dr. John Demartini over 20 years ago around identifying our values.
- [27:23] Living a values-based life, running a values-based business, incorporating a values-based culture into your business and life, will improve communication, attract the people to you/your business who are in alignment, thereby creating a more meaningful experience for everyone. Richard expands on that to discuss how he also works with companies to build bridges from the company values to each person’s individual values. It’s very powerful.
- [32:45] Integrity. Richard and Patrick discuss their own definitions of it and Richard provides an example from American politics to illustrate his thought process around it.
- [36:39] Richard’s explains through his experience and the way in which he coaches, how getting clear on our values, changes and improves our communication. That sets a solid foundation upon which people can build skills in body language, tonality, and storytelling. Just being ourselves isn’t the complete picture, there’s an additional layer of stripping away our armour to get to the core of who we truly are meant to be.
- [41:19] Patrick shares a quick story of someone he is working with, that provides a great example of stripping away the armour, getting to understand who we need to become to get to the outcome we desire, and connecting our brain to our tongue.
- [44:44] Richard shares his thoughts on a couple of pieces of that process, with an analogy and personal anecdotes. As a speaker to one, a few, or many you must be ready to flex and respond as the situation unfolds rather than staying fixed in one way. Richard also speaks to archetypes, which he raises in his most recent book Lift Your Impact. The six archetypes he created reflect the people we have been to get to where we are, and conversely the fuller expression of who we and need to be to get us to the next level we desire. It’s not how, it’s who.
- [53:09] Lift Your Impact. Richard explains the impetus for writing the book when he thought he had already disseminated all the information he had on communication. He explains the 3 major challenges he saw people dealing with as a result of the disruption in 2019/2020 that he desired to address in this book. It turned out to be more of a workbook (hardcover, audio and, e-book available!) that can be a transformative experience.
- [57:38] Patrick offers an awesome tip for comprehension and retention with books and workbooks. Richard provides an additional layer to augment the experience.
- [61:37] Richard imparts his rule around body language and provides some tips both universal and situational to enhance communication and establish your presence.
- [68:20] So, why DO companies bring Richard and his team in? Richard explains the three main groups he and his team are hired to coach with a brief explanation of how that looks.
- [70:50] Patrick shifts the conversation to bring Richard over to the rapid fire! Android or iPhone; a favourite performer and a fun story to go with it; one favourite movie; a book Robert recommends for motivation (as long as you don’t mind strong language!); room-desk-car; favourite swear word; message at the pearly gates.
- [74:42] Richard’s gratitude.
- Selected links and people mentioned from this episode:
- Body Talk
- You Were Born to Speak by Richard Newman
- Lift Your Impact by Richard Newman
- The Definitive Book of Body Language by Allan & Barbara Pease
- Singing with Michael Buble
- Never Finished by David Goggins
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