Episode 49 - Eye Contact...Creepy Or Effective?

We hope you had a great Fourth of July holiday!  Even if you didn't celebrate American indepencence day and the 4th of July was just a regular day for you...we hope you had a great one anyway! Remember to subscribe to the Maximize Your Influence Podcast via Itunes, the Windows Market Place, or Sticher Radio.  And as always, you can listen to the show at www.maximizeyourinfluence.com. The show begins by Steve hijacking the Geeky Article Moment form Kurt.  This week's article discusses the new science of forensic handwriting style analysis.  This is different than analyzing material that is hand written.  This particular science analyzes how somebody forms words and sentences and can thus (allegedly) prove if somebody wrote something or not.  With more and more writing being done on keyboards (rendering handwriting analysis almost obsolete) Modern law enforcement may start using the acutaly syntax to prove the authorship of writing.  In the era of emails and text messages this is sure to catch on more and more! Have you ever dealt with a salesperson who avoided eye contact with you?  How did you feel?  Eyes are the window to the soul.  Effective eye contact can make or break a presentation.  On the other hand, too much eye contact can intimidate or come across as a threat.  So how often should we be making eye contact?  The first thing to understand is that we need to "mirror" eye contact.  If somebody isn't making a lot of eye contact with you you need to dial it back a little.  The general rule is, however, about 70%.  That gives enough eye contact to let somebody know you see them and understand...without creeping them out.