Vanessa Van Edwards | How to NOT be socially awkward.
The Emma Guns Show
Emma Gunavardhana
4.8 • 1.4K Ratings
🗓️ 27 March 2022
⏱️ 68 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
My guest in this episode of the podcast is researcher, speaker and bestselling author Vanessa Van Edwards. Vanessa is one of the world’s leading experts in ‘people skills’ and interpersonal intelligence.
She has over 2 million views on her TED talk, 600k subscribers on Youtube and her new book Cue teaches the reader how to master the secret language of charismatic communication. In the book, and throughout our conversation, Vanessa explains how to interpret, control and master these social signals to help you make an amazing impression at work and anywhere else you’d like to stand out - in the right way.
I’d watched Vanessa’s TED talk and seen her in interviews and was fascinated, not only by what her research shows about how we interact with others, but how refreshing it was to hear her describe herself as a ‘recovering awkward person’.
Being around other people can be challenging, especially if you don’t feel confident and, as Vanessa describes, you can create a cycle in which you feel awkward, misinterpret the situation, feel more awkward, misinterpret the situation further and so on…
If any of that sounds like you, then this episode is a must-listen because Vanessa breaks down how we can become a super cue-reading machine, how to recognise the different cues - non-verbal, vocal, verbal and imagery - and how to interpret them to not only make ourselves feel comfortable but to make the people around us feel comfortable too.
She also explains how our own cues can tell the world how to treat us and how empowering learning that skill can be as well as why we should all ask ourselves, before any social interaction, ‘what is my social goal?’ plus she gives some hints about ones to think about if you’re not entirely sure.
We also discuss narcissists, how to spot them and how to navigate away from them, toxic personalities, why you may be one of the many people who isn’t an extrovert or an introvert but is actually an ambivert and why being vulnerable isn’t a weakness
Vanessa's book Cues is available now.
To join the closed Facebook group for the podcast click here >> The Emma Guns Show Forum.
To follow me on social media >> Twitter | Instagram.
Sign up for my newsletter here >> Newsletter.
Hey! Why not share your thoughts and insights to make your listening experience even better. Complete this listener survey to tell me what you want to hear: http://bit.ly/theemmagunsshow-survey
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Transcript
Click on a timestamp to play from that location
| 0:00.0 | This episode of the Emma Gunn Show is brought to you by Cloud9 and there we, the Unstoppable |
| 0:04.7 | campaign. Because it's time we treated hair right, right? And if you're styling your hair every day, |
| 0:10.8 | then you'll know that all that heat can take its toll, which is why Cloud9 are the future of |
| 0:15.9 | healthy hair styling. They have a wide range of innovative and intelligent styling tools to help |
| 0:20.1 | you look your best and look after your hair. But how do they do this? Well, it's all down to their |
| 0:25.6 | variable temperature control that works smarter, not hotter, and offers a range of temperature |
| 0:30.8 | settings from 100 to 200 degrees so that you have control over how much heat you use on your hair. |
| 0:36.4 | Because the lower the level of heat damage, the shinier and healthier hair will be. As someone |
| 0:41.2 | who has alopecia, I am extremely mindful of how often I style and use heat on my hair, |
| 0:45.9 | exactly because it can compromise hair health. So knowing Cloud9 has this level of control gives |
| 0:51.1 | me the confidence to know I can style my hair the way that I want without causing unnecessary |
| 0:55.6 | damage by doing so. So whether you use straightness, curly hair, dryers, hot brushes, or all of the |
| 1:00.6 | above, Cloud9 have a revolutionary tech that styles hair without causing unnecessary damage. |
| 1:06.3 | Discover the unstoppable range of styling tools at cloud9head.com and use the code Emma Guns 20 |
| 1:12.0 | for 20% off for a limited time only. This episode is brought to you by AJ Bell |
| 1:17.6 | Money Matters, helping women to feel good investing. There is no reason why women should have less |
| 1:23.2 | money than men. But unfortunately, that is the reality. And it's not just a gender pay gap. |
| 1:28.8 | Research shows there is a 1.65 trillion pound gender investment gap in the UK. And I don't love |
| 1:35.9 | telling you this, but this gap means that women are, on average, poorer than men with less money |
| 1:40.8 | in their pensions, savings, and investments. AJ Bell thinks women need to talk more openly about |
| 1:46.1 | money and if you're a long time listener, you'll know I feel the same. It's not a subject that |
| 1:50.7 | should be embarrassing or confusing in yet finding resources you can trust can be a real challenge. |
... |
Please login to see the full transcript.
Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from Emma Gunavardhana, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.
Generated transcripts are the property of Emma Gunavardhana and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.
Copyright © Tapesearch 2026.