Mr. Charlie Houpert - Charisma On Command: Inspire, Impress, and Energize Everyone You Meet

CHARISMA

ON

COMMAND

Inspire, Impress, and Energize Ev eryone You Meet

Introduction

Chapter 1: My Story

Chapter 2: Charisma Magic - Why People Think Charisma is Innate

Chapter 3: Elements of Charisma

Chapter 4: Charismatic Convictions

Chapter 5: Energy

Chapter 6: Turning It On At A Moments Notice

Chapter 7: Presentation and Spotlight

Chapter 8: Faces

Chapter 9: Body

Chapter 10: Voice

Chapter 11: Storytelling

Chapter 11: Conclusion

Chapter 12: Action Plan

Day 1: Foundations

Day 2: Fixing non-charismatic habits (Eyes)

Day 3: Smiling

Day 5: Storytelling

Day 6: Voice

Day 7: Incantations

Day 8: Dress

Day 9: Gesticulations expansiveness and openness

Day 10: Messing around

Day 11: More eye contact

Day 12: Touching

Day 13: Positivity

Day 14: Revisiting charismatic mindsets

Day 15: Take stock of honesty and trust

Day 16: Genuine compliments

Day 17: No filler words

Day 18: Get loud

Day 19: What are you stressed about?

Day 20: Vocal range

Day 21: Messing around (again!)

Day 22: Shining on others

Day 23: Posture

Day 24: Killer eye contact

Day 25: Gesticulations, posture, and touching

Day 26: Slow your speaking

Day 27: Energy and incantations

Day 29 Having fun, messing around

Day 30 Assessment

http://www.charismaoncommand.com/videos

Spring break. Senior year of college. The stuff of legends. Two young men just traveled 10 hours to their destination.

Cambridge, Massachusetts.

They settled into the meeting room at the Harvard Computer Society. At around the same time, their classmates were settling into their fifth body shot in Cabo, Cancun, or Acapulco.

Paul Graham stepped ou t. He delivered his speech. This was the reason the two young men had driven all the way from Charlottesville, Virginia: How to Start a Startup.

Both Steve and Alexis were inspired by the speech. At the end, Steve went to get Paul Grahams autograph. Alexis then bounded up to Paul Graham with a grin on his face. When it came his turn for an autograph, he said, Itd totally be worth the cost of a drink to get your opinion of our startup. Paul laughed and said sure.

The young men and Paul hit it off over drinks. Alexis and Steve had no experience with startups other than their imaginings, but Paul Graham liked them. He invited them to apply for the first class of a seed accelerator he was starting. The accelerator was named after a program that runs programs. It would be a business that started businesses. The name was Y Combinator.

So Alexis and Steve spent the end of their senior year perfecting their business plan. It was an infrastructure that would allow people to order food from their cell phones. They applied to Y Combinator. When they interviewed in Cambridge a month later, they felt good. Paul had loved their idea.

Paul called them the same night of their interview. They were denied.

So they got drunk.

The next day Alexis and Steve sat on a train back from Cambridge to Charlottesville, Virginia. Hungover as hell and bristling from the denial. They muttered to one another how theyd show Paul and everyone at Y Combinator. Then Alexis phone rang:

Alexis, its Paul. Listen, we like you guys. We want you to come back. But under one condition. You have to come up with a different idea.

Thats great! Alexis replied. How about this: Why dont you buy us plane tickets back to Charlottesville for tonight and well hop another train back to brainstorm ideas with you for an hour?

Done.

Paul Graham did not call every rejected group. He did not invite every group to join with a different idea. And he certainly did not pay out of pocket for plane tickets to spend an hour brainstorming with every other group.

He did that with one group. Because he believed in them. Despite the fact that Alexis couldnt write a lick of code and neither had ever had a successful entrepreneurial venture.

So with no business idea, Alexis Ohanian and Steve Huffman were accepted into Y Combinator. All based on the fact the Paul Graham liked them and believed in them. A year later, their idea was a reality. They had created the front page of the internet. Reddit was born and Alexis and Steve became 23-year-old multimillionaires.

Alexis and Steve worked their tails off for years to make reddit into the behemoth it is today. But the most fragile turning point was that single moment at the podium, when Alexis invited Paul out for a drink. Then again when the guys spoke to Paul at the coffee shop. Whatever it was that won Paul over changed Alexis and Steves lives, not to mention the landscape of the Internet.

What was it about Alexis that made Paul decide to sit down and speak with them in a room full of kids who would have jumped at the same opportunity? What was it that made him trust them enough to call them back even when he determined their business idea wasnt viable? Why did he buy their plane tickets back to Charlottesville?

The answer is simple. Paul liked them. That counts for more than all the qualifications in the world.

Case in point, a few years ago I was visiting the same school Alexis and Steve attended. The University of Virginia. I was with my friend as he toured the campus. He had applied for law school there. He was just walking around on his own when he saw a girl in the library. He struck up a conversation. Turned out she was a tour guide. She gave him an impromptu tour. At the end she took him to meet the Dean of Admissions.

My friend talked to the Dean about wiffle ball and the Philadelphia Eagles and his time at the prosecutors office. After 20 minutes the Dean pulled out my friends file.

HmmmmI remember your application. Looks like you were right in the middle of the pack. We have you on wait list...lets take care of that right now.

He went into the computer. Hammered out a few keystrokes, and boom, my friend was accepted.

With a $20,000/year scholarship to boot. Thats $60,000 over 3 years, earned in 20 minutes of conversation. At a school that may not have even accepted him.

Same question: what the heck happened!? How did my friend, who on paper, did not pass muster get accepted AND a earn a scholarship? What made the dean like him so quickly?

Think of your own life. You can probably recall that one woman in the office, who despite being an average performer was well liked and rose through the ranks with a jetpack. Or the guy who walks into a social setting and has that magnetic pull. Who draws people to him without even seeming to try.

And Im sure you can think of times when you were just on. When everything you said commanded attention. When you were funny and witty and smart and whoever you were speaking with made sure to stay in touch.

That instant likability is a superpower. Some of the most famous people in the world made their careers off it.

What is going on? What makes Bill Clinton so engaging? Robert Downey Junior so cool? What is it that made producers believe in Will Smith enough to give him a shot at a TV show and eventually a movie?

Its the same thing that makes you engag ing during those times when youre on. The same thing youre missing when holding someones attention feels like a chore. This indescribable quality that distinguishes someone who is loved from someone who just doesnt have it.

Charisma.

It is the quality that makes us like someone. That makes us want them to like us back. It makes us want to follow them. To trust them implicitly. It is that feeling when someone walks into a room and you cant take your eyes off them. It is the X-factor. And it was something I never, ever had.