Owen Fitzpatrick - The Charismatic Edge: The Art of Captivating and Compelling Communication; An Everyday Guide to Developing Your Own Charisma and Compelling Communications Skills

After twenty years of working together and collaborating on five books, I still have nothing but praise for Owen Fitzpatrick ... His new book fills a gap in the literature of the field of NLP and the subject of charismatic living. More importantly, it is an everyday guide to vigorously pursue the life you want in a way that shines.

Dr Richard Bandler

Charisma is the impression that you create in the mind of another person. Having spent time personally and professionally with Owen over the past few years, I know that the impression he creates in audiences around the world is one of a charismatic master of communication. The Charismatic Edge is a gem of a book. It has distilled years of knowledge and research into an essential how to guide for anyone wishing to understand the secrets of being more charismatic. Owen Fitzpatricks unique psychological insight makes this book the finest book on charisma I have read. It is concise, well-written, and goes to the heart and head of what charisma really is. I highly recommend it.

Paul Boross, author of The Pitch Doctor

The cross between the Sherlock Holmes, Gregory House and James Bond of the corporate arena: Owen sees things that no one else does, conveys it as straight as you can get and moves quietly in, tackling the problem with a steely grit and relentless determination that ensures the problem is, once and for all, eliminated.

Joseph Higgins, Finance Manager

As a business leader with over 20 years experience, I have read countless books and academic papers on the subject of charisma and its importance to success. Owen Fitzpatricks book, however, not only sets the benchmark in this regard, it also sets out clearly in laymans terms how anyone following his systematic approach can learn the skills necessary to excel in this field. He is fast becoming the go-to guy for business leaders wishing to improve their charisma skills and I therefore have no hesitation whatsoever in recommending him and his book to you.

Robert Orr, CEO

Having coached some of the worlds most recognisable actors and many dynamic corporate leaders, its often hard to explain to people why some people are mesmeric and others simply are not. In this book Owen Fitzpatrick has broken the code and unlocked all the secrets to allow anyone to confidently brim with charismatic confidence. For anyone who has a message and wants to connect with others in the most meaningful way, The Charismatic Edge tells you how to authentically reach peak performance.

Poll Moussoulides, International Voice Coach

To the late Dr Elizabeth Dunne, for all you have taught me and for believing in me in university. It was a great honour learning from you. You are very much missed.

To Dr Richard Bandler, the most charismatic person I have ever met, for being an inspiration and a legend in bringing a set of skills to the world that has quite literally changed it. Thank you, Richard, for all you have taught me and all you have done for me. I am where I am thanks in no small degree to your support and help.

Some people are intimidated when talking to large numbers of people in an entertaining way. Not me.

DAVID BRENT

I magine you wake up one morning at your very best. You get up feeling great, full of energy and motivated for the day ahead. You brush your teeth and have a shower and run through the day youre about to have. And you know you can handle it. You know its going to go well.

Imagine every interaction goes as well as it could possibly go. You feel extremely confident and sure of yourself yet humble and interested in others. You are at your most engaging, entertaining and persuasive. You can read other people effortlessly and know exactly what to say. You get through to whoever you speak to easily and motivate them, inspire them, connect with them.

Imagine youre clear and compelling in how you relate to others, while remaining caring and compassionate. You use the right word at the right time in the right situation with the right person, each and every time. You handle difficult conversations brilliantly and youre an obvious leader. Youre the life and soul of the party and you embrace challenges with a smile and a sense of knowing that, come what may, everythings gonna be alright.

If this were true, what would life be like for you? What would your personal experiences be like? What would your professional life be like? How would people see you? How would you see yourself? How would they feel about you? How would you feel about yourself? My guess is that, if youre like me, the thought of what this would be like really excites you.

Ive spent the last twenty years studying and practising everything and anything I could find to do with communication and influence, leadership and charisma. Like you, I have an interest ina passion forwhat makes people tick and how to perform at your absolute best. If we could only be at our very best it would transform our world. It would have a huge impact on our income, our interactions, our inner sense of happiness. We know this. And yet we rarely live up to our best. We rarely reach our potential. Why is this? I believe there are two core reasons: we dont know how to, and were scared to.

THE DEATH OF PERSONALITY

The reality is that the vast majority of people on this planet are not living up to the very best versions of themselves. Many people dont come across as even remotely interesting or engaging. Instead, their personalities are on life support, only awakening on special occasions within the comfort zones of close friends and family. Theyre not experiencing enough of what life can be like, theyre simply surviving. Their heart is beating, but its not feeling.

Sit on a bus or train and you will see little evidence of life. Facial expressions rarely change, and people avoid eye contact, hoping they wont have to converse with each other. Despite such close proximity, we have never felt so far apart from our fellow-humans.

We hide who we are when we meet people, in our social life, in business. We try to be who we think we should, dress how we think we should and speak how we think we should. We do so to fit in. We want others to approve of us, to love us, to be impressed by us. We crave acceptance.

When asked about why we arent very sociable we dig deep within our creativity for a plausible excuse. We explain that were shy even though we might really want to be confident. We explain that were happy as we are and are just this type of person or that type of person. But were lying to ourselves. Were lying because we are scared.

Of course, theres nothing wrong with having a preference for being introverted. But using that as an excuse not to communicate as best we can is where we make the biggest mistake. Some of the most successful people in the world are introverted, but when they need to communicate they can. Barack Obama is an example of this. One of the most charismatic politicians of our time, Obama is reported as being an introvert, yet he is able to communicate with impact when its required of him.

The excuses we tell ourselves permit us to justify a lack of effort, or a dearth of results. And the fascinating thing is this: the most obvious difference between very successful people and everyone else is that the successful make far fewer excuses.

However, many of us are afraid of contactfearful of interaction, terrified of making a fool of ourselves. Were petrified of what others think of us. This stifles us, traps us, limits us. The result of this is that we live an average life, in average circumstances, and we get by.