hold the room.

Glossary

Baseline

How someone looks and sounds when they’re relaxed. You can only notice a change if you know their normal.

From the lesson

Baseline, then change

A practical method comes from professional interviewers. Establish a baseline first: what does this person look like when comfortable? Then watch for changes. Comfort looks like open posture, feet pointed at you, torso facing you. Discomfort looks like pacifiers (neck, face, collar), a torso turning away, feet pointing at the exit. Feet are worth watching, but treat them as a hint, not proof.

Day 19 · Reading the Room: How to read body language in a meeting (and the 93% myth)

Cheat sheet · Baseline first

What do they look like at ease?

Day 19 · Reading the Room: How to read body language in a meeting (and the 93% myth)

Where it is taught

In practice

Examples from the course that use it.

Baseline first

For ten minutes you just watch how he sits when relaxed: back in the chair, hands loose, feet towards you. You say the price. A hand goes to his collar and his feet turn to the door. You see the change before he speaks. You slow down and ask. The deal survives.

Example Day 19 · Reading the Room

Video

On the video call you only see shoulders and face, so the baseline is the first two minutes of small talk: she sits forward, smiles, hands on the desk. When you name the number she leans back and a hand comes up to her cheek. You slow down and ask. The number was fine. The timing was not.

On a call Day 19 · Reading the Room

In the buyer’s office

Baseline: hands on the table, feet towards you. After the number: collar, then feet turn to the door. You can name the cues as they happen, and because you can name them, you do something about them.

Selling Day 19 · Reading the Room

Related terms

  • PacifiersSmall self-soothing touches: rubbing your neck, touching your face, tugging your collar. People tend to read them as nerves.
  • ClustersSeveral signals at once, like crossed arms plus a turned body plus a neck rub. One signal on its own means little.
  • ContemptA quick one-sided tightening at the corner of the mouth. It can mean someone looks down on what was just said.
  • PaceHow fast you speak, in words per minute. Around 140 to 160 is easy to follow; slow down for the key points.

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