Communication and negotiation must happen throughout your transformation. But, are you missing a trick? Could you be understanding more about what people’s faces and facial expressions are telling you so that you can collaborate more effectively and reach a great win-win scenario for all parties involved? Learn how faces tell you more than you might realise with the Face Whisperer, Adrianne Carter.
Listen in to this episode to understand:
- Why our faces are such a rich source of information.
- 3 key facial expressions to look out for
- How to blend face reading into your communication for better outcomes.
- If there is still benefit for face reading with masks and video calls.
Introducing Adrianne Carter, the Face Whisperer
Adrianne Carter is the Face Whisperer. She’s a specialist in understanding facial expressions and applying this to help people communicate with each other. Adrianne can understand other people’s deep subliminal reactions and react to improve in the effectiveness of messaging and communications.
She has worked across the world in 17 different countries – from Australia to Russia, and from Japan to the USA – so has a great understanding about different cultures and how human beings interact and communicate for better outcomes. And with 20 years of experience in one of the world’s leading market researchers, she provides real-time business insight into people’s reactions, often supported by detailed frame-by-frame analysis of recorded responses.
She’s worked with major companies, including Tesco, Morrisons, Unilever, Apple, Coca-Cola, Lloyds Bank, The National Trust, Samaritans and The National Gallery. Plus, Adrianne is a guest lecturer in consumer psychology and behavioural economics for several UK Universities. Also, she trains others in facial expressions and negotiating and often appears in the national media to provide expert opinion on public figures of interest.
Why the Face Whisperer? One of her first clients was stunned at the impact her approach enabled and nicknamed her “The Face Whisperer” – and the name has stuck ever since!
Connect with Adrianne on LinkedIn
Visit AdrianneCarter.com for more info.
Plus, learn more about Adrianne’s meeting insight support services in this PDF download:
Facial expressions to look out for
Disgust
This is one of the most common “tells” for something that’s not right. This can highlight elements which people don’t agree with. In negotiations and discussions, you’ll want to look out for this to find the potential moments that people disagree with. Plus, remember, it might not be the whole discussion that someone finds disgusting. In fact, it could be a small idea, sentence or even a trigger word.
Genuine smiles or polite smiles
Look out for genuine, beaming smiles all around the table to know when you’re heading for a win-win. A forced, polite smile could be masking points of contention or disatisfaction.
Genuine smiles have bigger creases around the mouth & eyes. The mouth turns into a generous “U” shape.
Meanwhile, a forced or polite smile has fewer creases around mouth & eyes. The lips almost straight across.
Fear, anxiety and nervousness
Facial expressions of fear often reveal sticking points. Often, these will come up when financial elements are being discussed.
Remember – use questions to clarify
It’s of critical importance to remember that you can learn more by reading faces. But, you will not know. So, be sure to let the facial expressions guide your questions and how to steer the conversation.
Start reading faces now
Adrianne’s suggested action from listening to the podcast was to start observing faces. Look out for the tells and then start asking questions to clarify.
You can access a PDF of the notes below:
Also, you can quickly hone your skills by watching television with the sound off for 10 mins. Just observe people’s faces. Then watch the same 10 mins with the sound only – don’t look at the picture. This can be a great way of looking for different facial expressions.
How Andre Agassi beat Boris Becker by reading his face
In the episode, Adrianne Carter mentions that Andre Agassi learnt how to read Boris Becker’s face to learn how to break his serve. Here is the interview referenced in the podcast.
Other podcast episodes to listen to
You might also enjoy listening to episode 85 with consumer psychologist, Zana Busby. In this podcast episode, learn more about the psychology of change.
![337: [Show Update] Pressing Pause to Refocus](https://obandco.uk/wp-content/uploads/2025/07/337-Show-Update-Pressing-Pause-to-Refocus-1080x675px-400x250.jpeg)