022 – Alan Stevens – Facial Profiling
'The Celebrity Profiler'
Imagine being able to read someone’s personality the minute you meet them – just by observing their facial features – facial profiling. The benefits would be incredible – you’d know how to approach them physically, engage in the type of conversations they’d most enjoy, predict how they make decisions and much more.
My guest in this episode is Alan Stevens – better known as the Celebrity Profiler. He’s Australia’s leading personality and business profiler. Alan can read almost everything about someone’s inherent personality type, their mood and their life experiences just by looking at them. And in this episode of the Team Guru Podcast he’s going to give you some hot tips on how you can do the same.
And of course, I put him to the test. Before the show I sent him some pictures of me and you will hear live, in real time, as he uses those images to break down my personality.
Enjoy!
Lessons Learned
Here’s what I took from the episode:
Facial Profiling – Alan’s Work
Alan’s goal is to help all of us understand ourselves and the people around us so we can form comfortable and effective relationships quickly.
The Basics
Facial features – the ridges and crevasses of your face – give us a much greater understanding of who someone really is. They represent a person’s rock-solid state – as opposed to body language or micro-gestures which give a glimpse into a persona’s current state of mind.
Micro Expressions – are little twitches of the face. They occur automatically, before someone has had a chance to control moderate their response. Micro expressions give a really good indication of how someone has reacted to a particular situation.
Body Language – provides indicators to how someone is feeling, their emotional state in the present.
Therefore micro expressions, body language and facial features work really nicely together. Micro expressions and body language reveal how someone is feeling right now – whereas facial features indicate someone’s rock-solid personality.
The Celebrity Profiler
Alan has been called upon to read the body language, micro expressions and facial features of celebrities in all sorts of situations: the Julie Bishop eye-roll; Kate Middleton’s eye-roll; The Bachelor; the Robbie Farah v Jason Taylor tension and many more…
Professional Application
Alan has helped therapists develop closer, faster relationships with their clients, teachers with their students, parents with their children, professionals with their clients and couples in their relationship.
It’s this kind of meaningful, impactful work that gives Alan his real professional satisfaction.
5 Facial Features That Reveal Personality
- Height of the eyes brows:
- People with high eyebrows are quite discerning – they like more space. They like to check out who’s around, who they want to speak to and who they don’t want to speak to. Once they decide they like you, they are happy to move closer physically
- People with low eyebrows are the opposite. They are affable and will generally feel comfortable being closer physically to other people
- Distance between eyes:
- Close set eyes means someone is serious – more focussed. They don’t like to be interrupted
- Wider set eyes means someone is happy to be interrupted, they are restless and looking to be distracted
- Exposure of eyes lids – some are not exposed – they have little folds of skins. On others they are exposed – not fold of skin
- Those with exposed eyes don’t want detailed information. They just want the big picture
- Those with non-exposed eyes (folds on the eyelids) want detail. They can’t make a decision until they have all the facts
- Length of the face – distance between the base of the nose to the chin in relationship to the overall length of the face
- People with long distance between the base of nose to chin want to make their decisions quickly. They just want one option, the best way, and let me get on with it
- Some with a shorter distance in this part of the face is motivated by the mental process. They look for all the possibilities before making a decision
- Width of the face (from temple to temple)
- The wider the face, the more innate self confidence
- The narrow the face the more they have to build confidence
Tip: If someone with a wide face is acting confidently, you should test them because their confidence is natural rather than earned. But if someone with a narrow face is acting confidently there’s no need to test them because they have built that confidence
Some extra points of interest:
When Alan looks at a face he pays attention to the feature that jumps out at him – the most prominent feature:
- A wide chin suggests someone who likes to debate – they like to have meaty conversations
- A chin that comes forward indicates someone who is quite tenacious
- A long philtrum – distance between base of nose and upper lip –means they have a dry sense of humour
Therefore some one with a shorter philtrum may take the dry sense of humour personally and be offended
Do Humans Read Features Naturally?
We make these judgments naturally. They are innate in us. Young children are best at it because as a young child life is all about survival. But as we grow older, go to school etc and our heads are filled with more and more information, we lose the innate ability to read people through their facial features. Alan sees his job as much like a personal trainer – helping people gain strength back in those ‘muscles’.
People who have high Emotional Intelligence tend to read these indicators in people more effectively than others – they have high levels of awareness about themselves and the people around them.
My Profile
I sent these 5 pictures (mug shots!) to Alan before our interview and he provided the profile below!
- Exposed eye lids – just give me a the big picture
- Eyes and eyebrows are fairly close together –I’m affable, approachable and friendly
- Wide set eyes – means I’m easy-going and laid back
- Nose tends towards being pinched – which means I’m a good team player, happy to work with and get on with other people
- The large philtrum under the nose gave Alan confidence that our conversation would be light hearted, pleasant with no pressure
- The shape of my ears (large) suggests that I like to be in charge. It also indicates that I am good at hearing things and noticing things in general.
Incredibly I felt that Alan, by just looking at those 5 photos, nailed quite a lot of my personality. But I’m not sure about the part of needing to be in charge…perhaps I just have big ears.
While these traits generally seem positive, Alan is always conscious of the downside of them. For example, my features that suggest I have a dry wit. When I’m under pressure that may come across as cutting and nasty.
Learn more about Alan and his work here
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