How to Be Charming: Unveiling Charisma | Power Dynamics™ (2024)

Charm is the art of social seduction.

Once you learn how to be charming you naturally become higher value, more popular, and sought after.

This article explains what charm is and how you can become more charming.

Google Dictionary defines charm in very simple terms.

Very pleasant or attractive

And that’s exactly how it is.

Pleasant is the most important part: if you are not pleasant you can’t be charming.

But the upper echelons of charming are not“either/or” but are both pleasant and attractive.
Attractive can be, and often is, sexually attractive.

But charm does not imply sexual attraction. An old lady can be attractively charming.
Charming is social seduction, not necessarily sexual seduction.
Thus, even sexually unattractive people can still be charming.

Traits of Charming

The traits of a highly charming personality are a mix of social skills, high personal value and warmth:

• Pleasant
• Calm and comfortable
• Warm & welcoming
• Uplifting
• Fluid,
• Socially in control, confident & calibrated
• Bonus: sexy (helps increase the value you share)

Charms and Social Skills

Charm happens at the intersection of highly developed social skills and high personal value.

High personal value includes a certain inner power and confidence.
We could define it as “comfortable in one’s skin” inwardly.
And, outwardly, it turns into social confidence.

You can’t be charming if you’re self-conscious.
An inner lack of comfort projects outside an unappealing vibe of nervous and self-consciousness.

Focus on People

Social charmers have very well-developed social skills and they focus on the people around not on themselves.

They ask questions, take people under their arm, build people up and tell everyone how wonderful it is to see them.
They also save people’s faces and help mend disagreements.

If charmers were a book, they would Dale Carnegie’s How to Win Friends.

Why Charming is Good

When the charmers make people feel good, everyone will love them (law of social exchange).

And the more people will love them, the more they will push the social charmer up in the social hierarchy.

That’s the charmer’s virtuous cycle.

Charmers and Value

Why is it important for charmers to be high-value?

Only high-value people can effectively build others up because you must intrinsically be high-value to pull others up.

The higher the personal and social value of the charmer, the more he can build up the people around and make them feel great.

Keep in mind that each single entry here is a skill, a talent, or an art in itself.

We won’t go into the details of each one of them, but here’s a quick primer on what you need to be charming:

#1. Love People

You can fake anything in life, of course.

And probably many politicians who are labeled as “charming” do overplay their love for people and social interactions (see politicians’ manipulations).
But in the long run, it’s way better to develop a natural liking for people and social interactions.

Here’s what charmers love:

• People
• Social interactions
• Networking
• Getting to know people

#2. Converse Well

Conversation is the invisible glue of social interactions, and being a good conversationalist is the bread and butter of charming.

Talk Little About Yourself
The world is full of self-absorbed ahole, and none of them is charming.
Talk little about yourself, and be ready to ask questions back.

Focus on Others
Listen to people, ask questions, compliment when you feel they’re looking for approval and take mental notes on what makes them tick. The more they come to crave your approval, the more power you get.

Humor
Humor is not necessary, but it helps.
Self-deprecating, uplifting or slightly sexual humor are particularly great.

See an example of Bill Clinton at the inauguration of Bush’s library:

P.S. Laura Bush is charming as hell.

#3. Build People Up

Charming is all about making the people around you feel great.
You can use:

• Compliments
• Self-deprecating humor
• Pompous introductions
• Saying others are way better

Mohammad Ali does it here with Tyson:

Ali is charming because he deprecates, looking humble, and builds Tyson up. Tyson loves it and so does the crowd (just listen to the cheering).
In turns, Tyson says Ali would win, which makes for a memorable skit that raises both men’svalues.
Imagine if instead Ali had answered with “we will never know”.

#4. Remember Names & Details

Remember people’s names and details, then ask more about them as the conversation progresses or when you see them later on. People will love you for it.

#5. Acquire As Much Status As Possible

The higher you are in the social hierarchy, the easier it is being charming.

One of the less understood reasons is that being high in the social hierarchy allows you to give a bigger “lift” to the people around you.

It also works socially, as everyone will admire you and think you are tremendously magnanimous -and charming-.
Obama does this often, with his famous fist bumps to janitors and small shop stops.
See an example here.

#6. Make Friends

An easy way to be instantly charming is to walk into a place and know everyone.

People saying hi to you and you saying hi to everyone will immediately boost your social value(at least relative to the people in the venue).
A great scene to understand this concept is the scene from “The Goodfellas” where Harry takes Karen out).

#7. Be Smooth

Sometimes it’s easier to understand things by looking at their opposite.

By “smooth” I mean the opposite of nervous and self-conscious.

Charming people relish other people and social interactions, and they happily move around the room smoothly and fluidly.

Thanks to their social skills they enter and leave groups with ease, flowing gracefully around the room.

#8. Stay Positive in Social Adversity

It’s easier being charming when everything is swell and we’re flying.

What differentiates the top charmers from the lucky break charmers is how they keep their composure when things don’t go their way.

Keep a good attitude in front of a critique, smile at a social jab and you will show charming superiority.

Gosling: (remains cool despite the aggression) That’s one way to treat people

That’s a charming way of answering to what might seem a social slight.

It shows superiority and a strong frame in the face of (social) adversity.
Here’s another fantastic example with George Bush.

#9. Be “High-Power Humble”, Avoid Social Climbing

Effective charmers are high-power.

And once you’re high-power you can -and should- allow yourself to be humble.
Low power and humble equals self-debasing. But high-power and humble instead is charming and affable.

Humble people also avoid the “status rat race” like the plague.
The status rat race entails attacking and demeaning others to social climb and seem better by either “winning”, or by comparison.

Hence, avoid:

• Social climbing(example with Obama)
• Alpha male posturing
• Undermining others

These are all signs of combative behavior that make you come across as unfriendly, overly aggressive, and most certainly not high-status.

#10. Positive Vulnerability

Charming is different than the super confident, the cocky or the charismatic.

Charming is about relating to others, and vulnerability helps us relate.
A strong frame of confidence with the odd vulnerability is supremely charming.

Look at the charming master of them all, notice the vulnerability in his aura, how he shows cracks of discomfort that only make him more charming and attractive:

Warning:

• Don’t over-do vulnerability, or you become too weak and feminine

And here are a few example of charming men and women:

#1. George Clooney

George Clooney is the archetype of the charming man.

Almost any video you take of Clooney and any real life interaction it’s going to be an example of pure charm.

Good-natured, even on questions he doesn’t like, gets a “woooh” from the ladies with the underwear joke and builds up everyone around him (except for his date, typical of avoidants, but that’s another topic).

#2. Bill Clinton

If Clooney is the archetype of the charming sexy man, Bill Clinton is the archetype of the charming political man.

Notice how he meets a random man. And immediately puts his arm around him. And asking “where are you from”.

#3. Leonardo di Caprio

Catch Me if You Can is a movie highly based on social charm:

Notice the strategic vulnerability at minute 1:05.

Strategic is the keyword.

If he had pretended not to notice the sexual game, he would have looked stifled or clueless. But if he had jumped on it, he would have looked to hungry and eager.
His fake coy reaction instead is smothering sexy charming.

#5. A Charming Hostess

I have been looking for a great video of some top charmer woman, ideally one hosting an event and greeting people.

I couldn’t find one, but I remembered of this amazing story from Leil Lowndes’ How to Talk to Anyone, I quote without paraphrasing:

The best example I heard of this high sensitivity was from one of my clients.

She was invited to brunch at the home of a wealthy socialite known as “Lady Stephanie.”
Lady Stephanie’s home was filled with beautiful objets d’art. Not the least among them was an exquisite collection of extremely valuable Fabergé eggs, which all the guests admired.

At the end of the elegant champagne brunch, my client told me she was walking out the door chatting with several other guests.
Just then, Lady Stephanie sidled up to one woman leaving at the same time as my client. “Oh, I’m so happy you were admiring my Fabergé collection,” Lady Stephanie said, sliding her hand into the pocket of the guest’s mink coat and plucking out one of her priceless eggs. “You must have wanted to see this one in the sunlight. Come, let us look at it together. It does reflect the bright light beautifully.”

The mink-clad thief gulped and furtively looked around to see who had witnessed her gentle entrapment. My client and everyone in the foyer saw what happened, but took Lady Stephanie’s lead and pretended naïveté of the attempted heist.

Carrying the charade a step further, Lady Stephanie and the sticky-fingered guest “admired the egg in the sunlight.” Then Lady Stephanie, with her Fabergé egg secured safely between her perfectly manicured fingers, marched home to put the treasure in its rightful place. The attempted egg snatcher crawled back to her car, from her last attendance at Lady Stephanie’s coveted bashes.

The hostess let the foiled filcher get away with a few slivered shreds of her ego left intact.
Why did Lady Stephanie come out ahead? Everyone who witnessed—and subsequently heard about—the thwarted burglary has renewed respect for Lady Stephanie. Snaring the thief, yet sparing her pride, helped Lady Stephanie keep her reputation of “hostess with the mostest”.

And now an example of behavior where charm was badly needed but everyone failed badly at social grace.

See the Oscar blunder here:

Here’s the anatomy of the bull in a china shop:

1. The guy who says “we lost by the way” shows a bad temper about losing
2. The bald one is too socially crude in taking the winner’s card out of Betty’s hands (the presenter)
3. Beatty is terribly defensive and instead of easing the social tension he increases it
4. The co-hosts screaming “Warren what did you do” comes across as piling up

See here an analysis of that whole situation.

Charm makes both men and women high quality, but not necessarily sexy.

Let’s examine a bit the relationship between charm and seductive sex appeal:

Men, Charm & Sex Appeal

For men who want to be successful with women, charm is very helpful, but not necessary.

You can be successful with women going through life as a lone wolf with limited social skills, by being edgy and even by being an asshole (which is The Red Pill approach, but make sure you move beyond asshole game).

However, that being said, any top high-quality man must know how to be charming when needed.
It’s an important trait that highlights social skills and social comfort. A high-quality man who cannot be charming has a huge chinks in his armor.

Here is a great scene of charm with sex appeal from the movie “Eyes Wide Shut”:

Women, Charm & Sex Appeal

Charm in men denotes social confidence and a certain level of social dominance.
Building people up is also usually a sign of either social superiority or social equality (when lower-status men do it it’s kissing up).

When women do it too much, they risk coming across as overbearing, and if they look too dominant they lose in femininity.
That’s why women who want to keep a broader sex appeal should be careful to adopt a more feminine style of charming.

That being said, a slightly more demure social charm in women is also a sign of very high quality.

In The Art of Seduction Robert Greene righteously says that some people view charmers as slippery and deceitful.

This is especially true for very direct people who don’t appreciate much the charmer’s self-effacing and pleasing attitude.

Charmers tend also to be what during the European religious wars were called “politique”, such as people who don’t take extremist stances and prefer dialogue and moderation.
This is another type of crow where charmers don’t do too well in: extremists and hardliners don’t like them indeed. They tend to see charmers as too intellectual, refined and slippery.

Leading in Turbulent Years

During turbulent years political charmers also suffer.

People look for conviction, charisma and strength in leaders.
The appeasing charmers tend to lose out to the charismatic men.

If you want to lead during difficult and revolutionary times, that’s when you should drop your charming ways, scream louder and embrace strong positions.

Charming is a mix of social skills, personal value, and sharing that value to build people up.

Having a high intrinsic personal value and high social status will indeed greatly increase the social charmer power in making people feel good. And making people feel good will in turn translate into increased social status for the charmer.

This post provided you 9 tips on how to be more charming and plenty of examples.