Getting the widow to use body language to tell her story was the key to connecting to the jurors… Her greatest fear (and ours) was that her grief would smother her on the stand. After all, it was less than two years after her husband had been killed, and she struggled with English.
There was one moment at the end of our long work session when she was just starting to feel, and it was that feeling that made me think she was just on the verge of change. It wasn't so much what she said at that moment, but it was what she was showing, not just emotionally, but physically through her body language. There was one moment where she leaned over in her chair as she described the first time she first met her husband.
“How did that make you feel meeting him for the first time?”
She tried to say what the word was, but the feeling she was trying to convey only made sense to her in her native Spanish. It was at that moment that the real magic occurred.
Instead of trying to find the word in English, she made this pitter-patter motion with her hand over her heart.
Pump, pump, pump, pump, pump...
Her heart was beating. Her face glowed. She showed “heart beating” within her entire body. I said, "That's it!" I stopped. I asked her to repeat the gesture. Then we searched for more of the nonverbal moments throughout her story, which was at the very core, a story of love. The life that she shared with her husband. Once we found that nonverbal core, we scripted out her entire direct—not through the verbal language, but through the physical nonverbal language of her body.
Cues like: “Heart Beating,” “Hugging,” “Tippy-Toe,” and “Hand Tight In Hospital,” allowed her to convey the emotional power needed to truly connect to her story and her loss.
The best part about this is that she saw the change too, and as a result, she was no longer afraid of her broken English… in an instant, she became excited with her own story. That’s the key—getting the client to become just as excited as you are about telling their story. Getting her to do more with her body language and less with her broken English was the key to unlocking her emotional connection and confidence in herself and her story. This key also allowed the jury to want to fight for her.
Broken English or not, when you let the client search for the words and try to express them through body language, jurors naturally become more engaged and want to jump into the rescue.
That’s the Power of the Nonverbal.
WORKING WITH YOU AND YOUR TEAM
I’d love to discuss working with you and your team on your next case. Feel free to give me a call. Among the pre-trial and jury trial consulting that I share, here are other ways to benefit from Tell The Winning Story:
- Law Firm CLE Customized Workshops
- Executive Silver/ Gold/ Platinum Coaching Programs
- Monthly CLE Accredited Workshops
- Webinars