What Vanessa Van Edwards has said about Conversation starters
2 quotes · 1 episode · Sep 26, 2026
Vanessa Van Edwards, Behavioral researcher, bestselling author, and founder of Science of People, has been quoted on Conversation starters 2 times in 1 episode of The Mel Robbins Podcast, most recently on September 26, 2026. Each quote below is verbatim and links to the moment it was said.
In their words
Van Edwards recommends replacing 'What do you do?' with questions like 'Working on anything exciting recently?' because the former boxes people in.
“That question is problematic for me because I think that what you're really asking is what are you worth? You're trying to put someone in a box”
The Mel Robbins Podcast: Body Language Expert: 6 Psychological Tricks to Turn Awkwardness into Confidence (Sep 26, 2026) · Listen from 52:41
Van Edwards reports that in her speed networking experiment 'What's your story?' was polarizing, loved by extroverts and hated by introverts.
“So introverts and ambiverts hate this question”
The Mel Robbins Podcast: Body Language Expert: 6 Psychological Tricks to Turn Awkwardness into Confidence (Sep 26, 2026) · Listen from 55:06
Episodes
Body Language Expert: 6 Psychological Tricks to Turn Awkwardness into ConfidenceThe Mel Robbins Podcast · Sep 26, 2026 · 1 h 23 min
Mel Robbins and behavioral researcher Vanessa Van Edwards discuss body language, energy management, likability, conversation starters, networking positioning, and the ABCD productivity exercise.
Vanessa Van Edwards on other topics
- Body language · 6 quotes
- Small talk · 4 quotes
- Energy management and burnout · 3 quotes
- Online dating · 2 quotes
- Three levels of conversation · 2 quotes
- Loneliness · 2 quotes
- Goal setting · 2 quotes
- Likability · 2 quotes