The Tell

On a salescall in Troy, NY... Posing by the client's sign, then hopping through the 3" of mud surrounding the sign. Dress shoes and suit pants full of mud, etc...

In poker (and in meetings for that matter), a "tell" is an unaware gesture or mannerism that signals the others in the room whether you have a good or bad hand. Those with a "poker face" are able to refrain from showing any tells. After a great sales call and client lunch, my coworker and I were debriefing. Sharing our insights, critiquing each others' performance during the meeting, etc... It was then my worlds collided in a most unfortunate manner... Grant stops the conversation, and throws his hands up, and waits until I am completely quiet and focused on what he is going to say next. Finally, when he has my undivided attention, he says, "you breathe like a zoo animal..." Then he gives me a moment to let that sink in. He then goes on to say that it is not usually, but just when something good is happening, like the customer is sending some buying signals. He goes on further to tell me that it is not minor, in fact it was so distracting and loud that he could barely continue his note-taking. And... It was not just this meeting, come to think of it, it was every meeting where something good happened.

Now, my poker buddies have folded pocket aces upon hearing my "Darth Vader" breathing pattern. They know when I am sitting on a monster hand, and they have told me, even gotten extremely pissed off about it (although it doesn't take a lot to piss these particular guys off). The scary thing is, I still can't tell when I am doing it. I forget what the theory was called, but it is in that quadrant of stuff that others can see about me that I cannot. I'm pretty sure its a biological way that my system tries to lower my heart rate or something. I guess I was just in denial about it, but hearing it from a work colleague has validated what I have been hearing from my poker buddies for years.

I really need to stop that, for f__k sake.