Minute With Mallon: Resting “Bad” Face! 😐
Welcome to Minute with Mallon!
Something I Taught:
One of my best friends on the planet is a man named Corey Baker. He and I were in Kenya at the beginning of March, where we had the opportunity to do some training and coaching with the administrators and leaders of an organization called Canopy Life.
Canopy Life Academy raises up young leaders by giving underprivileged children a safe place to learn, grow, and step into who God created them to be.
Long story short, I was able to teach the leaders there how to set goals for their organization and for themselves. My friend Corey taught about how we communicate in three different ways:
Body language – 55%
Tonality – 38%
The actual words we use – 7%
These percentages came from research done by Albert Mehrabian and his department at UCLA.
During Corey’s talk, he used a phrase I had never heard before: Resting Bad Face.
He was referring to people who generally don’t walk around with a smile on their face.
In the last couple of months, I’ve worked with two clients who didn’t smile once during our hour-long coaching calls. Toward the end of each call, I asked them if they were aware that they tended not to have a happy or engaging expression.
One of them told me he has bad teeth. He’s in his late 30s, and he said that for years he hasn’t smiled because he doesn’t want people to see them.
I completely understand that. I can understand the insecurity that comes with it.
Then I asked him this question. He had told me earlier that he’s a Christian.
“Do you think if Jesus had bad teeth, He wouldn’t have smiled?”
He started laughing and said, “No, I suspect He did a lot of smiling with the people around Him.”
I then asked him why he thought Jesus would have smiled, bad teeth or not.
“Because it was more warm and engaging—and that’s how He wanted to connect with people.”
EXACTLY!!!
Then I asked him, “So do you think if you smiled more when interacting with people, they would be drawn to your smile—or repulsed by your ‘bad teeth’?”
He said he believed they’d be drawn to his smile.
And by the way—he was smiling at that point in the conversation. I’ve got to tell you… it looked AWESOME. 😊
So I challenged him to start practicing smiling more.
The next time we talked, he told me he could already tell that his conversations were being received better. And I can almost guarantee you—no one even realized what had changed.
So here’s something worth thinking about…
What are you communicating to people before you ever say a word?
Are you approachable… or guarded?
Do people feel drawn to you… or do they have to work to get through to you?
For leaders, this really matters. Your team is reading you all the time—your face, your tone, your presence. You can say all the right things, but if your expression says something different, that’s what people will believe.
And it’s not just at work.
How are you showing up at home?
With your spouse?
With your kids?
With the people you care about most?
Here’s a simple challenge for you this week:
Be intentional about your presence.
Smile more.
Soften your tone.
Make it easier for people to engage with you.
You might be surprised how much better your conversations go… and how much more impact you have… just by changing something that simple.
Because sometimes it’s not what you say that makes the difference—it’s how you make people feel before you even say it.
Something to Ponder:
Toil without purpose brings misery. Toil with purpose brings great joy!
Robert Mallon
Something I Learned:
I recently read something in John Ortberg’s book, If You Want to Walk on Water, You Have to Get Out of the Boat, that really made me think.
We spend a lot of time trying to eliminate risk from our lives. We want to feel secure, certain, and in control.
But the truth is—everything carries risk.
You can play it safe… but even that comes with a cost.
You can stay comfortable… but comfort often leads to stagnation.
You can avoid stepping up… but then you never experience what you’re capable of.
There’s risk in getting out of the boat… but there’s also risk in staying in it.
And if you stay there too long, you don’t just stay safe—you slowly stop growing.
So here’s the question I’ve been thinking about this week:
Where in your life are you choosing “safe”… when deep down you know it’s costing you growth?
At some point, playing it safe becomes the riskiest decision you can make.
So what’s riskier for you right now… stepping out, or staying where you are?
Something I Saw:
Canopy Life Academy in Kenya!
Who do you know who needs to get out of the boat? Just share this link:RobertMallon.com/Newsletter
Hope you have an incredible week!
Robert
