Hello everyone
this is Nafisa from Simply Body Talk and
I welcome you all
to our show non-verbal champion i know
It's been really long
and that is why we at Simply Body Talk
Today have a surprise for you
for the very first time on this show
We have an international guest
Mr. Cedric Molin.
Cedric Molin has worked in the role of
CEO of multiple companies he has
Recently started his
own retail venture, Cedric is also an
executive coach and consultant
with 22 years of work experience with
leading international companies,
He has traveled across the globe and
worked in different geographies
cedric is also an amazing father and
He's also very fond of dogs
So this is Nafisa from Simply Body Talk
and i welcome
everyone to our show non-verbal champion
and today i'm very glad to announce our
esteemed guest Mr. Cedric Maulin
on the show we welcome you Mr. Cedric how
does it feel to be on this show
that's very exciting thank you very much
for welcoming with, becoming me into this project.
Okay, so we'll be asking you some
questions and
let's see what insights do you have to
share with us okay
You have been the CEO of the company
of Belgium
So what different kind of human
interactions did you have with different
kind of people
well they're, they're on different levels
and that makes the specificity of the
CEO role.
Because i i had to have frequent
contacts with
with the board, board members and
shareholders
I was obviously in very close touch with,
with my team and
Then we also had the customers I had
many interactions I
really made a big effort to
be present especially on big days like
Saturdays and
holidays will be open on bank holidays
and then, and then the all of the
suppliers and the partners
So, so all of those interactions happen
on a different level.
And it's quite interesting because
you, you really need to adapt
To, to each of them it's a different
posture
It's a different language, it's a
different vision shorter or longer
term
It's actually sometimes employees
think longer term than the shareholders
So we really need to adapt on a
permanent basis
So as you mentioned about you know
situations with the shareholder which
you would want to tackle
I was just going to come to the next
question that
being a CEO you know diversified
role it is right a very diversified rule
so
then you might have encountered many
different difficult situations
and you would have to tackle it so could
you share some examples how you know you
could come over it or through your
communication and your body language.
Well one of them obviously was really
at the beginning of, of my mission and the company
was just out of what they call in U.S
chapter 11.
The company was nearly bankrupt and I
was hired by the board
To, to relaunch the company and open
for others,
Open new stores
And when I got into the company
the team was really lacking close,
close support and even
close touch with, with Management
Because for two years they had been just
focusing on you know cost killing and
finance and
treasury and so on,  So I
decided to to ask
the 12 people who were reporting
directly to me and at the time I started,
I asked them just two questions
But what do you need for me
and what, what are your general
expectations.
And the one of one of them was, was
very
common among probably 11 out of 12
people it was
more consideration, I need more
consideration
So I adjusted my, my own Body Language to, to the expectation.
That they needed to feel closer to the
management and the
previous various people in,
In my position so it was,
It was a moment when, it was really key
To show empathy to recognize
What people had been doing in those very
difficult times,
Because they had been asked very, very
strict.
Rules to follow and and very big
efforts.
Physically mentally in terms of
creativity as well,
So it was important somebody came up to
them and
You know looked at them and looked at
the, the way
products were presented and the the
stock management and so on and really
Appreciate it.
so it was it was a very key moment.
They they needed me to be, to be close
to them actually so,
So I met them very often and It was very
important to have
eye contact at the moment and to really
take the time to listen to them
so I asked a lot of open questions and
enjoyed
their reactions really.
Taking care of any detail they were
giving me because that would be useful
for the following of my mission.
we will come to the next question now that.
You have your own retail venture
is there a change which you notice in
the human interactions which you have
now versus when you were a CEO.
Well yes, I would say even yes and no because, because there are still many
similarities and from one store
or one company to the other.
You will find especially in the same
country,
similar reactions similar habits and,
and the job is still the same
The the only difference here is especially cultural.
We were in the fashion business  right
in the city center of Brussels
The store we opened here is a, 
is a large store.
But It's in the countryside, It's a
destination store.
People don't come by
you know by mistake or by random they
really decide to come here
starting with our employees so the,
the values.
that you have in one company or the
other the Philosophy
the overall mentality and the
the culture and
definitely has an impact on how you
manage business
and how people interact to each other
I'll give you a few,
A few examples for instance we
in Belgium, in Belgium we
normally people kiss each other to
Say hello
It's just one kiss, in France It's two kisses and in Belgium very strangely although
It's more to the north compared to, to France
Men kiss on one cheek as well as they do
with Girls
This is something you won't do in a
big
Corporation, things started being
a bit more turned down and more relaxed
in, in the in the corporate world that you
don't do these kind of things.
We would tend to do it in in smaller
structures smaller stores you know
it looks more like family like, like a
casual team spirit.
So kissing is one thing we can't do it
anymore because of corona-virus
and the first day we couldn't do it we
felt strange like, we like
okay what do we do and we still need to
find
contact so it will be with the elbow it
will be with the feet.
But we, we were struggling because
something was missing
So did you actually like did you all
actually start doing it
or is it something you would want to
well we, we had to stop contacts
especially with the hands and the and
the face
so anything remaining like the the
elbows
or, or the feet would still be
doable so a few people still want to do
something, you know they come and
they say okay I can't kiss you but give
me your elbow
So what is the kind of thing which you
do when you say you know, you show
more respect or you know with the
younger audiences okay because they are
a bit chill
so you know it's like how do you do that
well, I think showing showing respect
is
is first of all listening
to the person in front of you well if
I put things in orders actually in order
it will be
first to adapt that person in front of
you
and then truly connect so
eye contact you know as they say
in the Avatar Movie I, I see you
and trying to understand
the rhythm of the person that's, that's
really specificity in retail because
everything, goes fast in retail you don't have
the time to do things
in full depth there's always something
up, something coming up,
something new, a new crisis new
customer
something you don't expect out of
stock products a product that's not okay
and so we have four thousand products
in the store
four thousand types of products and
there's always something happening with
one product
If you add up the customers we have like
between two and three hundred coming in
the store.
coming into store on a normal day
there's always something new so there's
a rhythm and
You need to adapt to the rhythm
some people need you to take more time
with them
some people are in a hurry and it's
either customers or
people from the team you know you need
to respect that it's quite important so
observing the person and seeing in which they're, they're putting themselves and
how much time you can borrow from them
and that's, that's pretty important.
You already mentioned that observing
person is really very important so
I would want to know that as an
entrepreneur
what do you think you know is the role
of the Body Language cues which
any person be it a client a customer or
an associate
which gives to you how important is it?
It's I think it's crucial you cannot
do a good business without using Body
Language in retail
because everything comes down to Human
Relationships.
A store, a retail store is a place
where people meet you got the
products in between
but there's always interactions,
Especially in a store like ours
we, we will know, we will never go the way
of Amazon you know suppressing the
cashiers and
having people just do everything
themselves
We're not interested into this because
the the added value
of the products we have in store have to
be taught
and we have to understand on the
relationship with the customers what
they really need in the store and what's
missing
And what they don't understand about
the products that they are buying
that's, that's very important so. so
the
The, the cues we we, we're looking at our
well first of all the eyes because
somebody was really looking for
something
you know they you will see it on their
face you know,
And the the ones who are in a hurry you
will also see in the movement like
okay you know they feel already ready
to go
Just give me my information and i'm out
we
well basically i would say there there
are two very important things
You need to understand
if you're really getting it if you're
really
understanding what the person is telling
you, you know
the person customer, the customer would
will give you needs and sometimes you
need to understand what's the need
behind the need
because the product they want doesn't
exist in organic stores
or they have a specific product and they
don't want to tell you immediately
so they're asking for products it's
probably not the right product for what
they need
so it's very important to understand
whether you really
took it if you took the information
properly if you digested it properly
so that's the first thing and the second
thing is when you're really
able to convince the person when you're
able to convince the shopper about what,
what you're proposing either an id or
recipe a product
doesn't matter but it's important to
not wear that proper feeling did I
understand the person correctly
and was I able to express myself and
convince the person correctly as well
Simply Body Talk consists the retail
companies in order to improve
interaction
between the Sales floor personnel as
well as the customers
this helps them to build a stronger
relationship with the customers
and also ensure that the customers they
have a stronger loyalty
with the retail brand
About culture you have been traveling
across the globe for work right
so would you want to tell us you know
how
Body Language has played a very crucial
role for you because
the culture are different human
interactions would be different the
language
and everything so how was it well again
it's, it's fascinating our Body Language
helps to, to relate to people even in
very distant cultures from yours.
The first thing yeah when you, when you
travel across the globe
first thing is to is to learn the code
basically
it is, it is key to be able to
understand what will be disrespectful
in the country you're visiting
whereas in your own country it's not a
problem
and these are things that are more
linked to the
well the habits the customs than, than
Body Language but,
But it starts with this actually because
everything you do
everything you show gives a message to
the person in front of you.
Whether you know or not and if they
don't understand that
It's something that you can do fully in
your country you are shocking.
If you, if you if you do in front of
them that
that would sometimes look like
something very very gross
and I'm taking examples for instance in
Muslim countries
You're not supposed to show the
bottom of your out soles you're not
supposed to show your feet
and this is something that people don't
mind in, in Western Europe
It's very important to learn about this
When I settle down in Turkey
there's one rule
that I didn't know I felt very annoyed
when I finally heard about it you
know like
six months after settling
something down in Istanbul it's, it's
very gross to
blow your nose in front of people
especially when you're eating
My father always did it with us because
nobody told him it's not possible to do it
so I continued doing it this time until
someone told me you know
don't do it again.
You know it's those things that, that are
very small details
You never think about them when, when
you're
When you're on in your
usual social circle but
they can't for others another thing
which is
related to Body Language obviously is
is when the the variable language isn't
qualitative enough to make sure um
you can you know make yourself
understood or you can understand the
person
in front of you so I've communicated
with people
with whom I, I didn't know language and
sometimes you can you can still make
good friends
with these people and make sure that
that basics are covered
basic needs and so on and
I have another interesting
experience
in the same, in the same street well
eastern Istanbul
Turkey are areas where
men show their masculinity you know
they're strong and they some of them
like to you know show their muscles and and they're having a big mistake for
for the older generations and so on and
some
when something's wrong they will tend to
raise the voice
and I had a, I had a car with a french license
license plate back at that time in Istanbul and
It was very difficult to park in the
area and
usually stores will put things
in front of their their showcase their
windows
to prevent cars from parking and
hiding the store behind and
especially one of them was very good at
you know he was
putting barrels and the metal bar and so
on and
one evening after turning around for
half an hour
I realized that the space was free they
probably had the delivery and forgot to
put the bars back
so I parked my car, I went home
and then I forgot about it and I left it
for three days
and when, when I, I went to pick it up
He was you know eagerly waiting to
jump and and start screaming at me
and usually what people will do
something you know somebody
shouts at me I will shout louder and I
will
you know show that I'm shocked and you
shouldn't speak to me
and so on and instead of going that
direction
I just looked at me with my hands again
the body and
I looked at him and I said I'm so
sorry I completely forgot I spoke to him
a very gentle voice I, I speak Turkish
which really helped
and then the guy was like no it's okay,
it's okay don't worry don't worry,
It must be something really unexpected for him he might have thought
that you would you know really get
more agitated but then you were really
cool
He was ready to fight and I was not
ready to fight and that
really stopped the you know the
you know ongoing aggression and the
escalation basically
so, so that that's also where it's
useful like.
You can surprise people positively
when you have a different culture and
they understand it sometimes it helps to
connect people. Yeah!
thank you so much our audience would
get really great insights and this was
an
amazing interview thank you so much for
your time
You're truly a Non-Verbal Champion
and
So thankful.
Well, thank you very much it was
You enjoyed too it was not really from our end. 
It was a great interview
very well prepared and I really enjoyed the experience we can have
any other opportunity whenever you want
It would be great Thank you so much
