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Today’s guest is my friend Kathi McKnight. She’s a handwriting expert and shares with us some fascinating facts about how we write and what that means for our lives.
We talked about my handwriting, and you can see that here.
To find Kathi, head to http://kathimcknight.com To get the special: http://kathimcknight.com/handwriting-analysis-super-session-package/
music ben sounds. com
Transcript:
Hi, I’m Betsy Pake. I’m a reinvention strategist and NLP coach, author and speaker. But really, I feel like I just work with people all over the country to help them be happier. And to help them have a little bit more ease in their life. Today, I hope to do the same for you. Thanks for listening. Now, let’s go live. Hey, everybody, welcome to the show. I’m here with my friend today Kathy McKnight. Hey, Kathy. Hey, Betsy. So I’m really
excited to have you here. You and I connected a
couple months ago, and we’ve talked on the phone a couple times. And I’m fascinated by what you do. So tell everybody what it is you do?
Well, I am a handwriting analyst. And my official title is certified master graphologist. And that sounds so
fancy graphologist. Okay.
Yes, it’s an ancient science. It’s been around since the days of Aristotle. So it’s something that had truly stood the test of time.
And how did you even learn or come across
this? How did you learn this craft? It’s so funny, because that is the number one first question I get asked all the time. Oh, really. And the story is, I had a really, really cool dad who was ahead of his time. And we were very close. He was also my spiritual mentor. He was also incredibly telling talented healer, and chiropractor. And he exposed me to many, many things growing up, only one of which was handwriting analysis. Fast forward. Many years later, I’m in corporate America, got my degree, I moved to Colorado, I’m not working. I’m still trying to find my niche. But I’m in corporate America feeling like aged bird with clipped wings, looking to do something more in line with my soul. So I came across a college catalog and flipped through it. And there was an eight week beginning course on handwriting analysis, and I took it. And when my friends found out about it, they’re like, well, we want to take it to so at the end of it, my instructor, she was a certified graphologist. She worked in forensics. Also, she pulled me aside said you really have a calling for this. And she strongly nudged me to study under a Master graphologist. Quinn, Samson. And I did and the rest, as they say is history.
Cool. So how long have you been doing this now then? Since 1991?
Okay. Oh, so a long time.
Okay. So tell us what
that really means. And like, what capacity Do you work in now? Like do you work with? Like we said something about friends? iQ? So do you work with police officers? Or do you work with just regular old people? or tell us
what you do? No, I don’t, I don’t work with the police per se, unless they want my help. Understanding the personality or the profile. But um, my background is also healing work. I was a former instructor at the Colorado School of healing arts after I graduated from there. And I had a full time 10 year practice. And people who know me really well know that that was always my, my truth niche. I loved graphology. And then it switched. And so it is the most natural thing in the world. And the only way I can do graphology is to work it with the body, mind and spirit connection. Okay. So basically how it works is what we write comes from the conscious mind, but how we write come comes from the subconscious mind. And let me back it up again, to give everybody listening a little better idea of this, we all learn how to write exactly the same, yet no two people write a like ever. And that’s because it’s brain writing, not handwriting. And so, um, there’s about 5000 things that handwriting can reveal. And there’s only about four major things that it does not
interesting. Yes.
And yes, it’s true. Because when I think about like, my daughter’s handwriting in my handwriting is totally different. And sometimes you have those people in their handwriting is so perfect. And you’re like, Oh my gosh, you’ve got the best handwriting but you can’t learn how to do it. You can’t do it like them. Like it’s very hard to copy someone’s handwriting.
Well, and you make you make a good point that makes me think of something else. There’s a lot of people out there who have deliberately copied their handwriting after somebody in their family that they really admired because they love their handwriting. And that’s when I always bite my nails and I say please don’t. They’re basically doing a self induced form of graphical therapy, which has changed your writing to change your life. And why don’t you know, something that’s called quote, air quotes, pretty handwriting. Mainly Not necessarily have traits in it that you want, for example, the letter T, there’s over 30 ways to write the letter T. And what I look at as a graphologist is we look at the upper loops and the lower loops where the T’s are crossed, the i’s are dotted. We look at the size and the pressure and the slant. The writing is legible illegible if it’s combination of printing and cursive, or just printing or just so that gives you an idea of what I’m talking about. And then we stack all those traits one upon another. So here’s the thing, we all have good, and I’m good in our handwriting. And that’s actually the title of my book, and my handwriting analysis, the good, the good, and the unexpected. And so, um, the ungood represents, you know, everything boils down to thoughts of love or fear. Okay, in its simplest denomination, Jerry, Jerry jam Polsky brought that to our attention years ago. And handwriting reveals that as well. It’s like, the uncut thoughts represent the thoughts of fear. Like, everybody who comes to me, when they come to me for a full session, they usually coming to me to do the aspect of changing their writing to create change in their life. So they make sure go ahead.
Well, you keep going. I’m going to write down my I have a question about that. So keep going. And I’m going to write down my question, so I don’t forget.
Oh, okay. Um, for example, handwriting might reveal procrastination, or fear of success, or emotional starvation or low self esteem. I’m just this the tip of the iceberg. And my gift is to look because I’ve looked at thousands upon thousands of handwriting samples since 1991. And my gift is when I look at a handwriting sample, a full sample to find out what’s the number one core stroke that’s representing the subconscious block at this person’s life at this juncture in time, because we’re all walking around being driven by 85 to 95%, of our subconscious mind.
Right, right. Yeah, that’s what’s so cool is
that what we write comes from the conscious mind, but how we write comes from the subconscious mind. So
yes, Yeah, you did. Yeah. fascinating, because, you know, I work with NLP with neuro linguistic programming. And like, a big part of that is, like, you know, you can change the way you’re standing. And you can change where your eyes are. And that will change the feelings you have in your body. Right? So like, if you’re feeling defeated, you’re looking down, you’re, you know, but you can’t feel depressed if you’ve got your arms in the air, and you’re jumping up and down for joy, right? So, I find that interesting, because Are you saying, like, if I can, just like if I can change the way my body is being held, I can change the way I write and that is affecting my, my actual, like, I don’t want to say my physiology, because it’s, it’s, well, it’s changing the way my mind my brain is working.
Right? Right, um, to do it. Um, to make it really count, you need to do it strategically over 21 days. I call that my secret sauce. It took me years to develop it because I worked with clients, my master teacher used to show us how to do it. And then she turned people loose and say, okay, practice this for 20 minutes every day for 21 days. And if you miss a day, the next days, considered day one, well, I’ve been working with clients for a long time now. And I found that it just didn’t work. So I created a 21 days of autoresponders to give them a cheer, and a reminder every day and an empowerment little one minute commercial, and it kept them on track. Plus, I have a strategic way that they write it for 21 days. And when you do it consistently, and you know, you’ve identified that one letter to the tee, how to rewrite it, rewrite it for 21 days, it then creates a new neural pathway in the brain. Right. And, you know, I think most people these days understand that. So yeah, you are affecting the physiology, because it’s a body mind connection. In fact, when I was on the dr. oz show, several episodes after me Goldie Hawn was on, and she was talking about brain health. And I love that episode, and it’s in one of my autoresponders. And she talked with Dr. Oz, and he showed they held a brain and he showed where the actual brain flap is. And I am so excited because that is what I’ve been talking about for years. So the gravel therapy is a way to people love it because it’s a tangible way to kind of reach in your subconscious mind, just like EFT tapping is or in it. It’s another modality.
Right, right. Okay.
Cool. So let’s get into it. What? What?
Can you tell us anything about writing in what it means and I know I sent you a sample of my writing. I don’t know if we want to talk about that, but I’ll put a
picture of
what I wrote for you in the show notes. So if you want to look at that and follow along.
Okay, I want to ask you, um, when you wrote it, did you turn the paper this way? Or this way? When you wrote it? Um, it was probably
tilted a little bit. So I, as I wrote, but not tilted all the way.
Like, just okay, little Yeah, that’s okay. That’s okay. Because when it came through sideways, and when I printed it out, but so when I printed it out, see, it means something if somebody turns the paper the opposite way, like, like the long edge? Um,
yeah, no, I mean, I think I took a picture. And that’s how the picture says,
You Never mind. Okay?
So,
my daughter is a lefty, and she writes upside down, which blows my mind,
upside down,
totally upside down. So if I was sitting across the table from her, I could read it like it was right in front of me. Oh, cool. Yeah. Right. We’re right.
And before I tell you this, you brought up another good point that see, um, people often ask or what if I’m left handed? Does that make any difference and then like, it doesn’t matter if you’re left handed or right handed, the hand has nothing to do with a slant. In fact, a skilled apologist can analyze the handwriting, whether somebody has the pin between their teeth, or their toes, or the fingers. In fact, if you and I and everyone listening, or to put a pen in their mouth, and practice mouth writing for two years, you would write your signature, and you would write the way you write exactly like you do right now. Really, actually present?
Yes, because it’s coming. Okay.
All right, cool. This is fascinating. It was funny, because when I wrote what I wrote for you, which if you’re just listening, and you can’t look, it’s, it’s like Mary had a little lamb that I wrote, write my name a couple times in the date. So it was funny, because some of the letters I noticed, those are letters I’ve been doing my whole life. And some of them I noticed those have changed recently. Like, I’ve noticed, there’s been a lot of changes in mindset in my life. And I noticed when that was happening, that my M’s were changing a
little and
so I, so I was curious about that, what,
what it what it all means, and I can’t remember now I’ll have to look. But um, when I was writing, I was like, Ooh, this is how I would write it. Do I want to write it the way I’ve always written it or the new way, you know, so, anyway, I tried to just go with it. I tried to just be conscious, you know what I mean? And just write
consciously subconscious? Yes. That’s right. Yeah. No, and I think a lot of people feel that way. And people also will say, Well, my handwriting changes. What does that mean? And I say, Yes, your handwriting will change. But the core strokes typically don’t change. Right? Okay. Yeah. grow as a human being and you evolve and your life changes, you know, you’re gonna write differently as a mother and wife than you were as a, you know, teenager, of course. So, so your handwriting, the, when I look at handwriting, there’s always two or three things that jumped out at me with each person, because there’s so much information right out of this for so long. And so it’s like two or three things usually always jump out and smack me in the face. And one of the things I noticed about yours right away was the creativity. In you have a rhythm in your handwriting that shows you’re comfortable within your own skin. I like it.
I like that too.
Yeah, I mean, I tell people, everybody’s born a natural graphologist. And, um, um, you also have a very, very stable baseline, the baseline is the point of reality. And that unstable baseline shows tremendous stability,
you know? Is that like that? I’m writing straight.
Yeah,
yeah. So the piece of paper that I sent you, like I wrote on it had no lines.
Right. And I do that for Yes. Yeah. I’m very devious about that. I know.
Well, now you almost
when you can, like put a ruler underneath somebody’s handwriting on the baseline, and if their handwriting would fit on a ruler, that’s a sure clear sign of a perfectionist. Hmm. There’s a great quote out there that says perfectionism is one of the highest forms of self abuse. So I tell people, please don’t ever strive for perfectionism. Because you’ll never achieve it, right? Yeah. Go for excellence. That’s fine.
And mine is very straight. Don’t you think you could put a ruler under that? And it would be pretty straight?
Oh, definitely.
Yeah. And I always say,
trying to be a perfectionist is is?
Yeah, I mean self abuse or like, what’s the word? I’m, it’s really like the,
why can’t I think today,
it’s like the putting yourself down almost because you can never ever, ever do it. So the more you try to do it, the more like more difficult it becomes. And the more you don’t, yeah, it’s really about being insecure. That’s the thing. I’m trying to say. It. A lot of it centers around that because you don’t think you’re good enough. Right? So being a perfectionist is really about not being good enough.
That’s what I’ve been trying to say.
What I was gonna say, Is this a, there’s a scarcity, scarcity consciousness of like, not enoughness Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah. You know. So anyway, uh, and then you you’re, we look at the signature. And the signature. As I said, I have a new session called is a supercharged signature analysis. And then when people want to make over a million dollars signature makeover, because then there’s a whole story with that, how that got started. But the signature, yours and everybody else’s, is about the tip of the iceberg to the handwriting, however, and we never analyze a person just by their signature alone. However, the things that show up in the signature carry three to five times the weight of importance, compared to the rest of the handwriting. Hmm. So, um, the things in their package. That’s why when I do graphical therapy, I have one that is just tailor made for the signature loan, because that takes an hour. And there’s a funny story, if you want to hear how that got started. Yeah. Well, I, um, there was actually an artist, very talented and beautiful gal. And she knew me, she knew what I did. And she’d had a taste of my work. And she was getting ready to put all of her paintings in a gallery in New York. And I’m telling you, I’m not kidding, she hunted me down, she stopped me. And she found me in a party, to have me sit down with her and help her define and craft her signature, because she was so desperate to get it just right before she put it on our paintings, because she knew the importance of it. Yeah. And then I was contacted by the Denver Art Museum, and they asked me, they hired me on to give a walking tour, analyzing artists. So yeah, galleries. And and then they had people line up, they me stay longer and have people line up to get many analysis. And I was like, you know, I need to develop a session just for this because people, there’s a need for this. People want this? Yeah.
Interesting. Yeah. People want to know. Yeah.
And it’s one of my most popular sessions. It’s a million dollar signature makeover. And so because it’s really important, we think about how important signature is that’s the I mean, it’s like, marriages are made on it divorces, decree, nations are formed, you know, the Declaration of Independence. JOHN Hancock was the first one to sign it. He, his handwriting was huge and big and flamboyant. Yeah, it was. And the reason it was so bold, is he was an ostentatious, wealthy landowner. And he had it by signing the Declaration of Independence, you were basically signing your death warrant. Right. And he he said that he wanted to make his signature big enough. So the big fat old king could read it without a spectacles. Yes.
Yeah. It’s funny, because when I was writing this for you, and I wrote my signature, I thought, that’s very john Hancock key like, it’s very, like
swirly and big, right? Well, I love what you have in here you have what’s something that we call moneybags? In your signature, your lower and that’s quite that wide, lower Luke’s in the wise and the diesel Jays. And that means this is a person who is embracing their abundance, you know, yeah, they’re not afraid to say hey, I love money and the things that can buy, right? Are the funniest thing on TV. It was like God given materialism. Yeah, yeah. Gotcha, materialism. So if we look at we’re going to the ocean and the ocean is open. And so I’m going to take a little teaspoon or we’re going to take a big dump truck to, right yeah, yeah. So anyway, your signature is very interesting, Betsy, because, first of all, it’s written in the same style as the rest of your handwriting. So that means you’re authentically you all the time. Whether you’re facing with kings or dining with bestens. Whether you’re with friends and family on the weekend, are colleagues and peers. You’re always Betsy, what you see is what you get. It’s legible. So you’re willing to be seen and then one other company One or two other things I wanted to mention about it is
whenever you find the letter,
a number eight in handwriting, that can be shown up in obscure weird places. But it ends up creating an eight. That’s actually a sign of devotion and dedication. So you made your S in Betsy, and in August, the way that it connected to the letters before and after it. Yeah. See how it is? It’s a total eight, isn’t it? Yes. What’s cool about that is it showed up and your signature, and everything that shows up in your signature carries three to five times the weight of importance. So you have a lot of devotion and dedication going on?
Yeah, I like that. So my signature is good. My signature seems like it’s got good Juju, but my other writing, it’s got a little bit of scarcity in it. A little Why do you say that? Well, I thought I heard you say scarcity, that when you were looking at it, it was some of it was scarcity.
Like no one dreams that a perfectionist is has a scarcity, not enoughness. calm.
Okay, okay, but not necessarily my writing. Okay, so if somebody’s listening moneybags, or when you do like a why, and there’s a big loop de loop where it almost looks like you could catch something in it. big, fat wide. Yep. And then like my ss, make an eight. So if you write your signature, and you see like, there’s an eight, it almost is like they connect. Especially in August, if you go to the website and get the picture. August is really shows. Yeah,
yeah. Now one other thing I’ll say about your signature is he and Betsy is very close. And that shows that, you know, there are times where I think that you have probably a healthy skepticism. And it’s where you like to investigate things before you just, you’re not necessarily buying what they’re selling. I’m going to come in like to investigate things first. Right? Right. Yeah. There’s a whole chapter on how to write the letter ease. In fact, I have a really fun little video, um, that I can make available. We’ll figure out how to make available to your, your listeners, if you notice it. It’s called Open your ears to create more ease. And it
kind of shows that kind of do that.
Yeah, yeah. All right. Cool. Yeah.
So if somebody is listening, and they want to get their handwriting analyzed, what what can they do? Can they go right to you or to your website?
Yes, I actually have a special right now for your group. And it’s just brand new developed. And it’s a live supercharged signature analysis, you get to find out what are which one of the six types of signature styles that you write with? There’s six, yep, you find out, you get a complete signature analysis. Plus, I analyze a full page of handwriting. And this is a live session with me on zoom for 30 minutes. And then I’m including for this very limited time, only three special gifts, you get a free copy of my ebook, rate your date before you mate.
I like that right? Your date before you mate. Okay. Yep.
little tips. And you also get a free cheat sheet of the signature styles, or the six of them. And then, for a very, very short time I’m offering you can bring in the signature or short handwriting sample of somebody else. And we’ll also include that in your 30 minute session with me. Oh, okay.
That is interesting to me. Okay. So and how did they get to this? what’s your website? Can you is the handwriting expert, calm, they have a pittsburgh.com. And I’ll make sure there’s a link to it in the show notes. The handwriting expert, calm. All right. So how can this help somebody like, okay, so it’s interesting, and it’s fun to find out like what your handwriting means. But then what can we do with that, like, so then do you actually give steps on how to change it so that you, it you know, what we were talking about before, so that it does actually open up the way your brain thinks, and starts developing new patterns inside your head?
Wonderful question. Yeah, there is I when people work with me and grab a therapy session, I lead them through step by step exactly how to do that. Okay. I’m more than happy to tell people like oh, you know, you need to raise your T bar or whatever. And they can do that. And that’s great. to really create a strong, powerful neural pathway, you kind of need to do it for 21 days in a row. And there is a step by step strategy to help do that. Okay, okay. Yeah, but it you know, it’s like, if you think about it, what the the higher we cross our T’s on the T stem, the higher our goals and self esteem. And Oh, interesting. Okay. Yeah, we consistently cross them low. That represents lower goals, lower self esteem. And these are writers who are going to be stuck in a worn out relationship or store No. More no job.
Yeah, that’s so interesting. Yeah. Yeah, because I’ve seen people with handwriting, I mean, all different kinds of teas. Some have a big huge loop. You know, some are printed. And sometimes I found with my writing, it was partially printed and partially cursive.
Like it like a weird little mix. Well, yeah. And, and, you know, you’re one of my favorite people. And there’s probably a lot of your writers that have that too. And you, you guys are the ones that are really extra intuitive. I can grab a really good develop six cents. Now your handwriting shows that you’re also very head oriented. You’re very logical and pragmatic. Um, you know, you’re going to be the rock in an emergency, you’re going to be poised. You enjoy your own company, as well as other people. Your truest nature, I would probably say is actually more of an introvert.
Yeah, yeah. It’s funny, because people always think that I’m not people think, well, she’s an extrovert, because I’m happy. Yeah, I get my power back by being alone, you know, by reading by meditating. Yeah. So it’s funny. You can tell that from the handwriting.
Yeah, I see that. But you also combine it with this gorgeous intuition. And you have this rhythm, and you have this flow. And you have the stability. See, got it going on, girl.
Yeah, I feel good about myself right now.
people when they find out what I do, and I don’t tell people at parties are on the plane anymore, because you can imagine that’s all they end up doing for us today. Yeah. But when I used to do it, I was on the plane or something. If I get one or two responses, they’d either stick their paper under my nose and say,
do me Do me do?
Anyone recoil and fear thinking I would be sure to find out the only bonafide psycho killer in the room. Right, right. So do
psycho killers have different handwriting? like can you tell a psycho killer?
It’s not like one. One stroke that’s every psycho killer has. It’s not like that I actually was interviewed to do a high profile murder trial very early on in my career. And both of the killers had confessed to the crime. But the jury was trying to decide which one was the mastermind. And one of them had the handwriting of how he chose this is really sick. But had he chosen a different path. He could have well, like with Ted Bundy, he could have made an excellent surgeon. Okay. This guy’s handwriting showed lack of conscience. And the other handwriting show and he was the other guy’s handwriting showed he was extremely impulsive deviation. Um, you know, just just a wild card. And three found him is the mastermind of that and the other graphologists. And I had found the other guy was the mastermind, because he was logical and precise. Cool. You know?
Yeah, yeah. Yeah. Oh, that’s interesting. Yeah. Do you find that like, you’re like, you know, you’re doing something and you see somebody’s handwriting. And then you’re like, ooh, I need to be careful. Because they’re,
you know, whatever you find out like,
he knows? That’s a really good question. It’s, I think it’s like people who speak different languages. Sometimes they’ll mix in the different languages in one sentence, and it’s natural. Sometimes I’m not aware that I’m looking at so it’s like when I’m off the clock. Yeah, I really do it. Unless I’m, like, consciously curious about that person. Yeah. And I guess, like, I’ll take a glance just to see if there’s anything that’s going to jump out at me, or just so I get a little better sense of them. It’s kind of like, if you’re looking at somebody and you, you’re just noticing qualities about them. Right? Yeah. No, I don’t really. I think my whole background is healing. So my whole philosophy towards this is it’s more about healing and empowerment.
Yeah, not too much judgment, because
I think that we all have good and I’m good and our handwriting share and my hope. Before I did, this was healing work. And now when I do it with people, it’s like to empower them to their handwriting.
Yeah. I like how you say good, and I’m good. Yeah, kind of like good and bad. I really like that. So here’s the thing that I find that I do lots of times if I’m just talking to somebody, or I’m talking to a friend, and they’ll say something like, ah, I can’t believe that happened. I always end up doing that. Why is it so hard? And I want to go, Oh, do you always do that? Like, I want to, like digging into their belief systems, you know, like, Is it true? Like I have a really hard time, not like coaching, you know? So I have a good girlfriend that I meet up with for coffee, like sometimes once a week or every other week, and it always leads and she’s like, I feel so bad. I feel like it’s a coaching session. When we get together. I’m like, I love it. Like, I can’t help but dive in. So I guess you don’t see people, right? Like you do, like hear them talk, you know?
Yes, true. And we always make the same mistake over and over again, there is a trade in handwriting that can reveal that. And they can actually
that. Yeah, interesting. All right. So people need to go and get the analysis, because then they can start to learn how to change that and actually start making changes in their life, which is really cool.
help with their prosperity, it can help with their love life, it can help with their professional and personal relationships. See, I should I love my husband dearly, but I cannot even read his signature. He read, he’s an attorney, but he writes like, he’s a doctor,
you know, like, it’s just a line. What does it mean? When someone doesn’t even write, they’re too busy. We’ll go someplace and he’ll sign the bill. And I’ll be like, that doesn’t say anything. It’s a check mark and align, like people are gonna think you can’t write and you’re just doing an act, you know.
But I’m sure there’s a lot we could analyze in that another time.
That’s funny. Well, thank you so much for being on the show. This was super fun. And people can go to your website at be handwriting expert, calm, and I’ll make sure there’s a link to that in the show notes.
Was that right? The handwriting? Yeah, and I can give you a link to the special. Okay. And Betsy, you are as delightful as your handwriting.
Thank you so much. It was fun being on with you.
Likewise.
Thanks for spending some time with me today. Remember, you can find me inside my facebook group at SS lB community.com. That stands for start small live big community.com. And as always, here’s a little message from my husband.
That’s it.
