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Amy Cuddy's TED Talk is the second most viewed of all time — and just a taste of what she has to say.��

Long before Amy Cuddy was a Harvard��professor and a TED star, she was an��ambitious college student, the kind who��would drive 900 miles through the night��to make morning class in Boulder.

That’s what she and two friends were��doing the night their Jeep Cherokee��rolled over on a Wyoming highway en��route from a conference in Montana.��Asleep in the back seat, Cuddy (Psych’98),��then a 19-year-old sophomore, was ejected.��Her skull fractured on the road.

The prognosis was grim.��Her IQ fell��30 points,��language baffled her,��doctors��said to forget about college.��But this was an intolerable thought.��

“I had a very simple idea of who I was,”��she told a Boulder audience earlier this��year, “and being smart [was] part of that.”��

Cuddy resumed school, stopped, started��again. She spent a lot of time at a Boulder��rehabilitation hospital.��

The ballerina from rural Pennsylvania��kept at it.��

She worked as a rollerskating waitress at��L.A. Diner on 28th Street, discovered social��psychology, wrote an honors thesis and,��four years after her original ŷ���ڱ���Ƶ-Boulder��classmates, graduated — magna cum laude.��

She went on to graduate school in psychology��at Princeton and, in 2008, joined��the faculty at Harvard Business School,��where she studies and teaches the psychology��of persuasion, power and negotiation.��

Cuddy’s efforts to overcome her head��injury provide a moving context for her��subsequent academic research about how��the body influences the mind and the implications for everyday life. Aspects of her��work served as the basis for a massively��popular TED Talk that has inspired people��around the world and catapulted Cuddy��into the front ranks of public intellectuals.��

Time named her to its 2012 list of��“Game Changers” and Business Insider��to its 2013 list of “50 Women Who Are��Changing the World.” Science magazine��ranked her among the “Top 100 Most��Followed Scientists on Twitter.” She’s��currently one of the World Economic��Forum’s “Young Global Leaders.”

“The words ‘it can’t be done’ or ‘it��is too difficult’ simply are not in her��vocabulary,” said Bernadette Park, the��ŷ���ڱ���Ƶ-Boulder professor who was Cuddy’s��honors thesis adviser. “What she has��accomplished is truly remarkable.”

In the 21-minute TED Talk, “Your Body��Shapes Who You Are” — the second��most-viewed of all time, with more than��33 million views on the TED site and millions��more on YouTube — Cuddy focused��on the self-confidence many people generate��by adopting “power poses” before��stressful situations, such as job interviews,��negotiations or speeches, and how this��can influence outcomes in their favor.��

In high-power poses we expand our��bodies to occupy lots of space — assuming��wide stances with arms on hips��or extended above the head, maybe in a��triumphant V, for instance. Cuddy calls��them “postures of victory.”��

Research by Cuddy and others has shown��that holding high-power poses for two minutes��can increase a hormone that induces��feelings of power (testosterone), decrease a��hormone that induces feelings of stress (cortisol)��and embolden people to take risks.��

Holding low-power poses for two��minutes (a fetal position, say) has the��opposite effects.��

“Your body,” Cuddy said, “is always in��conversation with your mind.”��

Other research showed that we tend��to respond more favorably to individuals��— job applicants, for example��— who exhibit personal power through��a palpable sense of presence.

The TED Talk made Cuddy a star, but��power posing is just one aspect of her��broader interest in the dynamics of personal��power and the ways people evaluate��and influence each other.

Still, the talk has led to other big��opportunities, including a book project,��Presence: Bringing Your Boldest Self to Your��Biggest Challenges, a New York Times bestseller��published in December.��

For the book, Cuddy widened her lens,��distilling and personalizing a vast body of��social science research about ways people��can elicit a relaxed, confident, honest persona��in stressful situations. The fundamental��idea is to induce a state of presence, which��she defines as “the state of being attuned��to and able to comfortably express our true��thoughts, feelings, values and potential.”��

Like power posing, being authentically��present leaves people relaxed and able��to access their best and boldest selves in��stressful moments, increasing the odds��of desirable outcomes and all but assuring��a satisfying sense of having done��their best, irrespective of outcome.��

For a long time this wasn’t natural for��Cuddy, who endearingly exposes her own��past struggles to summon her best self��in high-stakes encounters with peers,��professional superiors and others.��

She learned, she said, to “fake it until you��make it,” a mantra she’s modified based on��her research results. Now she tells people��to “fake it until you become it.”��

Cuddy combines grit and high-caliber��smarts with an open enthusiasm for��pop culture. A serious live-music fan and��self-described “Dead Head,” she sprinkles��references to pop-culture figures throughout��her writing and in conversation — musician��Dave Grohl of Nirvana, writer Neil Gaiman��and actress Julianne Moore all come up.��

Cuddy continues to teach at Harvard,��where she’s an associate professor, but also��spends a lot of time talking about her work��to general audiences at high schools, homeless��shelters, churches and public halls.��

“I care about talking to people outside��the ivory tower,” she said.��That’s not to say college towns have��lost their appeal: Cuddy and her husband��have considered buying a part-time��home in Boulder.��

“I want to get back out here,” she��said during her winter visit. “The balance��is right here.”

Photos by��Ryan Lash (top);��James Duncan Davidson, Ryan Lash