Dr. Alison Wood Brooks

That doesn't happen anymore.

You've got options like in your back pocket, in your mind.

Oh yeah, if there's a lag, I need to remember to ask about their kid who had tried out for the hockey team, right?

So you've always got an option, a backup plan for the panicky moments.

Turns out it makes the conversation much more enjoyable as well.

You tend to switch topics a little more frequently and you're more likely to land on things that are mutually interesting to everybody involved.

I think the first thing is don't have a panic attack.

This might be the greatest tool that you've ever added to your arsenal as an introvert in your life.

Because so much of why introverts feel panicked once they're in social situations is that they don't know what to say.

They don't really want to approach these difficult moments.

Having some topics prepped eases all of that.

And once you experience the magic of topic prep in action, you're like, oh my God, this is it.

I should have been doing this my whole life.

for the most part, you know who you're going to see in a day.

You might know the specific people, whether it's your kids and your spouse and then this set of colleagues.

Knowing who you're going to see means that you can prep topics for all of them in a personalized way.

So walk me through the day.

Yeah.

Okay.

So we're going through the day.