Dr. Alison Wood Brooks
👤 SpeakerAppearances Over Time
Podcast Appearances
It's easy to do in a conversation.
You can change it.
Let's go for a walk.
Let's go to a different room.
I'm going to go get a drink and then I'm going to come back.
A very stiff drink.
Just kidding, I'll make it worse.
Come back and let's pick this up.
Or even see if you want to keep talking about it by then.
Oh, yeah.
So two answers to this.
First, as always, topic prep is your friend, right?
So thinking ahead about things that the other person will find interesting or exciting to talk about.
But the second part of my answer is that it's almost the wrong question.
It's the wrong mindset.
The key to being a good conversationalist is not about being interesting.
It's about being interested in the other person.
So if you go in with this mindset of like, how do I be, you know, Mr. or Mrs. Cool?
How do I be charismatic?
How do I bring all the funny stories?