Member-only story
I used to imagine I would meet a cute girl standing behind me in line for coffee. I would turn around and smile at her. She smiles back. I say hi and we engage in conversation. Things are going wonderfully.
Then my nightmare will hit me. Some magic spell activates in my brain where I literally have no idea what to say next. We stare awkwardly at each other until I sheepishly turn around, pretending that we had never even talked, embarrassed at the whole situation.
These nightmares don’t happen with just attractive women but also with friends at a party and strangers at a networking event.
I become extremely anxious, thinking too much in my head what I’m going to say next. This led me to ask myself the hard question:
How do I have great conversations with anyone I meet?
This is the question I seeked to answer with writing my book on networking, attending dozens of events, and reading every “social skill” book I can find. But the most surprising method that has worked for me came from studying and performing improv.
In improv, two people start a scene based on nothing. As an audience member watching two people go on stage, we want to understand:
- Where are they?
