TJ WALKER - THE HABIT INFLUENCER - Personal Development | LIVE STREAM

14 Mar 2019 · 2 min

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2:01

A short live-stream monologue by TJ Walker offering practical, low-pressure strategies for starting conversations at cocktail parties. He reassures listeners who feel self-conscious, recommends appearing pleasant, scanning for individuals who are alone or open to joining, using simple ice-breakers (even admitting discomfort), and asking people about themselves or their name-tag info at professional events to get conversations started.

Chapters

What tips do you have for speaking to most people at a cocktail party? Now, there are a lot of people who are very comfortable standing up, being the center of attention, giving a speech or presentation. But put them in a cocktail setting and all of a sudden they're up against the wall feeling self conscious. So if you feel that way, it just means you're normal. But keep this in mind, a lot of other people at the cocktail party are feeling the same way. The easiest thing to do is to walk into the room, smile on your face, look like you're already having a good time. I don't mean a giant glazed, fake plastered smile, but just look pleasant and slowly walk around there and just look for any individual who's not talking to someone, who's looking up, who isn't buried in a cell phone. Or look for two or three people who seem to be laughing and just get closer. Now, if it's three people and they seem like they've all known each other for 20 years and it's closed off, I wouldn't intrude. But certainly if you see one person who is looking around too, just go up to them and say any. It doesn't matter what you say. It doesn't have to be witty, doesn't have to be funny. You can even say, wow, I never know what to say at these cocktail parties. I don't recommend that, but it's better than nothing. Say anything to break the ice. Certainly, if it's a professional conference trade association, you can always ask people based on their name tag. So, oh, you're from Akron. What's the economy like there these days? Get people talking about themselves. Almost any question you ask people at a cocktail party is a great way of starting a conversation because people love talking about themselves. Do that and you'll be in great shape.