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	<title>ToP &#187; Conversation Skills</title>
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		<title>Review of Elite Social Control by Hamilton Miller</title>
		<link>http://www.towerofpower.com.au/review-of-elite-social-control-by-hamilton-miller</link>
		<comments>http://www.towerofpower.com.au/review-of-elite-social-control-by-hamilton-miller#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Mon, 26 Jan 2009 11:41:03 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Joshua Uebergang aka &#34;Tower of Power&#34;</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Conversation Skills]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Reviews]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[body language]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Confidence and Fear]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[dating skills]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[eye contact]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Hamilton Miller]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[hypnosis]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[mentalism]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[mind control]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[NLP]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Persuasion]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[posture]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[praise]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[rapport]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[reframing]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[seduction]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[social anxiety]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[vocalics]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.towerofpower.com.au/?p=131</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[This is a consumer&#8217;s book review of Hamilton Miller&#8217;s Elite Social Control, a controversial ebook that teaches ethical mind control techniques for better conversations.
I purchased Miller&#8217;s ebook. Upon opening it, I was surprised to see it was only 95 pages. I got a little angry, expecting more, because so many ebooks on persuasion, conversations, and [...]]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><span class="dropcap">T</span>his is a consumer&#8217;s book review of Hamilton Miller&#8217;s <em><a href="http://www.towerofpower.com.au/r/elite-social-control-by-hamilton-miller.php?tid=topreva" target="_blank">Elite Social Control</a></em>, a controversial ebook that teaches ethical mind control techniques for better conversations.</p>
<p>I purchased Miller&#8217;s ebook. Upon opening it, I was surprised to see it was only 95 pages. I got a little angry, expecting more, because so many ebooks on persuasion, conversations, and communication- related subjects are small and contain little value. After finishing the ebook, however, I had received more techniques than some 300-page books I&#8217;ve read. Do not judge Miller&#8217;s book by its size like I did because you will get many mind control techniques to improve your conversations.<span id="more-131"></span></p>
<p>The <em>Elite Social Control</em> system shifts self-focused individuals to their conversational partner to improve the connection. This means the system will specifically help you if you suffer from self-consciousness, nervousness, or generally want people to like you more in conversations for <a href="http://www.towerofpower.com.au/topic/negotiation">better negotiations</a>, dating, and general social situations.</p>
<p>It is not all mystical mumbo-jumbo. There are mind control techniques you can use that make better use of verbal and nonverbal messages. Your nonverbal communication influences people in the most unusual ways, which <em>Elite Social Control</em> will show you to dominate.</p>
<p>I particularly liked the eight secrets of magnetic statements. Miller teaches you how to make your words hook people into having a great conversation with you. His 13 pieces of advice to avoid repelling statements is just as good. You will learn good conversational etiquette that many people ignore, which I have not read elsewhere. Also, the advice he offers to relax your body language, change your voice, and improve your general image will help you become confident, comfortable, and likable.</p>
<div class="pullqleft"><span class="pullqstart">&#8220;</span>&#8230;a controversial ebook that teaches ethical mind control techniques for better conversations.<span class="pullqend">&#8221;</span></div>
<p>While there are many conversation techniques I liked and never knew about, there was the occasional technique I hated because it leads into psychic material. Some people will like this, though I don&#8217;t. Regardless of your attitude towards such material, most of the book focuses on proven mind techniques and communication tricks. Many other techniques in the ebook are valuable tools to win people to your way of thinking, have positive conversations, and build solid rapport.</p>
<p>Hamilton also provides 10 magnetic moves and a few nonverbal tricks. As is true for most of the book, you&#8217;re given quick-fire techniques that attract people in conversations. “The Non-Analytical Look”, “Elite Gaze”, and “Four Steps to Chain Rapport” are solid tricks to help you in any conversation.</p>
<p>Overall, though it is short, it is concise and powerful. Its size is even beneficial because you can read it within 2-3 hours and quickly refer to it when you need to. If you are interested Hamilton Miller&#8217;s <em>Elite Social Control</em> to improve your conversations – for whatever reason – you can download your copy right now and be reading it within minutes by <a href="http://www.towerofpower.com.au/r/elite-social-control-by-hamilton-miller.php?tid=toprevb" target="_blank">clicking here</a>.</p>
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<h3>Other Articles That Might Help You</h3>
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		<li><a href="http://www.towerofpower.com.au/review-of-social-intelligence-by-daniel-goleman" rel="bookmark">Review of Social Intelligence by Daniel Goleman</a><!-- (14.4909)--></li>
		<li><a href="http://www.towerofpower.com.au/review-of-how-to-talk-to-anyone-by-leil-lowndes" rel="bookmark">Review of How to Talk to Anyone by Leil Lowndes</a><!-- (10.2787)--></li>
		<li><a href="http://www.towerofpower.com.au/review-of-conversationally-speaking-by-alan-garner" rel="bookmark">Review of Conversationally Speaking by Alan Garner</a><!-- (7.93985)--></li>
		<li><a href="http://www.towerofpower.com.au/review-of-frogs-into-princes-by-richard-bandler-and-john-grinder" rel="bookmark">Review of Frogs Into Princes by Richard Bandler and John Grinder</a><!-- (7.62229)--></li>
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	</ol>

]]></content:encoded>
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		<item>
		<title>Making Someone Fall in Love with You Over the Phone</title>
		<link>http://www.towerofpower.com.au/making-someone-fall-in-love-with-you-over-the-phone</link>
		<comments>http://www.towerofpower.com.au/making-someone-fall-in-love-with-you-over-the-phone#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Sat, 06 Dec 2008 11:36:51 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Joshua Uebergang aka &#34;Tower of Power&#34;</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Attraction]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Conversation Skills]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Technology]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[body language]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[business communication]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[courteous]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Dale Carnegie]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[empathy]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[energy]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[love]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[name]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[NLP]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Nonverbal Communication]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[rapport]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[telephone skills]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[vocalics]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.towerofpower.com.au/?p=102</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Whether the person you want to talk to over the phone is a potential partner, client, or friend, and you&#8217;ve just met the person or have known them your entire life, there are a series of effective phone skills you can use to increase love and liking to build any relationship. Like any communication skill, [...]]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><span class="dropcap">W</span>hether the person you want to talk to over the phone is a potential partner, client, or friend, and you&#8217;ve just met the person or have known them your entire life, there are a series of effective phone skills you can use to increase love and liking to build any relationship. Like any communication skill, there are tips you can follow over the phone to speed up the relationship-building process.</p>
<p>The telephone is a different medium to traditional face-to-face communication. What does this mean to you? Rules change and tips can be adapted to help you build your relationship. What does not change is the fundamental human psychology of the two individuals at either end of the phone.<span id="more-102"></span></p>
<p><!--adsense--></p>
<p>Human psychology is about fulfilling needs and wants. You go to the grocery store to buy food to fulfill your need to eat. You buy an expensive shirt because you want to look good. You communicate with others to fulfill your social and identity needs. Attraction, intimacy, and friendship work on human psychological wants and needs. Because of this, you will see how these phone skills I am about to share with you can be adapted to your everyday conversations. Learning how to make someone fall in love with you is therefore neither manipulative nor deceptive as it is a matter of you fulfilling the person&#8217;s needs and wants through communication.</p>
<p>If you want others to literally fall in love with you and not just like you more, you must understand attraction. These tips are about building likability over a different type of communication medium – the phone – and do not act as a substitute for attraction. The tips I am about to give you to make someone fall in love with you over the phone, when applied with <a href="http://www.towerofpower.com.au/topic/attraction">techniques to build attraction in women and men</a>, can make the opposite attracted to you.</p>
<div class="pullqright"><span class="pullqstart">&#8220;</span>The telephone is a different medium&#8230; What does not change is the fundamental human psychology of the two individuals at either end of the phone.<span class="pullqend">&#8221;</span></div>
<p>Learning these phone skills is a sure-fire way to build a strong relationship fast and have your new client wanting a business relationship, a friend staying connected with you, or a new acquaintance loving you. A stupid word of warning: do not begin avoiding people face-to-face once you realize the power of these phone skills!</p>
<h2>They Need to Be Receptive</h2>
<p>The first rule you must obey is checking the person you are talking to over the phone is receptive to you. Regardless of anything wonderful you say, nothing will matter if the person does not pay attention.</p>
<p>If the person has a young child howling louder than a wolf, you will be ignored. The person will hear, but not listen. Your messages will go no further than the other end of the phone line as the person&#8217;s mind is elsewhere, preoccupied with the distraction. When we do not have the time to talk, a distraction arises, or we need to do a task, the only thoughts running through our mind are similar to: “How long will it be until this damn person shuts up? I&#8217;ve got something to do!”</p>
<p>The first rule of receptivity over the the phone is to make it a habit of checking if the person can talk with you. Ask upfront if the person has time to talk. After the greetings, simply say, “Do you have a couple of minutes to talk?” This makes you courteous and unobtrusive on the person&#8217;s space.</p>
<p>The first rule of receptivity ensures the person is receptive at the start of the call and the second rule will make sure the person is receptive during the call. While talking on the phone, interruptions arise. Some can be undetectable, yet others can be heard over the phone. When you hear a baby howling, a door bell ring, or a loud bang, don&#8217;t ignore it! Say what sound you heard then ask if the person needs to attend it. The empathy you communicate by acknowledging potential interruptions will increase your likability and ensure the person is tuned in to what you say.</p>
<h2>It&#8217;s You!</h2>
<p>You&#8217;re going through a routine day walking down the street. The world is boring, people are getting through their day, and everything appears it would be the same without your presence. What happens though, if at the other end of the street you see a best friend you have not met for five years?</p>
<p>You see your best friend and your energy amplifies a gazillion times! Many memories, experiences, and feelings gush back to you in an intense emotional rush. You run up to the person. “It&#8217;s you! I can&#8217;t believe it!” Your ecstatic to stumble upon your friend!</p>
<p>The lesson you can learn from this is what I call the “It&#8217;s You!” technique. When you ring the person or the person rings you, say your normal greeting in an average mood. Once the person introduces himself, you become surprised, or rather energized, to talk with the person. Wait for the person&#8217;s introduction then amp up your energy as if you were talking to that old friend you saw on the street. This makes the person pleasantly thrilled to talk to you.</p>
<p>If you always talk energetically over the phone, your energy with the “It&#8217;s You!” technique will not have the sincerity and pleasant thrill because the high energy is normal for you. Only when you authentically convey happiness to be talking to the person more than you would with normal people does this technique work. The feelings of importance the person receives makes it a great technique to help them fall in love with you over the phone.</p>
<p>(In an article on <a href="http://www.towerofpower.com.au/how-to-be-interesting-without-saying-a-word">how to be interesting without saying a word</a>, I applied this escalating technique on smiling by gradually increasing your smile when you meet someone; instead of walking around smiling or instantly giving off a big smile. These two “escalation techniques” bring sincerity and warmth to your personality.)</p>
<h2>Repeat Their Name</h2>
<p>The fourth tip I recommend you whack into your new phone skills bag of tricks is mentioning the person&#8217;s name more often. As Dale Carnegie in <em><a href="http://www.towerofpower.com.au/review-of-how-to-win-friends-and-influence-people-by-dale-carnegie">How to Win Friends and Influence People</a></em> writes, “Remember that a person&#8217;s name is to that person the sweetest and most important sound in any language.” Our names are a sweet tune of music to our ears. It is a fast way to build any relationship.</p>
<p>You need to know one warning about this technique. If you mention someone&#8217;s name too often, you come off as a try hard, needy, and desperate person – much like a poor salesman.</p>
<p>If you are like most people, you can comfortably increase the frequency you say the person&#8217;s name. You can get away with mentioning their name more often than in a face-to-face conversation because the phone is a different medium. The phone inhibits intimacy.</p>
<p>If the person begins to mentally drift away from you, hearing their name will reinvigorate their interest. The person can subliminally fall in love with you.</p>
<h2>How to Make Up for No Body Language With Your Voice</h2>
<p>Another difference you can take advantage of over the phone to enhance your relationships and make the person fall in love with you is countering the inability to communicate with body language. Our nonverbal communication is a large tower from where we broadcast strong signals. A simple message like “you&#8217;re funny” can be strengthened many times through body language. Some <a href="http://www.towerofpower.com.au/review-of-double-your-dating-by-david-deangelo" target="_blank">attraction experts</a> even claim body language alone is enough to make someone fall in love with you.</p>
<div class="pullqleft"><span class="pullqstart">&#8220;</span>Your voice is the only form of nonverbal communication over the phone which makes it a powerful medium of communication.<span class="pullqend">&#8221;</span></div>
<p>Your nonverbal communication helps others understand you. Without the visual option to see one another over the phone, yours and their inability to read body language can hurt understanding, connection, likability, and attraction. Your voice is the only form of nonverbal communication over the phone, making it a powerful medium of communication.</p>
<p>You can improve your phone skills despite the lack of connection built through body language by communicating extra energy through your voice. I estimate varying your vocal tonality and energy an extra 30%. If you are happy the person did something well, put an extra 30% of energy in your voice when saying, “That is awesome! Congratulations!” If you are sad, lose 30% of energy in your voice by saying, “I&#8217;m&#8230; I&#8217;m sorry to hear that&#8230;” The change of energy communicated through your vocalics establishes empathy to build a connection with your partner. The person will have a feeling of being next to you, which will enhance your relationship fast.</p>
<h2>Build Rapport</h2>
<div class="bonusboxleft">
<p class="bonusboxheading">Press Their Hot Buttons</p>
<p>There are certain personality traits we love. You can develop these hot buttons in your conversations over the phone:</p>
<ol>
<li><em>Humor</em> &#8211; Everyone loves a laugh. It helps to make the person laugh quickly to lock in a phone conversation with them.</li>
<li><em>Curiosity</em> &#8211; Be interested in a person&#8217;s life. If you find a conversation dying over the phone and you want to enliven it, ask a question to inject life back into the conversation then authentically listen with interest.</li>
<li><em>Positiveness</em> &#8211; Don&#8217;t bicker and complain over the phone. We hate whiners. Talk well of others and enjoy yourself to make rapport quicker.</li>
</ol>
</div>
<p>Rapport is being in sync with the person. It is the hidden key to make people feel connected to you. Establishing rapport ties in with mentioning the person&#8217;s name more often and compensating for a lack of body language via your voice because the two techniques build a connection that help the two of you get in sync.</p>
<p>Learning to build rapport over the phone is necessary if you want to build a strong relationship fast. Unfortunately, a complete guide to building rapport is far too complex to discuss in this article, yet the premise of it involves being like the person in as many ways as possible.</p>
<p>One particular characteristic of the person I highly advise you to match is their mood. Mood-matching helps you rapidly build a strong relationship and make someone fall in love with you.</p>
<p>To understand mood-matching, think back to a time when you were feeling unhappy and someone bounding with joy tried to cheer you up with their happiness. How did you feel afterwards? Most likely more annoyed! Their happiness did not relate to you because the two of you were at polarized emotional levels. The person was happy and you were sad.</p>
<p><!--adsense#articleright--></p>
<p>You can better relate to people and build this “connection” I have been talking about when the two of you are communicating similar moods to one another. Mood is one of many communication factors you can match when talking to someone over the phone.</p>
<p>Rapport is slightly more difficult to create over the phone than in person because body language cannot be comprehended. You can, however, try to compensate for this with a 30% extra variance of energy in your voice.</p>
<p>When you combine all these tips to build a strong relationship over the phone with the <a href="http://www.towerofpower.com.au/topic/attraction">ways to build attraction</a>, you have the phone skills to make someone fall in love with you! Even better, these phone techniques are not limited to intimate love. You can apply these skills to potential clients, family members, and those annoying customers. The phone breaks geographic boundaries, but now you can break emotional boundaries.</p>
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<h3>Other Articles That Might Help You</h3>
<ol>
		<li><a href="http://www.towerofpower.com.au/the-heart-of-effective-communication-how-to-love-people" rel="bookmark">The Heart of Effective Communication: How to Love People</a><!-- (13.0097)--></li>
		<li><a href="http://www.towerofpower.com.au/review-of-elite-social-control-by-hamilton-miller" rel="bookmark">Review of Elite Social Control by Hamilton Miller</a><!-- (6.24249)--></li>
		<li><a href="http://www.towerofpower.com.au/review-of-how-to-talk-to-anyone-by-leil-lowndes" rel="bookmark">Review of How to Talk to Anyone by Leil Lowndes</a><!-- (4.25366)--></li>
		<li><a href="http://www.towerofpower.com.au/review-of-frogs-into-princes-by-richard-bandler-and-john-grinder" rel="bookmark">Review of Frogs Into Princes by Richard Bandler and John Grinder</a><!-- (4.14945)--></li>
	</ol>

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		<slash:comments>2</slash:comments>
		</item>
		<item>
		<title>Review of How to Talk to Anyone by Leil Lowndes</title>
		<link>http://www.towerofpower.com.au/review-of-how-to-talk-to-anyone-by-leil-lowndes</link>
		<comments>http://www.towerofpower.com.au/review-of-how-to-talk-to-anyone-by-leil-lowndes#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Thu, 27 Nov 2008 22:30:18 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Joshua Uebergang aka &#34;Tower of Power&#34;</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Conversation Skills]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Reviews]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[body language]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[conversation starters]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[conversation topics]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Dale Carnegie]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[eye contact]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Leil Lowndes]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[posture]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[small talk]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[telephone skills]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.towerofpower.com.au/?p=94</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[This is a book review of Leil Lowndes&#8217; How to Talk to Anyone: 92 Little Tricks for Big Success in Relationships.
Author Leil Lowndes gives 92 tricks to become a better conversationalist and improve your social relationships. From body language tricks and words to say, to telephone techniques and social tactics, it&#8217;s all in Lowndes&#8217; How [...]]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><span class="dropcap">T</span>his is a book review of Leil Lowndes&#8217; <em>How to Talk to Anyone: 92 Little Tricks for Big Success in Relationships</em>.</p>
<p>Author Leil Lowndes gives 92 tricks to become a better conversationalist and improve your social relationships. From body language tricks and words to say, to telephone techniques and social tactics, it&#8217;s all in Lowndes&#8217; <em>How to Talk to Anyone</em>, an attention-grabbing book on human conversations.<span id="more-94"></span></p>
<p>The 92 tips are spread throughout the following 9 parts:</p>
<ol>
<li>How to intrigue everyone without saying a word: You only have ten seconds to show you&#8217;re a somebody</li>
<li>How to know what you say after “Hi”</li>
<li>How to talk like a VIP</li>
<li>How to be an insider in any crowd: What are they all talking about?</li>
<li>How to sound like you&#8217;re a peas in a pod: “Why, we&#8217;re just alike!”</li>
<li>How to differentiate the power of praise from the folly of flattery</li>
<li>How to direct dial their hearts</li>
<li>How to work a party like a politician works a room: The politician&#8217;s six-point party checklist</li>
<li>How to break the most treacherous glass ceiling of all: Sometimes people are tigers</li>
</ol>
<p>As you can tell from the nine parts above, the book is pretty irresistible. Of course, a few of the 92 tricks won&#8217;t revolutionize your life, but even if you are a great conversationalist, you are bound to discover a few techniques to throw in your communication bag of tricks. Little techniques like the “big baby pivot”, “little strokes”, and “swiveling spotlight” add up to make you a conversationalist who can talk to anyone. If you don&#8217;t know what to say in a conversation or you generally struggle to talk to strangers, <em>How to Talk to Anyone</em> is bound to save you from drowning in conversations.</p>
<p><!--adsense--></p>
<p>Part four titled “How to be an insider in any crowd” was the best part of the book for me. Some great tips were given on the topic of how to dial up a stranger&#8217;s hot buttons by talking about their topics of interest (Hint: It&#8217;s not asking them what they&#8217;re into). The advice is strongly applicable for all types of conversations. Whether talking to a celebrity or a stranger of the opposite sex, the gems shared in this part will be your go-to guide.</p>
<p>In each tip, Lowndes shares a story of her own or a friend&#8217;s story to demonstrate how the tip can be applied in real conversations. This makes the book a quick and practical read. The gray box at the end of each tip summarizes what you need to know and makes for a quick reviser to easily remember the flood of tips given to you. When combined with her amazing ability to write in an interesting manner – as she paints images in your mind with picturesque words – Lowndes will have you finish the book in no time and talking to anyone. I&#8217;ve been in contact with Leil after reading the book and she is as nice in person as her beautiful writing style.</p>
<p><em>How to Talk to Anyone</em> is really a conversation skills book and not a relationship skills book. The relationship aspect of this book is about having the skills to initiate and keep a conversation going so you can start a relationship. There is, however, some good tips for maintaining strong relationships that can also be applied to improving your conversations.</p>
<p>To begin improving your conversation skills with 92 killer tips and never be left in the cold during a conversation, get your copy of <em>How to Talk to Anyone</em> from Amazon right now by <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/redirect.html?ie=UTF8&#038;location=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.amazon.com%2FHow-Talk-Anyone-Success-Relationships%2Fdp%2F007141858X&#038;tag=toptop-20&#038;linkCode=ur2&#038;camp=1789&#038;creative=9325" target="_blank">clicking here</a> today.</p>
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<h3>Other Articles That Might Help You</h3>
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		<li><a href="http://www.towerofpower.com.au/review-of-elite-social-control-by-hamilton-miller" rel="bookmark">Review of Elite Social Control by Hamilton Miller</a><!-- (9.78242)--></li>
		<li><a href="http://www.towerofpower.com.au/review-of-conversationally-speaking-by-alan-garner" rel="bookmark">Review of Conversationally Speaking by Alan Garner</a><!-- (7.49756)--></li>
		<li><a href="http://www.towerofpower.com.au/review-of-how-to-win-friends-and-influence-people-by-dale-carnegie" rel="bookmark">Review of How to Win Friends and Influence People by Dale Carnegie</a><!-- (6.17947)--></li>
		<li><a href="http://www.towerofpower.com.au/review-of-comedy-writing-secrets-by-mel-helitzer" rel="bookmark">Review of Comedy Writing Secrets by Mel Helitzer</a><!-- (5.82519)--></li>
		<li><a href="http://www.towerofpower.com.au/review-of-fierce-conversations-by-susan-scott" rel="bookmark">Review of Fierce Conversations by Susan Scott</a><!-- (5.1067)--></li>
	</ol>

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		<title>Review of Comedy Writing Secrets by Mel Helitzer</title>
		<link>http://www.towerofpower.com.au/review-of-comedy-writing-secrets-by-mel-helitzer</link>
		<comments>http://www.towerofpower.com.au/review-of-comedy-writing-secrets-by-mel-helitzer#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Tue, 25 Nov 2008 02:13:27 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Joshua Uebergang aka &#34;Tower of Power&#34;</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Conversation Skills]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Public Speaking]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Reviews]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[comedy]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[funny]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[humor]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[joke]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Mel Helitzer]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[presentation]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[writing skills]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[writing speech]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.towerofpower.com.au/?p=87</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[This is a book review of Mel Helitzer&#8217;s Comedy Writing Secrets: The Best-Selling Book on How to Think Funny, Write Funny, Act Funny, and Get Paid for It.
Mel Helitzer is a professor at the Ohio University in Athens, Ohio. Though a humorous professor seems to be an oxymoron, he has been described as the “funniest [...]]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><span class="dropcap">T</span>his is a book review of Mel Helitzer&#8217;s <em>Comedy Writing Secrets: The Best-Selling Book on How to Think Funny, Write Funny, Act Funny, and Get Paid for It</em>.</p>
<p>Mel Helitzer is a professor at the Ohio University in Athens, Ohio. Though a humorous professor seems to be an oxymoron, he has been described as the “funniest professor in the country” by <em>Rolling Stone</em> magazine. After reading this great book, I can see why because I found myself laughing on many occasions. The material he teaches works!<span id="more-87"></span></p>
<p>I purchased this book because I had heard great things about it and I wanted to be able to teach others how they can be more humorous in conversations. The book&#8217;s title doesn&#8217;t do it justice as it isn&#8217;t just good for writing funny. It&#8217;s also a good door stop. (Okay, I&#8217;ll have to work on my understatements in humor.) It is a great book to become a funnier person. If you&#8217;d like to be able to write a few funny jokes for your speeches, have funny conversations, cheer up your spouse, or make your team at work laugh, then you&#8217;re bound to find this book a great read.</p>
<p><!--adsense--></p>
<p>Some people will be skeptical of this book and any book that teaches people to be funny. These people say things like, “You can&#8217;t teach people to be funny” and “You&#8217;re either naturally funny or not”. If humor can&#8217;t be learned, it would be impossible for comedians to improve their acts as they wouldn&#8217;t be able to become funnier. Humor is a communication skill that can be learned like any other. It is also valuable like any other.</p>
<p><em>Comedy Writing Secrets</em> starts off by addressing these issues people have with comedy and humor in the first section plus a few other issues commonly related to humor, like uncovering why we laugh. The reader is given many techniques in the second section to be funny like understatements, exaggerations, play on words, paired elements, triples, and realism to name a few. The third and last section deals with creating humor for specific situations like speeches, cartoons, cards, salesperson, radio, television, newspaper columns, sitcoms, and stand-up comedy. People not interested in comedy writing can skip the third section of the book. The meat and potatoes of learning how to be funny is in the powerful second section.</p>
<p>It is said to be the number one book on learning to write funny so it is a quality book that primarily deals with content. There a few tips on how to deliver humor, such as not giving away the surprise part of your joke away with your body language and using silence to build tension, but the book is mostly about constructing the right words to be funny.</p>
<p>The book is filled with hundreds and hundreds of classic examples from comedians like Woody Allen, Bill Cosby, and Chris Rock, plus many lesser known persons. The examples are well fitted with techniques described by the author so you&#8217;re sure to clearly understand why humor works while getting plenty of laughs.</p>
<div class="pullqright"><span class="pullqstart">&#8220;</span>&#8230;you&#8217;re sure to clearly understand why humor works while getting plenty of laughs.<span class="pullqend">&#8221;</span></div>
<p>The power behind this book is in the exercises you do at the end of each chapter. The exercises provide a step-by-step guide to write funny jokes. If you do the given exercises, which can take anywhere from 1 to 30 minutes per exercise, I can nearly guarantee you will be developing your own original jokes. Keep in mind that the book isn&#8217;t just about developing jokes, but learning how to construct humor so you become more natural at it. Once you do the exercises, you&#8217;ll find yourself naturally using the techniques in conversations.</p>
<p>For your laughter, or lack of it, here&#8217;s one I made myself in an exercise from an early chapter:</p>
<blockquote><p>My wife always complains about the two of us not having luxurious meals. We sit down at the dinner table and she&#8217;ll nag me about wanting to have a nice meal in a restaurant. One angry night she told me, “Come on! Take me out!” I finally had enough of her nagging so I agreed and took her out&#8230; with a shotgun.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>It ain&#8217;t the best joke, but like all humor, some people will find it hilarious while others will think it&#8217;s stupid. I never made up a joke before and can&#8217;t even remember more than 10 jokes. If I could do it with the step-by-step exercises, so can you.</p>
<p>Overall, I was impressed by the book. This is my first book I&#8217;ve read on becoming funny as I&#8217;ve always naturally been a funny person (humor must be the only communication skill I&#8217;m naturally good at!), but now I understand why things are funny and how to be funnier. It is a great book that I recommend you get if you&#8217;d like to have a laugh, feel good, and become a funnier person. You can grab your copy of <em>Comedy Writing Secrets</em> from Amazon by <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/redirect.html?ie=UTF8&#038;location=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.amazon.com%2FComedy-Writing-Secrets-2nd-Best-Selling%2Fdp%2F1582973571&#038;tag=toptop-20&#038;linkCode=ur2&#038;camp=1789&#038;creative=9325" target="_blank">clicking here</a> today.</p>
<p>(If you want to be funnier around friends and in general conversations with people, get my <em><a href="http://www.towerofpower.com.au/bigtalk/" target="_blank">Big Talk</a></em> program then once you download the course, you&#8217;ll have a rare one-time opportunity unavailable anywhere else to download a report that&#8217;ll show you how to make people laugh without telling jokes or being a clown.)</p>
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<h3>Other Articles That Might Help You</h3>
<ol>
		<li><a href="http://www.towerofpower.com.au/review-of-the-quick-and-easy-way-to-effective-speaking-by-dale-carnegie" rel="bookmark">Review of The Quick and Easy Way to Effective Speaking by Dale Carnegie</a><!-- (8.47036)--></li>
		<li><a href="http://www.towerofpower.com.au/review-of-made-to-stick-by-chip-heath-and-dan-heath" rel="bookmark">Review of Made to Stick by Chip Heath and Dan Heath</a><!-- (6.80682)--></li>
		<li><a href="http://www.towerofpower.com.au/review-of-how-to-talk-to-anyone-by-leil-lowndes" rel="bookmark">Review of How to Talk to Anyone by Leil Lowndes</a><!-- (6.39337)--></li>
		<li><a href="http://www.towerofpower.com.au/review-of-elite-social-control-by-hamilton-miller" rel="bookmark">Review of Elite Social Control by Hamilton Miller</a><!-- (5.42575)--></li>
		<li><a href="http://www.towerofpower.com.au/review-of-conversationally-speaking-by-alan-garner" rel="bookmark">Review of Conversationally Speaking by Alan Garner</a><!-- (5.36823)--></li>
	</ol>

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		<title>How to Start and Keep a Conversation Going with a Guy</title>
		<link>http://www.towerofpower.com.au/how-to-start-and-keep-a-conversation-going-with-a-guy</link>
		<comments>http://www.towerofpower.com.au/how-to-start-and-keep-a-conversation-going-with-a-guy#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Mon, 13 Oct 2008 06:22:06 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Joshua Uebergang aka &#34;Tower of Power&#34;</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Attraction]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Confidence and Fear]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Conversation Skills]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[anxiety]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[conversation going]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[conversation starters]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[conversation topics]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[fear]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[girl]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[guy]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[inner game]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[positive thinking]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[questioning]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[reframing]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[small talk]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[William James]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.towerofpower.com.au/?p=48</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[It can be tough enough starting a conversation with someone you don&#8217;t know, yet alone trying to start a conversation with someone you think is attractive! You are confused with what to say. You wonder if he likes you. You want to know how to make him like you. You are anxious! All this is [...]]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><span class="dropcap">I</span>t can be tough enough starting a conversation with someone you don&#8217;t know, yet alone trying to start a conversation with someone you think is attractive! You are confused with what to say. You wonder if he likes you. You want to know how to make him like you. You are anxious! All this is only the <em>first</em> challenge!</p>
<p>If you are woman wanting to start a conversation with an interesting guy, whether it is online through things like MSN, Facebook, and Myspace or face-to-face or text, you must work through two primary challenges or steps. The first step is to overcome your fears, anxiety, and other “inner game” problems. Even if you think you are confident – because you are reading this article wanting to know how to start a conversation with a guy – that tells me you need to solve inner game problems rather than have me write you a few magical lines to use on a guy you like. The second step defines what you say and how you say it. Let&#8217;s look into these two steps throughout the article.<span id="more-48"></span></p>
<p><!--adsense--></p>
<h2>Why Friends are Easy to Talk With</h2>
<p>Why do you find it easy to talk with friends, but you do not know what to say to a guy you like? The answer is: you know your friends. This makes it easy to talk about a lot of things, which proves the point I want to make: you are able to talk to your friends because you do not feel vulnerable to them. You can talk to your friends because you are unconcerned about their <a href="http://www.towerofpower.com.au/how-to-start-a-conversation-with-a-guy">judgments of you</a>. This opens a floodgate of conversational topics that are suppressed when you try to start a conversation with a guy.</p>
<p>Contrast talking with your friends to talking with a guy you like. When you try to start a conversation with a guy, you can talk about a million subjects, but you say nothing because you worry about him liking you, saying the wrong thing, or making a fool of yourself. Your negative thinking chokes your ability to converse until the conversation dies. You don&#8217;t think like this around friends. It is important to sort out these inner game issues that prevent you from starting a conversation so you can become a confident woman that <a href="http://www.towerofpower.com.au/topic/attraction">naturally attracts men</a>.</p>
<p>Let&#8217;s say a girl comes across a guy at a shopping center she wants to get to know. She tries her best to think of something to start the conversation, but her mind is blank. She has inner voices telling her negative things such as, “You can&#8217;t do this”, “He won&#8217;t even like you”, and “You&#8217;ll just make yourself look bad and embarrass yourself”. The lady has already lost her inner game. She is not going to start a conversation with destructive thinking.</p>
<p>Her mind isn&#8217;t really blank, however; her destructive pattern of thinking gives her the mind blank. When you suffocate your mind with destructive thinking, you cannot start a good conversation. Winning on the outside starts with winning on the inside. Before you win in the conversation by starting a good conversation, get your inner game into shape. Do not worry what to say when you cannot even speak.</p>
<div class="pullqright"><span class="pullqstart">&#8220;</span>Do not worry what to say when you cannot even speak.<span class="pullqend">&#8221;</span></div>
<p>I am going to hone in on how girls can start a conversation with a guy by firstly looking more into your inner game, then we will look into techniques that you can use to start a conversation with a guy. Moreover, these are fundamental conversational rules that can be used for anyone in various situations – they are not limited to girls starting conversations with guys.</p>
<h2>Reframing Your Mind</h2>
<p>The first path you need to hop on to improve your inner game is boosting self-awareness. Be self-aware of your inner dialog, the language in your mind. I know it is easier said than done so I&#8217;m going to teach you one of the most powerful personal development techniques to fight limiting thoughts.</p>
<p>Motivational speaker Wayne Dyer uses the phrase “no limit thinking” to release people from self-limiting beliefs. These beliefs empower or disempower us from anything we do. William James, a 19th century psychologist that pioneered American psychology, said:</p>
<blockquote><p>“The world we see that seems so insane is the result of a belief system that is not working. To perceive the world differently, we must be willing to change our belief system, let the past slip away, expand our sense of now, and dissolve the fear in our minds.”</p>
</blockquote>
<p>You must release yourself from these beliefs to confidently start and maintain a conversation. Be a no limit thinker. Remove the limits you have placed on yourself by using a technique called “reframing”.</p>
<p>Reframing is not a difficult technique. It has you change your interpretation of a situation. Your aim with reframing is to create thoughts congruent with your goals and repeatedly affirm these thoughts to yourself. The better you get at adopting a “no limit thinking” approach, your confidence improves as does your ability to talk with people.</p>
<p>The girl at the shopping center would use the reframing technique by repositioning her current negative thoughts to positive ones about having a great conversation with the guy. Below are some negative thoughts the girl in our example is trying to overcome and to the right of each limiting thought is a good reframe the girl could use:</p>
<table cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" style="margin-bottom:20px">
<tr>
<td style="font-weight:bold; text-align:left; vertical-align:top; border-top:1px solid; padding:2px">Negative Thought</td>
<td style="font-weight:bold; text-align:left; border-left:1px solid; border-top:1px solid; padding:2px">Positive Thought Using the Reframing Technique</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td style="text-align:left; vertical-align:top; border-top:1px solid; padding:2px">&#8220;I&#8217;m nervous.&#8221;</td>
<td style="text-align:left; border-top:1px solid; border-left:1px solid; padding:2px">&#8220;I&#8217;m nervous because I care about the situation.&#8221;</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td style="text-align:left; vertical-align:top; border-top:1px solid; padding:2px">&#8220;I won&#8217;t start the conversation well.&#8221;</td>
<td style="text-align:left; border-top:1px solid; border-left:1px solid; padding:2px">&#8220;I will start the conversation well as I can do with my other friends and other people.&#8221;</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td style="text-align:left; vertical-align:top; border-top:1px solid; padding:2px">&#8220;I&#8217;m afraid.&#8221;</td>
<td style=" text-align:left; border-top:1px solid; border-left:1px solid; padding:2px">&#8220;I wasn&#8217;t afraid last week when talking to a new guy so I don&#8217;t have to be afraid now.&#8221;</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td style="text-align:left; vertical-align:top; border-top:1px solid; padding:2px">&#8220;He is so amazing and too good for me.&#8221;</td>
<td style="text-align:left; border-top:1px solid; border-left:1px solid; padding:2px">&#8220;He farts, burps, and itches himself like any other human.&#8221; <img src='http://www.towerofpower.com.au/wp-includes/images/smilies/icon_biggrin.gif' alt=':D' class='wp-smiley' /> </td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td style="text-align:left; vertical-align:top; border-top:1px solid; border-bottom:1px solid; padding:2px">&#8220;He won&#8217;t like me.&#8221;</td>
<td style="text-align:left; border-top:1px solid; border-left:1px solid; border-bottom:1px solid; padding:2px">&#8220;I don&#8217;t care if he won&#8217;t like me because I&#8217;m the prize. He is the one losing.&#8221;</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td style="text-align:left; vertical-align:top; border-bottom:1px solid; padding:2px">&#8220;I don&#8217;t have anything to talk about.&#8221;</td>
<td style="text-align:left; border-left:1px solid; border-bottom:1px solid; padding:2px">&#8220;I have thousands of thoughts that can be used to start a conversation.&#8221;</td>
</tr>
</table>
<p>Can you see how easy and powerful it is to overcome the limits you place on yourself? Reframing is an amazing technique. It may take a minute or two to come up with a positive interpretation of the situation, but with practice you&#8217;ll become faster and better at it. It can be used in almost any situation to <a href="http://www.towerofpower.com.au/topic/confidence-and-fear">boost your confidence</a>, <a href="http://www.towerofpower.com.au/topic/happiness">improve your happiness</a>, and <a href="http://www.towerofpower.com.au/topic/success">help you succeed</a>.</p>
<div class="pullqleft"><span class="pullqstart">&#8220;</span>The better you get at adopting a &#8216;no limit thinking&#8217; approach, your confidence improves as does your ability to talk with people.<span class="pullqend">&#8221;</span></div>
<p>Now that you have fought off your doubts, fears, anxieties, and uncertainties about having a conversation with the guy, you can approach him and start a conversation. I&#8217;ve found that once people improve their inner game with the reframing technique, the second part of this article that provides conversation starters naturally happen. People can start a conversation easily because they reframe the situation, which makes them feel confident and able to talk about anything. Nonetheless, I will share effective techniques and conversation starters below. The reframing technique frees your mind to start conversations, but it is reassuring to have techniques you can rely on to start a conversation.</p>
<h2>Situational Starter</h2>
<p>To use the situational starter technique, all you do is notice your surroundings. Preferably make it something the other person is aware of or would be aware of once you use it.</p>
<p>In the shopping scenario, the girl could talk about things like the hastiness of shoppers or the weather&#8230; Wait. I hear you say this technique sucks. Talking about the weather is the simplest and worst use of the situational technique. It is boring and too common. Both examples would probably be ineffective in the shopping situation, but they can work when delivered by <a href="http://www.towerofpower.com.au/topic/nonverbal-communication">powerful nonverbal communication</a>. </p>
<p>I encourage you to be more creative with situational starters. To make better use of this technique, use more in-depth situational influences for effective conversational starters. These rely on your creativity and involve discussions on unusual things about the situation. Your conversations will be more fun once you follow this advice.</p>
<p>I will give you some examples of good situational starters the girl in our shopping example could use to start a conversation with a guy she likes. The girl could ask the guy how to locate a specific store or item; she could ask him where he got his hat because she would like to buy one for her brother; given the guy looks about 20 years-old, she could ask him for his opinion on whether her 20 year-old guy friend would like an item she thinks this guy has an interest in. This last conversation starter is more of an opinion opener, another good technique to start conversations, yet it still involves reading the situation. Use the situational starter or an opinion opener with creativity, and you have all you need to start a conversation.</p>
<h2>What to Talk About</h2>
<p>Once you have started the conversation, the biggest difficulty is overcome. The conversation gets easier with time, but you still need to keep the conversation going. Starting a conversation means nothing if it stops dead. You have overcome your inner game issues, you have approached and started a conversation with him, but if you do not keep the conversation going you are in trouble. I will list some techniques and tips you can use to keep a conversation flowing nicely with a guy, but browse the <a href="http://www.towerofpower.com.au/topic/conversational-skills">conversation skills</a> section for more great tips.</p>
<p>What should you talk about? One thing you must not talk about is a boring topic. Do not, and I repeat, do not bore your conversational partner to death. You can avoid boredom by avoiding normal conversational topics such as the weather. Talk about passions, interests, conspiracies, and relationships. It is pretty simple to avoid boredom by talking about topics that have emotion! Talk about topics each of you are emotionally involved in to create an emotional link the two of you will remember.</p>
<p>If you don&#8217;t know an interesting topic, let the person be the topic. Myself and other guys love to talk about themselves. It&#8217;s only natural to talk about yourself because it&#8217;s the easiest topic to talk about. You can harness and leverage this with the guy by asking good open-ended questions.</p>
<p>An open-ended question is a type of question that takes more than a few words to answer. Examples of open-ended questions include: “What do you think about&#8230;?” “What&#8217;s something interesting you got up to last week?” and “Why do you enjoy&#8230;?”</p>
<div class="pullqright"><span class="pullqstart">&#8220;</span>It&#8217;s only natural to talk about yourself because it&#8217;s the easiest topic to talk about.<span class="pullqend">&#8221;</span></div>
<p>In the shopping scenario, let&#8217;s say the girl started the conversation by asking the guy, “Excuse me. I&#8217;m after a basketball for my brother. I thought you&#8217;d know a bit about it and was wondering what advice you could give me?” The girl would listen attentively using positive body language and show other forms of interest in the guy&#8217;s answer. If he doesn&#8217;t know much about basketballs, it does not matter. She could then keep the conversation going by asking him, “What things are you interested in then?” What matters is she has broken the ice and started a conversation.</p>
<p>She can increase her chances of keeping the conversation going by asking for his advice on an item she thinks interests him. Again, this uses the opinion technique and is valuable to make someone talk to you. She can guess what he is interested in by looking at his clothes, his friends, what he is currently doing, or anything else that is noticeable. The girl can ask him for his advice on buying a basketball because he is wearing a basketball jersey. She can keep a conversation going by observing the guy, listening carefully, and being a good “detective” snooping around for information.</p>
<h2>How to Keep a Conversation Going with “Branches”</h2>
<div class="bonusboxleft">
<p class="bonusboxheading">Bonus Tips to Make Great Conversation</p>
<p>Follow these extra tips to have great conversations, which makes guys and women like you more:</p>
<ol>
<li>Ask more questions</li>
<li>Look people in the eye</li>
<li>Smile</li>
<li>Talk about mutual interests</li>
<li>Compliments boost a person&#8217;s self-esteem and the conversation</li>
</ol>
</div>
<p>Once she asks for his advice and listens attentively, she can keep the conversation going by building onto what I call “branches” that grow from a conversation. Branches are more in-depth discussions about the topic, or even another topic, by listening carefully to what is discussed. There are literally thousands of branches to a statement like, “I enjoy shopping with my friends.” Branches from this could be shopping experiences, stories related to shopping, and why you&#8217;re currently shopping.</p>
<p>The girl&#8217;s question of, “What things are you interested in then?” is one example of a branch. Another example of branching the girl in our shopping example could use, which continues from the guy&#8217;s reply to her question about basketballs, is: “Thanks. You do know a lot about basketball. How did you get all this knowledge?” She can build a conversation about the item and branch out into related topics she thinks the guy is interested in depending on his energy when speaking on the topic.</p>
<h2>What If You Fail and Get Rejected?</h2>
<p>If you do make a mistake and stuff up the conversation with a guy you like, do not worry. Use the reframing technique by saying things to yourself like, “I stuffed up and am now smarter for next time” or “I don&#8217;t care. I&#8217;m the prize.” Failure is just another step towards your success of effortlessly starting and continuing conversations. With enough practice, you will achieve conversation mastery.</p>
<p>From this article you have improved your inner game, you know how to start a good conversation, and you know how to keep an exciting conversation going. All that is left for you to do is put the techniques to use when you find yourself wanting to start a conversation with a guy you want to meet. Let me know how it goes for you!</p>
<p>Lastly, if you want to learn more about how you can become a more confident, mature, attractive lady that naturally attracts men, there is one online resource I recommend you learn more about: <a href="http://www.towerofpower.com.au/review-of-catch-him-and-keep-him-by-christian-carter">Catch Him and Keep Him</a>. <em>Catch Him and Keep Him</em> is an ebook by Christian Carter to help you become a better woman so you can find and keep Mr Right. <a href="http://www.towerofpower.com.au/review-of-catch-him-and-keep-him-by-christian-carter">Click here</a> to learn more about it.</p>
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<h3>Other Articles That Might Help You</h3>
<ol>
		<li><a href="http://www.towerofpower.com.au/how-to-not-care-what-people-are-thinking-about-you" rel="bookmark">How to Not Care What People Are Thinking About You &#8211; and Release Your People-Magnetic Self Into the Conversation</a><!-- (14.738)--></li>
		<li><a href="http://www.towerofpower.com.au/review-of-how-to-talk-to-anyone-by-leil-lowndes" rel="bookmark">Review of How to Talk to Anyone by Leil Lowndes</a><!-- (4.47273)--></li>
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	</ol>

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		<title>Why Smart People Have Poor Communication Skills &#8211; and What to Do About It</title>
		<link>http://www.towerofpower.com.au/why-smart-people-have-poor-communication-skills-and-what-to-do-about-it</link>
		<comments>http://www.towerofpower.com.au/why-smart-people-have-poor-communication-skills-and-what-to-do-about-it#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Sat, 11 Oct 2008 06:59:21 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Joshua Uebergang aka &#34;Tower of Power&#34;</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Attraction]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Confidence and Fear]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Conversation Skills]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Emotional Intelligence]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[approach anxiety]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Daniel Goleman]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[David DeAngelo]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[ego]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[emotion versus logic]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[emotions]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[genius-failure paradox]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Howard Gardner]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[inferiority complex]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[IQ]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Malcolm Gladwell]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Power of Now]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[rapport]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[soft skills]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[superiority]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.towerofpower.com.au/?p=45</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[On October 23, 1990, David Pologruto, a high school physics teacher, was stabbed by his smart student Jason Haffizulla. Jason was not a teenager you think would try to kill someone. He got straight A&#8217;s and was determined to study medicine at Harvard, yet this was his downfall. His physics teacher gave Jason a B, [...]]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><span class="dropcap">O</span>n October 23, 1990, David Pologruto, a high school physics teacher, was stabbed by his smart student Jason Haffizulla. Jason was not a teenager you think would try to kill someone. He got straight A&#8217;s and was determined to study medicine at Harvard, yet this was his downfall. His physics teacher gave Jason a B, a mark Jason believed would undermine his entrance to Harvard. After receiving his B, Jason took a butcher knife to school and stabbed his physics teacher before being reprimanded in a struggle.</p>
<p>Two years following the incident in a <em>New York Times</em> <a href="http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9E0CE4DD1031F930A15755C0A964958260" target="_blank">article covering this story</a>, it was reported that Jason raised his grade average to 4.614, which exceeds the perfect average of 4, by taking advanced courses. He graduated with highest honors.</p>
<p>How can someone as smart as Jason do something so dumb? Jason received above perfect grades and still emotionally lost himself by trying to severely wound his teacher. The answer? <em>Smart can be dumb</em>. Smart is not communication-dumb because studies show there is little or no correlation between IQ and emotional intelligence, but in this article we&#8217;ll look at how logical intelligence can hurt a person&#8217;s emotional life.</p>
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<p>This article may generate controversy, but I feel I give a balanced discussion in sharing my experience, knowledge, and getting you to think deeply about the topic. Whether you are intelligent, “mentally-challenged”, or curious about this topic in understanding those smart people in your life, I am sure you will get a lot of useful advice from this article.<span id="more-45"></span></p>
<p>Being a somewhat smart guy myself, it is painful to hear that intelligence – such a useful characteristic to possess – may be harmful. It is tough to imagine a quality highly praised by society is detrimental to communication. For this reason, take a deep breathe now, relax, and open your mind to the possibilities of bettering your communication to improve your life.</p>
<p>During my early university years, I regarded myself as an intelligent guy. I was no Einstein, but I got good marks in Mathematics, Physics, and other technical subjects. This lead me to start a degree in Engineering, majoring in Mechatronics, an area of study that integrates mechanics, electronics, and computing. I would be able to design robotics and cybernetic systems – the wave of the future. I thought such skills would surely give me an edge in life.</p>
<p>After one year of study with decent marks, I began to see two major classes of students. The first category of student turned up to few lectures, partied every weekend, enjoyed a great social life, and did minimal work to pass courses. The second category of students were intelligent, hard workers, got good grades, and were very focused on their studies. Surely these intelligent and hard-working students would fill the great jobs before the other, more lazier, class of student?</p>
<p>Not so. Students are often shocked upon graduation that their qualifications are not as important as they once thought. In school, students are lead to believe their academic knowledge is the primary determinat of a great job and success. Howard Gardner in <em><a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/redirect.html?ie=UTF8&#038;location=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.amazon.ca%2FFrames-Mind-Theory-Multiple-Intelligences%2Fdp%2F0465025102&#038;tag=toptop-20&#038;linkCode=ur2&#038;camp=1789&#038;creative=9325" target="_blank">Frames of Mind: The Theory of Multiple Intelligences</a></em> defines various types of intelligence and emphasizes that schools are too focused on logic and linguistic intelligence. Robert Kiyosaki in <em><a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/redirect.html?ie=UTF8&#038;location=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.amazon.com%2FRich-Dad-Poor-Money-That-Middle%2Fdp%2F0446677450&#038;tag=toptop-20&#038;linkCode=ur2&#038;camp=1789&#038;creative=9325" target="_blank">Rich Dad, Poor Dad</a></em> is a more famous author that demotes the common belief that the government&#8217;s education system leads students to wealth and success. Malcom Gladwell&#8217;s <em><a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/redirect.html?ie=UTF8&#038;location=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.amazon.com%2FOutliers-Story-Success-Malcolm-Gladwell%2Fdp%2F0316017922&#038;tag=toptop-20&#038;linkCode=ur2&#038;camp=1789&#038;creative=9325"  target="_blank">Outliers</a></em> contains further proof that IQ has very little correlation with achievement.</p>
<p>Graduates enter the workforce only to realize that co-workers hate them, less intelligent people are the ones receiving promotions, and sucking up to the boss doesn&#8217;t help their personal earnings. The students have the “hard skills” such as technical know-how, but they lack the “soft skills” such as conflict management and other human relational skills. The transition for intelligent people from being goal-oriented to process and people-oriented is usually realized through the hard school of knocks, experience.</p>
<div class="pullqright"><span class="pullqstart">&#8220;</span>It&#8217;s not that people dislike you because of your intelligence; it&#8217;s that people dislike you because you&#8217;re rude, not understanding, or annoying to be around.<span class="pullqend">&#8221;</span></div>
<p>If you have experience in hiring people, you know the importance of people skills. Educational skills are useless in some industries when people skills are absent. You can have great ideas, theories, and solve complex problems, but if you cannot effectively communicate that material in a persuasive and exciting manner by relating to your fellow human, you face an uphill battle in whatever challenges you encounter. It&#8217;s not that people dislike you because of your intelligence; it&#8217;s that people dislike you because you&#8217;re rude, not understanding, or annoying to be around. The intelligent person with poor communication skills is insensitive or unaware of other&#8217;s emotions.</p>
<p>Hopefully I can reveal the elusive obvious to you in this little exercise. I want you to think back to primary school or high school. Perhaps even college. Select the most memorable class to you.</p>
<p>I want you to categorize, and roughly rank, class members based on two sets of criteria: intelligence and popularity. You don&#8217;t need to go through every class member, but recall those at the end of each spectrum. That is, remember the smartest few in the class and the most popular few in the class. On a scale of one to ten, with ten being the highest, give a person a rank of ten in intelligence if you feel they were the most intelligent in the class. For the students who had lots of friends, give them a ten in the popularity category. Try to categorize roughly six students. If you have problems remembering, quickly write the ranks down on paper.</p>
<p>Now, with the students you have ranked in one category, I want you to rank them in the other category. So if you have ranked the smartest student as a ten in the intelligence category, give the person a rank you feel is appropriate in the popularity category. Do the same for the students you ranked in the popularity category.</p>
<p>Now that you have got several people in each of the two categories, think about the difference between each student. The purpose of doing this exercise is to help you see the contrast between intelligence and people skills.</p>
<h2>Genius-Failure Paradox</h2>
<p>Chances are if you are like most people and myself, you would have noticed something distinguishable from the exercise. Those who were smartest in the class were generally not very popular due to poor social skills. (I know there are other measurements of communication than only popularity). They did not have good people skills. Presumptuous? Likely, no.</p>
<div class="pullqleft"><span class="pullqstart">&#8220;</span>Smarter, wealthier, or generally people who have feelings of superiority, refuse to seek help in dealing with people.<span class="pullqend">&#8221;</span></div>
<p>All intelligent people do not have poor people skills nor does all unintelligent people have good people skills. I know people will say, “But I know someone who is smart and great with people.” Good. So do I. Intelligence and people skills are not mutually exclusive characteristics! Having one does not mean you cannot have the other.</p>
<p><!--adsense#articleright--></p>
<p>What I&#8217;m proposing, which has been touched on and backed by a couple of authors and teachers, is that academically intelligent people fail in predictable areas of their lives – and they don&#8217;t want to solve the dilemma. The <em>genius-failure paradox</em> describes that people who must feel smarter, wealthier – or generally superior – to others refuse to seek help in dealing with people. (You can read more about <a href="http://www.towerofpower.com.au/inferiority-complex-and-the-self-image">superiority, inferiority, and the self-image</a>.) </p>
<p>It is nothing new to say that intelligence does not equal success. Daniel Goleman in his book <em><a href="http://www.towerofpower.com.au/review-of-emotional-intelligence-by-daniel-goleman">Emotional Intelligence</a></em>, says that IQ is too narrow to predicate success. The implications of emotional intelligence, which is summarized as an understanding of your emotions and the emotions of other people, are profound in communication and many areas of life. “Emotional Intelligence is a master aptitude, a capacity that profoundly affects all other abilities,” says Goleman, “either facilitating or interfering with them.”</p>
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<h3>Other Articles That Might Help You</h3>
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		<li><a href="http://www.towerofpower.com.au/the-benefits-of-communication-skills" rel="bookmark">The Benefits of Communication Skills</a><!-- (17.3537)--></li>
		<li><a href="http://www.towerofpower.com.au/why-people-remain-quiet-shy-and-non-assertive-the-benefits-of-passive-behavior-and-communication" rel="bookmark">Why People Remain Quiet, Shy, and Non-Assertive: The Benefits of Passive Behavior and Communication</a><!-- (13.7841)--></li>
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		<title>Review of How to Win Friends and Influence People by Dale Carnegie</title>
		<link>http://www.towerofpower.com.au/review-of-how-to-win-friends-and-influence-people-by-dale-carnegie</link>
		<comments>http://www.towerofpower.com.au/review-of-how-to-win-friends-and-influence-people-by-dale-carnegie#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Thu, 09 Oct 2008 07:33:04 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Joshua Uebergang aka &#34;Tower of Power&#34;</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Conversation Skills]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Emotional Intelligence]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Negotiation]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Reviews]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[compliment]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[criticism]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Dale Carnegie]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[How to Win Friends and Influence People]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Napoleon Hill]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[questioning]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[review]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[smile]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Think and Grow Rich]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.towerofpower.com.au/?p=41</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[This is a book review of Dale Carnegie&#8217;s all time international classic How to Win Friends and Influence People. It is a large review with the occasional diversion from the topic because I feel it is appropriate for this classic book.
The original version of this book was written in 1937 with 5,000 copies available. Word [...]]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><span class="dropcap">T</span>his is a book review of Dale Carnegie&#8217;s all time international classic <em>How to Win Friends and Influence People</em>. It is a large review with the occasional diversion from the topic because I feel it is appropriate for this classic book.</p>
<p>The original version of this book was written in 1937 with 5,000 copies available. Word then quickly began to spread the globe about the value contained within the book with over 16 million copies now in print.<span id="more-41"></span> Business owners, salespersons, and generally people who are interested in better relating to their fellow human being, have constantly referred to <em>How to Win Friends and Influence People</em> over the years as the best book you can read on the subject.</p>
<p><!--adsense--></p>
<h2>Classic Literature</h2>
<p>In every subject there are usually one or two books people categorize as &#8220;must-read&#8221; if you are to succeed in the subject. In the wealth world there is Napoleon Hill&#8217;s <em><a href="http://www.towerofpower.com.au/review-of-think-and-grow-rich-by-napoleon-hill">Think and Grow Rich</a></em> and Wallace Wattles&#8217; <em><a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/redirect.html?ie=UTF8&#038;location=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.amazon.com%2FScience-Getting-Rich-Wallace-Wattles%2Fdp%2F1582701881&#038;tag=toptop-20&#038;linkCode=ur2&#038;camp=1789&#038;creative=9325" target="_blank">The Science of Getting Rich</a></em>. In the advertising world there is Claude Hopkins&#8217; <em><a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/redirect.html?ie=UTF8&#038;location=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.amazon.com%2FScientific-Advertising-Claude-C-Hopkins%2Fdp%2F1434102467&#038;tag=toptop-20&#038;linkCode=ur2&#038;camp=1789&#038;creative=9325" target="_blank">Scientific Advertising</a></em>. In the self-help world there is Maxwell Maltz&#8217;s <em><a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/redirect.html?ie=UTF8&#038;location=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.amazon.com%2FPsycho-Cybernetics-New-More-Living-Life%2Fdp%2F0671700758&#038;tag=toptop-20&#038;linkCode=ur2&#038;camp=1789&#038;creative=9325" target="_blank">Psycho-Cybernetics</a></em> or <em><a href="http://www.towerofpower.com.au/review-of-the-new-psycho-cybernetics-by-maxwell-maltz">The New Psycho-Cybernetics</a></em>. While in the human relationships and communication skills world, the number one book to read is <em>How to Win Friends and Influence People</em>. There are people of course who disagree with this, but there are substantial numbers of experts in their respective industries that refer to these books as the best ones you can read. (I strongly encourage you to read these classic books as they are original sources of most self-help information taught today.)</p>
<p>Most of these classical books mentioned date back to 1920. They are the pioneers in their respective industry. Books that discuss the psychology of financial success to this day use the exact same principles mentioned in Napoleon Hill&#8217;s <em>Think and Grow Rich</em>. The same goes for other self-help classics like James Allen&#8217;s <em><a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/redirect.html?ie=UTF8&#038;location=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.amazon.com%2FAs-Man-Thinketh-James-Allen%2Fdp%2F1599869837&#038;tag=toptop-20&#038;linkCode=ur2&#038;camp=1789&#038;creative=9325" target="_blank">As A Man Thinketh</a></em>. <em>How to Win Friends and Influence People</em> is no exception. Nearly any communication skills book today mentions a principle originating from the book, whether it be to show interest in people or to avoid criticism. It is the authority book in human relations.</p>
<p>If you are not familiar with self-help classics, you may wonder how the heck these books written in the early-to-mid 1900s be useful today? Surely humanity has made many superior discoveries that exceed this “old school” material?</p>
<div class="pullqright"><span class="pullqstart">&#8220;</span>In the human relationships and communication skills world, the number one book to read is <em>How to Win Friends and Influence People</em>.<span class="pullqend">&#8221;</span></div>
<p>I use to think books today were superior to self-help classics. I heard hundreds of people praise <em>How to Win Friends and Influence People</em>. I thought the book was most people&#8217;s introduction to communication skills. I thought, “Sure, the book is great because it&#8217;s your first experience in learning the amazing effect of good communication.”</p>
<p>There is something to do with learning about a subject from its original pioneers, however, that makes the information powerful.</p>
<p>What I later found, which is what many people experience, is that by reading the book one time every year you encounter new realizations. Life-changing insights are also frequently experienced by many people upon re-reading Napoleon Hill&#8217;s <em>Think and Grow Rich</em>. I believe this is because your awareness and experience in the present is not enough to completely grasp the principles in these classic books.</p>
<h2>Fundamental People Skills</h2>
<p>After reading the 2007 edition of this book, I realized the book&#8217;s four parts, which deal with techniques to handle people, ways to make people like you, winning people to your way of thinking, and being a successful leader, are fundamental skills of all human relations. I consistently refer to these principles in my articles and other teachings. The important point I want to distinguish is that fundamentals are not basic skills. Fundamentals in any area form a solid framework for further skill development.</p>
<p>An athlete cannot become good at his or her sport by failing to develop its fundamentals. Sport coaches will tell you that an athlete who does not have the right fundamentals is tough to coach because every skill builds from the foundations laid by fundamental skills. Professional athletes always fine tune their fundamental skills because they know the profound affect such skills have on their professional abilities. Advanced techniques are only useful when the person knows the fundamentals. Also, having good fundamentals produces an exponential effect that puts you ahead of 95% of people, while advanced techniques in any area produces a slight improvement that gives you an edge of the 5% who also have sound fundamentals.</p>
<p>Tiger Woods still improves his fundamentals, but he can work on perfecting his 2 iron stinger where he hits the ball with a very low trajectory, while the average golfer is better off focusing on fundamentals like a better grip, stance, and pre-shot routine. The skills taught in <em>How to Win Friends and Influence People</em> constantly need to be revisited and worked on regardless of how good you think you are in communication.</p>
<h2>More Specifics of the Book</h2>
<p>At the start of each chapter, Carnegie discusses the chapter&#8217;s principle. He then provides an example of how someone, mostly students from his speaking course, have applied the principle in their business or family life. The stories themselves can be a revelation at times as you become aware of how and in what situations the principles can be applied.</p>
<p>The majority of the book discusses concepts instead of word-for-word techniques. One principle is making the other person feel important. Carnegie doesn&#8217;t tell you to say exactly this and that. He provides the “what”, which is the concept, with a little bit of the “how”.</p>
<p>The table of contents is below:</p>
<div style="padding-left:40px">
<p><strong>Fundamental Techniques in Handling People</strong><br />
1. &#8216;If You Want to Gather Honey, Don&#8217;t Kick Over the Beehive&#8217;<br />
2. The Big Secret of Dealing with People<br />
3. &#8216;He Who Can Do This Has the Whole World with Him. He Who Cannot Walks a Lonely Way&#8217;</p>
<p><strong>Six Ways to Make People Like You</strong><br />
1. Do This and You&#8217;ll Be Welcome Anywhere<br />
2. A Simple Way to Make a Good First Impression<br />
3. If You Don&#8217;t Do This, You Are Headed for Trouble<br />
4. An Easy Way to Become a Good Conversationalist<br />
5. How to Interest People<br />
6. How to Make People Like You Instantly</p>
<p><strong>Win People to Your Way of Thinking</strong><br />
1. You Can&#8217;t Win an Argument<br />
2. A Sure Way of Making Enemies &#8211; and How to Avoid It<br />
3. If You&#8217;re Wrong, Admit It<br />
4. A Drop of Honey<br />
5. The Secret of Socrates<br />
6. The Safety Valve in Handling Complaints<br />
7. How to Get Cooperation<br />
8. A Formula That Will Work Wonders for You<br />
9. What Everybody Wants<br />
10. An Appeal That Everybody Likes<br />
11. The Movies Do It. TV Does It. Why Don&#8217;t You Do It?<br />
12. When Nothing Else Works, Try This</p>
<p><strong>Be a Leader: How to Change People Without Giving Offense or Arousing Resentment</strong><br />
1. If You Must Find Fault, This is the Way to Begin<br />
2. How to Criticize – and Not Be Hated for It<br />
3. Talk About Your Own Mistakes First<br />
4. No One Likes to Take Orders<br />
5. Let the Other Person Save Face<br />
6. How to Spur People On to Success<br />
7. Give a Dog a Good Name<br />
8. Make the Fault Seem Easy to Correct<br />
9. Making People Glad to Do What You Want
</div>
<p>The principles of each part are nicely summarized at its end so you can easily review and memorize them. Each principle may seem simple at times, but don&#8217;t let simple deceive you from its power. These are powerful principles <em>still</em> changing the lives of those who read the book five or more times.</p>
<p>If you don&#8217;t already have a copy of Dale Carnegie&#8217;s <em>How to Win Friends and Influence People</em>, you need to go grab your copy now from Amazon by <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/redirect.html?ie=UTF8&#038;location=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.amazon.com%2FHow-Win-Friends-Influence-People%2Fdp%2F0091906814&#038;tag=toptop-20&#038;linkCode=ur2&#038;camp=1789&#038;creative=9325" target="_blank">clicking here</a>.</p>
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		<title>Review of Conversationally Speaking by Alan Garner</title>
		<link>http://www.towerofpower.com.au/review-of-conversationally-speaking-by-alan-garner</link>
		<comments>http://www.towerofpower.com.au/review-of-conversationally-speaking-by-alan-garner#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Thu, 25 Sep 2008 11:40:40 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Joshua Uebergang aka &#34;Tower of Power&#34;</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Conversation Skills]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Reviews]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Alan Garner]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[conversation starters]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[criticism]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[praise]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[questioning]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[review]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[small talk]]></category>

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		<description><![CDATA[This is a book review of Alan Garner&#8217;s Conversationally Speaking: Tested New Ways to Increase Your Personal and Social Effectiveness.
The book&#8217;s title describes the book fairly well. Everything in it has been tested (though I&#8217;m not sure about the “new” part.) Conversationally Speaking contains the meat of what communication trainers have advised to people for [...]]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><span class="dropcap">T</span>his is a book review of Alan Garner&#8217;s <em>Conversationally Speaking: Tested New Ways to Increase Your Personal and Social Effectiveness</em>.</p>
<p>The book&#8217;s title describes the book fairly well. Everything in it has been tested (though I&#8217;m not sure about the “new” part.) <em>Conversationally Speaking</em> contains the meat of what communication trainers have advised to people for decades. That is, understanding types of questions, listening, handling compliments, and other basic communication skills.<span id="more-38"></span></p>
<p><!--adsense--></p>
<p>If you think you have a lot of knowledge about the dynamics of conversations, you will unlikely find anything new in this book. But then again, if you understand conversations well, you wouldn&#8217;t need to read many books on how to increase your personal and social effectiveness.</p>
<p>Garner&#8217;s book begins with a basic discussion on close-ended and open-ended questions. In later chapters on delivering compliments and listening, however, it seems Garner kicks the book up a gear. I was surprised by the advice to talk about yourself, handle criticism, deal with rejected praise, and reduce social anxiety.</p>
<p>A few criticism&#8217;s I&#8217;ve seen about the book on Amazon must have been adjusted in later versions of the book because some examples used in the book that people have put-down as “stupid” are non-existent in my version <em>Conversationally Speaking</em> does contain many relevant examples. The examples get to the author&#8217;s point as they are used to nicely illustrate a conversation skill.</p>
<div class="pullqright"><span class="pullqstart">&#8220;</span>&#8230;is about proven conversational methods that promote conversations.<span class="pullqend">&#8221;</span></div>
<p>The book contains very little fluff. Sometimes I felt a discussion was cut short as I turned the page to discover a new chapter. Small amounts of the book explain the skills as you will find yourself flying through it.</p>
<p>Overall, Alan Garner&#8217;s <em>Conversationally Speaking</em> is about proven conversational methods that promote conversations in personal and social situations. You won&#8217;t see the wheel reinvented in this book because the author has stuck with what has worked for him and hundreds of thousands of his readers. The conversational skills in this book are simple and effective. If you feel your conversational skills need fine-tuning, grab your copy of the book now from Amazon by <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/redirect.html?ie=UTF8&#038;location=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.amazon.com%2FConversationally-Speaking-Increase-Personal-Effectiveness%2Fdp%2F1565656296&#038;tag=toptop-20&#038;linkCode=ur2&#038;camp=1789&#038;creative=9325" target="_blank">clicking here</a>.</p>
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		<title>How to Not Care What People Are Thinking About You &#8211; and Release Your People-Magnetic Self Into the Conversation</title>
		<link>http://www.towerofpower.com.au/how-to-not-care-what-people-are-thinking-about-you</link>
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		<pubDate>Tue, 02 Sep 2008 06:59:18 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Joshua Uebergang aka &#34;Tower of Power&#34;</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Confidence and Fear]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Conversation Skills]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Emotional Intelligence]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[anxiety]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[approval]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[creative imagination]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[expectations]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[fear]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[mind-reading]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[neediness]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[power]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Power of Now]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[rejection]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[self-esteem]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[social anxiety]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[survival]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[theory of mind]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[validation]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[worry]]></category>

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		<description><![CDATA[You arrive for a party at a friend&#8217;s house and open the front door. It seems all eyes are on you as you walk into the room. Nervous thoughts rush through your mind: “What are they thinking about me?” “Does he think I&#8217;m weird?” and “Is that person laughing at my looks?”
I frequently get asked [...]]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><span class="dropcap">Y</span>ou arrive for a party at a friend&#8217;s house and open the front door. It seems all eyes are on you as you walk into the room. Nervous thoughts rush through your mind: “What are they thinking about me?” “Does he think I&#8217;m weird?” and “Is that person laughing at my looks?”</p>
<p>I frequently get asked by people how they can overcome such thoughts where they try to read someone&#8217;s mind. They want to know how they can eliminate worry over people&#8217;s judgments and thoughts in a conversation because it creates social awkwardness.</p>
<p>I use to have the same problem. I worried over people&#8217;s judgments of me – in conversations and in general social situations. I stand at 6&#8242;9” (206cm) and attract attention wherever I go. Some people go about their day as I walk by, while others gawk in amazement. (I don&#8217;t know if they realize it, but I&#8217;m tall and not deaf.) Thoughts such as, “Why are they looking at me like that?” destroyed my ability to socially enjoy myself until I discovered a few secrets I will share with you in this article that transformed me into a confident, happy, powerful person.<span id="more-16"></span></p>
<p><!--adsense--></p>
<h2>Surviving the Brutality of People&#8217;s Thoughts</h2>
<p>Why are you concerned what people think of you? Take time as you explore your concerns. Analyze your unexplored fears and anxieties. Read on once you have thought deeply about this question.</p>
<p>As you explore your worries and anxieties about people&#8217;s thoughts towards you, you will see the problem boils down to worrying if people accept or approve you. Your worries center on accurate mind-reading in hope of adjusting yourself to be accepted or approved by people.</p>
<p>Social acceptance is important for everyone. If our ancestors were rejected and ostracized from their tribe, it was like a death sentence because they had to confront other tribes and animals while hunting and gathering food by themselves. It was near impossible to survive alone.</p>
<p>It is okay to want acceptance. Your fears are a survival mechanism, but because interactions and group structures have changed after thousands of years, you have outdated ways of thinking and behaving. What thoughts and beliefs helped humans thousands of years ago, even you last year, are unlikely to serve you well now. When you worry what people think of you, does it help you survive? Does it improve your conversation skills?</p>
<div class="pullqright"><span class="pullqstart">&#8220;</span>…chokes your social skills as you become unable to release your real, powerful self into the conversation.<span class="pullqend">&#8221;</span></div>
<p>If you think about thinking about people&#8217;s thoughts, you see the anxious process does more harm than good. It chokes your social skills as you struggle to release your real, powerful self into the conversation. When you try to determine people&#8217;s judgments towards you, your perception of their social judgments creates inhibition and blinds your natural, magnetic personality.</p>
<p>We worry what people think of us more than we know:</p>
<ul>
<li>You keep quiet in a meeting as you withhold your ideas in fear of saying the wrong thing and being rejected. From a survival perspective, the fear makes sense because you could be ostracized from the workplace and lose your job, money, and lifestyle. In reality, suggesting an idea will never cause such a drastic outcome (unless you say something absurd like, “Let&#8217;s steal from the poor”, but even then your coworkers will probably laugh-off your remarks).</li>
<li>When you talk to your spouse, you know something needs to be said, but you keep quiet because you fear his or her reaction. From a survival perspective, this could ultimately result in a break up where your genes cease to pass onto the next generation. If you say what is on your mind, however, your relationship strengthens because you discuss what really matters. (<em><a href="http://www.towerofpower.com.au/review-of-difficult-conversations-by-douglas-stone-bruce-patton-and-sheila-heen">Difficult Conversations</a></em> is a great book for these tough conversations.)</li>
<li>You avoid doing something silly or unusual in public because you fear other people will label you as “weird”. I know people who do not kiss their partner in public because they worry what the viewing public thinks. The same survival principles hold true again: the fear originates from being ostracized from society. Nonetheless, no one is going to reject you – yet alone remember you – because you did something you consider an embarrassment.</li>
</ul>
<p>If you do something people consider daring, they may put you down, but they will admire your courage. More often than not, something that is “out there” may not even be “out there” because we fathom what constitutes safety. Giving your opinion in a conversation is not going to determine if you live or die even if it appears daring to you.</p>
<p>Although it is uncomfortable to take action on something you are inhibited over, the return is greater than the initial expense. When you decide to not mind-read people in your conversations, your discomfort increases the same time your power increases. This is as certain as water grows plants. Facing the uncomfortable makes you powerful.</p>
<h2>The Innate Gift of Mind-Reading</h2>
<p>Our ability to infer another person&#8217;s mental state is referred by psychologists as having a “theory of mind”. The survival mechanism of mind-reading helps you adapt to diverse people and is powerful if you know how to use it.</p>
<p>Researchers agree our theory of mind develops around two years of age. Toddlers can calculate people&#8217;s desires, intents, and thoughts. If a toddler sees a crying baby, she infers the distressed baby&#8217;s mental state. The toddler may tug her mother&#8217;s sleeve, pulling her to comfort the distressed baby. Up until then, you will not see empathetic children with mind-reading skills.</p>
<p>If you were like a baby absent of a theory of mind, you would continuously get in social and emotional trouble. A theory of mind helps you to do the closest thing to mind-reading as you dig into a person&#8217;s mind. You are able to see the intangible like: a young boy picked on at school feels hurt and alone; your partner comes home from work smiling, leading you to believe he or she had a good day at work; a depressed friend who recently broke up with her boyfriend leads you to think she needs space for recovery. Your inference into mental states helps adjust your behavior to better accommodate people.</p>
<div class="pullqleft"><span class="pullqstart">&#8220;</span>Your inference into mental states helps adjust your behavior to better accommodate people.<span class="pullqend">&#8221;</span></div>
<p>What if, however, your friend who broke up with her boyfriend, wants to be comforted by you. Because you guessed she needed space, she would feel neglected, ignored, and more rejected. Inaccurate mind-reading causes relationship destruction.</p>
<div class="bonusboxright">
<p class="bonusboxheading">Your Superpowers</p>
<p>You are no Magneto, Cyclops, Spiderman, Batman, or Superman, but you have superpowers. You can read people&#8217;s minds. Be careful with being consumed by this power, however. Over-reliance on your superpower can make citizens hate you.</p>
</div>
<p>Tell someone their destructive mental state or intent behind an action, such as, “You&#8217;re jealous because you think&#8230;”, and you will cause immediate trouble. This is what I refer to as “diagnosing” where we figure out people&#8217;s intents behind their actions, which gets us into arguments and detracts from our power with people. (I recommend you read the third chapter on diagnosing of my <a href="http://www.towerofpower.com.au/secrets/">Communication Secrets of Powerful People</a> for more information about this bad communication habit.)</p>
<p>Mind-reading also frustrates the beholder. We jeopardize our wellbeing from judgments because we have limited ability to infer someone&#8217;s mental state. A person laughing at a distance who makes eye contact with you may be giggling at a joke, not you. You think people judge you – a useful process when used correctly – but it too often sends you to mental imprisonment as you become anxious and constrain your real self from entering the conversation. Your theory of mind is too often an unreliable tool to calculate what people think.</p>
<p>You were given the ability to read someone&#8217;s mind so you could better adapt to the environment. Someone aggressively staring you down triggers thoughts of potential danger, allowing you to change to survive the threat. You can be over-reliant on this skill, however, by worrying about people&#8217;s thoughts when there is no concrete evidence (such as nonverbal communication) that signal you need to adjust your behavior. What is used to survive and better connect you with people, separates you. (You can improve this innate skill to become become better with people by discovering several <a href="http://www.towerofpower.com.au/dirty-tricks-of-psychology-for-mind-reading-and-the-roots-of-empathy">tricks of psychology to read people&#8217;s minds based on the roots of empathy</a>.)</p>
<h2>Using the Power Given to You to Become Better With People</h2>
<p>Let&#8217;s take a look at the paradoxical outcome seen in the following example of someone concerned about social acceptance and meeting a person&#8217;s expectations – and be sure to learn from this example. A guy is meeting his girlfriend&#8217;s parents for the first time. He worries about being “good enough” for his girlfriend&#8217;s parents and living up to their high expectations. He is concerned that if his girlfriend&#8217;s parents think he is not their daughter&#8217;s Mr. Right, he will be rejected and forced to break up with his girlfriend.</p>
<p>He has two extreme options to select:</p>
<ol>
<li>He needs to gain their approval.</li>
<li>He does not need to gain their approval.</li>
</ol>
<p>Let&#8217;s say the guy chooses the first option. In this situation the guy is determined to get the parents&#8217; approval. He analyzes the situation, thinks, worries, and focuses on what the parents could think. He tries to mind-read the parents, which makes him anxious.</p>
<p>When the guy tries to calculate what the parents expect of him, he gets stressed and anxious. His continual analysis of the parents&#8217; thoughts causes awkward behavior. He becomes fidgety, apologetic, and strangled from his natural self. He gets along great with friends, but when it comes to talking with strangers he feels awful.</p>
<p>In this first situation, the guy forward-thinks and screws his chances of gaining the parents&#8217; approval because he is seen as needy and unconfident. The guy needs people to validate his identity, which ironically causes them to disapprove of him.</p>
<p>When you need approval, people sense your neediness and social anxiety then reject you. A weak self causes you to be rejected, which causes you to feel more unworthy – and the cycle continues as you develop an <a href="http://www.towerofpower.com.au/inferiority-complex-and-the-self-image">inferiority complex</a>.</p>
<p>Individuals with a weak self-esteem who always worry what others think live in their reality by deriving one&#8217;s self-esteem from external sources. They never build true self-esteem that only comes from within. (In my <a href="http://www.towerofpower.com.au/secrets/">Communication Secrets of Powerful People</a> program, I discuss this weak reality we live in as we yearn for praise and other signals that validate our identity.) When you derive your powerful self from competence, capability, and self-responsibility – instead of external validation that moderates your behavior  – you release your powerful self into the conversation (like the guy in the second situation you will soon see).</p>
<p>In the second situation, the guy does not require the parents&#8217; approval. If he finds something funny, he laughs. If he wants something, he asks for it. If he likes something, he says so. These behaviors are different to the first situation where the guy is fidgety, apologetic, and strangled from his natural self.</p>
<p>You may think “he can&#8217;t just ignore the parents&#8217; approval of him because he&#8217;ll screw up!” The same thought drives destructive mind-reading: you think mind-reading people&#8217;s judgments helps your ability to adapt, but more destruction than construction occurs. Your confidence and self-esteem gets knocked down from the destruction of so-called “adapting”.</p>
<p>It is okay to want people to like you without their approval, but not needing approval is different from reckless behavior and not caring what people think of you. Having no need for approval does not mean you run down the street screaming and waving your hands above your head. Do enough reckless behavior and you will be ostracized from society as you get put in prison (or a mental institution). You can moderate your behavior without needing people&#8217;s approval.</p>
<h2>Beyond Not Caring What People Think: How to Become More Powerful in Conversations</h2>
<p>An elimination of harmful mind-reading is only the first step to not care what people think about you. Because you infer people&#8217;s thoughts to get along with people, the second step is to replace the anxious behavior with something to help you with people. Behavioral adjustment to get people to like you is what mind-reading poorly achieves.</p>
<p>In our example, once the guy does not require his girlfriend&#8217;s parents to validate if he is good enough for his girlfriend, the battle is only half won. He still needs to adapt. He needs to do things like be polite, friendly, joke around, and other things to gain the parents&#8217; acceptance.</p>
<p>Acceptance differs from approval. Seeking approval passes a test to grant yourself permission to be who you are. It is about being “good enough” to meet someone&#8217;s standards. On the other hand, acceptance for our purpose builds a positive response to something that is offered. When you seek acceptance, you have a strong sense of self that you present to people, and whether they accept it is up to them. Should people not accept you, it does not diminish your self-esteem because your powerful self comes from inner worth, not external validation. Approval and acceptance are valuable terms you need to reread, understand, and burn into memory.</p>
<p>If you are to be powerful with people, you must build acceptance by doing things people favor, such as <a href="http://www.towerofpower.com.au/topic/conversational-skills">starting interesting conversations</a>, being friendly, and using other effective communication techniques. Grow yourself and adapt to situations, but do not feel people must validate your reality. Work towards acceptance, but do not worry for approval. Powerfully confident individuals do not require people&#8217;s approval <em>at all</em>. They are concerned about people in their life, but they do not limit or inhibit themselves. They seek acceptance without approval.</p>
<p>Once you know the difference between acceptance and approval, and how to build acceptance, release your spontaneous self that attracts people in conversations. Dr. Maxwell Maltz in <em><a href="http://www.towerofpower.com.au/review-of-the-new-psycho-cybernetics-by-maxwell-maltz">The New Psycho-cybernetics</a></em> writes about self-consciousness and releasing your powerful self into the conversation:</p>
<blockquote><p>“The reason some people are self-conscious and awkward in social situations is simply that they are too consciously concerned, too anxious to do the right thing, and too fearful of saying or doing the wrong thing&#8230; If these people could let go, stop trying, not care, and give no thought to the matter of their behavior, they could act creatively, spontaneously, and &#8216;be themselves&#8217;&#8230; Your creative mechanism cannot function or work tomorrow – or even a minute from now. Only right now.”</p>
</blockquote>
<p>The paradoxical effect of releasing yourself in the conversation discussed by Dr. Maltz is that people accept you when you stop <em>trying</em> and start <em>being</em>. We fear revealing our true self into conversation, but when we unleash it, people feel it and become attracted to our authenticity.</p>
<p>The guy in the second situation who does not require the parent&#8217;s approval, feels confident and people feel his confidence. The end result: the parents are more likely to accept him. When you rise above the need for people&#8217;s approval, your confidence soars, uncertainty ceases to exist, worrying vanishes, and fear of how others see you stops. You are happy with who you are and what you can do.</p>
<p>It surprises me that the purpose of worrying what people think of you is to get them to like and approve of you. Once you do not need approval from others, however, they actually approve of you! It is Zen-like that when you trash that line of thinking, you achieve its goal.</p>
<h2>Emotional Freedom in the Present Moment</h2>
<div class="bonusboxleft">
<p class="bonusboxheading">The Power of Now</p>
<p>Follow these tips to pull your mind from the past or future into the present:</p>
<ol>
<li>Accept your present feelings. It is okay to feel what you feel.</li>
<li>Avoid self-criticism.</li>
<li>Notice bodily sensations. An awareness of your body draws your mind to the present.</li>
<li>Focus fully on your partner&#8217;s words and body language. You cannot predict the future when your mind is occupied with present information.</li>
</ol>
</div>
<p>A great pianist never anticipates, when performing, every detail needed to play a great song. The pianist allows himself to be enthralled in the moment as his natural playing abilities shine through his music. His focus in the moment makes people accept and like his music.</p>
<p>In a conversation, do not anticipate people&#8217;s thoughts towards you, then your natural, powerful personality will be seen. You will behave freely as you do with friends. Act as if no one thinks about you because few probably are. Turn-off the imaginary spotlight you see on yourself and you will be amazed at how confident you become. Your new-found confidence will radiate into your conversations as you free yourself from inhibition and release your real self.</p>
<div class="pullqright"><span class="pullqstart">&#8220;</span>Be in the now as you surrender yourself to the moment.<span class="pullqend">&#8221;</span></div>
<p>I want you to live in the present moment instead of anticipating the future. Be in the now as you surrender yourself to the moment. People&#8217;s reactions do not matter because all the matters is how you respond right now.</p>
<p>Your thoughts about people&#8217;s thoughts towards you is an outdated way of thinking that destroys your ability to make conversation. You block-out your naturally powerful personality when you feel inhibited by your attempts to read people&#8217;s mind. If you make the shift to act boldly, build internal sources of validation, gain acceptance (instead of approval), and live in the present moment by not anticipating people&#8217;s judgments, you will be unconcerned what people think of you as your powerful self releases into the conversation.</p>
<p>(In my <a href="http://www.towerofpower.com.au/secrets/">Communication Secrets of Powerful People</a> program, I show you how to find your natural ability to be powerful with people. Each of us can unlock these innate skills. The program shows you how to release your real, powerful self into conversations and relationships to make you naturally persuasive and charismatic. You can learn more about the program <a href="http://www.towerofpower.com.au/secrets/">here</a>.)</p>
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