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How to Start and Keep a Conversation Going with a Guy

It is hard enough starting a conversation with a stranger, but try to start a conversation with a guy you think is hot! You don’t know what to say. You wonder if he likes you. You want him to like you. You’re nervous! All this is just the start of what runs through your head.

If you want to start a conversation with an interesting guy, whether it is online through sites like MSN, Facebook, face-to-face, or text, I have a two-step formula.

The first step is to overcome your fears, anxiety, and other “inner-game” problems. You reading this article wanting to know how to start a conversation with a guy 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. When you follow this simple two-step formula revealed below, you will know how to start a conversation with a guy and keep the conversation going. Read more

Why Smart People Have Poor Communication Skills – and What to Do About It

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’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 discovering his B, Jason took a butcher knife to school then stabbed his physics teacher before being reprimanded in a struggle.

Two years following the incident in a New York Times article, it was reported Jason raised his grade average to 4.614 (exceeding the perfect average of 4) by taking advanced courses and graduated with highest honors. He was smart.

Jason got better than perfect grades and still emotionally lost himself by trying to wound or kill his teacher. He could never improve his grade by stabbing his teacher. How can someone as smart as Jason do something so dumb? Read more

Review of How to Win Friends and Influence People by Dale Carnegie

This is a book review of Dale Carnegie’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 quickly spread the globe about the lessons in the book and now there is over 16 million copies in print. Read more

Review of Conversationally Speaking by Alan Garner

This is a book review of Alan Garner’s Conversationally Speaking: Tested New Ways to Increase Your Personal and Social Effectiveness.

The book’s title describes the book fairly well. Everything in it has been tested (though I’m not sure about the “new” part.) Conversationally Speaking 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. Read more

How to Not Care What People Think of You – and Release Your People-Magnetic Self Into the Conversation

You arrive for a party at a friend’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’m weird?” and “Is that person laughing at my looks?”

When you think others always judge you, you become socially awkward, talk less, and shut-down. This is essentially a social anxiety disorder. It becomes difficult to socialize, have fun, and make friends.

I often get asked how someone can overcome these thoughts where they worry what others think because I had the same problem years ago. I fretted over people’s judgments of me in conversations and general social situations. I stand at 6’9” (206cm) and attract attention where I go (at least that’s what my inner-voice told me). Some people go about their day as I walk by while others gawk. I’m tall, not deaf! I had thoughts like, “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. Read more