In every topic of conversation, there are countless opportunities to jump off onto other topics — there are countless word associations to be made.
For instance, let’s assume you’re talking to a woman and she says, “I never liked that restaurant. I went there on my birthday last year, and I don’t remember anything past midnight. I woke up on my friend’s kitchen floor.”
This is loaded with opportunities to take the conversation in new directions. You could relate and talk about any of the following:
1. The restaurant she doesn’t like.
2. What you did on your last birthday.
3. The last time you got black out drunk.
4. A story about waking up somewhere unusual.
Any and all of these topics will be relevant and interesting to the conversation.
If you don’t already to this, it’s a habbit you need to ingrain in yourself — just as the comedians ingrain off-the-wall word associations.
Here are a series of example of statements that women may make. In them, I have underlined the “jump off” points. Think of them as intersections where you can choose which direction to move the conversation. As you read through these examples, try to come up with a statement to relate to each jump off point. This will help teach you to be prepared to speak about any topic on the spot.
1. “I go to Harward right now. But I want to move back out west. The weather’s too cold up here.”
2. “I’m here with my friends Steve and Carrie. They’ve been dating for six months, but they fight like a married couple.
3. “We work together downtown in the district. It’s all right, but I’m looking to change careers.”
4. “We were at this party last night. It was crazy. The cops ended up busting it and some drunken kid got arrested.”
Try re-reading through these examples and at each underlined word or phrase, try to immediately come up with a thought or response about it. For example, I see Harward, and I think of how one time I visited there and their campus looks like a palace. I also think of friends of mine who went to Harvard. These are both legitimate places to take the conversation.
Once you become competent at this, you’ll notice that this is the way in which every conversation flows. Conversations only end when one person says something to which the other person has no jump off points. This is what happens when a conversation “dies.” If you teach yourself to recognize jump off points and take advantage of them as soon as possible, you’ll be able to sustain a conversation with almost anybody indefinitely.
Combine this skill with the ability to cold read and create conversational threads out of thin air by making statements, and you will literally develop the skill to begin and control any conversation with anybody for any length of time.
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