The Art of Chit Chat: How to Talk to Anyone

By Mary Baker

Have you ever been at a loss for words? Tongue-tied in social situations? Do you freeze in terror in work meetings? You're not alone! This guide will give you all the tools to become an easy conversationalist who can talk to anyone.

Mary Baker, once painfully shy herself, spent 20 years working in wine hospitality and learned to talk to anyone about anything. She shares all her tips and lessons for not only learning how to talk to people easily, but becoming a conversational star.

Mary is also the author of Building Your Brand and How to Attract Investors. You can learn more about Mary and her clients on her website at www.solid-communications.com.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Mary Baker
• Release date: Jan 9, 2016
• ISBN: 9781311010650

Mary Baker

My name is Mary Baker and I am a full time, professional freelance writer, journalist and editor. I have been blogging and doing social media for ten years. (Yes, really.)I currently live in Tucson, Arizona with my retired California winery dog Rebel Rose and her feline assistant Bossypants. My motto is “Food, wine, repeat.”

Book preview

The Art of Chit Chat

How to Talk to Anyone

By Mary Baker

© Mary Baker, Solid Communications, April 2015

Introduction

Types of conversations and why they are important

Conversation Do’s ...

... and Don’ts

The importance of body language

Social conversation

Flirtation and first dates

Business conversations

Family conversations

Online chat

Ways to practice making conversation

The Art of Chit Chat

How to Talk to Anyone

Introduction

Making conversation is the easiest thing in the world. But you could not have convinced me of that 25 years ago. In my teens and twenties, I was painfully shy and awkward. The very idea of making conversation with people I’d just met made me want to turn tail and run. To add to my misery, I was getting a degree in teaching and found myself roaming high school halls, looking barely older than the students I was there to teach.

Years later, I found myself working in the wine industry, as a wine room attendant and later a manager. It was my job to make people comfortable, to chat them up, and to help them see wine as a fun, interesting hobby—not a world of snobbish elitism. I enjoyed my job very much. So much so that I began to excel at it, and was asked to teach classes outside the winery. The first time I gave a formal eight-week course in wine education, at a California college, I was understandably very nervous. My childhood stutter came back, and the all too familiar smell of classrooms made me freeze like a