The Small Talk Handbook: Easy Instructions on How to Make Small Talk in Any Situation

by Melissa Wadsworth

Small talk with anyone! There's a difference between communicating effectively and making small talk. Even if you have no fear of public speaking, you might still stumble over simple conversation when chatting with your superior, unexpectedly running into a friend, or breaking the ice with someone you just met. The Small Talk Handbook lays down the basics to engaging chitchat and teaches you how to enliven your personal and professional communication - no matter where you are. It offers the necessary tools to focus on verbal strengths, minimize weaknesses, and leave the best impression. So whether you're hosting a client dinner, attending a friend's cocktail party, or participating in a fundraising event for your children's school, you will always know just what to say with The Small Talk Handbook .

Genres: Self Help, Nonfiction, Business

160 pages, Paperback

First published July 1, 2012

About the author

Melissa Wadsworth is a new-community visionary, certified dream coach, change catalyst, creative intuitive, and author. Her vision and leadership integrate her own life-lessons, inspirational optimism, and her commitment to bringing healing change energy to the world.

Collective Manifestation: Heart-Centered Blueprints for Creating Intentional Community represents Wadsworth’s passion for authentic communications, out-of-the-box ideas and processes, and her fondness for humans and the potential they embody.

She believes that active and innovative community engagement holds the potential for wondrous global breakthroughs yet unimagined.
The founder of Brilliance Unlimited, LLC, and New Village 22 Melissa has dedicated her life to exploring consciousness, creativity, and communications in order to support people worldwide in the manifestation of amazing life journeys. Her methods offer a radical shift and uplift for people who feel trapped by the status quo and an unbalanced life, and who desire insight into their unique life blueprint.

Reviews

[Helfren · Rating 3 out of 5]

Small talk is the meta in the real world.

How do you engage in professional settings? How do you give it your all with a person of interest? How do you achieve equilibrium in real life to the maximum chit-chat potential? The book really drills down on the specifics and the intrinsic nature of conversing with a real person.

[Michal Ormoš · Rating 3 out of 5]

A simple introduction to the topic with many definitions but few practical approaches how to rehearse this 'art'.

[Andrea · Rating 2 out of 5]

It has a few good tips. The author talks about faking it until its real. I think an employer can read right through that. Also mentioned is telling your boss what you're doing. Honestly some bosses just want the work done without fanfare. All situations are their own. I thought this was going to be a different type of book - whatever that may be. What it did do was remind me of issues from yester year that I had to relive again. Glad that's over.

[Frank · Rating 2 out of 5]

While there's some good information here, a lot feels like things people should already know (not that that's a bad thing) by the time they've grown up. That said the tone bounces between formal and informal, and feels like the author is trying too hard sometimes with jokes that fall flat and suggested comments that would sound awkward to anyone not living in the fifties.

[Dothan Houston County Library System]

If you're like me you'd prefer being at home with your books than out mingling with strangers. This book can help you with those awkward conversations that tend to take place when you're an introvert and really just want to go home already. Wadsworth handles all kinds of social situations and provides easy prompts and helpful tips for making conversation as if you really want to. - AMG

[Renee · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book is full of good suggestions. The writing style could have been more personable and engaging but if read in short spurts, the information can be appreciated and taken in slowly and fully. Lots of value.

[Mary Lou · Rating 3 out of 5]

Nothing new here, but it's presented well enough, in about 150 pages. Unlike similar books that only discuss business settings, this one covers neighbors, dates, etc. and is more universally useful. My gripe would be that Wadsworth, in her list of conversation prompts, includes, "What are you reading?" I implore you - if someone is on the subway or in a coffee shop with their nose in a book, leave them alone! That's a universal signal for "I don't want to talk to anyone!"