SALT LAKE CITY, UT (Good Things Utah) – No one likes boring small talk. Stuart Fedderson is a communication coach, and he shared some tips with us to easily make your everyday conversations more meaningful and enjoyable.

The easiest way to avoid boring talks is to lead in the conversation. Give your conversation something to build from right from the beginning. The classic ice breaker “How are you?” normally leads to a dead end. After a quick response, there’s little to nothing to continue off of. Start off with a more specific question like “How’s work going?” or “How is your family?” to give your conversation to work with. Personalize your questions and make them specific to whomever you are talking to. Bring up specific things in their life that you are aware of. This will make the person you are talking to feel more valued, and you will appear more charismatic.

If someone asks you the simple “How are you?”, break patterns! Don’t give a few words as a response, give them a more genuine, enthusiastic, and unique response to the classic question. This allows the other side of the conversation to build from your energy and contribution.

To create the most human connection in your communication, the best thing you can do is share something that’s important to you. Find a way to bring your values into the conversation. Say something about your interests, your family, a recent vacation, or anything else that can open the door to a continued back and forth.

Communicating is compromised these days as many of your daily conversations happen behind a screen. This doesn’t make in-person connections any less important! As a communication and speech coach, Stuart has many clients come to him in search of tips to create more connections in conversation. Humans crave connection, and to make these connections it helps to appear more interested than interesting. As important as it is to talk, it is just as much, if not more, important to listen. Stuart has more conversation tips on his social media, you can find him on Instagram and TikTok @feddersonspeaks for more.