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Cocktail Parties Are My Nightmare
Fellow introverts: Do you dread a cocktail party full of strangers as much as I do? 🍷🫣🧀
Don’t get me wrong, I love an artful arrangement of smoked salmon and peppadew peppers on a toasted mini-baguette.
But you can only shove so many of those in your mouth to avoid draining small-talk. Not to mention, you eventually start smelling like fish 🐟, which is generally detrimental to making new friends.
✅ My solution: Make friends with a party guest *BEFORE* the event happens.
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I’ll ask the host to introduce me to another like-minded guest, so we can grab coffee or walk our dogs before the event.
When the cocktail party finally arrives, I have a familiar face in the room, so it’s not so scary. I feel more confident wandering around talking to strangers, because if things go south, I can always circle back to that familiar face.
✅ I use this exact same approach when 👉 speaking in front of an audience of strangers 👈
Before I ever take the stage, I meet up with at least one or two guests who will be in the audience. If possible, I’ll also casually speak with a few audience members the day of the event.
When it’s time to speak, I already have “friends” in the audience. By having casual conversations with a few guests beforehand, it feels like my speech is a continuation of our intimate, one-on-one conversations.
Ideally, that’s how your speech should be delivered, anyway: as if you are speaking to just one close friend.
If staring at a sea of unknown faces sends you into a tail spin, try the cocktail party trick. Priming your brain to believe you’re continuing a conversation with a friend will make you feel calmer and more comfortable.
And who knows? Maybe you’ll make another canapé-loving friend in the process. 🥂
#GoToSpeaker #introvert #speaker #publicspeaking #communications #confidence