that moment the dreaded silence both of you have stopped talking now it's awkward and you have ran out of things to say how do you fix that i'ma teach you a simple step you can use in every single conversation to never run out of things to say what's up guys I'm Clark from Clark Kegley comm and this is the channel where we focus on ideas tips tactics to make your life and communication all that much more better and today I thought we'd continue our communication series on the most basic topic what happens if you run out of things to say in a conversation what do you do sometimes it can get really awkward you know you're talking and the conversation seems to be going fine and then all of a sudden you're not talking anymore you get that panic inside and they're not talking you're not talking one of you might even say awkward that's the worst I'm gonna teach you away on how to not have that happen okay and I'm really passionate about this because I've I've really mastered a lot of these communication skills over the years I did over 100 interviews live on air with New York Times bestselling authors podcasts I've given dozens of public speeches in front of 500 people I've done over 400 YouTube videos all doing public speaking but this is the tip that I've used and continue to use on that one-on-one communication but I think really does make a difference so let me give it to you right now the point is that most people in a conversation view it as a single road that has a start and it has a finish that's not how conversations are when you're talking to someone it's more like an arterial road with dozens of intersection sprinkled out in between these intersections where you come to a point in a conversation and you can either choose to steer it right left forward backwards however are called jump off points it's so simple we're gonna walk through a few of these so you can understand them and look for them in your conversations but if we understand these we'll never run out of anything to say let me show you how let's take a basic conversation example the example someone says real war old scenario I heard the other day said I don't really like Seattle it's getting too crowded I feel like all the tech workers are taking over now look at that statement that might be kind of hard to respond to out of nowhere you just say yeah the tech workers are taking over boom conversation done there's the awkward silence let's dissect that statement a little further and find all these jump off points we can go into I've underlined the jump off points we could talk about Seattle we could talk about getting too crowded we could talk about the tech workers all three of those are different little intersections we could go down and steer the conversation and thus opening it up to dozens of minutes of endless fun conversation when you hear Seattle you could say where do you want to live elsewhere when you hear them mention too crowded you could go into they don't like tons of people when you hear the word tech workers you could ask them about their occupation and that they don't work in tech even if you want to get really combative you could ask them why don't they like tech workers let me give you a few more examples so we can keep exploring this idea another example I heard the other day someone in the sauna at my local health club instead I've been trying to eat healthier I'm doing less sugar and exercising more right there what are the jump off points think about him real quick some could be why do you want to be healthier others could be less sugar is that better for you what kind of exercise are you doing what are your goals here's an example of a time I tried to do the same thing all those points right there are jump off points from that main area another example I heard we just got back from the music festival in Austin simple statement jump off points could be we who's we what music have you been before how long here's a time I went to Austin or a story I know about Austin another example when he asked someone what do you do I work at the local hospital it's alright but I'm ready for a change right there endless jump off points you could ask them about the hospital what do they do there why don't you like it what are you gonna change to what did you do before the hospital what did you go to school for you get the idea so it's a cool way of looking at conversation a point between you and the other person is not a starting and ending it's got a bunch of series in between a bunch of different roads you can take to have endless conversations obviously when they respond you can go into other conversations on that one as well so start if you're running out of things to say if you're getting in that awkward silence take a step back and look at their statement and just pick something to go off after last thing I'll leave you with if you're running out of things to say get curious really get curious about the other person and I promise you just just asking yourself why why did they go to Austin Texas why do they do this why why why you'll have so much more material to work with and a lot more passion behind the questions you're asking alright that's it I hope that tip was helpful I don't have anything I'm selling I just put out a lot of these tips for you on communication really passionate about it I love communicating I think it helps a lot so if this was helpful give it a big thumbs up leave a comment down below if you want more videos what you would like to see tips on tricks on hacks on whatever and then there's also the eleven questions to change your life that's a free ebook on how you can coach yourself and upgrade the questions for your own self communication get you on the email list keeps you up to date with all these videos all right that's it thank you so much for watching until next time stop settling start living see you later