Talk Less

Congratulations, you learned to listen!

But that doesn’t mean you know when to stop talking. Here are some of the times when it would be a good idea to silence yourself, at least temporarily:

You are selling a product, service, or idea and the other person starts to say “yes,” or words that have the strong possibility that they might lead to “yes.”
A blogger or member of the media is interviewing you, and they need concise, highly repeatable quotes rather than long soliloquies.
You are at a meeting or event sponsored by someone else, and continuing to talk might upset their agenda.
The other person has stopped asking you questions and has started looking at his or her watch.

Here’s what may not make sense to you: in a book about self- promotion, why am I telling you to talk less?

You want to teach people to pay attention to what you say. The best way to do this is first, have something of value to say, and second, know what will be of value to this person. Generally speaking, it does not take very long to share what is of special interest to a person.

Here’s the trick: if you are genuinely interested in other people, you will be genuinely interested in what they have to say. This implies that you will talk less.

If you find yourself talking a great deal, you may wish to consider whether you are spending time with the right people.