Effortless Small Talk

Learn How to Talk to Anyone, Anytime, Anywhere...Even If You're Painfully Shy

By: Andy Arnott

Narrated by: Nathan Dunford

Length: 46 mins

Publisher's Summary

Do you hate making small talk?

Do you wish you could walk up to anyone, anywhere, anytime, and just start talking to them?

Well, it isn't difficult.… In this book I detail everything I've used to overcome my fear and inability of making small talk so that you can, too. You can pick up this book, listen to it, and have an actionable step-by-step structure to follow so you can master small talk.

Everything in this book has been boiled down to its simplest form and then molded into actionable steps. This means you don't need to spend countless hours researching, reading, and testing techniques; I did all that for you.

As you work through the book you will learn the following:

• The simplest, most actionable strategies for mastering small talk
• How to effortlessly "open" any conversation, no matter where you are
• How to control your body language to make people want to talk to you
• How to use small talk to get ahead in life
• Simple psychological hacks to improve your mood
• How to make other people love talking to you
• And much, much more

But why is small talk so important?

Well, here is the funny thing.…

Most people don't think small talk is important at all, but that's because they aren't aware just how powerful it is. If you learn to master small talk you can use it to better your life in an almost infinite number of ways.

Small talk can be used to do any of the following, and much more:

• Get a new promotion at work
• Meet a new romantic partner
• Network with incredible people
• Avoid being the awkward one at the party
• And that is only scratching the surface

So, if you hate how awkward you are in social situations and wish you could change, let me help you.

©2014- Andy Arnott (P)2014 Good Living Publishing

Effortless Small Talk: Learn How to Talk to Anyone

Would you consider the audio edition of Effortless Small Talk to be better than the print version?

I much prefer the audio book version over print because of my busy on the go lifestyle and learning style.

Which character – as performed by Nathan Dunford – was your favorite?

This story was told in first person, so there weren't any characters aside from the author point of view. I liked the performance.

Was there a moment in the book that particularly moved you?

I liked the personal experiences the author shared about how overcoming shyness and moving toward engaging conversation through small talk made a big impact professionally. It's interesting how much of a difference a little small talk can make in making friends and networking professionally. Author provides great "how to" examples to put in practice.

Any additional comments?

Overall it was a good listen. Simple and easy to understand.

Nothing new here

What could have made this a 4 or 5-star listening experience for you?

This book was so obvious. Some out-of-the-ordinary suggestions would be helpful, but this book makes suggestions like "Talk about the weather". What a snooze

What was most disappointing about Andy Arnott’s story?

I learned nothing

Any additional comments?

This book is a lazy exploration into an interesting and puzzling topic. It adds nothing you haven't heard 100 times before. I do not recommend it.

no real information or depth

About the length of a standard podcast, it's really more of a summation of dos and don'ts with advice along the lines of "don't be a creep" or what to do with your hands.

Just ok

Basic...no aha moments. I would have enjoyed it more with discussion of additional strategies. That being said I would still recommend.

Missing more tips and techniques

Alright book for the price. But mostly about acknowledging that you have social anxiety and just push through it by being a good listener and asking open ended questiins. Wished for more techniques and secret tips on small talk. Narrator was a little robotic too.

Okay

The book made some good points and gave some practical advice but there was not much to it. A little more depth would have made it a better read/listen.

a waste of time

Andy Arnott wasted my money and time. Before I listened, I was rightly skeptical about how much information could be conveyed in a mere 46 minutes. However, since it was cheap (another red flag,) I listened to this recording on the off chance that Arnott would be REALLY efficient in getting his points across. After all, most works of non-fiction waste a lot of text on personal narratives and allegorical stories that are meant to hook and entertain a reader who really just wants the points laid out. As it turns out, "Effortless Small Talk" is ALL HOOK, as Arnott wastes more than half of the scant 46 minutes trying to sell the reader on why small talk is important and why this book will help them.

I've noticed that Audible has lot of very short self-help and instructional "books" that promise listeners solutions to common problems. After purchase, the listener learns that the text is merely continuation of the subtitle; sales language pitched to convince the reader that this "book" will solve their problems. It is as if Audible has given rise to its own genre of fluff content created by hucksters who seized an opportunity to manipulate yet another medium. In the future, I'll be more careful to only purchase books that have been published and reviewed in physical bound copies.

Book should be titled how not to be an awkward introvert in public

I feel that this book is more geared towards people who don't know how to handle themselves in public. If that is you, it is a great 45 minute listen! It's not me lol! It did not give a ton of tips on how to make good small talk. However, I feel like it was geared more toward how to behave in public.

Too repetitious

I don't need 6 chapters to convince me this is the book that will solve my problem. It DID have helpful information, just took too long to get to the real help.

Over salesy, but worth persevering

I needed to grit my teeth through the first 10 minutes or so of this: a stream of promises about all the great things it’s going to do for the reader. However the remaining two thirds of the book contain some actual deliverables, and I enjoyed the three or four techniques described, as well as the encouragement to start using and practice them.