Are you a timid person? Your biggest mistake is a belief that there is no way you can be influential in conversation. What is the reason? People believe they didn't get any excellent communication skills from birth. However, small talk doesn't depend on instinct or any biological features. Now, it's high time to overlook this and develop new ideas.

The essence is that it's possible to perfect skills for small talk. It indeed happens that sometimes a person is intuitively good at handling social situations. Nonetheless, we must mostly work hard to develop ourselves in this sphere.

Let’s take the author’s example. She became an engineer because she lacked good social skills. Being a plump and shy nerd, she was so stressed when she attended any events from her work. Besides, she was automatically trying to start a conversation from the question of what people's jobs were. Evidently, this dialogue would only last for a while.

By age 40, she discovered that her negative self-perception and extra weight prevented her progress. Later, she divorced her husband. It was the time of comprehension that to meet someone new, she needed to change her life. Thus, she focused on her well-being and lost 65 pounds. Then, she decided to improve her social skills by taking an example from eloquent talkers.

Once the author realized the simple truth. It happened at a bar when she made eye contact with a man. Finally, a friend persuaded her to initiate a talk. The man, named Rex, was pleased with her self-introduction. That night's conversation resulted in a close fellowship. Soon, she discovered a startling thing. He hadn't interacted with her at the bar since he was also timid.

That showed her someone else’s insecurities. If she hadn't initiated a conversation that night, she wouldn’t have had such a nice friend. The small talk proved useful. She has since devoted herself to improving this skill and aiding others. Within that time, her business has helped thousands of people to practice social skills.