Speaker 1: Welcome to Before Breakfast, a production of iHeartRadio. Good Morning,
Speaker 1: This is Laura. Welcome to the Before Breakfast podcast. Today's
Speaker 1: tip is that if someone asks you a question you
Speaker 1: don't really want to answer, you can pivot gently, take
Speaker 1: the conversation in a different direction, and it is quite
Speaker 1: possible the person won't even notice what just happened. So
Speaker 1: we have all been asked awkward questions. Sometimes those questions
Speaker 1: are about personal topics and they're asked by people we're
Speaker 1: not really that close to. Or sometimes the questions are
Speaker 1: about heavy subjects at moments when we just don't want
Speaker 1: to go there. But the good news is that you
Speaker 1: don't face a stark choice between talking about something painful
Speaker 1: or being rude. There is another approach, which is realizing
Speaker 1: that you are engaged in a conversation and not an interrogation.
Speaker 1: You can respond in the spirit of the question without
Speaker 1: answering it, literally pivot to take the conversation in a
Speaker 1: different direction about a related topic, perhaps that you are
Speaker 1: comfortable addressing. So if a work friend asks what you
Speaker 1: did over the weekend and you don't really want to
Speaker 1: talk about the sadness of helping a friend move her
Speaker 1: mom into assisted living. You could say you are looking
Speaker 1: forward to going to your new book club that meets
Speaker 1: for the first time on Monday. You finished the book
Speaker 1: over the weekend. Has your colleague read it? If you
Speaker 1: liked Outlander, you will totally like this book. Or if
Speaker 1: someone asks you how things are going at work and
Speaker 1: you've just given your notice but your boss has asked
Speaker 1: you not to share that news and till there's a
Speaker 1: plan for finding your successor you can breeze past the
Speaker 1: question with oh, works fine, but I wasn't there last
Speaker 1: week because I was in Massachusetts visiting old friends, and
Speaker 1: then you can launch into the highlights of your trip.
Speaker 1: What this approach recognizes is that people are generally asking
Speaker 1: you questions not because they are nosy and not because
Speaker 1: they are on a fact finding mission. They may not
Speaker 1: even be all that curious about the topic they asked
Speaker 1: you about. They just want to express interest in your
Speaker 1: life and connect. So if a topic comes up that
Speaker 1: you don't want to talk about, just honor the interest
Speaker 1: in connecting and take it somewhere that you would like
Speaker 1: to go. Folks who have had media training may recognize
Speaker 1: this technique years ago. When I was first learning how
Speaker 1: to answer interview questions for television and radio. I was
Speaker 1: told that you can pivot from the question they asked
Speaker 1: to the one you want to answer, Just give a
Speaker 1: brief sentence on what they've said, and then you can
Speaker 1: go to But you know, the real issue here is
Speaker 1: or that's certainly an issue. But what I've found most
Speaker 1: exciting is I once witnessed a gentleman running for Congress
Speaker 1: do this again and again, any hot button issue zipped
Speaker 1: past on his mission to talk about securing federal funding
Speaker 1: for a local infrastructure project. I am sure that is
Speaker 1: what his campaign staff told him did best in focus groups,
Speaker 1: and so that is what he was going to talk about.
Speaker 1: Since I have been on the other side of such interviews,
Speaker 1: I can tell you this is occasionally annoying in a
Speaker 1: journalistic context, Sir, can you please answer my question? But
Speaker 1: in most social situations, people just want to connect. They
Speaker 1: may not win the Pulitzer Prize for investigative reporting or
Speaker 1: something like that, but that is not what they were
Speaker 1: aiming for. It will all be fine in the meantime.
Speaker 1: This is Laura. Thanks for listening, and here's to making
Speaker 1: the most of our time. Thanks for listening to Before Breakfast.
Speaker 1: If you've got questions, ideas, or feedback, you can reach
Speaker 1: me at Laura at Laura vandercam dot com. Before Breakfast
Speaker 1: is a production of iHeartMedia. For more podcasts from iHeartMedia,
Speaker 1: please visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you
Speaker 1: listen to your favorite shows.