FORM - small talk

mnemonic I use is: FORM

• F-amily: Do you have kids? Where is your family from? How long have you lived around here?
• O-ccupation: What do you do for a living?  What is that like?  Have you always been a circus acrobat?
• R-ecreation: What do you guys do for fun?  How long have you been involved in SCA?  Where do you buy chain-mail or did you make it yourself?
• M-oney:  What happened with the price of gas?  Did you see that last school bond issue? How do you think the new liquor store laws will shake out?  Anybody you know lose their job lately?

With that method, I could talk to a phone pole for 30 minutes easy.  The trick is to listen and care about the answer.  As Lisa Galarneau said, this is Dale Carnegie 101.