Office Small Talk: How to Avoid it and Why You Should

**SPEAKER_1** (0:03)
The Bliss Business Podcast, the show about empathy, connection and consciousness in business. Today's episode is brought to you by Zero Company, your paid search, social media and programmatic ad experts.

**Stephen Sakach** (0:17)
Welcome to the show. We've got myself, Stephen Sakach. We've got Ash Maher and Tullio Siragusa.
Today, we're going to dive into the importance of moving beyond small talk. At work, don't be the traffic report guy at the water cooler. And those Zoom meetings, don't be the weather enthusiast we all are. Those first couple minutes where people are gathering for those meetings, those can be the most valuable time you spend if you do it right. So really though, this topic is important for everyone. Pretty much unless you're in solitary confinement, this is going to impact you.
So at work, you've got colleagues, you may have clients or customers or in a sales role, maybe you've got those potential customers, you interact with people on a daily basis at the cash register or just going about your daily routine. And maybe you even struggle with just building stronger relationships in general. So in a world that is increasingly disconnected, this is a skill that really needs to be learned.
So maybe you've heard this quote before. It's people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel. So this quote is often attributed to Maya Angelou, but it actually had been around prior to her saying that, which pretty much makes the point in itself. She probably just said it better, I guess. So Ash, how true is what's being said there?

**Ash Maher** (1:45)
You know, it's funny. This is a tough pill I had to swallow in high school. Luckily, it was at an earlier age that I learned this because it totally catapulted me in terms of socially and professionally.
But it's gut wrenching to know that the way you may have made someone feel, they hold those perceptions to you long after you probably have evolved from being that person that you once were. So today, it's the same scenario where I see that no matter what you do, what you do for people, they will never forget how you made them truly feel. And I think we had this conversation last week about grievances in the workplace. I think that plays a part in that situation as well, that how you make someone feel, those feelings start to fester up and sometimes problems tend to arise.
But yeah, when you realize everything's about connection, then you really don't have to do a whole lot for people. Make everyone just feel really good. So that's my thing.

**Stephen Sakach** (2:43)
Yeah, are you gonna make people feel like you don't care? Are you gonna make them feel small or unimportant? Or are you making people feel like they're human, like they matter?
And so, Tullio, what are your thoughts on that?

**Tullio Siragusa** (2:58)
I think it goes a little beyond just the feeling, because feelings can be fleeting, right? But experiences are memorable. So it's really the kind of experience that you can create, good or bad.
And we do remember good or bad experiences. That's what we remember. And we may not remember exactly how we felt, but we remember that it was either good or bad experience. So it really comes down to what kind of experience are we enabling? Small talk, not really experiencing anything other than just wasting time, right?

**Stephen Sakach** (3:34)
No, you're not. I think that you make a great point about experience. So why does this matter from a business standpoint? So I've got some stats for you heartless folks out there that need the data and just can't realize beyond that this is a good thing to be as a human. So why is this important? So let me just read through a few of these. So one study showed that a deeper connection with your customers led to more than double their purchases and triple their referrals.
Another study, connections at a personal human level can drive up to a 20% increase in sales over more transactional relationships. And keep that word transactional in mind. I mean, that's one of the huge differences here, especially when you're trying to make connections.
Another survey found 96% of customers were more loyal and more likely to purchase when they believe companies invested personal intention into an effort into understanding their unique needs.
And then this last stat here, another study reported that 60% of customers stopped doing business with a company due to the feelings that they were just another transaction than valued in a personal way. So high performance sales organizations, they build more authentic relationships. And I think that's really key here. So Ash, how's the weather where you're at today?