Once a month, scramble your life. Do something you’d
never dream of doing. Participate in a sport, go to an
exhibition, hear a lecture on something totally out of
your experience. You get 80 percent of the right lingo
and insider questions from just one exposure.
Read something related or Simply ask a friend who
speaks the lingo of the crowd you’ll be with to teach
you a few opening questions. The words are few and
the rewards are manifold.
Before jumping blindly into a bevy of bookbinders or a
drove of dentists, find out what the hot issues are in
their fields. Every industry has burning concerns the
outside world knows little about. Ask your informant to
bare the industry buzz. Then, to heat the conversation
up, push those buttons.
Is your next big client a golfer, runner, swimmer, surfer,
or skier? Are you attending a social function filled with
accountants or Zen Buddhists—or anything in between?
There are untold thousands of monthly magazines
serving every imaginable interest. You can dish up more
information than you’ll ever need to sound like an
insider with anyone just by reading the rags that serve
their racket.