Frog talk will win you friends and business!

To build your business, you need to not only meet people, but also connect with them.

To connect with people (unless you want to halve your audience), steer clear of controversial issues like politics and religion.

Why should you avoid two subjects that impassion and fascinate nearly everyone?

There’s an easy answer: Because few people can talk about such engrossing issues dispassionately. Look at the current Presidential election cycle. There’s a growing polarity between the two parties. There’s little “tween” left between the Blue party and the Red party

When discussing “their” candidate, the raving fan, with few exceptions, becomes the vein-popping raving lunatic.

If you do venture into these roiling religious or political waters, because you find the topics too irresistible, especially during election season, please remember and repeat the following 10 rules of civilized conversation after each breath:

1.    Interact, don’t interrogate.

2.    Compromise, don’t crusade.

3.    Connect, don’t correct.

4.    Motivate, don’t manipulate.

5.    Complete, don’t compete.

6.    Cooperate, don’t confront.

7.    Mentor, don’t manage.

8.    Serve, don’t sell.

9.    Express sensitivity, not sentiment.

10. Aim to be the most interested person in the room, not the most interesting.

Again, our advice is to avoid at all cost all talk of politics and religion. Leave it to the TV talking heads and recall the good advice of Dale Carnegie, who said, “There’s only one way under high heaven to get the best of an argument — and that is to avoid it.”

To that, I’ll simply add, “To get your point across, you can never be cross!”

Instead of talking about politics and religion, shift your conversation to FROGs, an acronym for Family, Recreation, Occupation and Goals.

Who doesn’t like talking about their family, their favorite hobby or what’s occupying their time.

You’ll find few people who don’t like frogs, but you’ll find many who hate your politics and religion.

If you want to build your business, be a FROG and leap away from the troubled waters of religious and political poison.

If you want to improve your sales and business even more, read Life Lessons of a Harvard Reject, now available on www.HarvardReject.com.