Talk It Up! How to Make People Light Up and Never Forget You

by

“Talk It Up! How to become a leg­endary conversationalist—invite oth­ers to talk more about what they care about—let the mag­ic hap­pen!”
~ Note to Self Chron­i­cles—TonyBrigmon.com

Ever met some­one who walks into a room and doesn’t dom­i­nate it—but some­how ele­vates it?

They don’t hijack the mic. They hand it to you.

They’re not per­form­ing—they’re con­nect­ing.

Wel­come to the mag­ic of a leg­endary con­ver­sa­tion­al­ist.

Spoil­er alert: It’s not about being the most fas­ci­nat­ing per­son in the room. It’s about mak­ing oth­ers feel like they are.

Let’s break it down—and yes, Talk-Show Tam­my is about to make her cameo.

1. Peo­ple Light Up When You Ask About What Lights Them Up

Take Jim.

Ask him about the weath­er? You’ll get a grunt. Ask him about his back­yard smok­er? Sud­den­ly, he’s Bar­be­cue Beethoven, com­pos­ing sym­phonies in hick­o­ry and smoke rings.

Why? Because peo­ple come alive when they talk about what they love.

And when you make space for that, they walk away think­ing you’re the all-star.

Not because you impressed them—but because you saw them.

✨ Pro tip from Talk-Show Tam­my: Curios­i­ty beats clev­er­ness. Every. Sin­gle. Time.

2. Small Talk Becomes Big Mag­ic

Let’s com­pare two approach­es:

❌ Small Talk Set­up: You: “How was your week­end?” Them: “Fine.”

✅ Con­ver­sa­tion Gold Set­up: You: “What’s some­thing you’ve been real­ly into late­ly?” Them: “Oh! I just got into rock climb­ing. Didn’t know I had it in me!”

Boom. Instant spark.

The dif­fer­ence? One’s autopi­lot. The other’s an invi­ta­tion to con­nec­tion.

3. The More You Lis­ten, the More You Learn (and Con­nect)

Want to stand out?

Don’t deliv­er a mono­logue—open a por­tal.

Sarah once asked her cowork­er about a side hus­tle.

Twen­ty min­utes lat­er, she had fresh career ideas and a new office ally.

Her cowork­er left think­ing Sarah was amaz­ing.

What did Sarah say? Not much.

What did she do? She lis­tened. With pres­ence, not per­for­mance.

4. When Peo­ple Feel Heard, They Remem­ber You

Being a leg­endary con­ver­sa­tion­al­ist isn’t about daz­zling lines or epic sto­ries.

It’s about cre­at­ing a space where some­one else feels:

✅ Seen

✅ Heard

✅ Val­ued

✨ Talk-Show Tammy’s Rule #1: You don’t need per­fect words—you just need to make some­one feel like their words are worth lean­ing in for.

The FUNome­nal™ Finale: Make Peo­ple Feel Seen, Heard, Val­ued.

✍️ Note to Self: The best talk­ers are the best askers. Make it your mis­sion to unlock someone’s pas­sion—and you’ll both walk away with some­thing unfor­get­table.

— Con­tent cre­at­ed with human heart & AI assis­tance ✨ —

About Tony Brig­mon

Tony Brig­mon | Speak­er—Emcee | TonyBrigmon.com

Tony Brig­mon is a par­ty ani­mal. He’s been known to stay up well past nine o’clock drink­ing root beer and telling G‑rated jokes. Sure, the neigh­bors com­plain, but that does­n’t stop him. Because Tony is seri­ous about hav­ing fun. Seri­ous fun, with seri­ous results.

As a result of his ques­tion­able spelling skills, Tony learned at an ear­ly age that his name spelled back­ward is “YNOT.” As in, “YNOT take a clos­er look at his book?” Or, “YNOT smile when you should be cry­ing?”

Tony was a South­west Air­lines “Insid­er” and the for­mer “face” of their renowned cul­ture as their offi­cial “Ambas­sador of Fun” dur­ing their Gold­en Era. At South­west Air­lines, “fun” was the pow­er of “pos­i­tiv­i­ty” that helped cat­a­pult a small car­ri­er into a force that changed the air­line indus­try.

Today, Tony is a pop­u­lar speak­er, emcee, and author of The FUNom­e­nal™ Work­place. (FUNom­e­nal™ is pro­nounced the same as phe­nom­e­nal but it’s a lot more FUN.)

For­mer CEO of South­west Air­lines, Howard Put­nam, says, “Tony has a gift for blend­ing fun and cap­tur­ing ideas in a man­ner that sticks for audi­ences.” Tony’s friends say that no one should have so much fun while sober. Tony’s wife said she has had about all the cheer­ful­ness she can stand.

“Fun” trans­formed this author’s work and life. YNOT dis­cov­er if the seri­ous pow­er of fun can trans­form the next 30 sec­onds of your day or 30 years of your life?

YNOT arrange to have Tony Brig­mon teach you and your team how the pow­er of fun can help you get more done, bring out the best in every­one, and make you irre­sistibly attrac­tive in your com­mu­ni­ca­tion with oth­ers. You can do this. So, YNOT?