Holiday Small Talk Tips can make a huge difference in how you show up at holiday parties, office events, and family gatherings. If you have ever walked into a festive room and suddenly forgotten how to start a conversation, you are in good company. Research shows almost half of adults dread holiday small talk and a third have skipped a party completely to avoid awkward moments. In this episode, I share practical Holiday Small Talk Tips from my Magnetic Communication tools to help you feel confident, grounded, and genuinely ready to connect.

You will learn how to use the EQ Switch to reduce social anxiety quickly by regulating your nervous system. This simple tool brings your body into calm and helps your brain think clearly, which is especially helpful if you tend to overthink what to say. You can learn more about emotional regulation and communication tools on my blog at sandygerber.com.

We also explore Connection Cues, small non-verbal signals that instantly boost warmth and rapport. You will hear specific examples including the triangle gaze, the Power of E, and how your feet direction can change the feel of a conversation. These cues help people feel safe and seen before you ask a single question.

Inside the episode, I walk you through SET for Success, the foundation of my Holiday Playbook Communication Coaching Program. You will learn how to prepare simple stories, shared experiences, and playful responses to common holiday trigger questions so you can walk into any room feeling prepared instead of pressured.

You will also get practical Holiday Small Talk Tips like easy conversation starters, seasonal questions, and honest yet light prompts that keep conversations flowing naturally. If you want to understand why small talk feels stressful for so many people, you can explore research from the American Psychological Association at apa.org.

Whether you are heading to an office mixer, neighbourhood gathering, or extended family dinner, these Holiday Small Talk Tips will help you feel more relaxed, more yourself, and more connected this season.

Your voice has a vibe, and it’s telling people far more than your words ever could. In this episode of The Magnetic Communication Podcast, Sandy Gerber explores how your tone and pace in communication influence trust, confidence, and connection. Whether you’re leading a meeting, giving feedback, or having a heart-to-heart at home, your voice tells others exactly how safe it is to listen. You’ll learn how speaking too quickly, raising your pitch, or rushing your words can unintentionally trigger defensiveness and how small adjustments of your tone and pace in communication can immediately shift a conversation toward calm, clarity, and trust. Sandy also touches on Albert Mehrabian’s foundational research on tone and body language and how it’s often misunderstood. His work reminds us that when our tone and words don’t match, people believe what they feel from our voice more than what they hear in our words. You’ll also hear why two modern tone habits, uptalk and vocal fry, quietly reduce credibility and connection, even for strong communicators. Sandy shares how to notice these habits and adjust your voice to sound confident, calm, and engaging. By the end of the episode, you’ll understand exactly how to use your tone and pace in communication as emotional intelligence tools to create safety, trust, and connection in every conversation. Because connection isn’t about perfect words. It’s about the energy your voice carries.    

In this episode we talk about emotional intelligence in situationships and dating.

You’ll learn how to use the EQ Switch™ to calm emotional spikes before you react, ThoughtFlow™ to stop looping thoughts that fuel doubt or fear, and the Honest Sandwich™ to express what you feel with clarity and respect.

If you’ve ever found yourself asking “what are we?” or second-guessing every message, this episode will help you move from uncertainty to understanding and attract the kind of love and communication you actually deserve.

In today’s world, most of our conversations don’t happen face-to-face, they happen in writing. It's essential we learn the power of emotional intelligence in written communication And when your message is just words on a screen, your tone, intent, and credibility are all at risk of being misunderstood. Let’s be honest, text and email are where most communication goes sideways. If your message sounds cold, confusing, or like a hostage negotiation, it’s not helping your career or your relationships. In this episode of the Magnetic Communication Podcast, Sandy Gerber shares practical, proven emotional intelligence in written communication tools to help you communicate clearly and confidently in writing, whether it’s an email, Slack message, text, or DM. You'll learn how to communicate clearly and confidently in writing, without sounding like a robot or a jerk. Whether you’re writing a pitch, a complaint, or just asking someone to respond to your fourth unanswered message, this episode is for you. You’ll learn:

• Why tone gets lost in writing and how to avoid common communication traps
• The CLEAR Email Method to help your messages get read (and responded to)
• The Draft and Delay Rule that saved a leader from lighting a fire in a crisis
• Three connection cues you can apply in written messages to build trust and clarity
• What emotional intelligence in written communication looks like in your inbox and your text threads