The flight attendant greeting everyone on my Alaska Airlines flight Saturday night couldn’t have been nicer. She said hi to everyone boarding the plane, and every single passenger smiled and returned a greeting – even though we’d been delayed an hour.

The interactions weren’t long and often just a “Hello” but they made a noticeable difference.

You can have the same impact this week in greeting colleagues and engaging in small talk. Your interactions don’t have to be more than one word, but if you’re thinking about small talk these sports topics can help.

Just a reminder that the way you talk about the outcome of a game is part of your personal brand. You might separate your fandom from who are you are work, but that’s not necessarily how others see it.

It doesn’t matter if you liked the outcome or if you agreed with the ref's calls, hated the halftime show or think the money spent on Super Bowl commercials is a waste. Choose your words carefully in how you characterize the Big Game because it all points back to you in the end.

Speaking of your personal brand and conversation skills, I'm launching a new coaching program in March called Confident Conversations. It's 30 days of conversation skills and encouragement. Early Bird pricing of 40% off ends Wednesday. 

Here are a few additional conversation starters if you want more than the Super Bowl to talk about this week.

Who do you have this weekend, Eagles or Chiefs?

When the best teams in the NFL duke it out Sunday in the Super Bowl there will be plenty of conversation around Patrick Mahomes and the Chiefs quest to become the first team in NFL history to win three straight Super Bowls. As for the Eagles it’s a chance to avenge a Super Bowl loss to the Chiefs just two years ago.

You know who we won’t be talking about this weekend?

The best quarterbacks in the league based on the numbers. Or the best wide receivers, or the defensive players with the most tackles, sacks or interceptions this year. Because they’re not playing on Sunday. Their teams didn’t make it to the Super Bowl.

Eagles running back Saquon Barkley is the exception. We will be talking about the best running back in the league this year because he finished with the most rushing yards and the highest yards per game average.

You know what this tells me? The numbers don’t speak for themselves. If the...

On occasion I joke about getting “talks too much” on every single report card. On occasion I see other people, usually women, saying the same thing on social media and sharing how those conversation skills led to a successful career. I often add to the conversation and say I was just practicing for my career in broadcasting and as a keynote speaker. What I don’t share is the deep insecurity that comes along with hearing that critique for so many years, and it hasn’t always come from other people. Too often it’s my own inner dialogue that becomes the roadblock.

The fear that I “talked too much” and maybe even was “too much” in general made it easy to follow the advice I got early in my career: it’s best if you don’t say anything and just let your work speak for itself. It’s easily the worst advice, doled out by male colleagues who didn’t know what to do with a woman in the locker room. To be fair, they...

The Super Bowl isn’t just the biggest football game of the year, it’s one of the biggest events of the year period.

Of the 30 most-watched telecasts in the United States, 27 are Super Bowls. Global viewership topped 62 million last year, in addition to the 123 million viewers in the United States. And it’s not just about the game. It’s the parties, the food, the halftime show and the commercials. There’s something for everyone even if you haven’t watched any football this season.

All of that is to say I’m pretty sure your conversation starters are covered with the Big Game, but just in case you’d like a few other items to talk about, this list has you covered.

Did you know that we gained 1 minute and 52 seconds of daylight this month? It’s less than two minutes but it makes a big difference in how your day feels, especially for those of us in the Seattle area dreaming of long summer days.

That little factoid could make for a fun conversation starter this week along with the sports topics listed below. And just like a few seconds of daylight we’re gaining every day, the few seconds spent in small talk and conversation with colleagues can make a big difference.

You’ve got more leeway than you might think.

That was my takeaway after observing a little boy riding his bike yesterday morning. He was happily swerving along the paved path, exploring one side and then the other. After successfully dodging his maneuvers I realized I am the person who would try to ride in a straight line, but there’s a lot more leeway and more to explore than a straight line.

It’s true in our conversations too. Sometimes we get so dialed in and focused on saying the exact right thing we forget there’s a lot more leeway than we might think. We don’t have to be perfect in our conversation skills, just willing to explore.

Perhaps these sports topics can help you do just that.

Are you back in the swing of things? Are you trying to buckle down and get things done?

I totally get it and it’s why I want to remind you an exit strategy is just as important as a plan for how you’re going to initiate conversations.

For me an exit strategy includes a “task” that requires me to physically relocate. As in, “I’m going to eat my lunch and prep for my afternoon meetings at my desk.” Or “I’m going to get some fresh air and walk around the block before returning emails.”

It might not seem like much but it’s easier to extract yourself from a situation or to end a conversation if you’re clear on what comes next for you. Just something to consider after you use these sports conversation starters this week.

The video gives you a pretty good indication, but Seattle Seahawks edge rusher/linebacker Derick Hall has a big personality and we had a lot of fun on this episode of I Cook, You Measure. 

Jambalaya with shrimp and sausage was on the menu and as Derick pointed out, it's helpful to be a little heavy handed with the seasoning so it doesn't just taste like shrimp and rice. 

Here are a few fun facts about the episode

1. Derick Hall is a linebacker for the Seattle Seahawks and was a second-round pick of the Hawks in 2023
2. This episode was taped about 30 minutes after the episode with his teammate Leo Williams. It also happened to be the night of the Mike Tyson fight so everyone was hustling to wrap up and watch the broadcast.
3. It’s hard to believe looking at him on the show but he was born premature, had to be revived at birth, spent a week on life support and five months in the NICU. His experiences and his mom’s example around helping others led Derick...

I promise the people you’re talking to are far more interesting when you set them up to succeed in a conversation. You can do that by offering specific conversation topics as starting points instead of hoping “How are you?” leads to something more than scripted conversational norms.

These sports topics can help with that.