How To Be Quick Witted In Any Conversation (Without Overthinking It)
VVinh Giang
Adult EducationManagementMental Health
Transcript
00:00:00I usually think of things too late in order for you to be quick, in order for you to be humorous,
00:00:05in order for you to be creative in the moment. The most important thing I would say here is
00:00:09mastery over the foundations. And what are the foundations? Well, you have your vocal foundations,
00:00:16which are made up of rate of speech, volume, melody, tonality, and the pause. And then you
00:00:20have your body language foundations. This is your hand gestures, posture, eye contact, facial
00:00:25expressions and movement. Because if you're busy in the moment thinking about how to use your hand
00:00:30gestures, how to use your voice, what to do with your facial expressions to be humorous, if you're
00:00:36busy thinking about the skill, well, then you're not going to be able to be quick in the moment.
00:00:42And if you relate it to the example of driving a car, imagine you're driving a car, there are some
00:00:48people who are good drivers. And when they're good drivers, it means they have mastery over the
00:00:52foundations. So when they're driving, and then a driver in front of them does something random and
00:00:57sporadic, they're able to dodge that person. Now, if you inspect the person who crashes versus the
00:01:03person who's able to quickly dodge, well, the first foundational thing is the person who was able to
00:01:08dodge, they had more skill, they had better mastery over the foundations. So let's just use that as the
00:01:15metaphor as we're diving into this. So if you master this, you're going to now have skill and mastery over
00:01:21the foundations, allowing you to dodge, allowing you to be quick, allowing you to be humorous in the
00:01:26moments you want to be humorous in. The second thing here is, you want to be able to feel the
00:01:31following, you want to feel calm, you want to feel comfortable, and you also want to feel clear.
00:01:38And I mean that by clear minded. And the only way you're going to feel those things, the only way
00:01:44you're going to feel like you're going to feel comfortable is if you have mastery over the foundations.
00:01:52And that's one of the wonderful benefits that once I already know I have these skills, I know what to
00:01:57do with these things, I know how to manipulate my voice, these things become second nature to me.
00:02:01Now I'm in a place where I'm actually more present. And the reason I'm present is because I'm not up in
00:02:05my head. Whereas think about what most people are thinking about while they're speaking up on stage,
00:02:11speaking in a meeting. Are they present or are they in their heads? Often they're in their heads.
00:02:16I mean, often they're not even thinking about the delivery mechanism. Often they're thinking about,
00:02:20oh my goodness, I hope everybody likes what I'm going to say. Oh my goodness, I hope I'm structuring
00:02:23what I'm saying right. Oh my goodness, I hope that I'm not coming across being rude. I hope they like
00:02:27my idea. I hope they don't ask me a question that I don't know the answer to. So when you are that much
00:02:32in your head, you are not present. When you're not present, well then now you've got no chance of being able
00:02:37to pick up on something that somebody else said. And then very quickly in that moment, deciding to
00:02:41move into a humorous moment to lighten the mood. You're not able to do that. You have no chance.
00:02:48And as you master the foundations, you'll start to find yourself feeling more calm, more comfortable,
00:02:52and you'll be more clear minded. And on top of that, you'll be present. The other thing I'll bring
00:02:56your attention to, the final thing is the art of reviewing and reflecting. The art of reviewing and
00:03:03reflecting. And this is an art form because often what happens is when people do something wrong,
00:03:08they often don't review and reflect on how they could have done it better. This is actually a skill
00:03:13and a habit that you must form. Now as an entrepreneur, as a content creator, as someone who's been in the
00:03:19business world for quite a long time, this is one of the key reasons why I believe I'm successful. So
00:03:24it's a habit that I've already built. But for most who don't go down the path of entrepreneurship and go
00:03:28down that path seriously, they don't develop that habit, that second nature, whereas I've got that
00:03:33second nature, right? So if you're new to this, you've got to develop this. And it goes all the way back
00:03:39down to high school. And I remember this. In high school, there were kids who, when they do a test and
00:03:45they fail, the moment they get the test back and they failed, they don't even look through their test. And then
00:03:50there were kids who, when they get their test and they failed, they would look through the test and work out
00:03:54why they failed. So they don't fail moving forward into the future. I was one of the kids who never
00:03:59looked back at my test. That's why I kept failing in school. And then I thought to myself, oh, I'm just
00:04:04dumb. It wasn't that I was dumb. It was that nobody encouraged me in the classroom, including the teacher
00:04:10to look back through my old tests and look at why I actually failed. So they just hand out the test and
00:04:15they go, all right, everyone, onto the next topic. We never got taught the art of reflecting and reviewing
00:04:20on the outcomes we've achieved in our lives. It's again, one of the reasons why I believe I've been
00:04:25able to find more happiness in my life, because at the end of every year, I review and I reflect
00:04:30upon how I went with my life in the past 12 months. I call this process recalibrate. So I always
00:04:37recalibrate. What did I do that I liked? What did I do that I didn't like? What happened that made me
00:04:41feel sad? I look among all of these things and I'm looking for patterns and clues as to what I should be
00:04:47doing more of in 2026 and less of in 2026. So again, it's the art of reviewing and reflecting.
00:04:53So to really link this into what you're saying now, you know, Vin, I always think of things too late.
00:04:58That's all right. What you want to do is if you have a meeting with three of your team members,
00:05:06and then through that meeting, you clearly missed out on some opportunities. I wouldn't review and reflect
00:05:12three days later, I would review and reflect right after that meeting. I'd create just a five to 10
00:05:17minute time slot and I would just sit down and think, what could I have done better? Ah, I could
00:05:22have done this better. I've could have done that better. And the more you do that, the more you
00:05:27review and you reflect, you then start to get to a point where I'll draw this for you. So it makes
00:05:33more sense too. So in the beginning, as you're starting out with this skill, okay, so think of a timeline
00:05:36scale. This is the scale of time. Okay. This is from the point you do the meeting. And this is just time
00:05:43moving forward into the future. Okay. So what happens is in the beginning of your journey, you're
00:05:48going to have the meeting right here. And then one hour later, you review and you reflect. So review and
00:05:56reflect. And then you think to yourself, Oh, I just got the idea here. Damn it. Why didn't I think of this
00:06:02idea here? And you start to beat yourself up and you go, Oh, damn it. Why didn't I? But as you build
00:06:07the skill, as you build the ability to review and reflect, and you do it more and more and more and
00:06:13more and more, soon enough, what starts to happen is while you're in the meeting, in the moment,
00:06:20you'll start to think of the things that you used to think of here. Right? But now you're going to
00:06:25start to think of the actual things to say, the humorous things to say in the present, in the meeting.
00:06:31That's the power of building the skill. Whereas most people never build this skill. So as you start to
00:06:37review and reflect five minutes after experiences, five minutes after experiences, and you really build
00:06:41that habit, soon, instead of being able to think of the ideas an hour after the meeting, five minutes
00:06:46after the meeting, in the moment, while you're talking to the person, while they're saying words
00:06:52to you, you immediately go, Oh, there's the idea. And then you say it. And then you start to be able
00:06:59to get the outcome you desire. But again, it's a skill. It's a skill. And that skill all stems again,
00:07:05from the foundation of you, first of all, mastery over the foundations. Then after that, you'll feel
00:07:10more calm, more clear, more comfortable, you'll be more present. Then after that, you'll be able to
00:07:15build the skill of reviewing and reflecting. And these things slowly, slowly, but surely help you get to the
00:07:21point where you're able to do what you perceive me to be doing, you see me doing, which is being quick in the
00:07:27in the spot on the moment.