MAD Things Conversation Starters

There’s one question that can ruin a first (or any) dating/courtship—even if they’re not “official” dates—and guarantee a female’s first (or initial) impressions of you is a negative one: “What’s something you hate about yourself?” Women don’t want to hear that, so start with things they do like about themselves.

Talk About What You Love

When you go on dates, it’s a good idea to talk about topics that interest you both. A great conversation starter is something that brings you closer together, such as hobbies or shared experiences. Sharing what you love could lead to new connections between you and someone special. Talk about things you enjoy doing together and see where things take you. Don’t expect too much from the person you’re with because you may not find out much about them until you’ve had a chance to build a rapport and open up to one another. Learn more about you together through conversations that allow you to connect on deeper levels.

Speaking of hobbies, does he/she like travelling? Does she dream of visiting new countries or cities? What was her last vacation? Is she hoping to visit Greece someday soon? Have they ever travelled abroad before? Conversing about past travels allows you to get to know someone better by hearing about where they’ve been and what excites them. You can also explore common interest areas, such as whether both of you enjoy watching movies or if you’re into hiking. You’ll be able to find out whether these two people would make a great match. After talking about current or previous trips, you may be curious about how much money it takes to fly around the world, so you ask how much his next holiday is costing him.

If you could take off immediately and travel wherever you wanted, where would you want to visit?

Who doesn’t love traveling? Hermits, that’s who. Whether she hates trains, cars, buses, or just feels claustrophobic (or maybe she’s allergic), that’s a good indication that she has no interest in leaving her home town. So ask about why she wants to stay where she is and if she can see herself living there someday. You could also ask her for advice on how to improve your relationship so that you guys can go out somewhere together soon.

State the obvious.

If you’re unsure how to start a conversation with someone, comment about something in their environment; for example, ask if they’ve seen any interesting paintings lately. If you want to start your meeting off right, consider asking them whether they’ve ever visited the coffee shops, parks, or anywhere else where you’re planning to meet for the first time, suggests Carbino. You might be able to get some clues by looking at their body language—or lack thereof—and watching them closely to see if they seem receptive to talking about anything beyond the weather.

Have you visited this city before?

Where do you live? Is there anything special about this place?

Where are some of your favorite places around here?

Unpacking someone else’s ideas of a “good” lifestyle is not always easy.

Everyone has an idea of what their ideal life would be, but everyone has different ideas about what they want. So if we ask someone “What is your ideal life?” we might get a variety of answers. But when we ask them “What is your ideal snack?” there is one answer that most people have in common.

“Cloud says a helpful exercise can be asking yourself these questions: ‘What do I want to experience in our relationship?'” (Note: For people who aren’t familiar with Cloud, he’s a famous celebrity dating coach.) “And then, after thinking about it, ask yourself: ‘Do the things that are gonna make them happy ring true for you?'”

What if you could tap into someone’s core motivations and determine whether you might enjoy spending time together? Are they a great listener, a good communicator, creative, playful, fun to be around, easygoing, or an excellent cook? You can start by asking yourself these questions before meeting someone new. Or you can do what I did: Go out and get to know people who share your same interests. Look for common threads throughout society—people who like to spend time outside, those who like to volunteer, etc.—and find ways to connect. After all, life is too short to not take advantage of opportunities to meet interesting people.

What are some life goals of yours?

What values are important to you?

Are there any particular causes you support?

Are you a pessimist or optimist? Idealist or realist?

Opening Lines That MAD Dating Experts Swear By

“There’s something wrong with my phone. It doesn’t have your number in it.”

On Bumble, the ball is put completely into your court. You don’t wait for others to come up with witty opening lines. Instead, you decide whether you want to start the conversation.

If you want to start a conversation with someone, you could just ask an open-ended question, but if you really want to get a good response from someone, check out their profile first so that you know something about them, and then ask a question that demonstrates some genuine interest in their personal story.

Keep an eye out for authenticity; don’t pretend you want something because you think someone else might respond well, or say things just to impress people. Instead, keep the conversation authentic by asking questions that feel honest and feel like they’re coming straight from a genuine place.

Don’t worry if he/she doesn’t reply; move on to someone else instead. There will always be another person for you to meet on Tinder or Bumble, so why spend any time talking to one who isn’t giving you their full attention?

Conversation Starters for Any Situation

Let’s start out with some conversation starters. They’re really fun because they can help to ease into your interactions with others rather quickly. With these we’ve got some great questions to ask someone and some great answers to give them to! They’re also better than the standard, cliche, where are you from? and what do you do questionnaires, which are so lame! Use these instead.

Captivate, I discuss each phase of an interaction in detail. During your initial interactions with people, the first five minutes will be most important. If you’re looking at creating a long-term relationship, then starting off by socializing in person is important. Finally, for the next five weeks, remember that the best way to get good results is to be bold and not follow the crowd. Remember that the number one thing that determines success is confidence. Ask questions that go deeper than surface level answers. If you are not real, the majority of conversations can hover on the surface-level topics. It’s refreshing to talk about more meaningful areas of our lives. It’s true, some of those conversation starters may be a bit forward, but if the conversation is progressing well, I encourage you to try them. You never know what you will find out!

The most successful professionals know how to both be productive at work and be likable. How can you do this? You have to use the right conversation starters to open genuine, authentic conversations in real life.

So you’ve ordered your drink and found a nice table. You know how to flirt, but do you know what to talk about on a first date? The best conversation starters for dating are ones that can give both of you an insight into the other’s personality and life.time to help you think of great conversation starters. These are really helpful to have in your back pocket.

Whenever there is an upcoming holiday or special event, I use these as a basis for fun and light-hearted conversations. If there is ANY holiday or event coming up, be sure to ask about it!

January:What’s your New Year’s Resolution?
February: Do you usually celebrate Valentine’s Day?, Do you think it is a real or fake holiday?
March:“I went to the coolest Irish bar last St. Patrick’s Day. Doing anything fun this year for it?”
April:How long did you believe in the Easter Bunny?
July:What’s the best fireworks display you’ve seen on the 4th of July?
October:What’s the best Halloween costume you ever had? Or Do you like haunted houses or scary rides?November:What’s your favorite Thanksgiving Dinner food?
December:How does your family celebrate the holidays?

To everyone else:“What was the best (or worst) birthday gift you ever received?” This is a great one to do around a dinner table. The answers are always hilarious.

Tinder can be a challenge to having deep conversations — but it can be done! The best conversation starters on Tinder or other dating apps isn’t always a cheesy pick-up line. Instead, you want an opener that works twofold.

You want to communicate that you have taken the time to read their profile and learned something about them, and also to tell the other person something about yourself. It’s a win-win, and the conversation will flow naturally from there once you have found some common ground.

If you’re courageous enough to drop the dull, conventional responses and venture into the realm of uncertainty, you’ll probably have the opportunity to ask your own question. You might not come out of this unscathed, but if you’ve done something really brave, you won’t care. After all, you’re doing something much bigger than yourself — you’re creating an experience and sharing it with others, whether they realize it yet or not.

Remember: Be bold. Ask the deep stuff. If you are not real, the majority of conversations can hover on the surface-level topics. It’s refreshing to talk about more meaningful areas of our lives. It’s true, some of those conversation starters may be a bit forward, but if the conversation is progressing well, I encourage you to try them. You never know what you will find out

Tinder can be a challenge to having deep conversations — but it can be done! The best conversation starters on Tinder or other dating apps isn’t always a cheesy pick-up line. Instead, you want an opener that works twofold. You want to communicate that you have taken the time to read their profile and learned something about them, and also to tell the other person something about yourself. It’s a win-win, and the conversation will flow naturally from there once you have found some common ground.

Open a conversation on Tinder, and modify it to show your own personality.

You just have to fill in the blank:You have a ___? Me too! Tell me more.

Anything you have that is similar to the person you are interested in is a great conversation starter on Tinder. We like people like us. This is known as the similarity-attraction effect.

Fill in the blank with your similarity, and then ask for more details.

Hey – you’re a _______? (Hitman, maybe) That sounds really interesting. What’s your favorite thing about your job?

People love talking about themselves. Keep this in mind when you’re starting conversations online too. People are more likely to respond to you if you ask a question. It goes without saying, but modify this conversation starter depending on their profile.

Sorry if this is a bit forward, but I’m going to try out that new _____ that opens downtown next week–would you like to come?

Straight to the point, this conversation opener makes it clear that you’re interested in a genuine relationship and would like to meet in real life. Make sure to keep your language casual and friendly, and you’ll ace it.

Hey, how is your week / weekend going?

This one is nice and simple, but can open a conversation to a lot of different directions–perhaps they’ve had a weekend stuck in the office working, or they’ve had an amazing week of sales. It’s important to give them some information to reply to, too.

Any and all of these conversation starters will work for you, if you are courageous enough to drop the boring ones and get to the good ones. Most people are so relieved to have you start and continue the conversation anyway! Remember, you also want to have YOUR answers to these questions ready to go. If someone doesn’t know their answer, you can jump in with yours to make them feel more comfortable.

Conversation Starters for Dating that Spark Connections

We use our conversation starters when we want to create an initial connection with someone.

If you don’t want to be rejected when trying to start up a relationship or make a business contact, then it is important to be sure not to make any obvious errors.

Of course, you want to get together with them in person, but you should start off by messaging them online and then follow up offline (e.g., through phone calls).

Each of our questions are for different stages in your relationship, so choose the one that fits best with where you’re at right now.

A couple of the questions are relevant to the situation that we are all in right now, having to “stay in.”

App-centric Openers

1. I know that everyone talks about this on dating apps, but if loving “The Office” is wrong, then I don’t want to be Dwight.

2. So, come here often?

3. You know, I’ve been waiting for you to message me, but I guess I’ll take one for the team.

4. Do you believe in love at first swipe, or should we unmatch and then match again?

5. Obviously, we’d meet on an app — because you’re a total snack.

6. Does swiping through this dating app count as “exercise”?

7. Do you need me to call the fire department? I bet your phone is full of matches.

8. Who’s the person in your first photo? My grandmother was asking.

9. That dog looks so cute, can you give them my number?

10. We can say we met on Spotify because you’re the hottest new single.

11. Glad we matched when we did, my thumb was getting tired!

12. Two wrongs don’t make right, but two rights make a perfect match.

13. Some people think with their hearts, some with their heads, but I’m glad we both think with our thumbs.

14. Hmm, I think your first message to me must have gotten lost in cyberspace… It’s OK. I’ll send you one.

15. If you had to describe my profile in three words, what would you choose? And why would they be iconic, perfect, and flawless?

Play a Board Game or Card Game

You might be surprised by how frequently the best way to get things started with someone new is actually going out somewhere and doing something together.

On a fairly boring Tuesday evening, grab a beer (or two) at the local pub after working hours and enjoy some company.

If you don’t have either Scrabble or a card game handy, grab one from somewhere nearby. Let yourself get competitive, and see how the other person handles it. After all, you might want to know if your date is a good sport or not.

What to expect:

You’ll learn something unexpected.

You’ll get some laughs.

You’ll find it much, much easier to bond.

You’ll create teaching moments.

You’ll have meaningful (and fun) quality time together.