JAUNTY BLOG

We write amazing things about building confidence, making friends and much more

How To Be A Good Mentor 

Mentors have the opportunity to make a real difference in someone's life, and good mentors listen, guide, and support their mentee as they navigate their path.
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How To Make Friends As An Adult: 11 Strategies That Work

Learn effective strategies for making friends as an adult. Overcome challenges, expand your social circle, and build meaningful lasting connections at any age.
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Public Speaking: 91 Tips I Wish I Knew Before Presenting

Fear of public speaking or speech anxiety is prevalent, and triggers about 75% of us. But like all social phobias, it's a set of skills you can master.
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How To Flirt Over Text: A Step By Step Guide With Examples

Flirting over text? Whether you're trying to make new connections or strengthen existing relationships, learning the art of flirty messaging and banter is key.
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How To Improve Conversation Skills: 21 Ways That Really Work

Not everyone is a natural when it comes to conversation skills. For many of us, it takes practice, effort, and patience to become a great conversationalist.
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31 Ways Social Skills Classes Help Socially Anxious Adults

Social skills classes for adults enhance communication, boost self confidence, improve your relationships, resolve conflicts, and lead to professional growth.
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How Do Busy Software Engineers Manage Work-Life Balance?

Work life balance as a software engineer is not only about productivity at work but also important for a good social life, mental health and overall happiness.
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What Are Social Skills? Real Life Examples & Why They Matter

Good social skills help you understand social cues, avoid socially awkward situations, express feelings and needs, and successfully function in society.
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33 Flirting Signs: How To Know Someone's Flirting With You

It's not always easy to spot the signs of flirting. Know what to look for, avoid misunderstandings, gauge interest, and learn how to respond to flirting.
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Rebound Relationships: Are They Bad And What Are The Signs? 

Rebound relationships can be complex, often serving as a coping mechanism post-breakup. Learn how to spot rebounds and navigate them with Jaunty's guidance.
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How To Network: Tips For Networking With Anyone Without Fear

Learning how to network can help you overcome social anxiety and discover that introversion can be a secret super power. Gain confidence with our expert tips.
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39 Relationship Deal Breakers: How To Identify The Red Flags

Learn to recognize relationship deal breakers & red flags to create healthy boundaries, a happier love life, and avoid wasting your time on emotional vampires.
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Dating After Divorce: How & When To Get Back Out There

Starting to date again after a divorce can be challenging, but Jaunty's got more expert advice to help you navigate the dating scene and build new connections.
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Why Saying "No" is Important: Assertive Skills for a Better Life

Discover the power of assertiveness to improve relationships, mental health, and growth, and learn the top reasons why being able to say "No" is so important.
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How To Learn From Anyone, Even Kim Kardashian!

Learning from others is the key to your personal growth and improved social skills. Discover how to gain insights through social observation, empathy, and more.
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Negging: How To Identify & Deal With Emotional Manipulation

Negging is a form of emotional manipulation where a person gives backhanded compliments or subtly insulting remarks to undermine another person's confidence.
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How To Get Over An Ex: Better Yourself For New Relationships

Getting over an ex can be a challenging and emotional journey, but with the right mindset and approach you can successfully move on and create a happier future.
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Fishing For Compliments? Stop Seeking External Validation

Fishing for compliments is a bad social habit but you can take control. Understand its impact on communication and you can learn to stop fishing for validation.
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Outcome Independence And Letting Go: Good, Bad, Who Knows?

Experience vs result. If you had to pick between the two, which would you choose? Outcome independence and letting go can help you find the healthy balance.
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Become Friends With Serendipity: Spark Lasting Connections

Serendipity can make meeting someone by chance feel like pure magic. There’s a thrill to meeting someone special on a plane, or during a lunch break at a park.
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Social Cues For Socially Inept Adults: How To Read The Room

Feeling socially inept? Enhance your communication & interpersonal skills by learning the art of reading social cues with our expert guidance.
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Types Of Flirting: What's Your Favorite Flirting Style?

Learn how to use different types of flirting styles to build attraction and connection by adjusting your approach to the other person's boundaries and feelings.
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How To Build Rapport: The Key To Strong Relationships

Discover the importance of knowing how to build rapport for establishing relationships in life. Learn this vital social skill to connect with everyone you meet.
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How To Be More Approachable

Developing approachability is a key step in fostering positive relationships with others. It involves the willingness to accept and encourage communication and interaction.
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How To Be Funny In Conversation & Develop A Sense Of Humor

Are you tired of feeling like you're the only one in the room who isn't in on the joke?
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Social Activities for Adults: 33 Ideas & How To Get Started

Learn how you can participate in social activities for adults, meet people and make long-lasting friendships. Discover the benefits of staying socially active.
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Social Skills Coaching: Yes It's A Thing And We All Need It

As our lives become increasingly intertwined with technology, it's important to ensure we don't lose touch with the most essential thing: human connection.
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Social Skills For Teens: When Should Parents Worry About It?

Social skills for teens are essential for their success. Learn how to teach them empathy, self-esteem, and how to carry on a conversation, and how to socialize.
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Preconceived Notions Are Hijacking Your Social Life

Here are the top 5 examples of preconceived notions that hijack people’s social lives.
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How social skills can help mental health

Healthy relationships (by choice) have become a way to reduce stress and gain emotional and mental stability by creating healthier social circles, social independence, and confidence.
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Ultimate Guide for Learning Social Skills

Out of all the different skills and knowledge that one can acquire, learning social skills may be one of the most important. After spending 15 years studying social skills here is everything I've learned summed up into 5 points.
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Why your fantasy social life may be bad for you

Focus on building relationships that are meaningful, supportive, and fulfilling.
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How to Flirt: The Playful Art of Spark

‍7 steps to help you be a better flirt
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5 Ways Social Skills Classes Can Help You Succeed (even online!)

Social skills classes can teach you everything you need to know to make friends and network effectively
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Founder & Solo Entrepreneur Socialization Tips: How to Keep Your Skills Sharp‍

Here are 5 things that you can do right now to kickstart your social life and social skills.
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Why People Don't Learn Social Skills: The Truth About Social Anxiety

In this blog post, we will explore the truth about social anxiety and why people don't learn social skills. We will also provide tips on how you can meet new people and improve your social skills!
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How to build a strong social circle in 5 steps

Here are 5 ways to help build your social circle. These will work even if you recently moved to a new city, got separated, or are starting a new career.
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5 ways traveling helps your social skills

Hola! Shalom! Hello! After traveling myself and speaking with other travelers, these are some of the top ways I have seen travel help people's social skills.
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Why we want to meet new people but don't actually do it

We crave connection but rejection hurts...
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7 Ways To Improve Your Social Skills (and why it's the best time to learn them now!)

Here are some things we usually don't think about improving...
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The secret to changing someone’s mind

Our tribal instincts kick in, and our emotional brains light up on fire when someone else refutes our core beliefs.
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What's so funny?

Kurt Cobain sang, "I wish I was like you, easily amused" in the song "All Apologies". That line always had me thinking about my amusement level vs. others’. In my late teens, Kurt took up half a wall of posters and pictures in my room.
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I wrote a song

Almost 10 years ago I got hired by the Regional Director of Merrill Lynch. He was California's head guy at the company. A tall, skinny dude with a charming southern accent, he was extremely high status, internally and externally.
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Don't Drop the Ball

A great first step to making positive changes in our lives is taking an honest look at where we're at and figuring out what we want to change. Every New Year's Eve, the ball drops. Are you dropping the ball in your life? Remember, the ball is in your court. 
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Don’t be afraid of alone time

I love meeting new people, joking around with strangers, and connecting with people I care about. But as social as I am, alone time is still vital.
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Get Curious

How are you doing at life? Where are you right now? Kicking some ass? Struggling a bit? Somewhere in between?
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How to Talk with Billionaires

A lot of us can feel a bit intimidated by uber powerful people, but they’re just people. Learn how it's done from a former professional social butterfly.
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Curiosity didn't kill the human

Raise your hand if you like people watching. I love people watching. I can't see you but you’d probably be raising your hand if I were there. Most people I meet like people watching.
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Hot Steam and a Door Closed in my Face

Summer camp was amazeballs. Camp Grounded, up in Mendocino, at this summer camp for adults, we were unplugged for four days.
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Are you a masochist?

What's your suffering? Mine are self criticism, health paranoia, and some insomnia/fatigue.
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Surprising ways to get closer to someone

It's said that during jousting matches in the Middle Ages, knights wore the handkerchief of a lady in the king's court around their arms. "This one goes out to the one I love," in the words of R.E.M's Michael Stipe - basically dedicating the jousting match to a special lady. These days we post our affections on Facebook, and it's been a while since I've seen anyone joust. But the expression's still with us. Wearing your heart on your sleeve is all about being transparent and open with your emotions. That can be scary and a lot of us try to protect ourselves by being more guarded emotionally.
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50 Shades of Jaunty

“Most awkward date ever,” my friend told me. On a first date she’d gone to see “Fifty Shades of Grey.” She said they were both really uncomfortable and couldn’t wait for the lights to come up.
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Damn Patience

I had my birthday earlier this month and while I’ve still got a ways to go, I feel good about where I’m at and where I’m headed. But who knows where that is? It’s cool to look back on my life so far and and see how I’ve grown along the way.
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Why I'm in the south

We can choose these communities. The greater our social intelligence skills, the better able we are to consciously surround ourselves with people who help us thrive. How? Because the better your people skills, the more you realize you can approach and create meaningful connections with anyone. That gives you a powerful abundance mindset. 
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Reset your Life Here

We can totally change our behaviors and environment. At Jaunty, the school for social intelligence, we teach people how to become more aware of their behaviors, explore new ways of interacting with others and build meaningful connections. We can overcome our fears and social anxieties. We can learn how to approach strangers, build rapport, play with humor, and feel confident in any social situation. We can learn to be more assertive. 
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Waaa! Are You Crying or Cutting Onions?

2014 was a fucking epic year for me. Jaunty had its best year so far. I pushed my limits physically and emotionally. I’ve been in my best shape ever
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Family Flip

Hopefully you’re looking forward to Thanksgiving. Amazing food, fun stories, catching up with good people, and some quirky and interesting traditions... Sound familiar? No? Okay.
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Apartment Hunting, Jaunty-style

A swarm of anxious people surrounded the woman with the clipboard in the darkened bedroom. She handed out applications and people hunched outside on the stairs, filing them out.
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Dare to be you

Most people do their best to conform and fit in… like it’s a good thing. But when it comes to being memorable, blending in spells certain death.
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Is Being Jaded A Good Thing?

"First, I wanted to get rid of this feeling. What happened to my old enthusiasm? But as I read more and re-framed it, I saw it in another light. The best thing about feeling jaded is that you can think long-term. Your emotions can be more even-keeled and you’re not chasing the quick high of a new experience. In other words you won’t get temporarily fooled."
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Fight, Flight, or…Something Else

"I love the idea of creating the results you want by leading with your mindset. Had I fallen into the mindset that this woman wanted a confrontation, I probably would have done the passive thing and had a negative interaction with her."
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Why I don’t want to go to the gym

"A lot of us feel social anxiety around approaching people we don’t know. (“What if they don’t want to talk to me?” “What if I don’t know what to say?”) At Jaunty we give our students homework to go out and practice the social intelligence skills they need to meet new people."
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Make it easy

"This is a big part of Jaunty’s approach to our social intelligence course. Immerse yourself with accountability and accessibility until it becomes second nature, it might even become easy. Try it out."
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Your Loss

"Of course the ultimate goal is not to lose relationships, but sometimes this can’t always be the case. So get out there and pay attention and dig up extra emotional elements in moments you have with people. These are things like added laughter, adrenaline, touch, and love. In case you lose a relationship, as hard as it may be, you really can also hedge it with positives from other relationships. "
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Blame Me

"I was having a deep conversation with a new friend in the middle of a Nevada desert and he was telling me his life story, it was a story of success, and adventure and a life most people only dream of. Later on in our conversation he mentioned, very matter of fact like, that he overcame two dark periods of his life of alcohol abuse and a strained family relationship."
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Talk People Up!

"But what happened next made me feel great. I saw my buddy and he gave me a warm hug and a loud hello and we all poured ourselves a drink from the rum concoction he made in a glass jug. It was delicious. He introduced my girlfriend and me to a group of his friends who I didn’t know. A minute or two later one of the women said loudly, “OHH this is the Eric I heard about.” We all laughed and exchanged some fun stories and the night really took off from there."
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Too Late, Baby?

"For instance, a 25 year old can ask, “Do I want to be a 60 year old with or without offspring?,” which is different than the more difficult question like, “Do I want kids?” This person may realize they would love the last 30-40 years actually having kids and grandchildren come visit them."
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Social skills will affect your whole year

"Thanks for really believing that social skills are learnable. This Jaunty journey is teaching me that no matter what personality type someone may have, our communication skills can always be enhanced and worked on."
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Light them up!

"Approaches are hard, go reward and enjoy them. There is not enough of that in these days. It means someone found you valuable in some way, so celebrate it."
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Improving your Monday Conversation

"So try creating a little cork board in your head where you can pin recent experiences so you can be open and vulnerable automatically, which will make it easier for the other person to do the same in your presence."
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Get off on caring

"As it’s useless to try to change our natural biological or emotional reactions there is something we can manage that will change the way you interact with people and the depth of your social wealth. It’s your care level."
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That person in the mirror

"How can this person sustainably contribute to a bigger cause if they can’t have a normal office conversation?"
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How Quarantine Romantically Nudged Us

"The pandemic has changed dating. This includes the way in which we are getting to know each other. The courting process, conversations we are having on first dates, and the mediums we are using to connect (I’m looking at you Zoom!) would make our ancestors dizzy."
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How Quarantine Romantically Nudged Us (Part 2)

“The current situation made me realize that I need to reevaluate my romantic life.”
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Where have all your work friends gone?

"Relationships can be made or strengthened faster than you think. At Jaunty we say it takes six weeks to arm yourself with the social skills tools needed. Then it takes six months to start seeing those relationships really blossom."
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Are you more dark humor, or silly?

“Heritability sets the course but environment and behavior strongly influences the final destination.”
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