This is Help Wanted, the show that makes your work work for you. I'm Jason Pfizer, editor-in-chief of Entrepreneur magazine.

And I'm money expert Nicole Lappin. On Tuesdays, Jason and I answer the helpline and help

callers solve their work problems. And on Thursdays, I give you one way to improve your work and build a career or company you love.

And it starts now.

When you talk with someone, you should have four goals.

Number one, earn their trust. Number two, show

that you're listening. Number three, show that you understand them. And number four, remember

what they said. Now, here's the fun part. You can advance all of that with

one simple strategy. It's a formula that I learned as a reporter and now used

throughout my life. It deepens personal conversations and advances

professional ones. And here is the formula. It's really simple. Their thoughts Plus 1.

Today I'm going to explain what that means and why it works. But first, let's talk about their thoughts.

You know, I said the formula is their thoughts plus one.

Let's take the first part of that.

Their thoughts.

Consider what happens at a restaurant.

Trust me.

Just stay with me here.

Consider what happens at a restaurant.

A server takes your order and then

repeats it back to you, right? You know, you're like, I'll have the lomain and I'll have the

chicken with broccoli and the waiter says, okay, we've got a low man, we've got a chicken and broccoli.

...