This is an IHeart podcast.

Welcome to Before Breakfast, a production of IHeart Radio.

Good morning. This is Laura.

Welcome to the Before Breakfast podcast.

Today's tip is to be a hungry listener.

Whether you're talking with a loved one or attending a presentation,

let the speaker feel your desire to hear what they are saying.

You'll help them and probably enjoy the experience more as well.

So there's a wonderful passage in Zora Neal Hurston's novel, Their Eyes Were Watching God,

when two old friends, Janie and Phoebe, are talking after time apart. During this time, Janie had a series of intensely

joyful and heartbreaking experiences, and the narrative voice explains, Phoebe's hungry listening

helped Janie to tell her story. I like that. Janie wants her friend to know what she is experienced and felt, and she wants to process all

that's happened, and Phoebe's hungry listening makes that possible.

I'm sure we've all had similar experiences.

A friend or family member who seems truly interested in what you are saying can help

you make sense of an event or of complicated feelings.

What a gift that is.

But hungry listening isn't just for deep, life-altering conversations.

Good listeners can help anyone communicate more effectively.

I know I have had that experience while giving speeches.

I love to be able to see audience members smiles and nods as they connect with what I am saying.

Inevitably, I wind up making way more eye contact with the smiling, nodding folks than with

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