Janine, I believe more people than you realize have that same challenge. Silence may be golden, but not when you're trying to begin a conversation with a new acquaintance. For advice in this area, I turned to Leil Lowndes (http://www.lowndes.com ), a woman I consider to be the foremost authority in this area.

In her book, "Talking The Winner's Way" (http://www.amazon.com), she suggests "not letting your conversation be exposed defenseless against the two inevitable 'assaults' - 'Where are you from?' and 'What do you do?'"

Leil cites the example, "You're at a convention. Everyone you meet will, of course, ask, 'And where are you from?' If you answer, 'Muscatine, Iowa' or 'Denver, Colorado' what can you expect except a blank stare? You'll receive a panicked look. They're racking their brains thinking, 'What do I say next?'"

Instead, Leil suggests making it easy for them to respond cleverly. You ensure this by "adding an extra sentence or two about your city -- some interesting fact or witty observation - - to bring the asker into the conversation." (Example: I might say, "I'm from Jupiter, Florida, hometown of Burt Reynolds." That really opens the door for conversation.)

Leil goes a step further and says you can specifically gear your extra sentence to the person with whom you're conversing. She urges us to have an interesting fact about your city or town that would be of interest to a business person, a politician, a sports enthusiast, etc. You can also craft your extra sentence for answering the question, "And what do you do for a living?"

I heartily recommend Leil's book, as well as her previous one, "How to Talk to Anybody About Anything." All it takes is a little practice, Janine, and you'll become (and be perceived by others as) a master conversationalist.

Bob Burg http:www.burg.com is author of Endless Referrals: Network Your Everyday Contacts Into Sales, Winning Without Intimidation and The Success Formula.

He has a full line of books, ebooks and CDs from which everyone can grow and prosper. Check them out by going to http:www.burg.com , then click on the link to his online store. Bob also publishes a free weekly ezine to which you can subscribe going to http://www.burg.com/newsletter.html.