There’s a man that we all know. He’s a legend.

A legend in his own mind. Never really went anywhere career wise.

He had friends who traveled the world, while he got the scraps from the world.

He was a harmless guy. He was a sweet guy. But whenever you met him, you’d become a prisoner of his conversation.

He didn’t talk to you, he talked at you. Words just kept hitting you everywhere, from head to toe.

You couldn’t avoid the conversation because he’d corner you.

He’d also be a close talker, like the episode from Seinfeld. So he’d have you there in the corner talking at you the entire time.

You’d scratch your head and wonder… Does he realize that nobody listens to him?

Does he see us roll our eyes?

As a matter of fact, while I was dictating this blog post on Copytalk, I was holding everybody around me a prisoner of my one sided conversation.

Somebody got so annoyed they had to do sit ups during the process. The young child looked at me and wondered… why is that man talking to his phone?

He said, are you talking to Siri?

Other people at the beach just looked at me and said, oh my God, there’s Mr. One Conversation.

In reality, though, I was actually dictating just to entertain you during this one conversation.

So, I’m going to make this short because I’m holding people hostage to my one sided conversation right now.

Here’s today’s tip: the next time you’re around and you run into somebody who has a one sided conversation, how do you leave that person?

Excuse me, I need to go to the bathroom. Goodbye.

Voila. That’s it. You’re no longer a prisoner of that person’s boring conversation.

Look: life is all about communication. I’ve built my business almost entirely on teaching men and women to be effective communicators, whether it comes down to love or business or social success.

You’re never going to get what you want by staying a prisoner of someone else’s stories. So speak up, speak your mind and let them know (politely) that you’ve got better ways to spend your time.