257. Move Your Audience: Lessons From MLK You Should Use

Hi. Matt here. Do you dread small talk? The awkwardness, the not knowing what to say, the worry over how to start and how to end? Well, worry no more. You can learn to be better at this important skill. Start 2026 right by participating in a free small talk learning quest on our think fast, talk smart learning community. Beginning January 20 at 8AM Pacific, I will host a free four day learning quest that will teach you best practices to make small talk not only easier and more productive, but fun. Each day during the free quest, you'll either log in live 8AM Pacific or watch the recording of it. I'll introduce you to your daily task and give you some quick guidance you can join in at any point. Each day's skill will help you in and of itself. You'll also get to join one of our regular book clubs taking place on the second day of the quest. This is a fun, free, low stress way to learn with like minded people from around the world. Sign up for our learning community by January 19 to participate. Go to fastersmarter.io/learning. Again, that's fastersmarter.io/learning. Hi. Matt here. The start of the new year gives us a moment to rethink how we work. And I don't know about you, but I wanna work more efficiently. And that's why I'm going to double down on Grammarly. Grammarly has been super helpful to me. It brings everything I need to do when writing all together. So I can take my writing from draft to done in one place, emails, presentations, proposals. I don't lose momentum, and you won't either. Grammarly even helps you use AI more thoughtfully and thoroughly. You can get real time suggestions, refine your tone, or ask for help, all while keeping your own voice front and center. I found it saves time and makes writing feel more manageable and even enjoyable. In fact, 90% of professionals say Grammarly saves them time, writing, and editing. Sign up for Grammarly free and take your professional writing from draft to done. Visit grammarly.com. That's grammarly.com. Conviction and creativity are critical for successful communication. My name is Matt Abrahams, and I teach strategic communication at Stanford Graduate School of Business. Welcome to Think Fast, Talk Smart, the podcast. Today, I'm excited to speak with Lerone Martin. Lerone is the Martin Luther King Junior Centennial Professor in Religious Studies and African American Studies at Stanford University. He also serves as the director of the Martin Luther King Junior Research and Education Institute at Stanford. His second book will be out soon. Well, welcome, Lerone. I am so excited to have you here. We've known each other for a while, and we've been talking about doing this. Thanks for being here. Happy to be here. Excellent. Should we get started? Let's get started. Every one of our episodes of this show ends with me asking our guests the same question. Who's a …