Most PNMs worry about running out of things to say. The more common problem is accidentally saying the wrong thing, so here's the honest list of what actually costs candidacies, and what works instead.
Trash-talking any chapter. Even a joking "oh I heard that house is..." Members remember this specific moment more than almost anything else in a conversation, it signals how you'd talk about them once you're a member. If you don't have something genuinely positive to say about a chapter, simply don't bring it up.
Asking about parties, boys, or specific members you already know. These read as prioritizing the wrong things, even when they're innocent curiosity. Redirect any of these instincts toward the chapter's actual activities, philanthropy, or what a member genuinely loves about her experience.
Name-dropping to sound connected. "My mom's best friend was a Theta" works fine once, briefly, as real shared ground. Repeatedly leaning on names you know to seem more legitimate reads as insecurity, not connection.
Visible boredom or checking your phone. Even a glance. Recruitment conversations move fast and members notice disengagement immediately, it's one of the fastest ways to end a callback regardless of what you actually said.
What to talk about instead, that consistently works: ask a member what surprised her about her own chapter, what she's involved in outside of it, what her favorite chapter memory is. These questions are genuinely easy to answer, they invite real stories instead of rehearsed pitches, and the resulting conversation is memorable specifically because it felt human instead of scripted.
The simplest rule that covers all of this: if you wouldn't say it to someone's face at a job interview for a place you actually wanted to work, don't say it here either. The stakes are different but the instinct is the same.