This is only about sexual strategy in a meta sense in that improving my career and life will then improve my SMV, anyway here goes:

I have been doing the Dale Carnegie / Richard Branson style 'extreme listening' and identifying and asking about people's interests.

It's been really good, in just a month or two it's helped me get a new job and I've been invited to literally 10x more social events than the previous year and been praised for being a good conversationalist.

However, on the inside I feel stifled. I feel too passive; I'm not influencing those around me other than by validating them. Sure I get asked for my input and suggestions from time to time, and I think people are placing greater weight on my opinion than they were back when I wasn't a good listener, but I am not satisfied. I'm not creating my own content, so to speak.

I have two main questions:

When I do have something to say how do I get it out there without ruining the great listener persona?

Most of the time I do not have anything important to say and as a result just say nothing and listen, it seems to work, but will it backfire eventually because I am not presenting my opinion?