Category Archives: Books

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I Speak…

One of the big differences between a great speaker and an average (or poor) speaker is performance, and part of that performance is your ability to work from notes and memorize your speech. If you have trouble remembering lines, you may want to print out this blog article and follow the steps. Knowing your speech will allow you to concentrate on performance. You should be trying to work without your script as much as possible—and if you can do that, you will be ahead of the untold thousands of “public” speakers who are glued to their visual aids. Let’s take a look at memorizing your speech.

Move to Memorize

You will memorize your lines much faster if you move around, gesture, and show emotion as you say them. Don’t just say the words, but mimic the movements you’ll be making when you deliver the words. This will help your whole body understand the lines better. Even if you’re not gesturing, just try pacing back and forth as you recite the lines. This will still be a big help.

Repeat Yourself… I Said, REPEAT YOURSELF!

Once you feel very comfortable with your lines, you should take the opportunity to applaud yourself, but don’t stop practicing. You should still repeat your lines as much as possible until they feel like second nature to you. You should keep repeating your lines until the day you must deliver them, or you may forget them by the time you give your speech.

Just Relax!

This might be the most important point on this list. You should relax while you’re memorizing your lines and before you must deliver the lines. If you don’t relax, then you’ll be more likely to forget your lines in the middle of a rehearsal or even on the big day.

Try Word Tricks

If you’re stuck memorizing your lines, try a variety of words tricks to help you fully absorb the lines. Try to use rhymes to help you remember the right words in a sentence. You can also try visualization—just try to visualize the words you will say and what feeling you will convey. If you can tap into the emotion, the words will come easily.

Just One Piece at a Time

You don’t have to memorize your lines exactly from start to finish if you have a long chunk of lines, or an entire hour’s worth of lines, to memorize. Instead, you should break down your lines into manageable parts that flow from one part to another so that you have a good grasp of all the lines eventually.

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I Teach…

once uponWe’ve been talking about communication here for a little bit, and I would like to spend this week talking about the importance of being a “people” person. Now, that’s going to scare a few people out there. There are those of us who believe we are not “people” people. But everyone can learn to communicate with others, help others, and understand the needs of others. I’d like to look at some of the reasons communication skills are some of the most important skills a person can have.

Builds, Maintains and Creates Relations

Relationships are built and can be maintained by positive encounters with others. Communication will be key to this process – without effective skills, it will be difficult to properly construct and nurture productive relationships.

Want to Make Something AMAZING happen? Learn to Communicate

When people feel comfortable in openly communicating new ideas, cooperation and innovation will be at an all-time high. In addition, if they are unable to convey their ideas due to limited communication skills, it is likely that the idea will not be implemented to its full potential.

Growth Is Based on Communication

A lack of communication can lead to the collapse of any relationship. Let’s face it, without proper communication internally and externally, most relationships, including within groups and organizations, will struggle to survive. Communication can also lead to productivity and helps to avoid unnecessary delays in the implementation of ideas.

Looking After a Team? Communication Is KEY!

If communication within a workplace is encouraged, a more cohesive and effective team will emerge. Good communication within a team also tends to boost employee morale. When employees feel that they are well informed of the company’s direction and vision, they will feel more secure within their role. Regular internal communication can also lead to an improved work ethic if staff are reminded of achievements and feel that they are working towards a common goal.

Bad Management? Is Your Communication at Fault?

When managers are effective communicators, they are more able to inform staff adequately of their responsibilities and what is expected from them. Good communication skills also help managers to provide constructive feedback to their staff, build better relationships, and understand personal goals that staff may wish to work towards. Try it—it works!

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I Speak…

sleepMany studies have suggested that repetition can have a positive effect on someone’s agreement with an argument. It may be important for you to learn the art of repetition—because like any skill it can be done right, but it can also be done wrong. If you are going to repeat yourself to make your point, you have to learn how to pose your repetition to create an impact. Let’s see how you can make it work…

Change the Way You Say It!

Although repetition can be successful as a persuasion strategy, subtlety can be as important as the frequency and intensity of the message. Rather than repeating the same words and phrasing throughout the course of an argument, finding more than one way to make the same argument repeatedly can be a more effective approach. The reader or listener is likely to respond more positively to the same argument stated several ways rather than having the same message shoved down his throat over and over.

How Often Do You Do It?

The use of repetition in a persuasive argument can be effective if the argument is constructed in such a way that the repetition is spread out over a period of time. The use of repetition over the long course of an argument, written or spoken, creates a greater familiarity with the message and leads to gradual agreement if the intensity of repetition is gradual itself. Too much repetition in a short span of time or space can actually defeat the very purpose of gradual acceptance by creating a stronger aversion to the argument. All repetition should be carefully spaced at equal or similar intervals throughout the argument.

How Much Do You Do It?

In speeches or other spoken arguments that are highly emotional in nature, frequent repetition of key emotionally charged phrases can be effective. Martin Luther King, Jr.’s “I Have a Dream Speech” often is cited as one of the primary examples of the success of such repetition. However, it may be effective in messages of this nature only because of the already emotional nature of the issue. Such techniques in sales and marketing may have the opposite effect — turning off the consumer — if not approached carefully.

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I Write…

writingWe’ve discussed content marketing, but we haven’t faced one undeniable fact. A lot of content marketing strategies fail. But why do they fail? This is an autopsy, ladies and gentlemen. We are going to look at why content marketing fails. If you are squeamish, leave now… but if you really want to know the gory details, read on…

What? You Had No Strategy?

In content marketing, you need to strategize, strategize, and strategize some more. Without a strong strategy in place, you’ll be the Monday night quarterback who enters the playing field looking up at the stands and hoping for the audience to cheer – even when you fumble.  It doesn’t work.

Am I Blue? Am I Boring?

You don’t like talking to a stick in the mud. Why would you like reading a dry blog post that sounds like it was written by someone boring and dull? I don’t want to read it. Nobody else wants to read it. People love doing business with people. Humanize your content and make it fun to read. Don’t be afraid to let your personality shine! Your audience will connect with your content faster and appreciate the extra showmanship you offer.

What, You Don’t Want to Spend a Dime?

You can start a blog for free, make a podcast for free, and create videos for free. With so many free methods for creating content, it’s natural to think that content marketing is also inexpensive. Although it’s true that you can create content for a stupidly low price, you’re probably cutting yourself short if you promote on the cheap. If your content marketing isn’t working, you might not have the right team putting it all together.

P.T. Barnum Says… Promote! Be Extravagant!

Perhaps your content is high-quality but still, no one is consuming it. Are you doing enough to get the right amount of eyeballs on your words, videos and images? Probably not. Although you never want to be overly self-promotional, some promotion of each piece of content is necessary to let your audience know it’s available.

Know Your Competition

There’s a lot of noise in our daily lives. From TV commercials and radio ads, to a flood of new blog posts being published every day, you’re already competing with a lot of content. If your competitor is producing a healthy portion of that content, your job just got a little more difficult. You have to be competitive! COMPETITIVE!

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I Teach…

fear11As a follow up article to last week’s discussion about the importance of communication, I’d like mention a few more thoughts. These are proven techniques to increase your communication skills. If you are having trouble connecting with your coaching clients, or having trouble making them understand what you are saying, you may want to give these tips a chance. As a great communicator, it’s important for you to be able to listen and show your client how much you value what they are telling you. It’s important to maintain eye contact. It’s also important for them to feel comfortable with you. Let’s work through the list.

Share, Express and Love

Instead of jumping right in to your meeting, why don’t you try to express your thanks for the other individual’s time? Time is an extremely precious resource, and it important to be respectful and considerate of that. Also, complement or recognize any positive contribution they are making. Appreciation and praise can go a long way towards building good rapport.

Connect and Appeal

Connect on a personal level if possible. Look for places where interests overlap. Even in a professional situation, there may be some personal interests in common: hobbies, sports, children, music, career choices. Take care to avoid controversial topics like politics or religious beliefs. A real sense of connection makes a difference in the tone and outcome of the current conversation and most likely future communications, as well.

Be Exuberant… Be Positive

Maintaining a positive attitude is crucial to productive communications. Be constructive rather than negative or complaining. People shut down, effectively ending any real communication when they feel attacked or criticized. Be encouraging and kind, even when expressing concerns or displeasure.

Just Focus

It’s important to figure out what result you are after before you start any kind of dialogue. Knowing your objective helps you to direct the conversation and to remain on point. What are you hoping to accomplish? Are you trying to give help, resolve a conflict, or collaborate on a project or issue? Are you seeking advice or trying to influence behavior? Your desired outcome helps to determine the flow of communication.

Don’t Talk All the Time… Listen All the Time

Eye contact is crucial when you are meeting someone face-to-face. Try to be polite and, whatever you do, don’t interrupt. No one likes being interrupted, and though it’s natural to want to rush in to make your point, it’s very disrespectful of the other person’s thoughts. Try to understand the other person’s perspective. Maintain an open mind.

Do They Understand?

Try to confirm that you have a mutual understanding of what’s being communicated. We often think that we’ve reached a resolution and come to an understanding, only to find out that we have completely misunderstood the other person’s thoughts. Ask for input and feedback. This not only confirms that you have successfully communicated, it also makes the other person feel that they have been heard and understood.

Always try to end your communication in a friendly manner. Remember to reiterate your thanks and try to leave the other individual feeling understood and valued. Productive communication involves respect, consideration, awareness, and clarity. It is possible to be both direct and kind and still get the results you want.

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I Write…

writingWhy is it really important to write content? I mean, how many business transactions really take place because of content? These are questions that are often asked. Some believe that the overall effects of content are overexaggerated, but as a small business, can you afford to miss a crucial opportunity to connect with your audience? I don’t think so. However, this does a raise an important question. How do people react to content?

Write You Off

If your content is seen as having no hook or interest point to the customer, it’s likely to be marked as spam. Posting something that may be assessed as “spam” is the fastest way to lose credibility.

Simply Ignore

The customer may just make the assessment that they won’t lose much by reading it. In this case, the reader has not written you off yet, but if you consistently create content that people skip, you may find yourself written off.

Look It Over

The customer thinks there are only a few parts that are of relevance and wants to get right to the core of the content and skip the rest. This is where you have the opportunity to change their mind.

Wait… I Should Read This

The reader is engaged by the article and actually stops to think about it. What does it mean to them professionally? Personally? You have hit a nerve!

Sharing IS Caring

The customer may find your content interesting enough to spread it to anyone and everyone via social media, reblogging or via email.

Sign Me Up

This is the end goal. The customer finds great value in what you have to say and wants to build a relationship. They are open, willing and ready to be a part of your world.

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I Teach…

sleepAs a coach, you have to be able to communicate with people. It’s crucial to keep the conversation rolling and to understand how people communicate. This blog article is all about communication. If you want to be able to really help people, you have to think like the people you are trying to help. Why don’t you try these new tips to try and get the best out of your coaching sessions?

What Subject?

It’s important for you to try and get a feeling for what the other person wants to talk about. Different people like talking about different things. Finding what the other person enjoys talking about could mean the difference between a humming conversation and a faltering one.

Be a Good Listener, Be a Good Friend

A conversation is a free flow of ideas. Those ideas, however, should be interconnected. If you listen closely to what the other person is saying, you’ll be able to store away nuggets of information that will keep the conversation going.

Be Aware of the World

When you run out of things to talk about in a conversation, it can be helpful to talk about other things that are going on in the world. Try and keep ahead of the news so you can find common points of interest with your coaching client. It’s good to be on the same page.

Body Language Says It All

People listen to your words and your body language when you’re talking to them. It is said that our body language accounts for 55% of whether we are liked. Nod every so often and lean forward, face the other person and don’t fidget. These are two important tips to know about your body language.

Project the Confidence Your Client Wants

It’s no secret that other people are naturally attracted to individuals who have confidence. It may seem unfair, but it’s a fact of life—people will judge you based on your own internal confidence. If your confidence level is high and you’re fun to be around, people will cut you breaks when conversation slacks, or make up for lulls in the conversation by trying harder themselves.

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I Speak…

coachWe have been talking about public speaking over the last few weeks. We have discussed how to learn about your audience, how to create a rapport—but this week, I’d like to mention a few things that you should try to avoid. If you are planning to make a public speech, try to avoid falling into these tar pits.

“Can everyone hear me out there?”

Inexperienced speakers often make one big mistake. They walk out in front of their audience, tap their microphone and shout into it and ask if the people in the back of the room can hear them. If you’re speaking at a larger conference, there’s a good chance that someone has already checked the audio. It’s always a good idea to check it before you go on stage.

“Are you there? I can’t see you….”

When you’re on stage, the lights can be nearly blinding. But no one needs to know you can’t see anyone in the audience. Simply speak into the dark and give the best presentation you can. In fact, it might be better for you to forget that anyone is out there. Just try to give the audience the impression of your interest—look at them directly and… smile!

“Let me read my presentation to you!”

A presentation full of words is BORING. Use pictures, short phrases and bullet points. Try not to read your slides to the audience. That’s what their eyes are for. Everyone came to see you speak, to share your ideas, not read aloud. Any visuals or props you choose to bring along should only serve to enhance your speech. You’re the speaker—speak. Don’t read!

“I’m sorry… I didn’t prepare…”

Try not to start your presentation with an excuse like this. The people listening to your presentation are expecting you to do your best, regardless of how you feel or how much time you’ve had to prepare. If you don’t have a lot of time to practice, choose a topic that’s familiar to you. If you don’t feel well, keep calm and stay hydrated. Just get out there and entertain, educate and be a public speaker.

“Ermmmmmm…”

Try to avoid conversation breakers such as “um,” “erm,” “uh,” “you know,” and “like.” Using these words too often takes away from the effectiveness of your presentation. They are also distracting and make you sound unsure about what you’re going to say next. Try pausing if you must think of the right word. Just be calm, collected and don’t rush it. Rushing will cause you to have to use filler.

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I Write…

writingMaking the most of your content is important. Each article you write, or have written, should be promoted as a separate product. Promoting your content is almost as important as having content. This article will be about ways to make your great content even greater. We will look at how to maximize what you have.

Make Navigation Easier

Content that is difficult to find, read and enjoy – is a problem. Content that is difficult to navigate will often cause a potential client to leave your website. But using tags and categories is SO easy! Make it easier to find your content, make it easy to move onto more content, and make it easy for customers to get in touch with you. More than three clicks? Forget it. Try to keep it to just a couple of clicks.

Promote Your Content Inside Content

It’s great to have your ideal clients find and read your posts, but take it one step further … always include a next step, like reading a similar article or signing up for more information. Keep in mind you want them to stay on your site – reading your content – as long as humanly possible. Don’t make the mistake of thinking great content alone will make your customer stick around.

Keywords, SEO, Keywords, SEO

Your SEO and keywords make a big impact on potential clients finding your content – or not. Search engines help people find relative content. Their goal is to enhance user experience by helping them find what they’re looking for. When you use your keywords in an organic way, Google rewards you by increasing your search engine rank. Play the system, and the system will help you.

Share MY Content…

The most effective content is ’shareable‘ content. But what makes content shareable? It all comes down to social currency. In other words: What will the reader gain from sharing your content? Think about the types of comments, posts, and articles that you share online. What do they actually do? They often back up your position on a topic, feature something you care about, or make you look smarter or more important. Don’t dismiss shareable content.

Go Ahead and Share My Content…

The main point of creating content is to get your message in front of the right readers. When you have the right reader, consider that they probably have a lot of friends who fit the same profile. Encouraging them to share through social media gets your content in front of even more potential customers. Help yourself by helping your audience to learn from you. That’s all it is. You are helping others learn, and those people are helping you spread your word.

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I Speak…

coachMost people feel fear at some point in their life. When speaking in public, people can find themselves panicking. I hear from these people quite often, and I wanted to put together some tips that would allow people to really get to grips with their fear of public speaking. We all know that it can be terrifying to stand in front of ten, ten thousand, or ten million people and speak—but all it really takes is organization, practice and focus… Let’s take a look at the tips.

 

Organization Is Success

When you organize all of your thoughts and materials, it helps you to become much more relaxed and calm. When you have clear, organized thoughts, it can greatly reduce your speaking anxiety because you can better focus on the one thing at hand—giving a great speech.

The Two P’s—Practice and Prepare

Nothing takes the place of practicing and preparing for your speech. Write out a script of your key points, but don’t speak from it word for word. Prepare for your speech so well that you could answer any possible question thrown at you.

Afraid of Rejection? Don’t Be So Hasty…

“What if my audience hates my speech? What if they boo me off stage?” Try to eliminate all of your fears of rejection. The audience is there to listen to you for a reason.

Focus

When you speak, try to get into a rhythm or a flow. Keep you sentences short and to the point and repeat key points. A short pause in between points can add anticipation for what you are going to say next.

Watch and Learn from Yourself

Pay special attention to:

  • Your facial expressions
  • Your gestures and habits
  • Your body movements
  • How friendly you appear

When you have gentle expressions and a calm demeanor when you speak, you will be more welcoming to your audience.

Record your speech on your phone or video camera. Record yourself giving the talk from beginning to end. Then listen to it or watch it, and make notes on how you could make it better. Some people do not like listening to the sound of their voice on tape, so it is important that you get used to your own voice and speaking style.

Give Your Speech to Another Person

There are plenty of people you can practice on. Be sure to tell the person to be completely honest with you in their critique.

Examples of people you can practice on:

  • Your partner
  • Your close friends
  • Your parents

Speaking directly to another person with whom you feel comfortable will help relax you and give you experience with getting feedback from someone. If they have questions about your speech, it is likely that members of an audience will have the same questions.

There’s Always a Teacher

Find a talented coach or mentor. There are many groups that you can join to learn the art of public speaking. Toastmasters may be the choice for you. It is non-profit and helps people get over their fears by having them practice speaking on subjects over and over.

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More blog articles at www.yourinneryou.com
Dear Princess Column at: www.sentimentalnursewriter.com

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