Sunday, January 21, 2007
Motivational Speaker Carole Spiers says '‘Can YOU make a difference to someone’s life?’
You’ll doubtless already have read some of the numerous New Year’s blogs and emails exhorting you to get fit, reflect on the past year’s failed resolutions, turn over a new leaf, write your action plans and set your goals.
But realistically, a year from now, many of us will almost certainly be in the same position again. We start out with sincere, good intentions – the beginning of a new year is going to make a difference! But will it? Unfortunately it probably will not!
For most of us, another January is just another date in the calendar - albeit one when we have to find the money to pay the bills for all the Christmas presents we couldn’t really afford!
I want this year to be different, so I am going to ask you to consider some questions that are a little deeper than ‘How you are going to improve your life or double your income?’!
This year, how about making a moral resolution?
The real questions are:
1. Did you make a difference to someone else’s life last year – anybody’s life, any difference?
2. What action did you take last year that will be remembered by someone else? Anything?
3. What words did you say to someone which touched their hearts and have remained in their mind until today? Anything?
Like most of us, I too lead a frenetic life. But having just returned from Cape Town, with my partner, amongst the palm trees and flowers, having spent three weeks of training and coaching disadvantaged men and women in the townships of the Southern Cape to become self-sufficient in micro business skills, I can truly say I feel humbled by the gratitude expressed by so many of those to whom we gave of our time.
Many, with tears in their eyes, thanked us for our efforts, and told us how just those few hours had given them a renewed confidence and a much-needed boost to their skill-set and self-esteem.
Helping the disadvantaged to take that crucial first step up
We gave many of them contacts with other aspiring business people who, like themselves, are just starting out with the same problems and similar worries – people with whom they can now network and share solutions. We took video film of them making their very first presentations, and some cried when they saw themselves on screen, for the very first time.
But many were so impressive - speaking in perfect English of their goals - that we too had tears as we watched people, so appreciative, so grateful and so determined. There is no doubt who were the most privileged – we will not forget - just as they will not.
My partner and I have been working in the townships for three years now, and each year we have come out during our holiday periods. I have always wished it could be for longer, but as ever my own business gets in the way. So I have to content myself with the time that I am able to give.
Touching people; making a difference to someone’s family; empowering them to feel good about themselves; giving confidence to someone when they feel down (and out); teaching entrepreneurship skills where they are needed; offering love and open-ended support. This is what has made a difference to me for the forthcoming year. This is what will stay with me, in the coming months, when I am rushing from the streets of London to Internet City in Dubai.
Of course, my business has returned to its hectic pace. But for now I am truly taking stock of what we have been able to achieve by spending just a few weeks in the townships of South Africa.
Reality has to take over and tell me that if I have been able to make a difference to just a few families during this festive season, then that has been well worth while.
Those families have gone away with their action plans for the New Year, and the knowledge that it is up to them to put these into practice. They know that they cannot rely on anyone but themselves; however they also know that I am at the end of a telephone line or email – and will return to see them again during the year.
Join me in this important mission - ethical and enjoyable
I am sure there are many others who also earn well and would like to give something back. And to give back in a tangible way. If you would like to give your support and make a difference to the families of disadvantaged people in the townships of South Africa, then contact me – cs@carolespiers.com or call me on + 44 (0) 20 8954 1593.
Or, if like me, you are a motivational Speaker and would like to learn more about how you can raise money for an African charity of your choice, then log onto http://www.speakers4africa.org/. Either way, this is the time… this is the moment… this could be your opportunity to make a genuine and lasting difference to someone else’s life…
Carpe diem (seize the moment) and make that your New Year’s resolution. TRULY MEANINGFUL!
Carole Spiers – inspirational motivational speaker occupies a special niche as an expert in Personal Development. She brings together the separate cultures of individual empowerment and executive management - proving to corporate business that empowered employees improve performance and output. Carole’s keynote presentations have educated and inspired audiences all over the world. She is also a high profile broadcaster, journalist and President of the London Chapter of the Professional Speakers Association.
Our publications and sales CDs have been sold globally. To sign up for our FREE success quotations http://tinyurl.co.uk/yhgv, or for more information email info@carolespiers.com to telephone +44 (0) 29 8954 1593 www.carolespiers.com
But realistically, a year from now, many of us will almost certainly be in the same position again. We start out with sincere, good intentions – the beginning of a new year is going to make a difference! But will it? Unfortunately it probably will not!
For most of us, another January is just another date in the calendar - albeit one when we have to find the money to pay the bills for all the Christmas presents we couldn’t really afford!
I want this year to be different, so I am going to ask you to consider some questions that are a little deeper than ‘How you are going to improve your life or double your income?’!
This year, how about making a moral resolution?
The real questions are:
1. Did you make a difference to someone else’s life last year – anybody’s life, any difference?
2. What action did you take last year that will be remembered by someone else? Anything?
3. What words did you say to someone which touched their hearts and have remained in their mind until today? Anything?
Like most of us, I too lead a frenetic life. But having just returned from Cape Town, with my partner, amongst the palm trees and flowers, having spent three weeks of training and coaching disadvantaged men and women in the townships of the Southern Cape to become self-sufficient in micro business skills, I can truly say I feel humbled by the gratitude expressed by so many of those to whom we gave of our time.
Many, with tears in their eyes, thanked us for our efforts, and told us how just those few hours had given them a renewed confidence and a much-needed boost to their skill-set and self-esteem.
Helping the disadvantaged to take that crucial first step up
We gave many of them contacts with other aspiring business people who, like themselves, are just starting out with the same problems and similar worries – people with whom they can now network and share solutions. We took video film of them making their very first presentations, and some cried when they saw themselves on screen, for the very first time.
But many were so impressive - speaking in perfect English of their goals - that we too had tears as we watched people, so appreciative, so grateful and so determined. There is no doubt who were the most privileged – we will not forget - just as they will not.
My partner and I have been working in the townships for three years now, and each year we have come out during our holiday periods. I have always wished it could be for longer, but as ever my own business gets in the way. So I have to content myself with the time that I am able to give.
Touching people; making a difference to someone’s family; empowering them to feel good about themselves; giving confidence to someone when they feel down (and out); teaching entrepreneurship skills where they are needed; offering love and open-ended support. This is what has made a difference to me for the forthcoming year. This is what will stay with me, in the coming months, when I am rushing from the streets of London to Internet City in Dubai.
Of course, my business has returned to its hectic pace. But for now I am truly taking stock of what we have been able to achieve by spending just a few weeks in the townships of South Africa.
Reality has to take over and tell me that if I have been able to make a difference to just a few families during this festive season, then that has been well worth while.
Those families have gone away with their action plans for the New Year, and the knowledge that it is up to them to put these into practice. They know that they cannot rely on anyone but themselves; however they also know that I am at the end of a telephone line or email – and will return to see them again during the year.
Join me in this important mission - ethical and enjoyable
I am sure there are many others who also earn well and would like to give something back. And to give back in a tangible way. If you would like to give your support and make a difference to the families of disadvantaged people in the townships of South Africa, then contact me – cs@carolespiers.com or call me on + 44 (0) 20 8954 1593.
Or, if like me, you are a motivational Speaker and would like to learn more about how you can raise money for an African charity of your choice, then log onto http://www.speakers4africa.org/. Either way, this is the time… this is the moment… this could be your opportunity to make a genuine and lasting difference to someone else’s life…
Carpe diem (seize the moment) and make that your New Year’s resolution. TRULY MEANINGFUL!
Carole Spiers – inspirational motivational speaker occupies a special niche as an expert in Personal Development. She brings together the separate cultures of individual empowerment and executive management - proving to corporate business that empowered employees improve performance and output. Carole’s keynote presentations have educated and inspired audiences all over the world. She is also a high profile broadcaster, journalist and President of the London Chapter of the Professional Speakers Association.
Our publications and sales CDs have been sold globally. To sign up for our FREE success quotations http://tinyurl.co.uk/yhgv, or for more information email info@carolespiers.com to telephone +44 (0) 29 8954 1593 www.carolespiers.com
# posted by Carole Spiers @ 1:27 PM 
Sunday, January 07, 2007
Motivational Speaker Carole Spiers says, 'that Open-door Policy can encourage lazy interaction'
As a motivational speaker, I’ve addressed many blue-chip clients about the management policy that says “Any problems, my door is always open…” And I’ve found that it depends very much on what you call a problem…
The air-conditioning has broken down or the boilers are overheating. You can hardly say “Apply to my secretary for an appointment.”
Or a staff-member is wanting to come out with some private anxiety affecting their work - maybe marriage trouble or some worsening addiction. Naturally that is to be encouraged, before they have second thoughts and go back to hiding it.
The trouble is that almost any office-task can be described as a problem. Indeed, this is encouraged throughout business. ‘Problem: solution’ is the standard executive drill.
Managers delegate problems precisely so that they don’t have to worry about them till the other person delivers the solution. And this is where an Open Door policy brings out the lazy side in the appointee.
Take a junior in their first few weeks with the firm, having to familiarise themselves with a product or service that is entirely new to them. It may be quite a struggle, digging down into a new subject, while also acclimatising to working life itself, and this is meant to be a major test of intellect, judgment and character. So they should not expect to have their hand held at this time.
But if the manager’s door is always open, they’ll be tempted to keep cutting corners and going in to ask things they ought to be deducing for themselves.
That is a particularly obvious example of the negative effect of open doors. But many other kinds of personnel may also be tempted into lazy habits, sliding into casual conversation, in lieu of the formal memo that was asked-for, or just those time-wasters who’ll grab any excuse for a chat instead of working - in this case, exploiting the manager’s wish to appear democratic and unstuffy.
The Alternative Open Door - ‘Walking the Talk ’
Aware of the limitations of the Open Door policy, some managers have tried to re-invent it in reverse, going round the departments informally to pick up atmosphere - or ‘Walking the Talk’. This offers certain advantages that go with neutral territory. For example, it encourages people to mention matters that they might hesitate to raise at a formal meeting - yet if it can be seen as a time-wasting issue, the manager is free to move on tactfully without actual confrontation.
The drawback is that it sets up the curious prospect of the manager inadvertently wasting the time of a busy achiever, in the interests of looking like a good team-player and ‘one of the lads’.
Whichever form your Open Door policy may take, it can be shown-up as inefficient by reference to the two kinds of working time: Controlled Time and Response Time.
In Controlled Time, you are working on a job whose duration you can control. In Response Time, you are reacting to an interruption - which may take up any amount of time. As a manager gets interrupted on average every eight minutes, this greatly limits his Controlled Time, so the conclusion is that interruptions should be discouraged as far as possible.
And More Time Management tips Where These Came From…
As you can see, the Open Door policy is just one aspect of Time Management that needs active questioning.
Others range from prioritising your tasks and rationing paperwork to identifying false emergencies and how to keep meetings brisk and brief.
You can find out about these and many more in a major training toolkit: ‘Hurry Hurry! – Every Second Counts’. The true and false dynamics of urgency at work’, available right here on my website www.carolespiers.com
Suitable for all levels of management and employees, this toolkit comes with Powerpoint slides for easy presentation, as well as a workbook that can be copied in any number. It has proved equally popular in many different kinds of organisation, at seminars and training sessions, and also with my general audiences as a motivational speaker.
Click here to see full details and buy… See a useful improvement in your time management immediately. http://www.carolespiers.com/productdetail.cfm?ProductID=24
Motivational speaker Carole Spiers occupies a special niche as an expert in Personal Development. She brings together the separate cultures of individual empowerment and executive management - proving to corporate business that empowered employees improve performance and output. Carole’s keynote presentations have educated and inspired audiences all over the world. She is also a high profile broadcaster, journalist and President of the London Chapter of the Professional Speakers Association.Our publications and sales CDs have been sold globally.
To sign up for our FREE success quotations http://tinyurl.co.uk/yhgv, or for more information email info@carolespiers.com to telephone +44 (0) 29 8954 1593 www.carolespiers.com
The air-conditioning has broken down or the boilers are overheating. You can hardly say “Apply to my secretary for an appointment.”
Or a staff-member is wanting to come out with some private anxiety affecting their work - maybe marriage trouble or some worsening addiction. Naturally that is to be encouraged, before they have second thoughts and go back to hiding it.
The trouble is that almost any office-task can be described as a problem. Indeed, this is encouraged throughout business. ‘Problem: solution’ is the standard executive drill.
Managers delegate problems precisely so that they don’t have to worry about them till the other person delivers the solution. And this is where an Open Door policy brings out the lazy side in the appointee.
Take a junior in their first few weeks with the firm, having to familiarise themselves with a product or service that is entirely new to them. It may be quite a struggle, digging down into a new subject, while also acclimatising to working life itself, and this is meant to be a major test of intellect, judgment and character. So they should not expect to have their hand held at this time.
But if the manager’s door is always open, they’ll be tempted to keep cutting corners and going in to ask things they ought to be deducing for themselves.
That is a particularly obvious example of the negative effect of open doors. But many other kinds of personnel may also be tempted into lazy habits, sliding into casual conversation, in lieu of the formal memo that was asked-for, or just those time-wasters who’ll grab any excuse for a chat instead of working - in this case, exploiting the manager’s wish to appear democratic and unstuffy.
The Alternative Open Door - ‘Walking the Talk ’
Aware of the limitations of the Open Door policy, some managers have tried to re-invent it in reverse, going round the departments informally to pick up atmosphere - or ‘Walking the Talk’. This offers certain advantages that go with neutral territory. For example, it encourages people to mention matters that they might hesitate to raise at a formal meeting - yet if it can be seen as a time-wasting issue, the manager is free to move on tactfully without actual confrontation.
The drawback is that it sets up the curious prospect of the manager inadvertently wasting the time of a busy achiever, in the interests of looking like a good team-player and ‘one of the lads’.
Whichever form your Open Door policy may take, it can be shown-up as inefficient by reference to the two kinds of working time: Controlled Time and Response Time.
In Controlled Time, you are working on a job whose duration you can control. In Response Time, you are reacting to an interruption - which may take up any amount of time. As a manager gets interrupted on average every eight minutes, this greatly limits his Controlled Time, so the conclusion is that interruptions should be discouraged as far as possible.
And More Time Management tips Where These Came From…
As you can see, the Open Door policy is just one aspect of Time Management that needs active questioning.
Others range from prioritising your tasks and rationing paperwork to identifying false emergencies and how to keep meetings brisk and brief.
You can find out about these and many more in a major training toolkit: ‘Hurry Hurry! – Every Second Counts’. The true and false dynamics of urgency at work’, available right here on my website www.carolespiers.com
Suitable for all levels of management and employees, this toolkit comes with Powerpoint slides for easy presentation, as well as a workbook that can be copied in any number. It has proved equally popular in many different kinds of organisation, at seminars and training sessions, and also with my general audiences as a motivational speaker.
Click here to see full details and buy… See a useful improvement in your time management immediately. http://www.carolespiers.com/productdetail.cfm?ProductID=24
Motivational speaker Carole Spiers occupies a special niche as an expert in Personal Development. She brings together the separate cultures of individual empowerment and executive management - proving to corporate business that empowered employees improve performance and output. Carole’s keynote presentations have educated and inspired audiences all over the world. She is also a high profile broadcaster, journalist and President of the London Chapter of the Professional Speakers Association.Our publications and sales CDs have been sold globally.
To sign up for our FREE success quotations http://tinyurl.co.uk/yhgv, or for more information email info@carolespiers.com to telephone +44 (0) 29 8954 1593 www.carolespiers.com
# posted by Carole Spiers @ 7:22 AM
Friday, January 05, 2007
Motivational speaker Carole Spiers says 'use Internet Marketing to make you money!'
As a motivational speaker, I was delighted to be invited to Dubai in November 2006 in order to speak on the topic of post trauma support at a health and safety conference staged by IIR.
In order to raise the profile of this trip, we did all the usual pre-trip promotions, spoke to contacts, my team emailed our database, blogged eCademy and so forth.
Internet Marketing
These efforts did receive some good interest but our Internet Marketer, Chris Clark, made the suggestion – why not send out an On-line Press Release – not the usual ones, but a new type of ‘Social Media Press Release’. Well, as ever I was intrigued as to how this was going to leverage our profile in the UAE.
He explained that this differed from standard Press Releases in that we could now add photos, video and audio clips, pdfs etc. We could also add links to other client sites, add testimonials, and use the vital keyphrases to target the release into niche markets.
This sounded all pretty good, especially as he said – ‘just leave it up to me, (don’t you just love it when that is said to you) - and just watch your rankings shoot up on Google!’. So this is what I did. I gave him the copy. He did whatever Internet Marketers do and know best (and I don’t need to know either!) – he made it all happen!
The UAE Tour
So the UAE tour went live on 18th November and the conference started on 26th. In addition, Chris suggested that I do two blogs about the conference in the intervening period.
Well, would you believe it….. things happened very quickly after that. I took a call from a Dubai company in Dubai Internet City who had found us through the press coverage, and we signed a training deal before I left.
We received incredible coverage with the Release picked up by Yahoo News and others. (Naturally uploaded to our website). Our blogs were picked up and reposted, and the article that we ran was viewed over 500 times and is still being read!
We also saw a huge uplift in our Google presence for our website www.carolespiersgroup.co.uk.
So by the time I arrived at the Dubai conference, there certainly was a good deal of buzz, I had made a new international client and received considerable feedback from the coverage.
Will I be doing this again? You bet!
In my opinion, keep to what you know and do what you do best!.
Outsource what you can't do and give it to the experts. I am a motivational speaker - I speak for a living and that is what I do best….Chris Clark is an Internet Marketer – that is what he does for a living and that is what he does best! Catch Chris at www.clarkmarketing.co.uk or chris.clark@clarkmarketing.co.uk.
Call in the experts! Remember …you can’t be all things to all people…
PS Have a look at our train the trainer post trauma powerpoint slide and workbook product that we specially created for the Dubai conference and is now on sale worldwide. Click here http://www.carolespiers.com/productdetail.cfm?ProductID=32
Carole Spiers – motivational speaker occupies a special niche as an expert in Personal Development. She brings together the separate cultures of individual empowerment and executive management - proving to corporate business that empowered employees improve performance and output. Carole’s keynote presentations have educated and inspired audiences all over the world. She is also a high profile broadcaster, journalist and President of the London Chapter of the Professional Speakers Association.
Our publications and sales CDs have been sold globally. To sign up for our FREE success quotations http://tinyurl.co.uk/yhgv, or for more information email info@carolespiers.com to telephone +44 (0) 29 8954 1593 www.carolespiers.com
In order to raise the profile of this trip, we did all the usual pre-trip promotions, spoke to contacts, my team emailed our database, blogged eCademy and so forth.
Internet Marketing
These efforts did receive some good interest but our Internet Marketer, Chris Clark, made the suggestion – why not send out an On-line Press Release – not the usual ones, but a new type of ‘Social Media Press Release’. Well, as ever I was intrigued as to how this was going to leverage our profile in the UAE.
He explained that this differed from standard Press Releases in that we could now add photos, video and audio clips, pdfs etc. We could also add links to other client sites, add testimonials, and use the vital keyphrases to target the release into niche markets.
This sounded all pretty good, especially as he said – ‘just leave it up to me, (don’t you just love it when that is said to you) - and just watch your rankings shoot up on Google!’. So this is what I did. I gave him the copy. He did whatever Internet Marketers do and know best (and I don’t need to know either!) – he made it all happen!
The UAE Tour
So the UAE tour went live on 18th November and the conference started on 26th. In addition, Chris suggested that I do two blogs about the conference in the intervening period.
Well, would you believe it….. things happened very quickly after that. I took a call from a Dubai company in Dubai Internet City who had found us through the press coverage, and we signed a training deal before I left.
We received incredible coverage with the Release picked up by Yahoo News and others. (Naturally uploaded to our website). Our blogs were picked up and reposted, and the article that we ran was viewed over 500 times and is still being read!
We also saw a huge uplift in our Google presence for our website www.carolespiersgroup.co.uk.
So by the time I arrived at the Dubai conference, there certainly was a good deal of buzz, I had made a new international client and received considerable feedback from the coverage.
Will I be doing this again? You bet!
In my opinion, keep to what you know and do what you do best!.
Outsource what you can't do and give it to the experts. I am a motivational speaker - I speak for a living and that is what I do best….Chris Clark is an Internet Marketer – that is what he does for a living and that is what he does best! Catch Chris at www.clarkmarketing.co.uk or chris.clark@clarkmarketing.co.uk.
Call in the experts! Remember …you can’t be all things to all people…
PS Have a look at our train the trainer post trauma powerpoint slide and workbook product that we specially created for the Dubai conference and is now on sale worldwide. Click here http://www.carolespiers.com/productdetail.cfm?ProductID=32
Carole Spiers – motivational speaker occupies a special niche as an expert in Personal Development. She brings together the separate cultures of individual empowerment and executive management - proving to corporate business that empowered employees improve performance and output. Carole’s keynote presentations have educated and inspired audiences all over the world. She is also a high profile broadcaster, journalist and President of the London Chapter of the Professional Speakers Association.
Our publications and sales CDs have been sold globally. To sign up for our FREE success quotations http://tinyurl.co.uk/yhgv, or for more information email info@carolespiers.com to telephone +44 (0) 29 8954 1593 www.carolespiers.com
# posted by Carole Spiers @ 7:03 AM
