Thursday, May 24, 2007
Motivational Speaker Carole Spiers says ‘The First Few Seconds Are The Most Important’
Framing that initial snapshot that registers so deeply on your audience.
And the initial impact is everything.
Remember that less than ten percent of your audience’s attention will be fixed on the actual subject of your presentation. Ninety percent of it will be assessing your face, your voice, your hair, your clothes… and searching for a mass of other hidden clues about who you are and where you’re coming from. The managing of that initial impact is a formal study, cultivated by professional speakers.
When you get up to make that presentation or conference speech, you are entering the world of public speaking, which is a branch of show business - performing for money. Except that in your case, it’s performing for career-points, which is notionally the same thing.
So it makes sense to observe some of the standard wisdom of actors and presenters in developing and polishing-up their act.
Making your entrance: asserting command
As the young female newscasters always complain, clothes and makeover seem to attract more attention than wars and revolutions.
But clothes and makeover are a big part of the image you present to the world, whether consciously or not. And there are a mass of other signals that register on an audience before you’ve had a chance to utter a word.
These ‘non-verbal interventions’, as they are classified, should be aimed at exuding confidence and making each member of the audience feel that you are addressing them exclusively. So you start by looking around with a welcoming smile, and then repeat this gesture periodically, with equal attention to all zones of the room. This makes a regular suggestion that we’re all enjoying ourselves. Hands should be open and involving (never in the pockets), drawing the audience in.
And don’t let Powerpoint get you into bad habits like turning your back or too-obviously reading the bullet-points. They are simply your aide-memoire, not for reading out.
Fear of audiences - killing a speech stone dead
First, you must realise that it’s an irrational reflex, like fear of having an injection - dreading something that doesn’t really hurt at all, imagining the worst. It is rooted in a web of insecurities about the impact of your face, voice and manner on an audience - almost certainly exaggerated, usually not confirmed when it comes to the event.
There is also the somewhat more logical fear that an executive audience may be full of people who know more than you do - so who are you to lecture them? The answer is that you are not lecturing them. You are offering them a little snapshot of their subject taken from a fresh angle, and delivered with originality and engaging wit. On another level, you are also offering them a few minutes of yourself as a character and a personality. It is not strictly a lecture at all.
It’s actually a sort of combat. That audience is a stallion that needs breaking, and you must go at it with a fierce conviction. If this is bordering on arrogance, it’s better than diffidence. Ruthlessly train yourself out of hesitancy - any of those ‘er-um-y’know’ intervals which suggest under-confidence or ultimately fear. If you show fear, you’re finished. So get into a fighting mode, and nobody in that audience will ever guess you were afraid of public speaking.
If they’ve heard you before…
This is actually brand-building. It sets off associations which strengthen a little more each time, and can heighten your credibility and authority. Especially if you’re trying to sell one particular agenda.Let’s say you’re talking about post-traumatic stress and the need to make plans for psychological de-briefings and first-aid. They’ll probably file that away under ‘worthy but boring’, like checking the fire-extinguishers. But the second time round, they’ll start to take a bit more notice, as long as you are not repeating the identical message. Present fresh angles on the same theme. Spice it with new anecdotes. And before long, they’ll move the post-trauma issue a bit higher up their list of priorities: your brand-building programme will have helped to sell the product.
And next time you get up to speak, they’ll have all those associations front-of-mind.
Good Chairmanship
Instead of being a speaker, you may find yourself in the role of Chairman, either at a business meeting or at a conference.
This requires just as much stage presence, but not so as to eclipse the speakers themselves. It is meant to complement their speaking skills.
As the anchor between speaker and audience, you must build a good relationship with both. This takes a particular mix of firmness and friendliness. On one hand, you must be able to control the event, rationing interruptions from the floor, as well as tactfully pointing out if a speaker is over-running his allocated time. On the other, you should encourage a relaxed atmosphere, introducing each speaker with a short profile, well-researched in advance, preferably including an anecdote the audience won’t have heard before.
In this way, your stage presence has a profound influence on the success of the event.
Six points of presentation technique, as practised by Carole Spiers
1. Focus your thoughts
Rehearse that opening statement exactly; the rest will follow
2. Control your nerves
Breathe deeply and regularly, to avoid gasping or gulping
3. Free up your body-language
Let your movements and gestures flow gracefully and naturally
4. Develop your presentation style
Your idiosynchrasies will help to make you more memorable
5. Relevant Anecdotes
A necessary break from formal sequences of subject-matter
6. Make eye-contact
Try to meet everyone’s eye; establish more intimacy of dialogue
Another Insight Into Self-Marketing Culture By Motivational Speaker And BBC Broadcaster Carole Spiers. Meet her in person at her Self-Marketing Bootcamp ‘Turn Your Passion Into Profit’ in Central London, Thursday June 28th 2007.
And discover the fastest way to grow your new business, gain clients, boost profit – all on a zero budget! Click here
Carole Spiers – International Motivational Speaker occupies a special niche as an expert in Personal Development. Carole’s keynote presentations have educated and inspired audiences all over the world. She is also a high profile BBC broadcaster, journalist and President of the London Chapter of the Professional Speakers Association. Carole is Author of Tolley’s ‘Managing Stress in the Workplace’ and ‘Turn Your Passion Into Profit’
Our publications and sales CDs have been sold globally. To sign up for our FREE success quotations
Wednesday, May 23, 2007
Motivational Speaker Carole Spiers says, ‘It all starts with a strategy’
Where do the success stories usually begin? Forget the colourful anecdotes about bright ideas scribbled down on the back of your hand. It usually comes down to a good, sound strategy worked out in detail and followed-through with determination and persistence. Securely rooted in this deep foundation, your dreams can soar.
Another Insight Into Self-Marketing Culture By Motivational Speaker And BBC Broadcaster Carole Spiers. Meet her in person at her Self-Marketing Bootcamp ‘Turn Your Passion Into Profit’ in central London, Thursday June 28th 2007.
And discover the fastest way to grow your new business, gain clients, boost profit – all on a zero budget! Click here www.turnyourpassionintoprofit.co.uk to book your earlybird space before all tickets are sold out.
Carole Spiers – International Motivational Speaker occupies a special niche as an expert in Personal Development. Carole’s keynote presentations have educated and inspired audiences all over the world. She is also a high profile BBC broadcaster, journalist and President of the London Chapter of the Professional Speakers Association. Carole is Author of Tolley’s ‘Managing Stress in the Workplace’ and ‘Turn Your Passion Into Profit’
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@carolespiersgroup.co.uk to telephone +44 (0) 29 8954 1593 www.carolespiers.com
Sunday, May 20, 2007
Carole Spiers Motivational Speaker Says, ‘Business Networking Is A Two-Way Relationship’.
Congratulations – You’re About To Learn How To Market Yourself On A Zero Budget and Grow Rich!
If you’d like to discover proven marketing formulas and the fastest way to grow your business, get more clients and boost your sales, grab the opportunity at our Marketing Bootcamp, ‘Turn Your Passion Into Profit! in Central London on 28th June - Click here www.turnyourpassionintoprofit.co.uk for full details.
Carole Spiers – International Motivational Speaker occupies a special niche as an expert in Personal Development. Carole’s keynote presentations have educated and inspired audiences all over the world. She is also a high profile BBC broadcaster, journalist and President of the London Chapter of the Professional Speakers Association. Carole is Author of Tolley’s ‘Managing Stress in the Workplace’ and ‘Turn Your Passion Into Profit’
Carole will reveal the insider secrets to marketing your business on a zero budget at her one-day MEGA Marketing Bootcamp ‘Turn Your Passion Into Profit’! Thursday 28th June in central London. Grab your opportunity to book your earlybird place and go to www.turnyourpassionintoprofit.co.uk NOW!
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@carolespiersgroup.co.uk to telephone +44 (0) 29 8954 1593 www.carolespiers.com
Saturday, May 19, 2007
Motivational Speaker Carole Spiers says, ‘You’re not the only one afraid of Public Speaking’
When you step up on that platform, you’re stepping into show business.
You may only be in it for a few minutes, at an occasional wedding or conference. Or as a professional speaker, you may be in it for a career.
Either way, you’re always liable to experience the same kind of stage fright that secretly afflicts many fine actors, and which you need to get a handle on, if every forthcoming speech is not going to make a misery of you.
Frightened of nothing: the irrational reflex
It’s rather like fear of having an injection. You’re dreading something that doesn’t really hurt at all - imagining the worst.
This may be traced back to an actual memory of a stage disaster. But more likely it is rooted in a complex web of insecurities about the impact of your face, voice and manner on an audience - almost certainly exaggerated, usually not confirmed when it comes to the event.
There is also the somewhat more logical fear that an executive audience may be full of people who know more than you do - so who are you to lecture them? The answer is that you are not lecturing them. You are offering them a little snapshot of their subject taken from a fresh angle, and delivered with originality and engaging wit. On another level, you are also offering them a few minutes of yourself as a character and a personality. It is not strictly a lecture at all.
Preparation - your most effective safeguard
Most of your problem can be handled by the simple drills of thorough preparation.
First, you ought to memorise your speech, for the same reason that an actor does. Theatrical effects often depend on a well-rehearsed sequence building up to a climax. Your speech ought to suggest some kind of drama, with rhythm and tempo that may need a lot of practising. But like an actor, you should be able to make it sound entirely spontaneous.
Unlike an actor, however, you may not be reciting it quite verbatim. You may want to refer to something the previous speaker said. You may need to respond to an interruption. And of course, you must be ready to adapt it at short notice (or no notice) due to the last-minute change of schedule that’s suddenly going to chop it in half. For this, you need to decide in advance which sections you would leave out or merge together. In any case, you must always allow for the real thing to be about 20% longer than what you rehearsed in private, where you are liable to speak faster, and acoustics are not taken into account.
That fighting attitude: getting psyched-up
Yes, it’s a sort of combat. That audience is a stallion that needs breaking, and you must go at it with a fierce conviction. If this is bordering on arrogance, it’s better than diffidence.
Those awkward questions from the floor, for example. Don’t just trundle out some appeasing answer. Rehearse by getting one of your colleagues to throw some really nasty questions at you, and sharpen-up a withering reply to each of them. (The only notable thing about the young Margaret Thatcher was her extreme confidence at silencing hecklers.)
The commonest mistake is to talk humble about how honoured you are to be there. Make them feel honoured to be there. And ruthlessly root-out any signs of hesitancy, any of those ‘er-um-y’know’ intervals which suggest under-confidence or ultimately fear. If you show fear, you’re finished. So get into a fighting mode, and nobody in that audience will ever guess you were afraid of public speaking.
Carole Spiers – International Motivational Speaker occupies a special niche as an expert in Personal Development. Carole’s keynote presentations have educated and inspired audiences all over the world. She is also a high profile BBC broadcaster, journalist and President of the London Chapter of the Professional Speakers Association. Carole is Author of Tolley’s ‘Managing Stress in the Workplace’ and ‘Turn Your Passion Into Profit’
See Carole live at her one-day MEGA Marketing Bootcamp ‘Turn Your Passion Into Profit’ – discover how to market your business on a zero budget! On Thursday 28th June in central London. Grab your opportunity to book your earlybird place and go to www.turnyourpassionintoprofit.co.uk
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@carolespiersgroup.co.uk to telephone +44 (0) 29 8954 1593 www.carolespiers.com
Monday, May 14, 2007
Motivational Speaker Carole Spiers on: How To Remind Your Contacts That You’re Still Alive!
You sit there scanning that new-business database you’ve built up with such care. Hundreds and hundreds of well-placed people who could become lucrative clients. But day after day, the phone still doesn’t ring. And the last few times you dialled-up a contact out of the blue, you were politely told where to go.
Well, I’ve been working for myself for over 20 years, and I figured out early on that if I couldn’t find ingenious ways to activate my market, nobody else was likely to do it for me!
So think round corners, like me. Try these few little tips - or a whole lot more too, in my new Marketing e-book ‘Turn Your Passion into Profit’: and discover how to multiply your income on a ZERO budget!
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Maximise Your Lists
The longer your lists, the greater the chance of something coming up. So keep tabs. If you’re planning to be still around in a few years, try to log details of every single contact, however unpromising. Today’s junior will be tomorrow’s manager sooner than you think. People who can’t use you this year may move into jobs where they can. Some relationships take many years to mature. (That’s one reason why it helps if you get yourself clearly remembered - or branded - from the start.)
Persist, Don’t Pester
Where potential clients respond coolly to your overtures, note the date of your call, and don’t try again for about 9-12 months. If it’s ansafone, take the opportunity to leave a clear message reminding them who you are, preferably giving an incentive for them to ring back. If they’re people you’ve met and got on quite well with, you can try a Merry Christmas call as an excuse to ask them their news and check their movements, as well as discreetly asking about mutual contacts in the cheery Yuletide atmosphere.
The Blog As Subtle Reminder
This is really an amazing one. The internet provides a big opportunity to keep your name in front of your database contacts, via well-crafted mailings that promote yourself and your service during the intervals between your calls. Unfortunately mailings sent out cold may be rejected as spam, and you won’t know which. If relations with your contact are reasonably friendly, get them to subscribe to a regular Blog, accessed via an RSS feed, which automatically overrides spam-detectors.
(If you’d like to know more about how Blogs will earn you money, we’re making a special study of it at our Marketing Bootcamp, ‘Turn Your Passion Into Profit: Marketing You And Your Business on a ZERO budget! In Central London on 28th June - Click here to catch your earlybird place - www.turnyourpassionintoprofit.co.uk .)
Exploit Business Gossips…
Identify a few of your more sociable colleagues who are natural gossips who enjoy boasting how well they’ve kept up with who’s-gone-where. Once a year, give them a really good lunch - they’ll be volunteering valuable data over the coffee and liqueurs.
…But Don’t Go The Bar-Room Route
People who talk big in bar-rooms usually talk small in boardrooms. Making plans over drinks is generally for losers. Especially mistrust new contacts who make urgent hurry-hurry business propositions in bars. (If they’ve got such a desperate panic on, what are they doing hanging around the pub in the first place?)
Friendly To Receptionists And PA’s
Receptionists, switchboarders and PA’s often have to put up with a lot of rudeness, and they can’t walk away. So they particularly appreciate good manners and common decency. Get them on your side, and they can give you access to a key manager when he’s free, advise you who else to approach and how, or tip you off about newly-appointed managers before your rivals hear about them.
And More MarketingTips Where These Came From…
If you think these little pointers might be useful for promoting yourself and your business, I can offer you the ultimate Marketing book.
As a Motivational Speaker, I always get a warm reaction to my empowerment talks, ad people often come to me afterwards, asking for the book of the speech. So now I’ve provided one, which is on sale at all the venues where I appear - or conveniently downloadable in the form of an e-book whenever you want.
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Remember failure? Forget it.
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Carole Spiers – inspirational Motivational Speaker occupies a special niche as an expert in Marketing and Personal Development. Carole’s keynote presentations have educated and inspired audiences all over the world. She is also a high profile BBC 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
