Friday, March 12, 2010

I just read a fun article about jobs for people who love to talk.
Here is the link. http://www.theworkbuzz.com/careers/jobs-for-people-who-love-to-talk/comment-page-1/#comment-7540
How do I reduce my nervousness and stop having panic attacks when I get up to speak/

If you sign up for one on one public speaking coaching, I can work with you and
teach you and techniques to reduce you anxiety.
You don’t have to worry about future panic attacks. We can set up a coaching session, talk about what happens in your mind and what goes on in your body, set goals for what you would like to change and improve and start working immediately on making you feel calm, energized and confident.
The Washington Post described Patti as,"The Gold Standard of Body Language and Babe Ruth of Body Language." and the New York Times credited her with bringing the topic to national attention. A professional speaker, author and body language expert she reads the nonverbal cues of world leaders, politicians, celebrities, crime suspects, business leaders and the world at large. She has been interviewed on hundreds of TV Networks including: The BBC,CNN, Regis and Kelly, FOX news, PBS, The History Channel, TruTV's In Session, E!, The Discovery Channel, Inside Edition and thousands of print and online publications including;USA Today, US Weekly, MSN.com, AOL.Com, Psychology Today, Parent Magazine, Cosmopolitan and more. Patti taught nonverbal communication at the FSU and she has been researching, writing and speaking to corporations on the topic since 1982. Patti has written several books including: latest books include, & quot; Success Signals Understanding Body Language": You can see her program topics, client list and videos at http://www.pattiwood.net.
So how do you become a professional speaker?
Just where do you learn the skills and the confidence to become a good speaker?
How do I find speaking engagements.

If someone comes up to me after I give a speech and asks. "How can I become a speakr and do what you do?" or. if a coaching client comes to me and wants to become a professional speaker and or hone his or her skills as a speaker my first recommendation is, "Start Speaking!" Find any place any group, any organization that will have you and create a 15 minute to one hour speech and give it for free.

Recently, in the newsletter Speakernetnews this question was posed to the members. They had some great ideas that I will share with you below.

Sign up for this newsletter. I have been reading and contributing to it for years.

http://www.speakernetnews.com/post/freespeeches.html
Here is the newbie speakers questions.
I want to give a newly developed speech at least 20 times to polish it before charging a fee. The speech requires 60 minutes and I don’t want to shorten it during the practice period. My target audience is people in their late 30s to early 60s; businesspeople or general audience (the talk is a new concept which motivates people to fitness). Where are the best places to go to “sell” a free program of this length?


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— Maggie Chicoine

I contact the local Association for Volunteer Administrators (or the Volunteer Bureau) and offer a list of sessions which I’ll be testing in the next year. They must contact me formally to book the date. Volunteer organizations are happy with the offer and advertise on my behalf. I’ve been doing this for 24 years.

The “deal” is that they receive the session at no charge, but in return, they need to have a small group of participants stay for an additional hour after the presentation for some feedback and possible re-design. Amazing — this leads to paid gigs in the future.


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— Joan Stewart

Contact local chambers of commerce, Rotary, Kiwanis, Business Networking International, and any other business networking groups.

Go to MeetUp.com and see what business groups are meeting near you. I belong to a MeetUp group for Internet marketers in Wisconsin, and at our last meeting, we discussed which speakers we could invite to speak for free.

Go to Craigslist and check out the community category. You’ll find sub-categories for classes, events and small business. Post a note in the best category offering your services. Make sure you don’t post the same item to more than one category.

Get a local business journal, daily or weekly newspaper or business magazine and check the section of the paper that announces local business events and who is speaking. You’ll find a lot of groups you probably never knew existed. There’s usually a phone number to call for registration. Call that number and ask for the meeting planner.

If you’re Twittering (you should be), let your followers know about your topic and ask them for suggestions. I’m assuming you want to speak only locally. If so, use a hashtag (#) next to your city, like this: #Chicago, so people who are searching for information on that city will find your tweet.

If you’re on LinkedIn (you should be), post the question in their Q&A section and you might get responses from people who do business near you.

If you’re on Facebook, ask your friends to spread the word.

You probably won’t have to resort to paid ads. But if you do, you can target people in specific geographic locations with fairly cheap ads on Facebook and LinkedIn.


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— Rebecca Morgan

For local association meetings, the library reference section with have the Encyclopedia of Associations. The librarian may have access to the online version, which I believe, requires a fee to search. You can then search by your local area and they should give you contact info.

Also, search the ASAE site — you might be able to do so by zip code, although I’ve not done that.

You may also offer this to your local clients (or ask your corporate friends) as a lunch and learn. Some will allow an hour, some 45 or 30 min.

I understand why you don’t want to go under an hour. As you know, that will also limit who you can give this to because some will only have shorter time frames (e.g., Rotary, Lions, Kiwanis).

What about adult communities? I’m sure they offer lectures there as a service to their residents.


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— Deborah Laurel

The best places I’ve found to “sell” a free program are associations. There are hundreds and most of them have programs for their members every month and need speakers! Just think about which associations would have your demographic and give their professional development chair a call. Most local associations are listed in the telephone book.


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— Sandra Schrift

The 60-minute format may limit your possibilities. Try the health clubs, YMCA gyms, spas, monthly network groups, an MPI chapter, an ASAE chapter, your city Bar association, local Chamber of Commerce, singles dating groups.

Unfortunately, service clubs who book speakers regularly limit their programs to 30 minutes.


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— Mindy Gibbins-Klein

You could contact your local chambers of commerce. And my best idea would be to contact fellow speakers and trainers and offer to do a one-hour segment during one of their programs. If they can fit you in, it adds value for them, and spices things up since the audience doesn’t have to watch the same person all day.


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— Beth Bridges

Try Chambers of Commerce. Look for “lunch and learn” or “seminar series” or other similar topics. Usually they are a lunchtime, brown-bag type of event offered to members of the organization.

Maybe team up with a nutritionist or caterer who specializes in healthy food, offer a free lunch and promote it through the Chamber (assuming you are a member!)?

Hospital nurses, health care workers, and government employees come to mind for some reason LOL, perhaps at their staff meetings? Again, offer a free healthy lunch... or healthy snacks.

One of the local university nutrition programs maybe?



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SpeakerNet News is produced by Rebecca Morgan and Ken Braly. It is not affiliated with the National Speakers Association. Send comments or suggestions
How do you introduce yourself to an audience that doesn' know you?

In my Three Day Public Speaking Workshop last week each participant practiced giving a "self introduction." If you are giving and internal presentation or giving a presentation you rarely get and a formal introduction. Heck, you are lucky to get an, "And here is are speaker, Joe." It is important to give a credibility statement so the group knows who the heck you are and why you where choosen or chose to speak to them that day on that particular topic. I have guidelines and a step by step process for introductions in my book, "Easy Speaking."

Below are more tips from, "Speaker Net News". It is a fabulous newsletter for speakers and if you speak I recommend it!

http://www.speakernetnews.com/post/selfintro.html
/11/2010

I will be delivering several concurrent sessions at an upcoming conference. Each of the speakers has been asked to do self-introductions before each session. Although I’ve seen this done well with a team of presenters, I’d like some ideas on how to start off with a great self-introduction. What have you done in the past when you don’t have a session introducer? What are some memorable and successful ways to use video for introductions?


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— Milo Shapiro

Others might disagree, but here was my first thought:

My normal introduction includes PowerPoint slides that precede my first actual slide. They show pictures of me in different situations that go with what is being said about me. It gives the visual learners something to focus on and, as I designed it, yields a few laughs as well.

I think a self-introduction is a horrible idea because it undermines a strong opening, but if I were given no choice, I’d have a friend of the opposite gender (so it couldn’t possibly be interpreted as being my voice) record my introduction for me and I’d play it as I advanced the PowerPoint slides as she spoke. It’s different, memorable, and allows the first words out of my mouth to be more powerful than what’s in my intro.


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— Steve Barcellona

Here’s an idea I have used a couple of times with great results.

Walk on the platform and begin a glowing introduction of yourself. “This next speaker is a person I have known for many years. It is so rare to meet someone who you see eye to eye with, BLAH, BLAH, BLAH... Let’s really have a huge round of applause for a great speaker, (your name)!” Throw your hand back like someone is going to walk out, run to the back of the platform and step forward with a flattered, surprised look on your face. You will get a big laugh and the group will love you right from the start.

— Diana Royce Smith

This is just a one-off idea but could be interesting and fun. Become someone else and, as them, introduce yourself. It could be a favorite client or last client — and you could actually get them to talk with you about what they’d say (now that they’ve experienced you) and employ that.

Or some character everyone could recognize — Steve Jobs? Oprah Winfrey? Or do the intro you’ve always dreamed about, or had nightmares about. Be sure to acknowledge the introduction when “you” take over from “them.”

— Steve Hughes

Here are some ideas, and since I don’t know you, I say find what you think works best for you and go for it.

Read the introduction as though it were written by somebody else. I’ve done this before as though my mom wrote it, but you have to set it up. “Ladies & Gentlemen, since there’s no one here to introduce me and it cost too much to fly my mom here, I thought I’d go ahead and read the introduction that she wrote.” Then have fun with it. Say how proud she is of you.
You can do the same thing from other people’s perspective, i.e. a member of the audience/company, their biggest competitor, the hotel staff, etc.
Have someone else to from the audience to come up and introduce you. Two options: arrange it ahead of time with a willing party, or offer an incentive like a $10 Starbucks card for someone who is willing to come up on stage and introduce you.
Get one of the speakers from another concurrent session (who isn’t slated to speak during your time slot) and have him/her introduce you. At least you know they’re somewhat competent at speaking and will do a good job.
Whatever you, be sure to give them a nugget or something of value first. Truth be told, they don’t necessarily care about you at the beginning of your speech, but after you give them a poignant thought, an interesting quote, or an answer to a problem, they’ll be more interested in hearing more about you.

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— Merit Gest

I think it would be clever and fun to use a video intro. Why not have another professional speaker do your introduction on video and use that instead of you telling the group about yourself, which always seems awkward. I wonder if you could do something clever with the video as if it were a live person and record them with pauses for you to interact. I’m not saying this from experience, but it sounds clever and funny in theory. Also, it could be a lot more time invested in an intro than is really necessary.

— Rita Risser

I have made more than a thousand presentations where I self-introduced. I figure they are already there so I don’t have to say anything! I start by saying, "OK, let’s get started." People quiet down, I say "My name is Rita Risser, and I’m a lawyer," and then say something meant to be funny like "but don’t hold it against me" or "and I like lawyer jokes" or something else very light. Then "In this session we’re going to ..." Remember, WIIFM — what’s in it for me (the audience member). To me the most important thing to do is to connect with them by showing them quickly I have a sense of humor and that I respect their time by getting to the content.

I do have my total bio in the handout. If you don’t have a handout it could be on a PP slide when they come in. I do weave in my background through my anecdotes — “When I coach executives on ..., they sometimes say...”



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SpeakerNet News is produced by Rebecca Morgan and Ken Braly. It is not affiliated with the National Speakers Association. Send comments or suggestions

Tuesday, March 09, 2010

A few weeks ago I was on TruTV’s “In Session” analyzing the defendant’s voice and body language during his interrogation and the trial. I was doing interviews of Tiger Wood’s apology the same day. My audiences in the last two weeks have been riveted to all the nonverbal information shown in those two cases.

Sunday, March 07, 2010

Quote for the day.

I can feel guilty about the past, apprehensive about the future, but only in the present can I act. The ability to be in the present moment is a major component of mental wellness.” —Abraham Maslow