|
|
How to Give a Great Speech
As a former owner of a National Speakers Bureau, I have learned from several thousand professional speakers "How to Give a Great Speech." Here are some techniques that I share with my coaching clients who want to become paid professional...
How to Look After Your People So They Look After Your Business
Imagine being supported in your business by a team that were reliable, competent, communicated effectively with clients and colleagues, had heaps of initiative and a great attitude. No, this is not a pipe dream. It can happen for you. However it...
STRIKING A BALANCE. Take Time Off To Be More Effective
STRIKING A BALANCE Take Time Off To Be More Effective What do an entrepreneur, a healthy checking account, your diet and a tightrope walker have in common? They all need balance to be most effective! Balance is a word that you hear a lot about,...
The Real Story Of The Little Engine That Could
Gone are the days when self-publishing was synonymous with self-defeat. Authors such as Deepak Chopra, Mark Victor Hansen and Neale Donald Walsch, originally self-published successfully before selling their books to major publishers (in order to...
Who Are Your "Most Likely" Customers And What Do You Know About Them?
You'll notice I've used the words "most likely" in the above question. Why didn't I just ask who are your customers? That would have been too easy. Effective research is all about asking the right questions. If I'd just asked who's your...
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Before you spend that money, let's talk about history
Have you noticed all of the advertisements on the Internet from "gurus" and people who have "made it" with their Internet business? You know the ones, they tell you how in demand they are. They tell you how they get several thousand dollars for each seminar they give. They tell you how they've made hundreds of thousands of dollars online. And they tell you they'll give you their secrets and formulas for the "ridiculously low price of $99.95"!
These characters are all really slick. Their one page web site is designed to draw you in, convince you, and take your hard earned money. Some of them are written really well and the product is very tempting to buy. But does a little doubt linger somewhere at the back of your mind? Is there something holding you back but you just can't quite put your finger on it? There might be a valid reason for that.
Let's travel through history a bit and see if we can figure out why you get those tiny doubts....
Orson Wells. Heard of him? War of the Worlds. Heard of that? I think almost anyone in the U.S. knows both names, but for amusement I'll summarize the story. The War of the Worlds was a fiction radio story. I think it was broadcast in the 1940's or 1950's era but I don't remember the exact date. This story happened to be science fiction, and happened to involve aliens landing on Earth and starting a war. Now the story was put on in full production mode -- just like the fiction movies you see on TV today with professional actors. The only problem is, many people tuned into the radio show while it was in progress, and they had no idea it was a fictional story! Panic and chaos ensued.
Jump to the 1960's era. Did you know there was a book that was put on to best seller lists, even though the book didn't actually exist? Yep. A radio DJ cooked up a plot to "fool" some people. He arranged to have listeners go to bookstores and request a specific book. The book didn't actually exist, and this was part of the prank. To his and his listener's surprise: Their requests for this book stirred up interest across the world. People were talking about the book everywhere -- reviews were even written about it! And soon enough it showed up on a bestseller list. But the book did not even exist. The non-existent book was called "I' Libertine", and due to the furor created from the prank, the radio DJ went on to write a real book by that name later in life.
Now let's jump ahead about 30 years. In the 1990's, some of you may remember computer communities called a "BBS". BBS stands for bulletin board system, and back then this was a computer that you dialed in to. Once connected, you could download files, chat with other members and play games. The public Internet was not available back then, so this was as close as you could get. One BBS was having a difficult time getting itself off the ground. They had one major competitor, and they couldn't seem to win customers away from that competitor. So the owners decided to entice the
customers. The customers were almost 100% male back then, and one thing they were all looking for was a friendly female. So one of the owners of the new BBS -- a man -- took on a BBS personality of a female. They set up a charade basically, with all the trimmings. This man would pretend to be female and chat with all the guys on the competitor's BBS. During the chats, "she" would make sure they all understood that she could be found more often on this other, newer BBS. So, if they wanted to talk to her more, they would have to go over there. And they did.
Jump ahead to the later 90's and the Internet is just coming into play as a business medium. I'm personally aware of several companies which made themselves appear much larger than they were. How? Primarily by putting up pictures of their "office" building on their company website. The pictures they put up however, weren't actually their offices. They were in an apartment, or basement in reality. But the pictures showed gorgeous, upscale office buildings. They made themselves look much bigger and successful than they actually were.
And today we have thousands of one page websites which tout the accomplishments of their owners. These websites make many claims and sometimes those claims are hard to believe.
You see, there really are consultants in this world who make several thousands of dollars for seminar presentations. But those consultants usually have a corporate style, polished website. You can tell as soon as you get there that they've spared no expense in getting the site professionally done. You'll find links on the site too -- links to corporate and/or consultant information, links to additional resources, links to recent and upcoming seminars. There are links to their books too of course, and sometimes these links lead to Amazon or the publisher's site. If the book is electronically published, you can even buy it right on site. The point is though: there is detailed information there, not just sales hype. In short, there is supporting evidence that they are who they say they are.
History shows us that people can be fooled into thinking the world is coming to an end just from a radio show. History shows us that people will believe a book is wonderful even when they've never actually seen it themselves. History has shown us that what you think you see or hear is not actually what you've seen or heard.
So, when you land on one of those slick, one page sales hype Web sites. Before you spend your hard earned money, stop and think a bit. Is the person behind the site more likely telling the whole truth -- or skewing it in a way that will make you believe what they want you to believe?
About the Author
Kathy has been a successful freelance writer and small business owner since 1997. Find her Palm Pilot articles and reviews at http://www.PalmPilotFiles.com, Cool gadget articles and reviews at http://www.TheGadgetFiles.com, and book reviews at http://www.EBookCritique.com
|
|
|
|
|
Oral Presentation Advice |
Your presentation should not replace your paper, but rather whet the ... Below I consider goals for academic interview talks and class presentations. ... |
www.cs.wisc.edu |
  |
Presentation Skills |
This site contains annotated links to resources concerned with presentation and communication skills. |
lorien.ncl.ac.uk |
  |
Presentation Helper - Free PowerPoint templates, help, advice and ... |
Resources on how to make effective presentations. Includes tips on PowerPoint and topic ideas. |
www.presentationhelper.co.uk |
  |
Neurobehavioral Systems, Inc. |
Neuroscience stimulus delivery software can be used for cognitive psychology, fMRI, erp and single unit research (Windows). |
nbs.neuro-bs.com |
  |
Why tables for layout is stupid: problems defined, solutions offered |
Why tables for layout is stupid:. problems defined, solutions offered. Tables existed in HTML for one reason: To display tabular data. ... |
www.hotdesign.com |
  |
The Gettysburg Powerpoint Presentation |
This presentation prepared with the help of Microsoft Powerpoint Autocontent Wizard. ... Permission is granted to use this presentation in any course or ... |
norvig.com |
  |
Presentation Zen |
I love the clear presentation of the ideas in the book and the fact that the ... In the context of presentations, moving info away can help you and the ... |
www.presentationzen.com |
  |
Presentation Tips for Public Speaking |
Better Public Speaking & Presentation - Ensure Your Words Are Always ... On the Job: Public Speaking Tips - Twelve Steps to Great Presentations by Elise ... |
www.aresearchguide.com |
  |
Presentation - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia |
Presentation is the process of presenting the content of a topic to an ... You should plan to rehearse your presentation out loud at least four times. ... |
en.wikipedia.org |
  |
OSCON 2005 Keynote - Identity 2.0 |
“A barn-burner of a presentation. I loved this.” - Cory Doctorow. “I watched it twice, and greatly enjoyed it both times.” - Jon Udell ... |
www.identity20.com |
  |
Presentations - Effective Communication - Public Speaking |
Tips and tools for creating and delivering presentations: text, techniques and technology. |
www.presentations.com |
  |
Presentation Information Resources - Presentation Technology News ... |
Presentation Information Resources - Comprehensive presenter's resource providing instant access to up-to-date information on technology and techniques for ... |
199.249.170.231 |
  |
Effective Presentations homepage |
In addition, the skills needed to prepare an oral presentation can be used ... A spiffy presentation discussing Effective Teaching with Powerpoint from the ... |
www.kumc.edu |
  |
Impress |
Your presentations will stand out with 2D and 3D clip art, special effects, animation, ... Slide show Animation and Effects bring your presentation to life. ... |
www.openoffice.org |
  |
PRESENTATIONPRO - experts for Microsoft PowerPoint |
A series of products and services to help enhance PowerPoint presentations with templates and backgrounds. |
www.presentationpro.com |
  |
Leadership - Presentation Skills |
Presentation, PowerPoint, and Leadership. ... Presentations and reports are ways of communicating ideas and information to a group. But unlike a report, ... |
www.skagit.com |
  |
Presentation: See what people are saying right now on Technorati |
See all blog posts tagged with presentation on Technorati. |
www.technorati.com |
  |
Secretary of State Addresses the U.N. Security Council |
My friends, this has been a long and a detailed presentation. And I thank you for your patience. But there is one more subject that I would like to touch on ... |
www.whitehouse.gov |
  |
Rubric |
Organization, Audience cannot understand presentation because there is no sequence of information. Audience has difficulty following presentation because ... |
www.ncsu.edu |
  |
Presentation Skills |
Presentations are one of the first managerial skills which a junior engineer ... This article looks at the basics of Presentation Skills as they might apply ... |
www.see.ed.ac.uk |
  |
|