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Improve Your Business’s Performance and Boost Sales Using Teleconferences and Teleseminars

Lovemore Nickolove — Wed, 21 Nov 2007 05:23:12 +0000

On-going training is vital to the success of businesses particularly in today’s rapidly changing environment. Most companies either bring in trainers and consultants to work with their staff. In some cases the manager of a company may deliver employee training. While face-to-face training is invaluable there are several advantages to delivering training via teleconferences or teleseminars.

1. Teleconferences are an inexpensive way to deliver training.
2. The event can be recorded so that staff can have access to the information after the live presentation.
3. Frequently Asked questions (FAQs) can be incorporated into the training material so that listeners can have permanent access to an accurate record of the answers to the FAQs.
4. Travel costs for trainers and those participating in the training are eliminated - ideal for companies with offices in different locations, even different countries.
5. Teleseminars or teleconferences can be quickly prepared and made available so that important updates can be speedily communicated.
6. Employees can have access to the live event or a recording of it regardless of their geographical location.
7. Teleseminars can help to improve the induction process of new employees, helping them to get up-to-speed in as short a time as possible.
8. Teleconferences or teleseminars can help boost cohesion among different teams and teams working in different locations.

Employees can also be encouraged to devise their own teleseminars for their teams. You know what they say - you know when you have successfully learnt something when you are able to teach it. Naturally, they will need instruction on the best practice when devising teleseminars but this is an investment that will pay for itself many times over and many employees may even be happy to undertake such training on their own time because of its applications outside of the work environment and additional benefits such as increasing self-esteem and self-confidence.

However, teleconferences and teleseminars are not just a way to deliver in-house training. They are also used by companies who core role is to deliver training. Take for instance, Coach U. Classes are delivered in a teleconference or teleseminars with study guides and other support material being available in pdf format as well as hard copies. As a result of this training system Coach U is vibrant international community and students have the advantage of benefiting from Coach U’s curriculum in addition to the diversity and broad experience of Coach U’s community as staff and students can originate from almost anywhere in the world.

Teleconferences and teleseminars are a great way to market events. They offer potential consumers the chance to try before they buy and the opportunity to get to know you better. This is especially important with customers who may not have had any previous experience with you. It often takes several contacts before they feel they can trust you enough to buy from you.

A teleconference or teleseminar has an advantage over other forms of communication such as postcards, letters and emails because a teleseminar allows the person to hear your voice and this helps to create intimacy. Also, the person can also hear how others relate to you. For instance, you may be interviewing someone or you may be the interviewee. Your relationship with the other person can be very revealing. Also, the feedback you receive from other attendees of the teleseminar is also very important in helping a newcomer build a opinion of you and your company.

A teleconference or teleseminar provides the facility for your prospects to ask questions and for them to listen to the responses to questions posed by other participants. When a prospect starts asking clarifying questions you are part-way to closing the sale.

If you are hosting a live training event then teleseminars are a great way to promote the event, introduce event’s speakers and promote what they will be teaching, i.e. the benefits of attending. Again, it allows you to build trust - a key element in creating any sale and critical when salespeople today are still treated with suspicion.

Teleseminars are a great way to create buzz around a particular event so that your event stays at the forefront of people’s minds - a challenge these days when there are so many things vying for people’s attention. You want people to eagerly anticipate your event and attend the event with high energy and high expectation.

Pre-event teleseminars can also help to prepare delegates for your event so that they are able to optimise the experience. The more they gain from the event the more likely they will be to attend other of your events and refer it to others. In this way you can increase your business’s mailing list and increase your sales and your profits.

How to Find the Best Sources of Stories, Anecdotes and Quotes for Your Speeches and Presentations

Lovemore Nickolove — Thu, 15 Nov 2007 02:44:21 +0000

When you make public speaking your "magnificent obsession" you will find material for your speeches and presentations all around you. As a speaker you need to become an observer of life and not just people - all life. You can learn as much from observing nature and inanimate objects such as buildings as you can from watching people.

A news story, an incident, a casual remark in a conversation among friends or even with strangers can all provide inspiration for a story or vignette that can form material for your speech. If you are a speaker you need to carry a notebook and or recorder with you at all times so that you can immediately capture these moments of inspiration. If you don’t they are likely to disappear into the ether.

If you are a speaker then it follows that you are also an avid reader and as you read certain combinations of words will leap off the page or screen and will resonate with you. These phrases and sentences will form some of the quotations that you will use in your speeches. Some of these quotations will be so powerful that they will generate stories of their own. There are also several online sources of famous quotations.

So that you don’t have to spend time scouring newspapers and the like, you can sign up to a service such as Google Alerts so that you are notified of news stories that relate to your subject matter. You just need to select your key words and choose how often you wish to receive alerts. You will then have an automatic way to keep abreast of the latest news stories on topics of your interest. In this way you can keep abreast of breaking news stories and have fresh material to incorporate into your presentations.

However, your first port of call in finding material for your speeches and presentations is your own life. Scan your life and you are sure to find amusing anecdotes and life-defining moments. It is these stories and experiences that make you unique and, what’s more, no one can tell these stories like you can. Even if others may later tell your life story, only you can tell in the first person.

At first, it may be a little disconcerting to expose yourself and your life in this way, and perhaps revealing your foibles, but it is this which helps you to build a connection with your audience. Your audience is not listening to you to judge you. They are listening because they too have their stories but they don’t want their past to become their future. They are looking for a guiding light, for inspiration, and they will receive your message more readily if it is seen to have come from someone who isn’t perfect because this gives them hope that if you can overcome your limitations and then they too can overcome their obstacles and achieve success.

Material for your speeches is within you and all around you and, as you become consumed with the desire to become an eloquent and insightful speaker, it will reveal itself to you.

As Marcel Proust said,

"The voyage of discovery is not in seeking new landscapes but in having new eyes."

5 Tips to Improve Your Interviewing Techniques for Teleseminars

Lovemore Nickolove — Tue, 13 Nov 2007 18:41:02 +0000

Here are five tips to improve your interviewing techniques for teleseminars:

1. Tell them what they want to hear
The best interviews are structured around what your listeners want to hear and the best way to do this is to ask them beforehand. This interview approach means that you need to have a reasonable amount of lead-in time. Some interviews take months of preparation.

Conduct a survey to discover what your listeners want to learn. The answers may be very different from what you think they might be. You will be able to group and prioritise the most frequently asked questions for the foundation of your interview. You need just about 10 of these for an hour-long interview. You will also be able to discern the language that people are using which can be very revealing. It also gives you the opportunity to use the language of your listeners to further build rapport.

Another advantage of using survey questions to form the structure of your interview is that it gives your guest the chance to prepare for the interview. Naturally, if you are interviewing a guru or expert they will know their subject matter inside and out. Yet, the consummate professional will appreciate the opportunity to consider how they want to address the questions raised.

If your concern is that with so much planning the interview may come across as too staged, fear not. This technique will help to ensure that your interviews are jam-packed with content that your listeners are eager to hear. Also, even with detailed advanced planning there will still be plenty of opportunities during the interview for spontaneity.

If you don’t carry out a survey before you schedule an interview, you can still get listeners to submit questions before the interview. This does not give you as much preparation time as doing a pre-interview survey, nevertheless, it still gives you information that can be invaluable in shaping your interview.

2. Introductions
Ask the person you are interviewing to supply their bio and introduction. Several times I have heard interviewers say that they don’t know enough about their guests to introduce them. This comes across as though you haven’t done your homework and it is also discourteous to the person you are about to interview. There are exceptions to this. You may want the person to give their own introduction. Sometimes it comes across better and more interesting this way than you just reading their bio. However, even in this case you still need to be able to give a brief introduction and it should be clear that you are not shirking from your responsibility as a host but instead you want to more quickly put your guest into the spotlight.

Another way around this is to have a co-host and invite another individual you conduct the interview. For instance, Ben Mack, author of "Think 2 Products Ahead", recently hosted a series of interviews as part of Magic Week and he invited individuals such as persuasion expert, Dave Lakhani, to conduct some of the interviews.

3. Listen
The best interviewers are also the best listeners. You have to let go of your ego and your desire to get your point across and allow your guest to speak without interruption. Sometimes you may need to pull an interview back on track but most of the time when guests are interrupted it is because the interviewer just wants to interject their opinion. This can have the undesired effect of breaking your guest’s concentration and disrupting their flow. You have to bear in mind that those listening to the interview are attending mainly because they want to hear what your guest has to say.

However, there are exceptions to this rule too. For instance, your guest may say something that is a real gem and to capture those nuggets you could say "Could you repeat what you just said?" Interviewees will not mind this and will even feel complimented by this for you are demonstrating that you are listening and that you find what they are saying to be valuable. It is also what we tend to do naturally in a conversation and really good interviews should sound like a conversation.

4. Repeat and Recap
This will help to ensure that you fully understand the point that your interviewee has made and help your listeners to do the same. It also reinforces important points that are made. In addition, repeating and recapping what has been said helps you to monitor the progress of the interview. For instance, if you selected 10 questions to discuss during the interview, it would be a good idea to quickly summarise the main points covered in answering question number seven before moving onto to question eight. With teleseminars people may tune in late and this technique helps to rapidly bring latecomers up-to-date. If they feel that they cannot easily pick up the thread of the conversation they may simply hang up.

A great teleseminar not only informs and educates but it should also motivate individuals to take action. Therefore, a good way to ensure that your interviews have maximum impact is to have a Notes Sheet or Study Guide that your listeners can print and fill in as they listen to the interview. The act of writing things down will help your listeners to better remember the content of the interview. At the end of your Notes Sheet have room for listeners to make a note of at least three action points, i.e. three things that they will do as a result of listening to the interview. When people listen to a teleseminar, are motivated to take action, do so and get positive results it will deepen their relationship with you and or you interviewee and this is good for business.

5. Check in with the audience
The disadvantage of a teleseminar is that you cannot see those attending and this makes it difficult to judge how the interview is being received and how listeners are doing energy wise. So periodically check in with the audience, ask them how they’re doing and affirm that they are receiving great content. This feedback is also important to your guest as it helps them to evaluate how they are doing and whether or not they might need to make any adjustments to the content they are presenting.

Having said this, it is important to mute out listeners once the interview has started. If you don’t do this, expect your interview to be interrupted in some manner. Someone may start having their own conversation, you may get a heavy breather on the line or you may hear dogs barking or babies crying - in fact, just about anything can happen. The noise will be distracting to your listeners as well as your guest. Plus if you are recording the interview it will ruin the quality of the interview.

For great results use these techniques when planning and conducting your next interview and teleseminar.

Speaking in Public? How to Write the Perfect Speech

Lovemore Nickolove — Sat, 10 Nov 2007 05:23:33 +0000

Don’t! Bill Gove, known around the world as the father of professional speaking, says you should never set out to write a speech.

Doing this is like writing an article. Articles are meant for reading; speeches are meant for saying. Therefore, material written to be heard should be written differently than material to be read.

You want to engage your audience with a friendly, conversational tone and your material should be written with this in mind and not as though it were created to be read from a thick wad of A4 sheets while you stand behind a lectern.

So how do you go about writing the perfect speech? Think about your speech as being made up of small units or modules, each capable of standing on its own. These modules are called vignettes and they are really individual stories as short as three to four minutes or longer depending upon the context of the speech. In this way you can combine eight to ten short vignettes to create a speech.

There are several advantages to constructing speeches in this way. When you build your catalogue of vignettes you can easily shorten or lengthen a presentation at a moment’s notice and if you’re in the speaking business, then at some time you will be placed in this position. Instead of sweating buckets or resorting to speaking like an automatic rifle you’ll be able to say, "No problem."

Similarly, if you are asked to deliver an entire speech at short notice you will have the means to do so because you will simply need to decide on the points you wish to cover in your speech, select the appropriate vignettes and then combine them in a point then story fashion. This level of flexibility will mean that you will not have to lose out on gaining valuable exposure and or a lucrative fee.

The vignette system makes a speech easy to remember, as you just have to remember several short stories. When you write an article it may seem to flow but try memorising it and it’s another matter!

It also lends itself to a much easier cuing system for those times when your mind goes blank. You can just have a series of small cards each with the salient points on it. You can also just have one card that simply outlines the order of your speech to help keep you on track for those occasions when you go off on a tangent.

These stories will also be easy to remember because, in general, they will be personal to you. In other words, you will know these stories because they are your stories. When you go on stage you will be letting the audience into your world. This is what helps to build the connection between you and the audience.

Actually, your vignettes will be hard to forget because of the length of time you will spend preparing them. Wayne Burgraff said,

"It takes one hour of preparation for each minute of presentation time."

However, some may consider that to be a conservative estimate. You may think that it a long time but it will be time well spent because your vignettes will become part of your repertoire and you will have the opportunity to use them again and again even with audiences who may have heard you speak before. The greater the emotional impact the more often people will want to hear your stories. It’s all about the way your stories make people feel.

"They may forget what you said, but they will never forget how you made them feel."
Carl W Buechner

Vignettes are lessons in story-form and so need to have a structure. They should all contain the following:

1. Premise
2. Problem
3. Pay-off

Your pay-offs are the number of laughs you can invoke per minute or the number of times per minute you can invoke an emotional response in your audience. Generally, you want a positive emotional response. You can allow your audience to feel low for a moment but you shouldn’t leave them there for too long and you certainly want to end with your audience on an emotional high. As a rule, a good keynote speech, for example, should have at least one payoff per minute.

Hence, you can see why your vignettes have to be carefully crafted and while you allow your words to weave a story, every word you use should either add to your story or be eliminated. In other words aim to say more with less.

It’s advisable to write a draft of your story, leave it and then hone it. Expect to do at least five re-writes. Then, when it’s just about perfect add a few imperfections. Why? Because that’s how we speak and so the imperfections make your speech sound more natural. And by imperfections I’m not talking about ’ums’ and ’ahs’ - these are not allowed.

For instance, you can indicate where you will pause as though searching for a word. If the audience is right there with you they will be searching for that word too, perhaps even making suggestions because they want you to continue. They want to hear the rest of your story.

So the next time you have to prepare a speech don’t sit down and write an article:

1. Decide what lessons you wish to communicate;
2. Select a series of vignettes or short stories to convey this story; and
3. Organise your material so that it flows in a lesson then vignette or point then story format.

Finally, remember when it comes to delivering your speech talk to the audience rather than read to them. Leave reading to an audience for bedtime stories and you know what that leads to.

Shocking Results of Recent Survey Indicates True Status of Most Internet Marketers

Lovemore Nickolove — Tue, 06 Nov 2007 23:43:42 +0000

In advance of launching his new coaching programme, Jason Dinner, an Internet marketer who was personally mentored by Internet guru Mike Filsaime, recently carried out a survey in which about 1,900 individuals took part. The results were shocking.

To be a successful internet marketer you need a list that you can market to and the bigger your list the more you can potentially earn. However, 58.1% of those surveyed said that they were not building an opt-in list. Here are the results of the list sizes for the 41.9% of those who were building an opt-in list:

a) 0 - 56.9%
b) 1-500 - 28.1%
c) 501-1000 - 4.8%
d) 1001-2500 - 3.6%
e) 2501-5000 - 1.3%
f) 5000 or more - 5.2%

So over 50% of those who were attempting to build a list still had no subscribers and of those who had a list, the majority had a relatively small list ranging from 1-500 persons.

The results to the question of how much money the average person was making online are as follows:

a) $0 - 51.7%
b) $1-$500 - 35.3%
c) $501-$1,000 - 5.3%
d) $1,001-$2,500 - 3.0%
e) $2,501-$5,000 - 0.6%
f) $5,000 or more - 4.1%

In other words, just over 50% of people online earn nothing on a monthly basis and 35.3% earn just $1-$500 which is hardly enough to retire on.

Just 4.1% of those surveyed earned in excess of $5,000 per month. Have you noticed the similarity of these statistics to the fact that just 3-4% of the world’s population earn 97% of its entire wealth?

So what is preventing people from making a success online? One of the advantages of the Internet is that it is highly accessible and very affordable to get started. One of the disadvantages of the Internet is that it is highly accessible and very affordable to get started. This makes it a very competitive environment.

However, this is just part of the reason why the majority of people are failing online. The Internet is a highly technical environment and a rapidly changing and growing one. While there are certain fundamentals that will always hold true, the tactics are forever shifting. This is why successful Internet marketers are very strategic and they continually test and analyse what works and what doesn’t and adapt accordingly.

The market can be very fickle as well. Just a small change on a website, for instance in changing a word or two in your headline, can produce either remarkable or very disappointing results.

Earlier I mentioned the importance of having a list but generally in order to build a list you need to have a website. Website building is a huge stumbling block for many getting started online.

I certainly wouldn’t call Brian Tracy an Internet Marketer. He is more instantly recognised as one of the world’s most renowned motivational speakers. In other words, much of what he does is offline. Yet he understands the importance of having a powerful online presence. He said in a recent interview that he spends about one million dollars per year on his website and has a team of five continually working on it.

Of course, few newbies can start with that type of capital and, honestly, you don’t need that level of expenditure to create a successful website. However, website building and design, file transfer, copywriting are just some of the challenges that a newbie faces. It can be a daunting prospect.

You finally get your website up but we all know that it’s not a case of build it and they will come. If you don’t advertise your website then no one will even know it’s there. It will be just another piece of virtual real estate lost in the wilderness of cyberspace.

You need traffic generation strategies but you have to be careful because the one thing that can cripple you is being accused of sending spam. This is why you not only need to build a list but it has to be an opt-in list, i.e. the people on your list have consented to receive information from you.

There is a landmark case going on right now that could forever affect the way Internet marketers do business. Val Burnett and Vincent Bryant are currently being sued for allegedly sending out unsolicited email to one person who had subscribed and confirmed to a safelist. Here’s where it gets complicated.

They are not being sued by the confirmed paid member but by the domain owner of the email address used by the confirmed subscriber. The lawsuit is for $1,000 per email and a total of $80 million. Yes, marketing on the Internet can be like swimming in shark-infested waters even for experienced Internet marketers - hence the value of having a coach or mentor.

So you’ve:

1. Built a website
2. Generated traffic to your site
3. Built a list

But you still haven’t made any money. This is because you now need to build a relationship with your list and you have to ensure that whatever you do offer them is great value for money and that you balance your sales pitches with simply giving value.

Is it any wonder that so few people are making money online? It may be simple but it sure ain’t easy.

Learning Decision-Making from the Game of Life and the Game of Chess

Lovemore Nickolove — Fri, 26 Oct 2007 19:36:04 +0000

"The chessboard is the world, the pieces are the phenomena of the Universe, the rules of the game are what we call the laws of Nature and the player on the other side is hidden from us."
Thomas Huxley

Life can be likened to a game of chess. In chess you have to read the board, look out for obvious signs of danger and even try to predict your opponent’s next move. However, human beings can be unpredictable and your opponent can often make a move that takes you completely by surprise. One thing is certain. Whatever happens, you have to respond to your opponent’s move and you keep doing so until - checkmate.

For some people decision-making is an agonisingly slow process. Yet, whatever decision you make, you will set in motion a series of changes or responses in your environment. Some will be predictable; others not. Some will be favourable; others not. Nonetheless, to make progress you will have to respond to those changes in your environment.

While you can influence the outcome of the game unless you are playing against yourself you cannot control how the game unfolds. This is what makes the game of chess and the game of life so fascinating. However, there is no forward motion until you make your move, until you make a decision and take ACTION.

One of the reasons why you are likely to hesitate in making a decision is because you want to make the ’right’ decision. Lighten up, it’s a game - remember.

"You sit at the board and suddenly your heart leaps. Your hand trembles to pick up the piece and move it. But what chess teaches you is that you must sit there calmly and think about whether it’s really a good idea and whether there are other better ideas."
Stanley Kubrick

In life, you often immediately have the answer to what you should do. Your intuitive self is able to analyse situations far more quickly and accurately than you can do consciously. So by all means review your options but keep in mind the game grinds to a halt while you stall. Meanwhile, other games are also being enacted and, while you procrastinate, opportunities that these games create evaporate. Timing is everything so you need to hone your decision-making skills.

As you develop awareness you will be able to predict with greater accuracy how your opponent will respond. You will be able to evaluate possible moves and their outcomes more quickly and you will be able to develop effective strategies for dealing with each scenario. However, you will only develop this awareness by raising your game.

"Suddenly it was obvious to me in my analysis I had missed what Fischer had found with the greatest of ease at the board."
Mikhail Botvinnik

You will need to study the strategies and tactics used by chess masters and you will need to play against more and more advanced opponents. In life, at times you will win; other times you will lose. Win or lose, you can always learn from the experience and so you can always make progress.

"I had a toothache during the first game. In the second game I had a headache. In the third game it was an attack of rheumatism. In the fourth game, I wasn’t feeling well. And in the fifth game? Well, must one have to win every game?"
Siegbert Tarrasch

At times you will struggle. You will want to throw your hands up and strike the pieces from the board. Stop! It is at these times when you must be calm and focused for they mark the advent to some of your greatest lessons and greatest triumphs. So welcome your challenges.

"I love all positions. Give me a difficult positional game, I will play it. But totally won positions, I cannot stand them."
Hein Donner

In life, you will have mentors - those who have achieved what you are striving to achieve; and coaches - those who will help to elevate your level of thinking so that you not only develop your own success strategies but also your style of doing things. Modelling success has its place but you are also one of a kind with a unique contribution to make. Dare to be brazen. Play the game of life like no one else has. Dare to win.

You don’t get a second chance at life. This is it. You don’t get to reinstate the chess pieces back on the board and start over. The good news is that you can start today, right now to create your ideal life. No matter what your circumstances you were born free. You have the freedom to choose your life. Somehow, we forget this and we act as though we are in chains.

"Pawns are born free, yet they are everywhere in chains."
Rick Kennedy

It’s a game remember - a grand illusion. You can break free of any self-imposed chains and live your best life now. All it takes is a decision. Play the game of life to win!

Why Master Public Speaking and Presentation Skills

Lovemore Nickolove — Thu, 25 Oct 2007 16:46:21 +0000

Public speaking and presentation skills are skills that we all need at some time in our lives. Many people have a deep fear of public speaking and fear it more than even death.

"According to most studies, people’s number one fear is public speaking. Number two is death. Death is number two. Does that sound right? This means to the average person, if you go to a funeral, you’re better off in the casket than doing the eulogy."
Jerry Seinfeld

While you can’t cheat death, anyone can learn to master public speaking and making presentations. Surely it would be better to master these skills than to quiver with mortal fear anytime you were asked to make a presentation? Wouldn’t it be great to see such requests as a great opportunity to sell yourself, your products and or services?

Now selling is one of the most loathed professions but everyone is in the business of selling whether you want to believe it or not. Nothing happens without a sale. Robert Louis Stevenson said "Everyone lives by selling something" and one of the world’s greatest orators said:

"Half my lifetime I have earned my living by selling words, and I hope thoughts."
Sir Winston Churchill

Fundamentally, when you are engaged in public speaking or making a presentation you are selling words but it is your ability to organise and deliver words in a coherent, congruent and compelling manner that counts. To be able to sell effectively you must have great communication skills.

Dr Topher Morrison, master NLP Trainer and speaker said that a friend of his wanted to buy a Rolex watch. They visited a local shop in Tampa, Florida but because the salesman lacked good presentation skills his friend left without making a purchase. When you are about to spend thousands of dollars you want to be served in a particular manner. In fact, his friend took a trip to the Bahamas just to purchase his Rolex watch justifying the trip by saying the savings he made by buying the watch duty-free paid for the trip.

How much money are you losing every day because you lack public speaking and presentation skills?

John Childers, described as the "millionaire maker" and who teaches one of the world’s most expensive public speaking training courses describes public speaking as "the world’s most profitable skill." He has trained some of the biggest names in the public speaking arena - individuals such as Alex Mandossian, Armand Morin, Mark Victor Hansen, Mike Filsaime, Debra Johnson and the list goes on and on. They all know the value of using public speaking to grow their businesses. Irrespective of the different products and services they offer, they all use their public speaking skills to promote their products and services as well as those of others.

Through public speaking and making presentations you increase your visibility and the visibility of your company or organisation. You cannot achieve success if no one knows about you. Public speaking is one of the best ways to gain visibility and build your business. Arvee Robinson who describes herself as a "Persuasive Speech Coach" says that every time she speaks she get new clients.

How much is a new client worth to you?

Don’t think that these skills are limited to standing on a stage in front of scores or even hundreds of people. Don’t think that a presentation has to be hours long. It can be mere minutes. Christine Comaford-Lynch, author of "Rules for Renegades" said that she once camped out in the reception area of a company for six hours to get the opportunity to meet with its CEO. She wanted him to join the board of directors of one of her companies. If she was successful in her mission it would’ve have added enormous value to the perceived financial value of her company. Millions of dollars were literally at stake. After waiting for hours for a chance to speak to this CEO she had minutes to persuade to get on board. Can you see how critical presentation skills would be in a situation like this?

When you introduce yourself you use these skills. Do you want to make an immediate impact? Do you want to be a person that people gravitate towards and want to get to know? Or do you want to be the person that no one remembers. An introduction can last mere seconds and yet leave a lasting impression. You want that impression to be a favourable one.

Some people are natural orators but even they have to practice. The best professional public speakers spend years honing their craft. Dave Lakhani, speaker and author of "Persuasion: The Art of Getting What You Want" says:

"Speaking is a business and a process and processes are built on the back of education."

Through mastering public speaking and presentation skills you can build a career that will serve you a lifetime and can provide you with an income anywhere in the world. Even if you don’t want to become a professional speaker through mastering your public speaking and presentation skills you can vastly improve your business profit margins and enhance the quality of your life.

Discover Your Reason Why if You Want to Achieve Success

Lovemore Nickolove — Thu, 18 Oct 2007 22:23:49 +0000

If you’re struggling to achieve success then it may be because you haven’t identified the reason why you want to achieve success, why you want to achieve a particular goal. When you discover this it will become a compelling motive that drives you forward and gives you the energy to attract the people, resources and opportunities you need in your life to achieve your desired goal.

Let me give you an example. I was recently listening to Graham White interview, Noah St John of The Success Clinic, Inc. on the topic of "Permission to Succeed". Now Graham White is the former head coach of North America’s largest training company and during this candid interview he said something quite shocking. He said there was a time in his life that he had been close to committing suicide but one thing prevented him from taking his own life. When he remembered that he had a new baby daughter he realised that taking his own life was no longer an option.

Let take another example. You may desperately want to get back into shape but instead of exercising and eating healthily you scoff junk food, or eat cakes, biscuits, ice cream and the like in excess and you flake out in front of the television for hours on end every day. Then you develop a life-threatening illness and the doctor says to you that if you want to live you have to lose weight and improve your fitness. You now have your reason why. It’s a matter of life or death and you do what it takes to regain your health.

Perhaps your company is floundering and if you don’t do something drastic it will fold. The truth is that you love the work that you are doing. You just haven’t found a way to make it profitable because you have been deluding yourself. You have forgotten that no matter how much you love doing something a business must be profitable if it is to survive. You have been neglecting critical aspects of finance. You have not been addressing the issue of marketing and you know that some of your employees are not pulling their weight and yet you have procrastinated in effectively dealing with this issue. It may even be that you have too many employees for your current operations. Whatever the reasons for the demise of your business, when you recognise that if you let your business run into the ground you will not have a vehicle to express what you love doing, you will have a compelling reason to knock your business into shape.

In each case I have described here it isn’t that you don’t know what to do or how to do it. By the latter, I don’t mean that you necessarily know all the minute details of what you have to do to achieve the results that you desire, but if you don’t, you can surely find someone who does know. In each case, it seemed easier initially to simply drift along, ignoring your true calling and shying away from stepping up to the plate and being the person you were meant to be in this world. When you found a compelling enough reason why to change you were galvanised into action.

However, there’s another piece to the puzzle. You see what I have described are external motivating factors and while they can help you overcome obstacles you may be experiencing, to make those significant changes in your life, you will still be working to correct symptoms. You will not be addressing the underlying factor that resulted in you being in your current situation in the first place.

White also said that while acting as a business consultant that he would assist business owners who were on the brink of declaring bankruptcy and get them back on their feet again only to find that 6-18 months later some owners had run their company back into the ground again. St John explained this by saying that he had shown the business owners what to do but he hadn’t helped them uncover their why.

To be truly effective you have to get at the root cause which is an internal factor. This is also another "why" and it is the biggest why of all. It answers the question of the purpose of your existence on this earth. When you can correlate external motivating factors such as the love for your family, your desire for life, the love for the work you are doing with why you are here on this earth then you become unstoppable.

"Most people do not know why they are here on earth. When you don’t know why you’re here on earth that can cause feelings that can range from anywhere from just mild frustration to a general sense of hopelessness to feelings of suicide, to actually taking your own life."
Noah St John, The Success Clinic, Inc.

Just look at what you are able to achieve when you have a strong external motivating factor. Even if you have only experienced this for a brief time, notice how differently people respond to you when you are on purpose. They either scramble to help you or they move clear out of your way. Yet cognitive scientists have proven that only 5% of our decisions are on a conscious level. This means that a whooping 95% of our decisions are made on the subconscious level. Can you now see what awesome firepower you have at your disposal when you can align your internal with your external "why tos"?

"You can have all the ’how tos’ of success but if you have more ’why not tos’, even if those ’why not tos’ exist on the subconscious level, you simply won’t allow yourself to succeed to your full capacity no matter how many ’how tos’ of success you know."
Noah St John, The Success Clinic, Inc.

It may be a challenge to discover what your purpose is in life or it may be very simple. You see the answer to that particular question is also inside. The real question is:

"Are you willing to go inside to unlock the secret to your success - your reason why?"

The Power of Books to Transform Your Life

Lovemore Nickolove — Thu, 18 Oct 2007 02:27:23 +0000

I was listening to "America’s Success Coach", Jack Canfield, recently and he told a story that reminded me of Bob Proctor’s "333 Story" from his international bestseller "You Were Born Rich". In summary, the "333 Story" is a great example of what you can achieve when you make a firm decision and remain open to possibilities rather than focus on obstacles.

Jack Canfield recounted that while he was in Atlanta promoting his book, "Success Principles: How to get from where you are to where you want to be", that he was interviewed by a woman who said his publisher had sent her two copies of his book. She read one and gave the second copy to her brother who had been unemployed for three years. He was depressed and refused to venture out.

Well three weeks later her brother had finished the book. He shaved, put on a suit and attended three job interviews. Just three days later he was offered a job. Just writing about this gives me goose bumps. Books indeed have the power to transform your life.

It was novelist, journalist and poet, Christopher Morley who said:

"When you give someone a book, you don’t give him just paper, ink,
and glue. You give him the possibility of a whole new life."

This man had certainly been given a new lease on life when he was given the gift of "Success Principles".

It can be argued that one book has single-handedly transformed the world of personal development. Someone gave a little green book to Lloyd Conant who spent an entire weekend reading and rereading its contents. On Monday morning he decided that he would build a world-class corporation and that is exactly what he did. Nightingale-Conant is a giant in the field of personal development. The company is recognised around the world for the quality of its training programs and all the leaders in the field of personal and business development, marketing and sales training, spiritual growth and wealth building aspire to have their resources distributed by Nightingale-Conant.

One evening, Lloyd Conant told Bob Proctor and Harold Gash, two of his "top lieutenants", about the little green book. Proctor was just itching to discover the name of the book and more importantly what was written in the pages of this book that has had directed Lloyd Conant to his true purpose in life - to put the inspirational and educational recordings of Earl Nightingale in every home around the world. The book was "The Science of Getting Rich" and, though its text is outdated by our twenty-first century standards, it continues to fascinate and inspire a new army of transformational leaders.

Bob Proctor says of "The Science of Getting Rich" that:

"The contents of this book have served as the foundation for every personal development program I have written for the past quarter century."

In fact, Bob Proctor used this book as the basis of his "Science of Getting Rich" seminar - a powerful seminar that has helped thousands of people across the world better understand, and apply with outstanding results, the process of wealth creation.

The little green book inspired Rhonda Byrne to create and produce the movie "The Secret" - a movie which I recently heard described as a blockbuster. That made me smile for this movie does not feature the likes of Bruce Willis, Halle Berry, Samuel L Jackson, Brad Pitt, Angelina Jolie, Matt Damon or George Clooney. There are no breath-taking action scenes, suspenseful car chases or even elaborate sets.

Instead, the movie features the likes of Bob Proctor, Loral Langemeier, Rev. Michael Beckwith, Jack Canfield, Lisa Nichols, Dr Joe Vitale and Bob Doyle among others. The film stars teachers, philosophers, finance experts, psychologists, physicists and authors. Bizarre, isn’t it? But when you understand the spirit in which this film was made it really is no surprise that it has been as successful as it has been and, more importantly, the power of this movie to transform lives across the globe.

"As you learn The Secret you will come to know how you can have, be or do anything you want. You will come to know who you really are. You will come to know the true magnificence that awaits you in life."
Rhonda Byrne

I’m sure you can recall a book, perhaps even given to you by a friend or loved one, that made a significant impact on your life. I urge you therefore, to continuing reading inspirational books and to give someone you care about the gift of a great book.

To Achieve Success Keep Your Focus on Your Goals

Lovemore Nickolove — Thu, 18 Oct 2007 02:24:02 +0000

At the start of Grand Prix at Sinopec, China , James Allen, one of the commentators for ITV, said:

"To finish first you first have to finish."

It proved to be a rather ominous warning for rookie Formula One driver Lewis Hamiliton (McLaren) who could have snatched the 2007 world championship title in China.

He had the perfect setup for the race. He had clinched pole position and was leading for most of the race. However, Hamilton was on intermediates and his tyres were becoming increasingly worn. McLaren delayed bringing Hamilton in for new tyres, the weather was somewhat changeable and they didn’t want him to be on the wrong tyres. But better the wrong tyres than no tyres at all because as the race progressed his tyres became so degraded that his loss of grip was costing him valuable seconds and allowing second-placed Kimi Raikkonen (Ferrari) to ease closer and closer.

Raikkonen overtook Hamilton on lap 29 and Hamilton immediately started to fall behind with his control of his car diminishing. He finally made for the pits on lap 32 but, as he rounded the ninety degree left-hand corner in the entry lane, he slid off and ended up in the gravel. His race was over and his quest to win the world championship stretched further into the distance.

Raikkonen won convincingly with Hamilton’s team-mate Fernando Alonso in second and Felipe Massa (Ferrari) in third. Although Hamilton gained no points from this race, Raikkonen’s win was both a blessing and a curse as it means that he still had a four point lead over his nearest rival Alonso.

The race reminded me of the number goals that we set ourselves and never achieve simply because we do not finish them. Though this is not the case of Hamilton, who with disappointment etched upon his normally smiling face said, "I’m sorry for the team, but I can still do it," we often give up when the going gets tough. We also lose focus of our goals as we allow distractions to get the better of us.

We may start to convince ourselves that the goal was not important or even not achievable in the first place. We start to rack up a series of incomplete goals and this starts to nibble away at our self-confidence so that each successive goal we set becomes harder and harder to achieve.

When we find ourselves confronted with obstacles or distractions this is a key time when we need to maintain our focus. We need to remind ourselves of what is at stake and by staying focused on our goal we will be able to surmount any obstacle that comes our way. We need to remember that what we learn as we strive to achieve our goals is as important as achieving the goal itself. The obstacles you encounter are actually gifts placed in your path to strengthen you and help you to grow rather than to frustrate you.

"In every adversity there lies the seed of an equivalent advantage. In every defeat is a lesson showing you how to win the victory next time."
Robert Collier

Hamilton made a mistake going into the pits that arguably he would not have made if he were on better tyres. Still, as Henry Ford said:

"Even a mistake may turn out to be the one thing necessary to a worthwhile achievement."

Hamilton can achieve his dream but his rivals will fight him to the very last lap at the last race in Brazil. He needs to place second or third to be assured of the title. It will not be an easy challenge. It will require him to use the best of his driving skills. The Brazilian track will again be unknown territory but Hamilton has raced and won on unfamiliar tracks during this season. He will need to draw upon all his experience and that of his team. He will need to be in the zone where there is no separation between man and machine.

The two weeks separating the Shanghai race and that of the one in Brazil could have been two of the happiest weeks in Hamilton’s life. Instead, they will probably feel like two of the longest. He will have to use his maximum powers of concentration to keep his focus on success and on his goal of becoming world champion. It will be ultimate test of focus.

Racing driver Mario Andretti would perhaps repeat these words of wisdom to Hamilton:

"Circumstances may cause interruptions and delays, but never lose sight of your goal. Prepare yourself in every way you can by increasing your knowledge and adding to your experience, so that you can make the most of opportunity when it occurs."