Unapologetic Public Speaking – Speaking With Confidence!

In the romantic movie, “Love Story”, a phrase about love was introduced that went, “Love means never having to say your sorry”. And while anyone who is married knows how untrue that is, we could easily adapt that concept to the world of public speaking.

As a public speaker confidence is key. That means if you’re doing your job right, there will never be a desire or a need to say your sorry to your audience.

The psychological principle behind this rule is solid and it’s not based just in ego. This rule is not created to make you out to be some super-hero who never makes a mistake. The foundation for this rule is that you have absolutely nothing to appologize for if your audience and your message is matched up with perfection. That doesn’t mean you’ll always get this perfect. With time and developing a skill of reading the audience, you’ll be speaking with more confidence than ever.

When a speaker gets up before a group, there are the assumptions that the crowd has about you. And they want to know that these things are true so they know they will be made to feel comfortable during your presentation. The core of those assumptions are….

. You are confident.
. You know what you are talking about.
. That you like them, are passionate about your subject matter and are genuinely happy to be there.
. You are comfortable in the public speaking role and
. They want to like you.

These assumptions are strongly ingrained into the psychology of a crowd and you can relate to them as you have listened to a speaker.

If that speaker is at ease, relates to the crowd in a confident easy going way and is not easily “thrown” by the little things that happen during a talk, then you relax and in doing so, you are more open to what the speaker has to say.

Learning to react to issues that come up or to handle objections or perceived errors or weaknesses in your script is just part of becoming confident as a speaker. When you do have to adjust, lose your place or respond to a question that points to a flaw in your presentation, the real issue that is on trial here is not the problem or even how you answer. It is whether you can handle that problem with grace and poise and move on that makes the difference.

If you become flustered or violate that assumption that you are confident and you know what you are doing up there, you create insecurity in the audience.

And that is the last thing they want to experience. An audience is a captive population and they know that. So they want to like you and be able to trust you to be their captain and safely guide them through to the other side, even if the trip is a bit bumpy along the way.

This is why an apology for a problem, a weakness in your material is a big mistake during a presentation. Think about how uncomfortable you feel when someone is speaking before you and are apologizing for their talk.

If you come across challenges or problem questions it’s much better to approach it head on and say something like “Great point! Let me find that out for you and get back to you personally.” Handling a challenge in this manner allows you to maintain an air of confidence and portray a leadership that invokes greater confidence in you as the speaker.

Remember that they are there to hear you and are actively waiting for you to take the lead. Lead with confidence and never apologize – that attitude will never stear you wrong!

ps. Want to be an amazing public speaker? Click here

Recording a Professional Speaker Presentation

Here’s a demonstration of the Cartoni tripod and why it’s a very useful tool in your presentation recording.

Things you need to record a professional presentation live:

1. High-Quality Camera: In this video a presentation a Sony HD Video Camera was used.

2. Microphones: They’re using Sennheiser Wireless Mics.

3. Good Lighting Setup.

4. Cartoni Focus Tripod

Persuasive Speaker’s Kit

Keeping your speeches interesting is a consistant challenge for a professional speaker. While it’s important to have a practiced talk you’ll also want to mix it up with new, interesting and persuasive talks.

What’s included in the Persuasive Speaker’s Kit?

The speaker’s kit is a complete package of 2000 interesting topics, 12 research checklists and 6 speech outline templates. They are delivered instantly after order completion in pdf format.

Who’s It For?

The Persuasive Speaker’s Kit is for novice and experienced speakers alike. With this large resource of topics, checklists and outlines anyone can be up and running with a professional speech in no time.

The Cost: Just $9.95

How to Order:

To get your own copy of the Persuasive Speaker’s Kit click the link below and order now. You’ll get instant access:

Click here to download your copy of the Persuasive Speaker’s Kit

Create an Enticing Event to Attract Sales & Affiliates

I recently got a question from one of my customers about how to attract more affiliates.

She works for a successful online marketer who is doing all the right things with her affiliate program. She has great products, affiliates who are already successful and lots of great promotional tools.

In order to boost the program’s success and get more sales this affiliate manager was looking at adding more affiliates to her program (a common goal for most affiliate managers). So she did what many people do to find new affiliates and started emailing potential partners who would be a great fit. The response just wasn’t good.

I’m not surprised. Read more

Affiliate Site Content Management for Easy Affiliate Marketing

One of the biggest stalling points for many a new affiliate marketer is getting the actual affiliate website up and running.

As an affiliate marketer, you want a content management system (aka website) that makes it easy for you to add new information and promote new products. You also don’t want to spend forever trying to figure out what that is.

My solution for you – WordPress.

What is WordPress?

WordPress is a state-of-the-art publishing platform with a focus on aesthetics, web standards, and usability. WordPress is both free and priceless at the same time.

More simply, WordPress is what you use when you want to work with your blogging software, not fight it.

That’s the definition straight from WordPress.org.

Want to see what you can do with it?

Here’s a new blog I’m playing around with as a potential affiliate site, it’s one of a few niche sites I own and run on WordPress:

This website right here is built on WordPress as well. My professional speaker’s website, SpeakerSuccessOnline.com is another one. Here are a couple more:
AngelaWills.com
AffiliatesMojo.com

And of course I’ve also built dozens of sites for clients through my service available at BlogSiteMojo.com.

So, yea, I like WordPress. I use it on almost every single website I create and will continue to do so because it’s easy, fast, intuitive and always getting better. That means I can focus on creating quality content, products and resources that serve my market rather than trying to get the darned stuff out there.

How Do You Start Your Own WordPress Affiliate Site?

Here’s a brief description of what you need to do:

1. Get website hosting with Fantastico or Simple Scripts for click and go easy WordPress installation – I promise it’s easy to install if you get hosting with one of these! I recommend Bluehost for hosting which has easy installation and a handy control panel.

2. Install & Customize WordPress. WordPress straight out of the box does need a little tweaking. If you’re not comfortable with this you can hire a Virtual Assistant to help you or hire a blogsite service to set it all up for you.

3. Start Promoting Your Affiliate Programs. The beauty of wordpress is that it is set up in such a way that it helps you get found easier by the search engines and it is very easy to use once you get the hang of it. You won’t have to wait for a website designer to do updates and you won’t have to buy a crazy expensive program like Dreamweaver to do it yourself.

You can grab a copy of my completely free ecourse on How to Create a WordPress Website in 7 Days or Less and you can also learn and awful lot from WordPress.org.

How did I learn?

I have to admit that even though I had built websites for many years before using WordPress, the thought of this CMS (content management system) on a blogging platform was intimidating to me. That’s why I choose to learn by having someone walk me through the whole process. Having someone walk you through or even do it for you takes all the pressure off, saves time hunting around (and potentially grabbing the wrong information) and gets it accomplished fast so you can move on to making money through affiliate programs.

So if you’re ready to get moving forward on your own affiliate marketing my recommendation to you is choose your system (I recommend WordPress ) and then just dive into it. Once you’ve got a website you can quickly and easily update you’ll have no more barriers to making a great income as an affiliate marketer.

p.s. If you learn best through video then I recommend you check out the Blogging Starter Pack by Lynette Chandler. Lynette has been a friend, mentor and colleague for years now and when it comes to WordPress she also knows her stuff.

Hosting an Online Virtual Event

If you are looking to build your business and reputation, you may want to consider hosting an online virtual event.

This past February I hosted the Marketer’s Mojo Virtual Conference with 22 amazing speakers over five days.

It was a great way to build relationships with other speakers, to bring high value to my market and to gain new experience with event hosting without the risk involved in running a conference offline.

Paying attention to all the details to running an online event can be tricky. There is a lot of work involved and a lot of planning to do. So with that in mind I wanted to share with you some of the things I learned through hosting my own event. Here is my advice to you if you plan on hosting an online virtual event:

Don’t expect speakers to promote for you – I will admit at first I didn’t realize it was a faux-pas to ask speakers to promote the event. Speakers are bringing their talents and skills to the call so it’s up to the organizer to bring the people.

Get the speakers their call in info early and make sure they received it! I had one speaker end up being late because she couldn’t find the call in info and I thought she had it. Not good

Thank you speakers! Make sure you let the speakers know you appreciate their participation.

Don’t change up the game. Of course this is in reference to today’s post. Don’t change up what your speaker agreed to be part of without asking them if it is ok to do something different with their material.

Know how to pronounce your guests name. Yep this might be basic but when you have a guest just check, because sometimes a name just doesn’t get pronounced the way it’s spelt.

Be prepared with your guest’s bio. Make sure you read your guests bio before you get on the call and know it well enough that you don’t stumble over your words.

Thank your listeners.

So I’ve learned a few things along the way and I hope my post can help you avoid some little pitfalls you may run into while running your own virtual event.

Online Marketing Research For Speakers Using Keywords

by Angela Wills

Audio Version of Article

If you have a website, or even read any information on creating a website, you’ve most likely heard that you should use keywords on your site. Keywords are so much more than just words. Let me give you my definition:

- Keywords or keyword terms are specific terms or phrases that people use in the search engines to find what they are looking for online.

Most of the time people are looking for information. So they type in the keywords relating to what it is they want to find.

What does this mean to you?

It means keywords are a goldmine of information telling you exactly what people want when they are coming to the search engines. It means it’s just silly for you to pick out two or three keywords, slap them on your website and call it a day.
Read more

Getting Your Business Emails Delivered to Your List

Worried that your carefully crafted email newletters might not actually make it to your subscribers?

It’s a valid concern and it’s constantly getting harder to get your completely legitimate emails delivered to your subscribers inbox. We can thank the lovely spammers for the difficulties in email deliverability!

There are some things you can do to protect yourself and get your emails delivered to your opt-in list and read.

Getting Permission

Confirming that the people who ask for your information have actually requested to be on your list is the number one step in the battle for deliverability. You should be using a process called confirmed, double or verified opt-in to send a unique link to the attempted subscriber when they request information. Before adding the person to your list they must click that unique link verifying that they are indeed the same person that owns the email address and requested to subscribe.
Read more

Free Market Research Using Keyword Tools

by Angela Wills

Audio Version of Article

If you have a website, or even read any information on creating a website, you’ve most likely heard that you should use keywords on your site. Keywords are so much more than just words. Let me give you my definition:

- Keywords or keyword terms are specific terms or phrases that people use in the search engines to find what they are looking for online.

Most of the time people are looking for information. So they type in the keywords relating to what it is they want to find.

What does this mean to you?

It means keywords are a goldmine of information telling you exactly what people want when they are coming to the search engines. It means it’s just silly for you to pick out two or three keywords, slap them on your website and call it a day.

You need to integrate keywords and keyword research into your business and respond to what people are calling out for. Sure you can write about whatever you want, whenever you want online but if no one is looking for that information you’re wasting your effort.

Where do I find MY keywords?

There are plenty of great places to do keyword research. Start educating yourself on what the numbers mean and what the google competition is.

Do a google search for any of the following and you’ll find some great keyword tools:
- SEO Book keyword tool
- Adwords Keyword tool
- Wordtracker free keyword tool
- Wordtracker
- Market Samuri

So, here’s your homework:
- Go find a list of about 100 keywords relating to your market and use them. Use them in your website copy, to create newsletters, to create new products, to write blog posts and anything else that you do for the market those keywords serve.

A world of presentations without PowerPoint

A world of presentations without PowerPoint

Most of the presentations made nowadays are made with the help of PowerPoint. There are also class teachers and lecturers who use PowerPoint to make the teaching and learning process more interesting. However, it is the professional who makes presentations without the use of PowerPoint, while following some of their age-old beliefs for presentations.

Presentations without PowerPoint prove to be quite boring. This is because the presentation will be monotonous, with no music background or visual aids to help in the presentation. PowerPoint presentations usually provide a change for the audience in the presentation, and also give the crowd some visual explanations to the points that are being told in the presentation. So without PowerPoint in the presentation, it is very important that the presenter use some creativity in the presentation. This is because it is only this creativity that will keep the audience interested and motivated in the presentation!

The most important thing that has to be remembered to give a successful presentation without PowerPoint is to exactly know what you are talking about. If you are well versed with the matter you intend to present, you can very well present it without the help of PowerPoint. However, make sure to make your presentation only after learning about the temperament and nature of your audience. Remember that it is of no use talking to the audience as a group of employees. Instead, make it a point to tailor your presentation to meet the intellectual of the audience you are facing.

When beginning the presentation, you have to present it while keeping the end of the presentation in mind. You have to know what the purpose of your presentation is, as without PowerPoint you might lose the interest of the audience! Make sure you see, hear and feel what exactly it is that you want people to respond to in whatever it is that you say. Make a strong start to your presentation. Without PowerPoint, it is very much important that the first words and your appearance set the right tone for the audience to listen to you throughout the presentation. One of the best ways of making a connection with the audience without the help of PowerPoint is to tell a story, or an anecdote that has universal appeal.

One of the main things that has to be done when giving a presentation is to practice on the speech as much as possible. This is the only way of looking polished while speaking. It is indeed a false notion that using PowerPoint slides in a presentation will make a person a dynamic speaker. The process of becoming a dynamic speaker lies in the hand of the speaker. Only practice can make one a successful speaker, and this is one skill that cannot be delegated to anyone else. One of the best techniques to implement for practice is called bits. Here one practices a short piece of material over and over again till perfect. It is not that you practice it for word for word, one just has to talk one’s way through the presentation! In this way, one can easily continue a presentation, even if there is a distraction while onstage.

If PowerPoint is not used in a presentation, it is important that props be used instead. This is because a prop is basically worth a thousand words. With props, people tend to anchor thoughts in their minds to these props. It is no difference if the prop is large, small, funny or serious, as long as it relates to the point that you are trying to make and that the audience sees it! Another way of making sure that the audience loves you despite the fact that you don’t use PowerPoint in your presentation is to bring solutions to the problems they have. With your research of the audience, you would already have an idea to what their problems are; it is only up to you to bring new ideas to them to try.

Remember that when you are not using PowerPoint, you are the visual aid of the presentation. People will then gain more interest in whatever it is that you say, instead of visuals or fancy slides or overheads. So basically, without PowerPoint, it is important that the speaker be more self-confident and well versed in his speech. Without this, it may be quite impossible to imagine giving a presentation without PowerPoint!

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