Where to Look When You Speak

When you are giving a presentation or speech, your body language and how you hold yourself in front of a crowd speaks to them as much as your words do. And part of not begin nervous in front of people when you are doing public speaking is not “acting” nervous. If you have complete control over your body, your face and your hands, you can perform relaxation in front of people and you will actually accept the idea that you are relaxed and begin to feel more at ease as you do your speech.

One problem that you often see in public speakers who is the use of the eyes. It’s extremely easy as a public speaker to want to look at your outline or your written out speech throughout your presentation so you never get lost or have that terrifying feeling of not knowing what you are going to say next. That is why many people who do not become skilled at talking in front of crowds write out their speeches word for word and just read it to the group.

The problem with that approach is you have been asked to give a speech, not a reading. And many adults take offense at being read to. An audience wants to hear “from” you, not just hear you read. If that was the only value of a public presentation, you could just hand out your speech as a white paper and let them read it and not have to get in front of people at all. But that is not as effective as public speaking, particularly if the purpose of your speech is to convince or to sell.

So the question comes up of where to actually look as you give your speech. Many speakers look at a spot at the back of the room because looking at the faces makes them nervous. This is better than staring down at your papers the whole time. For one thing, projection is a big part of getting your message out there. And even if you are using a microphone, if you speak “out” into the crowd rather than down, your voice will be clearer and you will naturally use your diaphragm to do well at enunciating each word.

The other value of looking at the back wall is that it will help you project your voice, particularly if you are not using amplification. The old actor’s motto of “performing to the last row” applies here because it means you consider everyone in that hall to be your audience, not just the people on the first row. So there is some value to that approach.

However, one of the most valuable ways you can really connect with your audience and get your message across is to make eye contact with the audience. Eye contact is commonly used by sales people to create a bond with the customer and that bond helps close the sale. But even if your presentation is not necessarily a sales situation, eye contact will get your message across. And that is what you got up there to do in the first place.

Eye contact makes the audience look at you. It keeps them attentive. To use eye contact to its maximum value, move your eyes from audience member to audience remember and speak to that individual directly. That eye contact will actually be felt by everyone around that individual and it rivets the listener to you. Don’t linger on one person because you don’t want to stare but by becoming skilled at using eye contact as you speak to a crowd, you are taking control of the presentation to make it do what you want it to do. And having control is a big key to success in public speaking.

Why It’s Worth Fighting Your Dragons And Start Public Speaking!

Everyone hears about being nervous when speaking, and when you overcome it, you become confident and very successful.

What you don’t hear from successful speakers is about the journey itself.

For example, when I started in the field of speaking, I was a corporate employee.

As a project engineer, I had to develop concepts and designs to solve problems within the plant.

I was good at this and yet my career progress was slow because I simply couldn’t speak well,
and I needed to present my proposals to obtain funding.

I would become nervous, tongue tied and confused.

So when I started my public speaking career I was so scared and terrified, that even the
thought of being in front of a group of people, made me feel physically sick, and would
make my heart race so much, I thought I was having a heart attack.

Clearly, I didn’t want to go through my life like that so I did some training and got ready
for my Maiden speech.

With this speech I was competing for a prestigious Silver Cup and I was excited because
I thought I was going to win it.

I walked out onto the stage in front of 200 people and arrived at the podium.
Suddenly my legs started to shake so much I thought I was going to fall down.
So I grabbed the lectern, which also began to shake, and then, at that moment, the butterflies
in my stomach turned into dive-bombers and I started to feel sick.

While shaking the lectern so much, I watched with horror, as my notes slid onto the floor.

In total confusion now, I decide to start my speech without picking up the notes.

My voice quavered as I stated my name, and then my mind went completely blank.

After what seemed an eternity, I grabbed my notes from the floor and fled the stage.

All I achieved that day was to let people know who I was and that I was one pathetic speaker.

Needless to say , I didn’t get the prize or even a polite or sympathetic applause from the audience.

It was such a horrifying experience that I had to make a decision to quit or do something about it.
(I was unable to get into the witness protection program to lose my identity!)

Well I studied, practised and used everything that I write about in my book and then some
12 months later, I had to give a speech on behalf of my company.
Now this was a seriously major important speech for the company and me.

If I didn’t do a brilliant job, my career would finish, the company would suffer and I reckon
I would have been out of a job.

That would mean, a massive change in lifestyle for my family, changing schools, changing
houses and even putting my food supply at risk..

So as I walked to the Podium this time I could feel this huge pressure bearing down on me.

And do you know?

I was confident, created humour and had them laughing, created pathos so they could feel
sad, lifted them with excitement, spoke a very clear message, had them in the palm of my hand
and when I finished ,they stood up to applaud.

Pretty good eh?

Oh yes, I got promoted and realised that day, that being a great public speaker helps you make
more money, no matter what your job is.

So what made the difference?

What transformed me from bumbling idiot to charismatic speaker?

And could anybody do the same?

Clearly, the answer is yes, if they went through all the stuff they I had.

Why am I qualified to say this?

Because it is based upon my learnings, my studies, my experiments, good and bad, and
most importantly, on my real life, in the fire, under the hammer, experience.

And then I even wrote my own book on how to overcome the Fear of Public Speaking!

As Chairman of the Public Speaking Group at the Australian Institute of Management I have
coached and helped many people who at the beginning of the year , could not even say their
name, and by the end of the year, had become articulate and confident speakers.

So overcoming the fear and building the skills, step by step, not only transforms your
presentation skills, it builds your confidence in all parts of your life.

And isn’t that a good enough reason to start!

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

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.

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