How to Prepare Your Business for the New Year with Julie Ashton

The Friday Forum is for business people – we discuss many topics and hear how our guests have included speaking to groups as a marketing strategy – today we are speaking with Julie Ashton of Dynamic Business coach.

Julie has a unique talent for simplifying complex processes and concepts while identifying and implementing practical strategies for her clientele. She is known for teaching people how to work quickly and efficiently while happily delivering great service, whether it be by phone, internet or face to face.

Our topic today is “How to Prepare Your Business for the New Year” – Julie gives insights into celebrating what has been achieved this year and practical approaches for heading into the new year.

How to Prepare Your Business for the New Year

The Friday Forum is for business people – we discuss many topics and hear how our guests have included speaking to groups as a marketing strategy – today Julie Ashton of Dynamic Business coach is detailing some great tips on “How to Prepare Your Business for the New Year”.

Julie has a unique talent for simplifying complex processes and concepts while identifying and implementing practical strategies for her clientèle. She is known for teaching people how to work quickly and efficiently while happily delivering great service, whether it be by phone, internet or face to face.

Adrienne McLean interviews Julie Ashton on how to prepare for the approaching new year – there are some great tips and advice for being prepared and ready for a successful year ahead.

How to Handle Nervousness when speaking in front of Groups with Julie Mac

Today we are discussing a topic that affects many of us – Handling nervousness. Our guest speaker, Julie Mac is a stress expert and is speaking on How to reduce those nerves when speaking –

So do you find yourself sweating and feeling sick in your stomach when you think about speaking in front of people?

Do you have a fear of forgetting yours words?

How about, do your hands start to shake and your mouth goes dry?

Julie is going to explain why this happens, and what we can do to reduce those nerves when speaking.

Julie has spent the last 10 years successfully assisting hundreds of people in overcoming fears, anxiety and a multitude of adversities. She believes that once we understand how we inhibit ourselves through self-imposed limitations, then we can enjoy a successful, happy and healthy life.

Julie is a therapist and speaker. She is currently studying to complete her qualification as a registered psychologist.

She is the leading Australian expert in Stress Management and her clinics are on the Central Coast and Crows Nest in Sydney.

How to Maximise Your Impact on Video with Tim Stackpool

Our guest speaker today is Tim Stackpool . Tim is a media skills Professional trainer with extensive experience in television and radio. Tim is going to be giving his advice on “Maximising Your Impact on Video”.

Video is becoming more and more important in the way that businesses market their business. I was speaking to a Gen Y friend who was quite clear – she liked video included in presentations – its seems like the future generations will be expecting video in many places.

We see so much television and movies that it appears straight forward until we actually stand in front of a camera.

Getting that great impact and personality on video really helps with connecting with your audience.

Using a well written script keeps the audiences attention – when you start to write it – it can be hard to know where to start

Becoming aware of some of our mannerisms is uncomfortable – but they can be obvious on camera. How straight forward to get up and present in front of a camera? Tim’s going to explain…….

From Broke to Top Franchisee in Australia in 2 Years with Phil Preston

The Speakers Practice – Fortnightly Friday Forum has guest speaker – Phil Preston – an Engagement Strategy Specialist speaking on the topic of Shared Value. Phil details this amazing example of a business in Queensland, Australia that by using the Shared Value approach in the local community built a thriving business from literally being liquidated.

If you are interested in adding value to your community along with growing your business – this is a fabulous discussion that will give you ideas and methods to grow your business.

How to Reduce those Nerves when Speaking

The Speakers Practice has invited Australian Business owners to submit articles on the topic of the Presentation Skills in the workplace. Contributors are experts in their industry , discussing aspects and giving advice concerning presentation skills in their field of expertise.

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Julie has spent the last 10 years successfully assisting hundreds of people in overcoming fears, anxiety and a multitude of adversities. Julie is a therapist and speaker. She is currently studying to complete her qualification as a registered psychologist.

Julie is the leading Australian expert in Stress Management and her clinics are on the Central Coast and Crows Nest in Sydney.

Handling nervousness – How do we reduce those nerves when speaking ?

So do you find yourself sweating and feeling sick in your stomach when you think about speaking in front of people?

Do you have a fear of forgetting yours words?

How about, do your hands start to shake and your mouth goes dry?

In this video, Adrienne McLean is interviewing Julie Mac for our Friday Forum – Julie explains why some of us have these symptoms, why it happens, and what we can do to reduce those nerves when speaking. There’s some valuable ideas and approaches that we can all implement.

From Broke to Top Franchisee in 2 Years!

The Speakers Practice has invited Australian Business owners to submit articles on the topic of the Presentation Skills in the workplace. Contributors are experts in their industry , discussing aspects and giving advice concerning presentation skills in their field of expertise.

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Phil Preston , a Strategic Engagement Specialist.
Phil is a former investment manager, responsible for researching and analysing $40 billion of investment exposures, and has since set up his own strategic engagement practice. He was invited to become a member of the first global practitioner network that specialises in helping businesses create shared value strategies

Phil’s work centres on community engagement. He helps busy people balance their work and home life and do something meaningful in their community. And he helps businesses go beyond donations and volunteering and finding ways of improving their financial returns and, at the same time, making a positive impact on the world. This is what we call ‘shared value.

This discussion covers how a business in Queensland went from Broke to the Top Franchisee in Australia in only 2 years. This is an incredible feat – it was done by implementing the “Shared Value” approach whilst promoting the business approach by speaking. Here’s Phil Preston discussing with Adrienne McLean how it all happened.

There is some real take home approaches that built the business by speaking

The Importance of Focus

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In your presentation , what are you focuing on?

If you are bombarding your audience with a huge amount of information, haven’t really thought about the real purpose of your presentation and if your presentation isn’t clearly organised – you will loose your audiences attention.

The audience’s attention is not very long – you have around 5 minutes – if you haven’t grasped your audience’s attention and interest in that time – their attention will start to waine and you will have to work much harder to get over your information that is so important to have you there in the first place.

Your focus when presenting your business overview, your pitch or speech is crucial.

Here are a number of questions that need to be asked when preparing a presentation.

1. Who is your audience and Why are they at your presentation?

2. What is the purpose of your presentation – Why are you giving this presentation?

3. What is the message you are wanting to leave your audience with? What is the thought you want your audience to remember about your presentation – in the next week, the next month, the next year from your presentation?

4. In your presentation, what are you focusing on? Is the focus of your presentation really matching your message and objectives of your presentation?

5. Are you focusing on the needs of your audience and is everything you are focusing on matching with your audience needs?

These are five crucial points that you need to be really clear about and focusing on when preparing, practicing and presenting your presentation? If your aim is to keep your audiences attention right through your presentation – Be very clear on these five points.

If you are wanting to work on your presentations, contact Adrienne McLean on adrienne@thespeakerspractice.com.au

How to eliminate Filler Words from your presentation

The use of Umms, Ahhs , Errs or other Filler words can be the norm for some people when they deliver a speech at work or in various forums – this is the way a speaker gives him or her-self time to think of the words they want to use. The problem is ,that if you Umm and Ahh, it is distracting to your audience- The audience are there because they are interested in your topic or about your experience. You may be brilliant and an expert in your field but alot of Umming and Ahhing will be disruptive during your performance.

How can the use of these rather annoying words be stopped so you can impress with your knowledge?

All the very best with working in this area – with awareness and practice you can certainly eliminate those Filler Words forever!

Sometimes, its not the presenting that’s difficult – its how to structure the presentation

So you might be fine with getting up and presenting – you may be comfortable to speak confidently in front of a group. But you’ve been asked to speak on a specific topic, there’s plenty of material but where do you start to create this presentation?

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Here are four easy steps to follow to get all the information you need together to prepare your presentation.

1. Use a Mind Map – see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mind_maps
Read through all your material and write down all the main points around the central theme. Then you choose the top three that are most important. Your audience can remember three main points – so go with that – anymore and your audience will start to forget some of the information.

2.Prepare a really strong opening – you need to get your audiences attention – once you’re underway its fine – its that initial opening that needs to grab them. See: How do YOU create a Strong Opening? http://bit.ly/18gPzZP

3. Work on the three points you are going to cover. Prepare all the relevant information and cut or increase depending on the time you have available.

4. Then prepare a strong message for the conclusion – give an overview of the three main points and then finish with a really strong message.

Remember to Practice after you have written your presentation and then you’re ready. Now, you can go confidently and present. All the Best !

Have a look at our website www.thespeakerspractice.com.au for more details and our free article on the 5 P’s to a Perfect Presentation