TheSpeakerspractice

How to have Fun in Business and build a Sustaining Business for Years to Come

Published on April 25, 2014 by Adrienne McLean

Introducing Roland Hanekroot , owner of the company New Perspectives, has an extensive small to medium business background. Roland is the founder and CEO of two successful businesses in the building and construction industry with over 20 years experience. He was originally trained as a Journalist in Holland and worked for a national daily newspaper in Amsterdam and then came to Australia and started a carpentry and later building company. Since leaving the building industry Roland was involved in IT and network administration for a number of medium sized organisations.

Roland founded New Perspectives on my background and experience in small business together with deep study and training in business management, psychology, counselling and coaching. The result is an unique approach and methodology that leads small business owners back to having more Fun in business.

Building a Fun business that sustains you for years to come takes guts, because it invariably means Change (with a capital “C”). Nothing inspires me more than seeing people step out of their comfort zone and stay there in order to make the changes they need to make.
The Questions Roland Answers are:

1. Building a Fun business and needing to go out of your comfort zone – these seem to be opposites – what is this about?

2. Are there stages to work through?

3. Building a “tribe” can be a challenge – what approach do you recommend to building a tribe?

4. Building a business can be frustrating, need perseverance and challenging. What are your approaches to make it fun?

5. I ask all our guests this – As a Business Owner , what is your advice about promoting your business by speaking?

There’s some incredibly sound and valuable advice in this discussion – well worth putting 30 minutes aside to listen and absorb – if you’re in business this is wonderful advice – Thanks Roland Hanekroot for your time and sharing your expertise!

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Meaningful Conversations with Glenda Thompson

Published on April 6, 2014 by Adrienne McLean

Our guest Glenda Thompson is a connection and communication specialist and the founder of her company, Flourisheer.

Glenda works with successful people who want to connect to others more effectively.

If they’re ready to speak out to influence, Glenda has the tools and skills to partner with them to achieve that.

Glenda works with individuals, drives interactive group sessions and also acts as a catalyst at retreats.

Previously, she was a journalist at The Australian Financial Review. She lives in Manly with her husband and snorkels for fun. Find Glenda online at flourisheer.com.au.

Glenda answers these questions about handling of conversations –

1. When do you use Meaningful Conversations?

2. What’s the first step?

(After we’ve done quite a bit of the framework or all of it):

3. Do you have to tell the other person you’re using a tool?

4. What if you don’t get through all the steps in one meeting?

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Video has a Positive effect on marketing a business

Published on March 25, 2014 by Adrienne McLean

Connecting using Video is a powerful method to connect with your audience.

Video has a Positive effect on marketing a business. It is a technique you can use that really displays you as the expert in your field. It is a fabulous way for you to get your business message across and the potential clients can get to know you ( a bit) and get an understanding of your approaches.

There are many reasons for using video from an online marketing perspective –
the biggest one is that it helps to keep the engagement of the potential client on your website for longer. This is a great thing from Google’s perspective – the other reason is that Google owns Youtube and assesses if your video are relevant and have quality information – if this is the case then that gives you a bonus from a Search Engine perspective. Google is looking for relevant and quality information from all avenues used on the internet. 82% of marketers confirmed that video marketing had a positive impact on their business.

From a consumer’s perspective – the buyer today is much,much more educated than ever before. They will go and look online and hunt around for the best products, services and they will know their pricing.

The statistics are amazing –
73% of consumers are more likely to buy after watching a video.
71% of consumers said that videos leave them with a positive impression of a company.
A whopping 95% of consumers find video useful in researching what to buy and finally 93% say video is helpful in comparison shopping.

So whether you are a purchaser or a marketer, video has a positive impact on your buying process.

For video to be successful – learning how to connect with your audience in front of an audience is essential – presenting in front of a camera gets to large audiences – but you have to know how. Learning the skills associated with preparing video and going through the process will really assist you with your understanding of the video process and you will develop skills to present in front of camera.

Since Youtube is the second largest search engine – if you are a keen marketer then having a presence on Youtube is essential. Youtube is the most incredible platform for delivering information to your clients and potential clients. So learning the skills so you can have a professional presence on Youtube is important.

Have a look at The Speakers Practice – Presentation and Video workshop – You’ll hear from our Guest Trainer, Tim Stackpool, there’s a client testimonial along with a marketing managers view. how this program will assist you.

Contact Adrienne McLean on adrienne@thespeakerspractice.com.au for a free consultation to get more details and examples of videos produced in this program.

A Common Distraction when Public Speaking

Published on March 23, 2014 by Adrienne McLean

A common distraction with Public Speaking is the use of filler words – eg Umm, Ahh, Err, and so on.

Here’s a video with some approaches to overcome the use of filler words. This will help raise your presentations to the next level. Its step by step but work on it – its worth it!

Marketing with Video with Geoff Anderson

Published on by Adrienne McLean

The Friday Forum is for business people – Business Professionals are interviewed on all sorts of topics – The aim is that this forum is to discuss ideas and practical ways that you can use to promote your business as well as hear real-life examples of a wide variety of business tools.

This Friday Forum our guest speaker is Geoff Anderson . Geoff is a video production specialist, managing director of Sonic Sight and Author of Shoot me Now – making Videos to Boost Business. Geoff is an authority on creating video and marketing businesses with the video. Geoff assists a broad range of clients with their communication and promotional needs and loves being able to use video to tell creative stories about the companies we work with.

The discussion has Geoff anderson speaking on the following questions –

1 What is it about Video that Marketing with Video becoming so important?

2. What are the steps in creating a video?

3. What are some of the pitfalls we need to be aware of when creating video?

4. How can a we create a video that makes our Business look a Million Dollars?

5. I ask all our guests this – As a Business Owner , what is your advice about promoting your business by speaking?

There an enormous amount of valuable information – enjoy!

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Building a Community

Published on March 21, 2014 by Adrienne McLean

For a community to work , there are three important factors –

There must be TRUST between the members of the group
Each member must CONFORM to the Social Norms
RECIPROCITY – each member must give without expecting anything in return.

The need to belong is apart of being human. So how can we work with this need to belong to help us within our community and with building our tribe for our business?

1. People love to be involved – and show their expertise.

2. Always show appreciation for whatever people help you with

3. There’s plenty of people out there to help, you only have to ask

“Magic Happens when people come together to share”

Whether this is on a business field or a community field , the relationships that are built are essential for people’s well being and the business well being. Be grateful for the help and assistance people give you. Then they will be delighted to assist you.

Here’s a marvellous article on ways approaches to building a community – http://www.inc.com/miki-agrawal/community-is-everything.html

Thank you to Phil Preston and Julie Garland-McLellan for their input into this article. The idea for this blog was from attending the National Speakers Association of Australia NSW chapter meeting.

What are the similarities between Art and Delivering Presentations?

Published on March 2, 2014 by Adrienne McLean

Friday 28th February, 2014 – I had the immense pleasure of attending a lecture by Artist, Professor and Writer, Odili Donald Odita at the Barnes Foundation, Philedelphia.Odili Donald Odita is a Nigerian visual artist who has had an incredible career with numerous gallery and museum exhibitions – his works are on large industrial projects as well as in galleries.

Odili Donald Odita had a discussion about art on an intellectual level – about what artists were attempting to do with their art , in what ever medium they work. Odili was discussing the current exhibition at the Barnes Foundation by Yinka Shonibare MBE : Magic Ladders along with his own work. Odili focused on how artists like Yinka Shonibare use common influences of color, pattern and music to create a diverse range of artistic forms.

The discussion was enthralling, he raised many interesting concepts but I couldn’t help but think that with these following points, there was a real cross-over and similarity with art and delivering a presentation.

The artist needed to be Authentic– an artist can use ideas from various sources, put their own creative input into the ideas and then give back those ideas including their creativeness.
Then important concept here is to be Authentic with the delivery.When delivering presentations, this is the same – they are there to learn and be able to use the discussed ideas in their own world along with seeing the real you. As a presenter, sure discuss concepts others have discussed in the past but you need to be authentic – show your own passion , interest, enthusiasm about the presentation to really get your message across successfully.
By looking at art, it takes the viewer into a new place of consciousness. An artist wants to create a “Situational Pause” to make the viewer reassess their situation.This is precisely what a successful presentation does.A Successful presentation will take the audience into a new place of consciousness, bring a new awareness about the topic and make them think about their situation. If your presentation successfully does this , you will get your message across and most likely have your message stick in the minds of your audience.

You can do this with a story that your audience will identify with or by using emotion or even humour. Take your audience into a new place of consciousness and make them think!

So the similarities with art and delivering presentations are much closer than first thought – what situational pause can you put in your next presentation to make impact?

Join us at our Business Speakers Forum , 10th April, 2014 at the Chatswood club,
6 – 8.30pm. See: http://www.meetup.com/Business-Speakers-Forum/

Tools to be a Successful Manager with Sally Foley-Lewis

Published on February 25, 2014 by Adrienne McLean

Sally Foley-Lewis trains managers to be more productive – to really connect and communicate with their staff and to achieve those highly sort after goals. Sally is detailing in this 30 minute podcast some tools to be a successful manager.

The questions asked are:

1. What does it take to manage people?

2. Does it take a special person to be a good manager or can we all be managers?

3.What happens when there are huge pressures on managers?

4. What tools do managers need to assist them to be successful managers?

5. I ask all our guests this – As a Trainer, Mentor and a Professional speaker , what is your advice about promoting your business by speaking?

6 The Sally Foley-Lewis Management Success Cards

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How to ask for Referrals and Reach Out with Ric Willmot

Published on by Adrienne McLean

Ric Willmot trains business people all around the world in business principles, marketing and every part of running a successful business. In this podcast, Ric is speaking on an essential part of marketing a business – asking for referrals from current people we know and reaching out to people we may not know but would like to as they could be interested in the business we are offering. The questions Ric covers in this 45 minute podcast are:

1. Asking for referrals – why is this an essential marketing tool?

2. For the business person, asking for the referral – it can be a bit awkward – how can this process be made easier?

3. Reaching out to new clients, new potential business who are not familiar with us can equally be daunting – how can we identify these potential client?

4. How can we successfully get their attention and have them understand our offering? Sending an email just wont do it – what is the best approach?

5. I ask all our guests this – As a Business Coach, Authorr and a Professional speaker , what is your advice about promoting your business by speaking?

6 Executive Wisdom Management Learning Toolkit

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Building Public Speaking Skills has Benefits beyond the Podium!

Published on February 19, 2014 by Adrienne McLean

By developing Public Speaking skills, not only is the skill of speaking in front of groups developed.By building the confidence to get up and speak in front of people this will impact on many areas of your life. This will assist you to achieve the success you are wanting.

By working on public speaking skills, You will:

Develop the voice within you to appropriately have your say. Build the confidence to speak your mind when required. By building this confidence, may mean you will get that promotion, gain that big client, get that new job, build more business, …

Public Speaking is a learned skill – by developing these skills those debilitating nerves will disappear and stop restricting you from achieving goals you would like to realise. When it comes to speaking in public, people hold themselves back from ambitions – new jobs and increased responsibilities because of the nervousness they feel when speaking in public. Ask and get to the public speaking training, you will be thrilled with the results.

By building confidence speaking to people and clearly getting your message across will all assist with more sales. If you are in Sales, by working on your public speaking skills you will develop the skills to get your message across clearly and concisely. You will also develop skills to keep your clients attention and interest.

You will be the leader you are wanting to be. If you are in the Technical Area or IT or any other role where you can make an impact , you will be able to train your staff more effectively. You will speak from a place of power and strength.

More Advertising and Sales campaigns will be won , more Business done. If you are in Advertising or any role that requires a presentation , by developing your public speaking skills when you go out to impress the client with your campaign , whatever the topic Advertising, Sales, Technical, IT, whatever, your connection with your clients will be impressive, they will listen more, take in more of what you are speaking about and you will be able to keep their attention.

You will understand the impact of good preparation, listening skills will be developed and ability to give supportive praise and feedback will also be developed. As a manager, by developing your public speaking skills, interactions with staff will be from a place of confidence.

You will be the expert in your field of endeavour. Confident, clearly able to express the concepts, knowledgeable and able to share the knowledge.

Don’t be held back. Build confidence in speaking in public and this will assist you in your journey to Success.